Format CD, 7" and 12" vinyl Genre Punk rock, hard rock | Recorded Late 1990 Label Heavenly | |
B-side Sorrow 16"
"We Her Majesty's Prisoners Released 21 January 1991 (1991-01-21) | ||
"Motown Junk" is a non-album single and the second single by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 21 January 1991.
Contents
Release
"Motown Junk" was released on 21 January 1991 by record label Heavenly, the band's first release on this label. It peaked at number 94 on the UK Singles Chart. Despite its relatively poor charting, the single gained the band much attention from the press.
In 2008, the band added a "Johnny Boy Anniversary Mix" free embedded version to their official website, which featured spoken dialogue by Richey Edwards.
In 2011, Heavenly re-released "Motown Junk" to sell at the Manic Street Preachers gig on 21 May 2011 and at the Berwick Independent Marker.
The track has long been a live favourite throughout their career.
Content
The title track shows the band during their pinnacle of iconoclastic attitude, such as in the lyric, "I laughed when Lennon got shot". The "Motown" in the title refers to famed 1960s and 1970s label Motown Records. The song also displayed their diverse cultural scope with a Public Enemy-sampling intro and an outro sample of The Skids.
Both B-sides featured on the single, "Sorrow 16" and "We Her Majesty's Prisoners", were on the later singles "Slash 'n' Burn" and "You Love Us", respectively, both from the band's debut album Generation Terrorists (1992). The single was the band's first from their then record label Heavenly Records.
The single's cover features a watch recovered from the Hiroshima bomb site depicting the exact moment of detonation.