David Sylvian - Manafon

[becky]

Thanks for that - the art work is gorgeous isn't it! I wonder if there would ever be a way of getting hold of a large print of the cover without the text - it's beautiful and I love all the symbolism within it - would like t frame it and hang it on my wall.

[Simonp]

The artwork is lovely. I particularly love the drawing of sylvian and the fox. Chris Bigg is a bit of a genius if you ask me. Yes I agree, Samadhisound should sell limited edition prints of some of their album artwork, I bet they would sell well.

[Chet]

I totally agree
but I guess you would have to go via the gallery of Ruud Van Empel's

Flatland Gallery
Lange Nieuwstraat 7
Abraham Dolenhof
3512 PH Utrecht
tel: +31 (0)30 - 231 51 81

I don't think Chris Bigg or Samadhisound has the rights to use the paintings as much as they want.

[becky]

Cheers Chet! You are a veritable mine of information! I might well look into that...not that I've got any dosh at the moment! But it would be worth checking out...

[tulipmania]

2 very strange issues with Manafon;

1) Snow white in Appalachia, its hardly a fairy tale featuring the 7 dwarves. I wonder who she is and what snow white is?

2) Q magazine; there aint a review of the CD in the October edition. Whats that about then?

Anyone care or dare to comment on the above?

[baht habit]

2 very strange issues with Manafon;

1) Snow white in Appalachia, its hardly a fairy tale featuring the 7 dwarves. I wonder who she is and what snow white is?

'snow white' is slang for the drug cocaine.

[inkinthewell]

1) No idea. Even though the lines "There were concerts and car-crashes/There were kids she attended" make me think of Ingrid (except the car-crash). But that might be too obvious. As is the fact that 'snow white' can make you think of cocaine and not of a person. These other lines: "There had to be drugs/Running through the girl’s body/There had to be drugs/And they too had a name" sort of give me the impression that he's saying: "I know when you'll hear/read Snow White you'll think about drugs, and yes, drugs are involved, but that's not what I'm talking about." Should hear his voice, but I'm not going to listen to the song till I get my beautiful, big, expensive parcel.

2) I don't know much about Q Magazine, but by what I've seen I don't think they'll ever publish a review on Manafon, not when there's a new Muse album out and Radiohead are playing at Reading Festival. So... were you being ironic, Tulip?

[becky]

2 very strange issues with Manafon;

1) Snow white in Appalachia, its hardly a fairy tale featuring the 7 dwarves. I wonder who she is and what snow white is?

Anyone care or dare to comment on the above?

The way interpreted it was as a direct reference to Ingrid. So many references: 'There were repeat indiscretions' 'As soon as the sun rose the keys were in the igntion' ' There were concerts and car crashes' 'there were kids she attended'... On her old website, Ingrid used to have posted up some poems that directly referred to the break up..one was specifically about her leaving in the car and setting off in the snow...and talks of the icy conditions not just of the weather but emotionally ...and it appeared she'd been asked to 'Get the Hell out!'...also links in with Sylvian's line...'Your one and only warning, 'please be gone by morning' from The Only daughter on Blemish....and 'Snow Borne Sorrow'...it all ended in the depths of the winter....On a recent-ish blog, Ingrid said she nearly crashed the car on an icy road...and in the pics of her on her new website...she does look a little like an innocent Snow white character playing in the snow in that huge beautiful garden...your comment '- It's hardly a fairy tale'...is probably really apt!! As she looks so sweet and innocent but has caused much devastation! I'm not sure about the drugs reference

[neonico]

2 very strange issues with Manafon;

1) Snow white in Appalachia, its hardly a fairy tale featuring the 7 dwarves. I wonder who she is and what snow white is?

Anyone care or dare to comment on the above?

The way interpreted it was as a direct reference to Ingrid. So many references: 'There were repeat indiscretions' 'As soon as the sun rose the keys were in the igntion' ' There were concerts and car crashes' 'there were kids she attended'... On her old website, Ingrid used to have posted up some poems that directly referred to the break up..one was specifically about her leaving in the car and setting off in the snow...and talks of the icy conditions not just of the weather but emotionally ...and it appeared she'd been asked to 'Get the Jersey out!'...also links in with Sylvian's line...'Your one and only warning, 'please be gone by morning' from The Only daughter on Blemish....and 'Snow Borne Sorrow'...it all ended in the depths of the winter....On a recent-ish blog, Ingrid said she nearly crashed the car on an icy road...and in the pics of her on her new website...she does look a little like an innocent Snow white character playing in the snow in that huge beautiful garden...your comment '- It's hardly a fairy tale'...is probably really apt!! As she looks so sweet and innocent but has caused much devastation! I'm not sure about the drugs reference

you are truely intellegent thanks becky....

[baht habit]

I'm not sure about the drugs reference

According to the urban dictionary, 'snow white' is slang for cocaine. And these lines definitely should clue the listener in that the subject of drugs is a part of the song:
There had to be drugs
Running through the girl’s body
There had to be drugs
And they too had a name

Earlier in the song:
Sometimes you’re only a passenger
In the time of your life
And there’s snow on the mattress
Blown in from the doorway
It would take pack-mules and provisions
To get out alive

I think Sylvian uses these lines to describe the desperation caused by drug addiction.
'there’s snow on the mattress blown in from the doorway' - An outside source brought the drug ('snow' = cocaine) into this person's life and it has taken control of their life.

At the onset of the song, Sylvian sets the scene:
Half-life
She moves in a half-life
Imperfect

This girl's entire lifestyle is undergoing exponential decay.

But here is how Sylvian decides to describe the rehabilitation cycle:
She’d abandoned them there
In the hills of Appalachia
She threw off the sandbags
To lighten the load
As soon as the sun rose
The keys were in the ignition
Following the tiretracks
Of the truck sanding the road

And we are left wondering if she had succeeded in her attempt to get clean. I tend to believe that the answer lies within the subsequent track, Emily Dickinson, where we are told that 'she was no longer a user'.

[becky]

Ahhh....wow! he's a clever old sod isn't he! Hey and so are you for working all that out Baht!....I've not heard the song in it's entirety yet...looking forward to it

[becky]

....much more intellectual than my basic interpretation!

[neonico]

Ahhh....wow! he's a clever old sod isn't he! Hey and so are you for working all that out Baht!....I've not heard the song in it's entirety yet...looking forward to it

yes indeed hes very clever....

thanks baht habit

[Poisoned_Apathy]

Uff, I have been gone for so long I don't know where to begin...

Anyway, I haven't listened to the whole album yet. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy the special edition since I don't really have money for it right now, but, I can't wait to listen to it.

I just listened to Small Metal Gods and got stunned by it... I'm so happy he's back finally. We've been separate for way too long.
And I'm happy to "read" you all again

[becky]

Hey - welcome back PoisonedApathy I's been a while!