Surely I'm not alone in thinking that Manafon is very disturbing lyrically, to the extent that I'm actually really worried for the guy's well being! Per the short WSJ interview (currently linked to on Big Dave's own site), he admits that writing in the third person has allowed him to be more personal than ever before. He aint kidding there! But has he told us too much? And is he really at the end of his rope?
He may also (for the purposes of disguise or convenience) have given himself a third person sex change at several points. There are a few instances which indicate he may have done, which opens the door for potentially a few more. Basically, I don't think the 'he' and 'she' references can be trusted.
Losing his religion - obvious right from the opener in Small Metal Gods. Frankly, I would say this was a good thing if it wasn't for everything else going on in his life. It may have been the only crutch he had left. Sylvian's search for the 'divine' has always had more than a hint of pretention and silliness about it. Having conceded that the Western religions are all based on complete hokum, he may have made the classic mistake of swapping it for hokum that was less instantly recognisable. I actually thought that Chavez may have left him principally because of all this nonsense. But on the basis of Manafon and a recent interview where she still praises Indian teachings, it could be the other way around.
Suicide (his own) - Easily the most worrying element of the album. Suicide crops up in all of the album's four opening tracks, three times referring to Sylvian's own. In Small Metal Gods, the line 'My suicide, my better days
There’s nothing I regret' takes the prize for most disturbing on the album. It sounds like the statement of a man who knows how his own story will end, assuring us ahead of time that such an act wont be as the result of a few bad days but has been a long term 'life choice', and just a matter of timing.
In The Rabbit Skinner, there is reference to a gun, which anyone skinning rabbits might be expected to have. But it's Big Dave who seems to take the bullet in this one, with 'three little bitches fight where he fell', giving that away. Not the most expected description of his former wife and two daughters.
In The Greatest Living Englishman, Sylvian appears to be singing about both himself and R.S. Thomas. Neither will ever be The Greatest Living Englishman, but I suspect that where Thomas fails to be English and so loses claim to the title, Sylvian will fail to be 'living'. At the beginning of the song, I think the narrator himself is preparing to kill himself.
And is it only me who thinks the line 'he shut himself outside' sounds more like 'he shot himself outside'? Going through past lyrics, you could almost make the case for this being something DS has had in the back of his mind (both suicide and the manner of choice) for some time.
Drug use / marriage break-up - The musical highlight of the album is two back-to-back tracks about the break-up of his marriage to Chavez. Both mention drug use outright and seem to be pointing the finger at Ingrid, although each namecheck a different drug, both with past associations to Sylvian himself. 'She' is doing cocaine in Snow White In Appalachia, but has downgraded to marijuana in Emily Dickinson. Sylvian has previously admitted to dependence on cocaine, although, somewhat cheekily in my view, has passed this off as a battle against narcolepsy! I think the heavy-smoking Sylvian was an old fashioned drug addict just like the rest of them (and if he went from ciggies to coke without touching weed then he might have been the first worldwide). Perhaps this rock star coke addict cliché was too much for him to ever admit to without chucking in the 'medicinal' defence. I thought that was behind him now though, and certainly didn't expect it of Chavez (purely as the mother of 3 kids, more than anything else). Whether he has 'switched characters' or not, I do think that if Chavez isn't the drug user he has more or less painted her as (on a basic hearing), Big Dave probably deserves a law suit (something Chavez is known for).
However, it is the former 'user' herself who we are now told is just like 'Emily Dickinson'. And I'm sure Emily Dickinson here is most certainly Sylvian, not Chavez, despite being a 'she' throughout. So who's been doing the snorting?
R.S. Thomas / terrorism
R.S. Thomas - religious extremist and terrorist advocate. Sylvian finds him interesting for years. But now, at the point Big Dave finally sees religion as a hoax of many colours, and sees a world in fear of terrorism, it looks like he's given the disgusting old scumbag a damning re-appraisal.
But again, most comments about R.S. Thomas seem to double back on Sylvian himself to one degree or another. Even something as basic as 'There's a man down in the valley'… so sings the bloke who lives at the bottom of a mountain. Also, should you substitute the wife for the husband in a closing verse of Manafon, it's the lost-religion-wants-wife-back-partial-to-the-old-easel Sylvian again.
And his wife, she was a painter
But now she stains the altar black
He’s out bird watching on the islands
And she wishes he’d come back
...not sure about the bird watching though.
Feel free to tell me if I'm reading too much death and despair into it, and you think DS is doing just fine.