I remember when I bought my first Marilyn Manson tape. I was probably 13 or 14. I painted Marilyn Manson lyrics on the wall of my bedroom with laundry detergent so you could only see it in a blacklight. (I’m watching my “cred” disappear as I write this. fuck it.) A lot of goths wanted, I remember, to exclude Manson from their ranks, but fuck that. It’s obvious as hell. He may be a pop star but hell if he’s not fuckin spooky.

I got out of Manson almost as quickly as I got into him, mostly because I don’t honestly like most of his music very much. His cover of Sweet Dreams, though, is still lovely, fifteen years later.

After his interview in Bowling for Columbine, where he got right to the guilt of Clinton as a war criminal, I respected him all the more. I’ve no interest, by and large, in a culture that produces rockstars, and I’m not really fond of Manson’s sort of sarcastic/ironic approach to being a media icon, but I’m not going to go listening to the Clash and then talking shit on Manson.

It was pure nostalgia and youtube searching that led me to this song, The Nobodies, but I like it a lot.

Lyrics behind the cut.

Today I’m dirty
I want to be pretty
Tomorrow I know, I’m just dirt
Today I’m dirty
I want to be pretty
Tomorrow I know, I’m just dirt

We are the nobodies
Wanna be somebodies
We’re dead, they’ll know just who we are
We are the nobodies
Wanna be somebodies
We’re dead, they’ll know just who we are

Yesterday I was dirty
Wanted to be pretty
I know now that I’m forever dirt
Yesterday I was dirty
Wanted to be pretty
I know now that I’m forever dirt

We are the nobodies
Wanna be somebodies
We’re dead, they’ll know just who we are
We are the nobodies
Wanna be somebodies
We’re dead, they’ll know just who we are

Some children died the other day
We feed machines and then we pray
puked up and down in morbid faith
You should have seen the ratings that day
Some children died the other day
We fed machines and then we prayed
puked up and down in morbid faith
You should have seen the ratings that day