A Design for Life

"A Design for Life" is a single released by Welsh band Manic Street Preachers in 1996 and the first to be taken from the Everything Must Go album of May that same year. It peaked and debuted at number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.[6]

"A Design for Life"
Single by Manic Street Preachers
from the album Everything Must Go
Released15 April 1996
Genre
Length4:16
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Manic Street Preachers singles chronology
"She Is Suffering"
(1994)		 "A Design for Life"
(1996)		 "Everything Must Go"
(1996)

Origins

The title was inspired by the debut Joy Division EP, An Ideal for Living. The opening line of the song 'Libraries gave us power' was inspired by a legend engraved over the entrance to the former library in Pillgwenlly, Newport, 15 miles from the band's home town of Blackwood in Wales: 'Knowledge is Power'.[7] The next line, 'then work came and made us free', refers to the German slogan Arbeit macht frei that featured above the gates of Nazi concentration camps and which had been used previously by the band in their song "The Intense Humming of Evil" on the album The Holy Bible.[8]

The song explores themes of class conflict and working class identity and solidarity, inspired by the band's strong socialist convictions. Its video exemplifies this theme further. Vintage advertising slogans promoting compliance and domesticity clash with scenes of fox hunting, Royal Ascot, a polo match and the Last Night of the Proms representing what the band saw as class privilege. The video was directed by Pedro Romhanyi.[9]

The song was the first to be written and released by the band following the disappearance of figurehead Richey Edwards the previous year. Interviewed in 2014 by NME for their "Song Stories" video series, singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield recalled that the lyric had been a fusion of two sets of lyrics — "Design for Life" and "Pure Motive" — sent to him from Wales by bassist Nicky Wire, while he was living in Shepherd's Bush. The music was written "in about ten minutes" and Bradfield felt a sense of euphoria with the result. The song was credited with having "rescued the band" from the despair felt after the disappearance of Edwards, with Wire describing the song as "a bolt of light from a severely dark place".[10]

Release

The single reached number 2 in the UK Singles Charts on 27 April 1996 and was the first in a run of five consecutive releases to be top ten hits. It spent a total of 14 weeks in the chart,[11] with 7 weeks in the UK Top 40, being the best performing single by the band, along with "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough". It has achieved Silver status in the UK (200,000 copies).[12] With "A Design for Life" the band also began a run of 11 years where all their singles until 2007 charted within the Top 20 in the UK, with the single "Indian Summer" from their eighth studio album Send Away the Tigers breaking the run by peaking at number 22.[6] The song peaked at number 48 in New Zealand,[13] and at number 50 in Australia.[14] In both countries it only charted for one week. In Ireland it charted in the top 20, reaching number 17.[12]

The CD single also included the songs "Mr Carbohydrate", "Dead Passive" and "Dead Trees and Traffic Islands", while the cassette included a live version of "Bright Eyes".[8] As part of Record Store Day 2016, 2000 copies were released on 12" vinyl in a copper sleeve.

Legacy

The song is referred to in the song "Slide Show" (alongside Beck's "Devils Haircut" and Oasis' "Wonderwall") on Travis' 1999 album, The Man Who: "'Cause there is no design for life, There's no devil's haircut in my mind, There is not a wonderwall to climb or step around".[9]

In May 2007 NME magazine placed "A Design for Life" at number 30 in its list of "50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever". In October 2011 NME placed it at number 75 on its list of "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".[15]

On 18 June 2009 the band were invited to officially open the new £15m Cardiff Central Library, unveiling a plaque inscribed with the words to the opening line of the song. At the event, Wire spoke about how his experience with libraries had partly inspired the song.[9] The Cardiff Arms Park Male Voice Choir performed a version of the song, in front of the band, which Nicky Wire described as "spine tingling".[16]

Wire later said in an interview with The Guardian that the occasion had been a great honour for the band: "For us, it seemed like a chance to give something back to Wales. Seeing one of our lyrics – "Libraries gave us power", from A Design for Life – inscribed on the opening plaque was in its own way as affecting as playing the Millennium Stadium." [17]

In August 2016, American music publication Spin Magazine ranked "A Design for Life" at number 31 of the "96 Best Alternative Rock Songs of 1996.[1]

The instrumental of the song featured in adverts for the supermarket Sainsbury's during the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

Track listing

All music by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore and all lyrics by Nicky Wire, except where noted:

CD1
  1. "A Design for Life" – 4:19
  2. "Mr Carbohydrate" – 4:13
  3. "Dead Passive" – 3:19
  4. "Dead Trees and Traffic Islands" – 3:43 (Music and lyrics James Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore, Nicky Wire)

CD2
  1. "A Design for Life" – 4:21
  2. "A Design for Life" (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Version) – 4:48
  3. "A Design for Life" (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Instrumental Version) – 4:35
  4. "Faster" (Vocal Mix) – 5:46 (music: James Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore; lyrics: Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards)

MC
  1. "A Design for Life"
  2. "Bright Eyes" (live) (Mike Batt)

jukebox 7' vinyl
  1. "Australia"
  2. "A Design For Life" (live)

12" vinyl
  1. "A Design For Life"
  2. "Dead Trees and Traffic Islands"
  3. "A Design For Life" (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Remix)
  4. "Mr Carbohydrate"

Charts and certifications

References
  1. "The 96 Best Alternative Rock Songs of 1996". Spin. p. 4. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  2. Bradley, Öegan (2 October 2015). "Before One Direction: A Look Back on Britpop". VH1. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  3. White, Steven (12 December 2015). "The 12 Best Britpop B-Sides". Sabotage Times. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  4. McMillan, Greame (24 April 2014). "12 Tunes You Need to Know to Sound Like a Britpop Expert". Wired. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  5. Perry, Andrew (17 September 2010). "Manic Street Preachers: Postcards From a Young Man, CD review". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
  6. Diver, Mike (29 September 2010). "BBC – BBC Music Blog: Album Reviews Q&A: Manic Street Preachers".
  7. "Manics' 'humble' library opening". bbc.co.uk. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  8. Power, Martin (17 October 2010). Manic Street Preachers. Omnibus Press.
  9. "[A76] 'A Design For Life'". Manic Street Preachers: A Critical Discography.
  10. "How Writing 'A Design For Life' Saved Manic Street Preachers - Interview". YouTube. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  11. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  12. Price 1999.
  13. "MANIC STREET PREACHERS - A DESIGN FOR LIFE (SONG)".
  14. "MANIC STREET PREACHERS - A DESIGN FOR LIFE (SONG)".
  15. 150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years | NME.COM
  16. "Manics' 'humble' library opening". BBC News. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  17. "Music Blog:'If you tolerate this ...': Nicky Wire on library closures". The Guardian. 7 February 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  18. "Australian-charts.com – Manic Street Preachers – A Design for Life". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  19. "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 13 no. 18. 4 May 1996. p. 26. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  20. "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (17.8. – 23.8. '96)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 17 August 1996. p. 42. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  21. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – A Design for Life". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  22. "Charts.nz – Manic Street Preachers – A Design for Life". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  23. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  24. "Top 100 Singles 1996". Music Week. 18 January 1997. p. 25.
  25. "British single certifications – Manic Street Preachers – A Design for Life". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 3 September 2018. Select singles in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type A Design for Life in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
Sources
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