Generation Terrorists

by

Manic Street Preachers

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Generation Terrorists is the debut album by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 10 February 1992, and produced by Steve Brown.

It was recorded by tracking (the band recorded each instrument separately rather than playing it as a live band and then adding the overdubs later) over a period of 23 weeks at Blackbarn Studios, near Guildford, England. Despite the whole band being credited in the album notes, vocalist James Dean Bradfield played all guitars and bass on the album, whilst drummer Sean Moore programmed a drum machine, rather than playing live on a real drum kit.

In the U.S. the track list was changed and some of the more political tracks were dropped. "Democracy Coma" was added to make up for this, it was later released as the B Side to Love's Sweet Exile/Repeat and also appeared on Lipstick Traces. Elsewhere the album was released in its full, uncensored form everywhere else.

All lyrics were written by Nicky Wire (real name Nicholas Jones) and Richey James Edwards. All music was written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore (except "Damn Dog", which is a cover version of a song by the Sleez Sisters from the 1980 movie Times Square).

The album's lyrics are politicised like that of The Clash and Public Enemy. Wire and Edwards' love of poetry is also evident in their lyrics. The track "Repeat (Stars And Stripes)" is a remix of the band's own anti-monarchy tirade by Public Enemy production team The Bomb Squad of whom Bradfield and Edwards were big fans.

The cover was originally intended to be Andres Serrano's Pisschrist, a Jesus figure inside a tank of blood and urine, but Sony wanted to avoid any religious controversy; also, the royalty demanded for the piece was deemed excessive. Other ideas were the Bert Stern Marilyn Monroe photographs, a sandpaper sleeve that would scratch the album itself as well as anything else that it was shelved by (an old Situationist prank, this idea was used by Guy Debord for his first book Memoires and by The Durutti Column for their first album The Return of the Durutti Column), as well as several other famous religious paintings.

The final front cover of the album was a picture of Edwards' left arm and chest. The arm had a tattoo of a rose with the words "USELESS GENERATION" underneath, which was changed to "GENERATION TERRORISTS". This was not without problems, as the original pressing had made Edwards' flesh to be bright pink as opposed to the intended mustard. The back featured a design similar to their earlier New Art Riot EP cover, an EC Flag, though this time it was crumpled and in flames.