Yes a song about welsh miners joining the Spanish civil war is SO relevant these days. Cancel culture doesnt exist, just that there is consequences in fame in the modern era. Its harder to get "cancelled" than to maintaine fame, as you need to do illegal or questionable shit with the platform. Dont be a snowflake, accept it or seem like youre hiding something, that simple
@@conormcandrew1646 Avicii - For A Better Day Paolo Nutini - Iron Sky are very powerful in there message. but still the masses chose to ignore it and live in there comfort of Fear
We have doomed ourselves. Humans are so clever yet so stupid. We deserve extinction, how many other species will we take with us? We are all responsible in some way. We are a fucking plague, killing and destroying as we go.
Blimey, I used to be a mega fan of the Manic Street Preachers since my mid 20s. It's such a hit to the heart to be reminded of this given the current climate ♥️♥️♥️
Can't believe I heard this tune in 1998, the chorus line resonated with me back then but only looking up the rest of the lyrics now in 2023. Fab song. Kinda bursts out at every level.
When this came out, I was having a short breack in Cemaes Bay on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. On hearing this in The Stag Inn (a pup) I sobbed uncontrollably on two levels 1, I the M S Ps reminded me of an ex lover. 2, bieng a socialialist - internationalist, the lyics just get you!.
As it says on Wikipedia "The song's theme is inspired by the Spanish Civil War, and the idealism of Welsh volunteers who joined the left-wing International Brigades fighting for the Spanish Republic against Francisco Franco's military rebels. The song takes its name from a Republican propaganda poster of the time written in English and displaying a photograph of a dead young child killed by the Nationalists, under a sky filled with bomber aircraft, with the song's titular warning written at the bottom". The poster was prophetic as those same Condor Legion bombers fighting for Franco would within a few years be bombing Warsaw, Rotterdam, London and even Cardiff and Swansea in Wales.
Oh yes but a communist Spain was not going to be a beacon of freedom and democracy either. Franco was the least evil of the two and after his death no civil war and now modern Spain is not too bad although Catalonia should be free
@@lelobest A communist Spain was not the only alternative. The Republics allies were on the left, but many of them wanted a democracy, and it is possible Spain would have remained a democracy and become more democratic had Franco lost . Franco may have been the lesser of two evils, but those two evils were not the only possible outcomes.
@@lelobest "Franco was the least evil of the two"? Seriously? You really need to pick up a history book. Thousands and thousands of people were kidnapped and murdered by the Franco regime not only during the Spanish Civil War but for decades after. Spain became a closed economy and inequality was huge. The only reason there were no further civil wars was because much of the Republican resistance had either been killed or fled. They are literally still finding mass graves of people killed by the fascists in Spain. The Republicans were far from the most evil. Had they won the Civil War, Spain might have had some chance. It wasn't until the death of Franco that Spain could open up and democratise. Your comment is so historically inaccurate and hurtful to the families of those murdered by fascists.
The nineties was a period without many problems. I was a teenager and in my twenties when this song was a hit. I had a careless childhood, could go where I wanted to go. And now I feel so sorry for the children living in this terrible times!
Absolutely brilliant, I’m gobsmacked that I was living in a bubble and believed most of what I heard on mainstream. It seems I wouldn’t have been able to do anything anyway and just have been stressed earlier in my life. Ignorance can be bliss
Beautiful lyrics, and relevant. I guess there is a connection to George Orwell who went to Spain in 1936 " to shoot fascists ", but ended up disillusioned seeing the Leftists fighting each other in Barcelona. In " 1984", lies are becoming so big, that we are forced to believe in them. Our intellectual laziness gives us nothing, but angst and superficial " knowledge" we don`t really believe in. But still, we embrace them…the easy way out. " If you tolerate this" is just about fighting this laziness, isn`t it ?
Well...no. the "Leftists" coalition shattered because of the "rightist propaganda" showered upon the populace by the time the fighting reached Barcelona. You should understand that Franco had already "won" by the time the fighting arrived at Barcelona and that was only achieved by the active participation of fascist Germany and Italy....and the shit arse position of UK, USA and France
I had honestly never heard that song and I knew less about the band that sang it casually I heard it for the first time last week and it immediately seemed like a great song with tremendous lyrics.
Same here... heard it for the 1st time at the end of a video documentary last week & searched it out. Found the band's name & finally downloaded about 4 dozen tracks of theirs that I like for my collection - can't know them all no matter how big my music collection is (
when i 1st heard this song on it debut i was young and didnt really get the lyrics....i just liked the song....now ive learnt a lot more about whats REALLY happening in the world it send chills up my spine that even then the truth was being bled out to try and get a change.....
@Ann Harper Have you seen this week BLM agenda is causing distraction from "Other" on going events, by calling for Sheet music to be cancelled at the University because sheet music is racist as it was around in Colonial times. Couldn't make it up lol XD XD
I’ll never forget the Sunday this went to No.1 in the U.K. Though I was only 12 years old I knew it was very important and symbolic. As it so happened it was the last day of the summer holidays and back to school the next day, so it felt like freedom had died to a 12 year old I guess.
The title of the song is inspired from the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. People around the world came together in Spain against the world fascists. The democratic part had a "logo" putting in the streets and writing in walls: " IF YOU TOLERATE THIS THEN YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE NEXT". Free Greece!!!
@@lonelycake4114 “Louder than bombs” proves that you’re just telling people your interpretation and making them believe it as fact. When it’s way off, in fact it’s the complete opposite. It’s a pro-socialism anti fascist song about the Franco regime and Welsh soldiers that went to fight Franco’s forces in the Spanish civil war. Just listen to the lyrics “So If I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot fascists” ❤️ amazing lyrics. Just because you’re too lazy to research the meaning of the song and you’d prefer to spread disinformation, I thought I’d help you out mate.
You dont know what you are saying. Precisely, you should know the xenophobic and racist ideas independentists have over the rest of the people, whom they consider inferior. And much more.
As Beethoven said 'Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy' and i think that fits what their trying to get across here and on loads of other good songs, not that they have to mean anything, but they are saying something.
irishelk My perspective on music is that it lets you "taste" the emotional image that the artist is creating, to feel it. And so it allows the artist to create something that has much more impact on a person than normal constructs of thoughts spoken in language. Music allows the message to transcend to higher realms of your intelligence. There is this lithuanian band called "ba." , that gave me this idea. You might not understand what they say, but it doesn't matter.
I wonder if the choice of black background and red text was intended to reproduce the flag colours of the anarcho-syndicalists (libertarian socialists) who fought so bravely alongside the Open Marxists (of which Orwell was a member) in the Spanish Civil War against the ultimately victorious fascists. Orwell did write in his "Homage To Catalonia" that had he been aware more of the Anarchists he ultimately fought alongside he would have likely joined their number - though they were often simple farmers from Andalucia and other parts of Spain he found them to be the most generous spirited of all those he fought alongside. Anyway, a beautiful song - practically a hymn to their sacrifice and a reminder not to give in in the fight for a life of REAL freedom.