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Quiz about Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible

Manic Street Preachers' 'The Holy Bible' Quiz

Widely acknowledged as the Manics' finest hour, particularly in the case of songwriter Richey James Edwards, 'The Holy Bible' was their third album. The LP still sounds fresh - and controversial - but how well do you know it?

A multiple-choice quiz by BrevilleMonkey. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
BrevilleMonkey

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
317,232

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
7 / 10

Plays
192

Last 3 plays: Guest 51 (7/10), Guest 205 (10/10), Guest 35 (8/10).

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. An excerpt from the film adaptation of which novel was sampled at the start of the song 'Faster'? Hint

'Nineteen Eighty Four' by George Orwell

'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath

'The Outsider' by Albert Camus

'If Not Now, When?' by Primo Levi

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. Which letter is written backwards in the text on the record sleeve of 'The Holy Bible'? Hint

NEXT>

Question 3 of 10

3. Whom, according to aggressive single 'Revol', 'married into group sex'? Hint

Brezhnev

Gorbachev

Churchill

Lenin

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Question 4 of 10

4. Complete the line from '4st. 7lbs.' - 'Kate and Kristin and Kit-Kat': Hint

'too weak to fuss, too weak to die'

'all things I like looking at'

'choice is skeletal in everybody's life'

'know it's fake, problem is diet's not a big enough word'

NEXT>

Question 5 of 10

5. 'P.C.P.' was released as a double 'A' side single with which other track from 'The Holy Bible'? Hint

Yes

Faster

The Intense Humming Of Evil

Archives Of Pain

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Question 6 of 10

6. Which 'Holy Bible' album track did NOT reference Hitler or the Holocaust? Hint

Revol

Mausoleum

She Is Suffering

The Intense Humming Of Evil

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Question 7 of 10

7. Which line comes next:
'Who should we choose for our morality?'?
Hint

'I'm thinking right now of Hollywood tragedy'

'Unimportant just another inner-city drive-by thing'

'A morality obedient only to the cleansed repented'

'The white man has just found a new moral saviour'

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Question 8 of 10

8. Which artist painted the picture featured on the front cover of 'The Holy Bible' LP? Hint

Kevin Carter

Malcolm Brown

Martin Kippenberger

Jenny Saville

9. Which of these bands did the Manics NOT claim to have been listening to during and before the recording of 'The Holy Bible'(either in Simon Price's 'Everything: A Book About Manic Street Preachers' or the sleeve notes to the 10th Anniversary of 'The Holy Bible' by Keith Cameron)? Hint

Joy Division

Guns 'N Roses

Wire

Public Image Limited/PiL

NEXT>

Question 10 of 10

10. An easy one to finish with:
According to a song from 'The Holy Bible', at which time of year do 'I' want to die? Hint

Winter

Springtime

Autumn

Summertime

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Most Recent Scores

Nov 24 2024 : Guest 51: 7/10
Nov 04 2024 : Guest 205: 10/10
Oct 28 2024 : Guest 35: 8/10
Sep 30 2024 : Guest 194: 7/10

Score Distribution

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. An excerpt from the film adaptation of which novel was sampled at the start of the song 'Faster'?

Answer: 'Nineteen Eighty Four' by George Orwell

The Manics were inspired by all four of these authors:

A quote from Camus - 'The slave begins by demanding justice, and ends by wanting to wear a crown' can be heard at the end of 'The Masses Against The Classes', and Sylvia Plath is referenced in 'Faster' itself ('I am stronger than MENSA, Miller or Mailer, I spat out Plath and Pinter') - some boast!

2. Which letter is written backwards in the text on the record sleeve of 'The Holy Bible'?

Answer: R

The letter 'R' is reversed in the words 'Street' and 'Preachers' on the cover of the album, in the style of the Cyrillic alphabet.
This also occurs with the letters on Simple Minds' 'Empires And Dance'; Manics were fans of Simple Minds, back when, as Keith Cameron put it, 'they were more Eno than Reno'.

MSP have recently revived this typeface for the sleeves of 'Send Away The Tigers' and 'Journal For Plague Lovers'.

3. Whom, according to aggressive single 'Revol', 'married into group sex'?

Answer: Brezhnev

'Revol' is a fan favourite, often requested at shows but very rarely played (like much of the 'Holy Bible' material) since Richey's disappearance.

4. Complete the line from '4st. 7lbs.' - 'Kate and Kristin and Kit-Kat':

Answer: 'all things I like looking at'

Kate and Kristin were the first names of two of the most famous models at the time, Kate Moss and Kristin McMenamy - presumably role models for the song's anorexic first-person narrator.

5. 'P.C.P.' was released as a double 'A' side single with which other track from 'The Holy Bible'?

Answer: Faster

The sleeve for the 7" single featured 'Fliegender Tanga' by artist Martin Kippenberger, an image of a young Chinese 'Socialist Youth', who is, ironically, drinking from a can of Coca-Cola, playing on the idea of globalisation, a running theme in many of Manic Street Preachers' works - for instance 'Madonna drinks Coke and so, you can too, tastes real good not like a sweet poison should' ('Slash And Burn', 1992).

6. Which 'Holy Bible' album track did NOT reference Hitler or the Holocaust?

Answer: She Is Suffering

The 'no birds' refrain in 'Mausoleum' refers to many people's claim that no birds fly above Nazi death camps (n.b. I didn't see a single bird when I visited Auschwitz with the Holocaust Memorial Trust).

'The Intense Humming Of Evil' refers a lot more openly to the events of the Holocaust, the 'six million screaming souls' of the lyrics being the approximate six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, and "Revol" briefly mentions their policies, eg. - 'lebensraum' ('living space', a euphemism for invasion of other territories and thus the expansion of Germany)

7. Which line comes next: 'Who should we choose for our morality?'?

Answer: 'I'm thinking right now of Hollywood tragedy'

Perhaps because 'Your idols speak so much of the abyss, yet your morals only run as deep as the surface'?

All of the answers were from the relevant song ('Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart') except for 'A morality obedient only to the cleansed repented', which is from 'Faster'.

8. Which artist painted the picture featured on the front cover of 'The Holy Bible' LP?

Answer: Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville painted 'Strategy (South Face/Front Face/North Face)', infamously used in the cover art of 'The Holy Bible'. Richey James Edwards saw the painting in a magazine and immediately tried to buy it from the Saatchi Collection - only to be told the asking price of �30,000!
When initially contacted about the use of her artwork, Saville refused, but when Richey personally got in touch and explained the concept and lyrics of each track, she enthusiastically agreed.

Saville's painting 'Stare' was used as the front cover for Manic Street Preachers' 2009 album, 'Journal For Plague Lovers'.

Answer: Guns 'N Roses

Although Guns 'N Roses were, particularly on 'Generation Terrorists', previously a musical influence on MSP, the music of 'The Holy Bible' was far more harsh and post-punk influenced than their earlier works.

10. An easy one to finish with: According to a song from 'The Holy Bible', at which time of year do 'I' want to die?

Answer: Summertime

Despite its seemingly serious themes, bassist Nicky Wire later joked that it was about the Manics' hatred of the summer months, saying 'I'm sure I get the reverse of Seasonal Affective Disorder. I can't f...g stand it and just wish it was dark at six o' clock'.

Source: Author BrevilleMonkey

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ertrum before going online.
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