The Love of Richard Nixon

Template:Short description Template:Infobox song "The Love of Richard Nixon" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 18 October 2004 by Sony Music UK as the first single from their seventh studio album, Lifeblood (2004), and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart.

Content

The song is, according to the band, "a soundtrack to disillusion, hatred, love and never giving up".<ref name="Martin Clarke 2009">Martin Clarke, Manic Street Preachers: Sweet Venom (Plexus, 2009).</ref> More specifically, the song is a sympathetic appraisal of former US president Richard Nixon and mentions some of his positive achievements, inevitably overshadowed by the Watergate Scandal. The timing of the single's release, two weeks before George W. Bush's victory at the 2004 US presidential elections, can also be seen as a statement by the band concerning the reputation of the USA's leadership at the time.<ref name="Power">Template:Cite book</ref> In an interview with Repeat Fanzine, the band also said it represents how they feel in comparison to Radiohead. Nicky in particular commented that they feel like Richard Nixon compared to Radiohead's John F. Kennedy: "'If Radiohead are Kennedy, then Manic Street Preachers are Nixon: the ugly duckling who had to try 10 times harder than anyone else. Paranoid megalomaniacs.'"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The sound is more electronic than most of their previous hits, indicative of a slight switch in sound on Lifeblood; according to the band the song contains no guitars.<ref name="Martin Clarke 2009"/>

Release and reception

"The Love of Richard Nixon" was released on 18 October 2004 by record label Sony Music UK as the first single from the band's seventh studio album, Lifebood.<ref name="Power"/> Unusually, the three formats of the single—two CDs and a DVD—could be bought together for £5 at most record stores, encouraging multiple purchases of the single.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The song reached number two on the UK Singles Chart,<ref name="uk"/> number 15 on the Spanish Singles Chart,<ref name="spa"/> and number 17 on the Irish Singles Chart.<ref name="ire"/>

Track listings

UK CD1<ref name="ukcd1">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

1. "The Love of Richard Nixon"
2. "Everyone Knows/Nobody Cares"

UK CD2<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

1. "The Love of Richard Nixon"
2. "Everything Will Be"
3. "Askew Road"
4. "The Love of Richard Nixon"

UK DVD single<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

1. "The Love of Richard Nixon"
2. Quarantine (In My Place Of) (short film)
3. "Voodoo Polaroids"

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the UK CD1 liner notes.<ref name="ukcd1"/> Template:Div col

• James Dean Bradfield – writing
• Nicky Wire – writing
• Sean Moore – writing
• Nick Nasmyth – keyboards
• Jeremy Shaw – additional keyboards
• Greg Haver – percussion, production
• Tom Elmhirst – additional production, mixing
• Steve Davis – additional engineering, Pro Tools
• Farrow Design – artwork design and direction
• John Ross – portrait

Charts

Template:Single chartTemplate:Single chartTemplate:Single chartTemplate:Single chart

Chart (2004)	Peak position
Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	9

External links

• NME article on the song (Archive Link)