Diamonds & Pollen

[brian219]

No love for The Suck For Your Solution? That's pretty much the only one you didn't include (covers excluded)

Wow, I never realized their b-side catalog was so thin. The only other original I can even think of is Baboon Rape Party which isn't even a proper song. It is kind of neat that they've managed to do so many covers without any of them being on proper albums (unless you count My Monkey or Prelude (The Family Trip).

About Diamonds and Pollen, I'm sure this has come up at some point in the twelve years since this track was released, but It's new to me so I'll mention it just in case. It seems that the line "we were golden needles" is in reference to a flower called the daylily.

From Wikipedia: "The flowers of some species are edible and are used in Chinese cuisine. They are sold (fresh or dried) in Asian markets as gum jum or golden needles"

Also: "Daylilies are not commonly used as cut flowers for formal flower arranging, yet they make good cut flowers otherwise as new flowers continue to open on cut stems over several days."

As in "they slit our throats like we were flowers" from Speed of Pain. Also, note that the particular flower makes for a good cut flower because a new one will replace it quickly, making them disposable, notable since this song appears as a b-side to Disposable Teens. All of which is reiterated in the closing lines: "And they're waiting to grow and to die like flowers do."

[Gloominatus]

I've not encountered that rumour at all, but if it was touched upon the likelihood could be that it has elements that were adapted from some earlier ideas, rather than being an outtake straight off. Perhaps in a similar way to Smells Like Children [song] being adapted into Kinderfeld, or the earlier, less potent version of Astonishing Panorama Of The Endtimes.

The piano melody at the close of the song is actually the same as you can hear during the Untitled fifteenth track on Mechanical Animals. I think that may even be intentional, I like to see songs like this as 'gateway' tracks between albums, in the same way that Apple Of Sodom and Long Hard Road Out Of Hell form that bridge from Antichrist Superstar into Mechanical Animals. It's much the same with the aforementioned ...Endtimes into Holy Wood, in fact.


Well I think in part that's the nature of it being a B-Side. I actually find that incredibly endearing, the fact that in a world of digital filesharing and people grabbing everything in one go, someone could still not have encountered a hidden treasure like that. If anyone finds copies of the Disposable Teens singles for sale anywhere, do buy them, the whole set from Holy Wood really compliment the entire album and its mood.

I just cannot figure out where I heard that it was a Mechanical Animals outtake. Oh well. You're right, it did occur to me that it could have been a reworked version of something from the MA sessions, a la "Smells Like Children" becoming "Kinderfeld". That would definitely not be surprising. I like the connection between the hidden track on Mechanical Animals and "Diamonds & Pollen" . . . when I first heard "Diamonds" I remember being really excited that the piano part linked the two pieces. There aren't too many non cover song B-sides in the era after Antichrist Superstar so this track has always stood out to me.

By the way, I really like what you said about the "Disposable Teens" singles. It's great to be able to seek out and discover something like that, instead of just downloading it with little effort. I am extremely, extremely lucky to have both versions of the single on CD. Eleven years ago I was browsing a local music store (oddly enough, Manson had been there just a couple months before as part of a record signing, but it was too crowded and I was denied entrance) after seeing the movie Quills. Normally I would have been in a rush to get home after watching Kate Winslet in that movie--please don't make me explain why, my mom could be reading this--but I was actually killing time and avoiding going home because my whole family was violently sick with a stomach virus and I didn't want to catch it. So I was perusing the store, stalling and looking for distractions, when I stumbled across the "Disposable Teens" singles, for which I had spent weeks desperately searching. Unfortunately I had something like ten dollars to my name and could not afford them, since the discs were imports. Extremely disappointed, I just sort of shambled around the store, bored.

Then I overheard one of the employees, who was having a dilemma: he had a customer on the phone asking what artist sings "I Want To Know What Love Is," and for the life of him he could not remember who sang it. Now, I love that song, and I consider it required history that everyone know Foreigner is responsible for gifting the world with this most wonderful power ballad. Without missing a beat, the second I heard him asking another employee this question (a hipster girl who had about a zero percent chance of giving him a correct answer), I immediately responded with "Foreigner!" To my surprise, not only was the dude thrilled that someone knew the answer, he decided to thank me by giving me two gift cards to the store. So between the gift cards and the ten dollars I had left in my life, I was able to buy the "Disposable Teens" singles. Being able to listen to them was the one reason I was willing to drive home and risk the stomach flu. So I went home and enjoyed the songs, and by some miracle I did not get sick, neither from the songs nor the virus. Also, the CDs have stickers on them that say "PEE 82". This isn't really important; I just like that it says "pee" in big letters.

So I never would have had this awesome experience and subsequent overlong story had I grabbed the songs from a file-sharing site. I always prefer to have a physical copy of something if possible, because if you actually have to make the effort to find or obtain something, it means more when/if you actually get it. Being able to just download anything at the drop of a hat unfortunately sometimes makes things more, for lack of a better word, disposable.

[kchalmer]

Diamond & Pollen is a disturbing but brilliant song. I have to admit it's not one of my favorites, but the lyrics are excellent, this is out of question! I especially had to think of the line "And they're waiting to grow & to die like flowers do".... it's so true, this is what life is like! Although I try to concentrate on the more positive sides of life this is really something you have to think of! Sometimes when I'm down I order myself flowers serenata online uk free delivery, because the look of the bright and happy colors make me happy somehow too, but it doesn't work always...

[VCR]

This song is not new to me, I heard it back in the napster days. back when a dope song was flagged as a new manson song etc. good song none the less

[Adonai]

This song always felt really scattered to me, like an experimental track for exploring ideas and sounds. It's OK I guess, it has some interesting sounds and lyrics in it. Not one of my favorites; I haven't listened to it in a long time.