One of the most sombre and beautiful songs on The Holy Bible is This is yesterday one of two songs penned by Nicky Wire for this album.
That’s the simplest song, musically and lyrically, on the album. It’s about how people always look back to their youth and look on it as a glorious period. No matter what walk of life you’re in, you always revert back to childhood and look at it as a beautiful time when, as the song says, ‘Someone, somewhere soon will take care of you’.
Nicky Wire, Melody Maker
Reading that quote it just conjures up the final moments of Citizen Kane when you finally find out what Rosebud is about?
Rosebud is the last word Citizen Kane uttered before passing away and it is a reference to his beloved sledge which evokes memories of a happier time.
Despite his wealth, acclaim and status it was a time of childhood that Charles Foster Kane desired the most.
This is yesterday lyrics
Do not listen to a word I say
Just listen to what I can keep silent
The only way to gain approval
Is by exploiting the very thing that cheapens me
And I stare at the sky
And it leaves me blind
I close my eyes
And this is yesterday
Someone somewhere soon will take care of you
I repent, I’m sorry, everything is falling apart
Houses as ruins and gardens as weeds
Why do anything when you can forget everything
And I stare at the sky
And it leaves me blind
I close my eyes
And this is yesterday
I stare at the sky
And it leaves me blind
I close my eyes
And this is yesterday
Why do anything when you can forget everything. Memory more comforting than future.
Richey Edwards
A simple song in structure lyrically compared to other songs from the album this song deals with thinking about the past and coming to terms with our own obsolescence.
As I get older I have lost friends and family to illness and death.
I yearn for simpler times when self awareness and sentience didn’t make me conscious of time slipping away.
Grandad passed away in 2012 he was diagnosed with Cancer which took three weeks to completely take him over.
In February he could still write a birthday card for my mum and by March he was gone.
I saw Grandad the day he died, I went to the hospice with my brothers to pay my respects.
It was extremely difficult, Grandad was a husk of himself, His breathing almost mechanical, his eyes liked pitted Olives in his sockets.
Totally emaciated; a horrible disease, I couldn’t stop crying.
Grandad was 87 when he passed away.
I drew this picture as a present for my Auntie and it was nice to capture the essence of Grandad and remember the man he was and not what the disease had wrought of him.
Inspired by the track This is yesterday I inscribed the words of my mum’s memoirs:
“We had a two bedroomed house we rented of a friend of mine.
Windows with louvers at the top with gaping holes. Worn out carpets. Orange box as a cabinet. We had one fire in room heating it was so cold.
Upstairs i go to bed. My two sons then 3 year old and five years had to wear cardigans, wooly hats, socks.
No bathroom, had to have baths in a tin bath toilet that was across the yard.
You could tell everybody’s bath night was Friday night as we saw everybody emptying their baths. as it was five houses in the yard.”
Hague, me and Scott. Tom took the photo.
Stephen Snell was a dear friend who sadly passed away from Cystic Fibrosis and I chose to draw a picture of him as a tribute before he passed away which his family still has.
Absolutely amazing guy who was into punk rock, metal, sci-fi, Marvel etc.
Gone too soon. Cystic Fibrosis is a horrible disease.
https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease/cystic_fibrosis.htm
Anton passed away in 2012 suddenly from a blood clot that escalated from a tendon operation.
This was immensely sad and upsetting to my circle of friends at the time and I drew a picture to give to Anton’s mum as a tribute.
A picture of Anton in a helicopter.
She was really appreciative of the gesture and always gets me a brithday card every year.
http://www.thrombosis-charity.org.uk/what-is-thrombosis/
Sarah passed away in 2022 a good friend of mine so here is my tribute r.i.p.
Rusty'sArtWerk 