John Squire is not only the person behind the Stone Roses artwork but also, in my opinion, is the creative force in the direction of the music videos. He uses works of art for his album and single front covers (Pollock, Scully, Degas, etc). For example, here he reveals the origin of the colours of the Begging You artwork:
The Ten Storey Love Song video, directed by Sophie Muller (an accomplished music video director whose works include Annie Lennox, Why?; Björk, Venus as a Boy; No Doubt, Don't Speak; Blur, Song 2; Nelly Furtado, Turn Off The Light; Sophie Ellis Bextor, Murder On The Dancefloor; Sugababes, Freak Like Me; Coldplay, In My Place), is the most significant amalgamation of artistic works by Squire in a music video, bringing together works by Gustave Courbet (1819 - 1877), Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883), Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) and (especially) Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992).
Courbet was the leading figure of Realism, which focused attention on the poverty and suffering of the peasants and workers in Nineteenth Century Europe. Rather than idealize the work of the 'noble' peasant, they depicted the bitterness and grind of desperation. Realist artists are being used in the TSLS video to convey the difficulty of Cold Turkey, the desperate and lonely nature of the battle against drug addiction. The Realism presented in the works of artists such as Bacon, Degas and Courbet makes their incorporation in this video very relevant.
One's interests and influences are inevitably going to permeate throughout one's output, either subconsciously or intentionally. Kate Bush, an avid fan of Alfred Hitchcock, avails of the director's influences in the construction of her own videos. The 'Hounds Of Love' video, directed by Kate, contains obvious elements of Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps' (1935). The HOL video focuses on the second half of the film with Kate playing the part of Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) and her male colleague playing the part of Hannay (Robert Donat). Kate appears to be borrowing also from the 1959 remake (starring Kenneth More as Richard Hannay), with the ferocity by which 'Hannay' punches open the door to the party in the HOL video owing more to that remake than the original. The opening of the door to the party in the HOL video corresponds to Hannay in the film opening the door to the B & B that he and Pamela were to stay at. Kate is unwillingly forced to be married upon entering the party, just as Pamela is forced to be 'married' upon entering the B&B (having to sign in at the desk as husband and wife). Kate and Pamela each later find that they are in favour of the situation, and wish to be with Hannay, illustrated by Kate Bush handcuffing him near the end of the video, and dragging him away, reciprocating the earlier scene.
Similarly, as Squire has a deep interest in art, it is not surprising that these artistic influences are going to form part of his own visual creations. Francis Bacon was "obsessed" (p. 239. Marlow) with 'Portrait of Pope Innocent X' (1650) by Diego Velázquez de Silva (1599 - 1660), describing it as "one of the greatest portraits that has ever been made" (Ibid.).
Bacon was so immersed in the painting that he embarked upon a series of paintings based on it, elaborating on the anguish of the Pope's expression. Squire recreates Bacon's portrayals, with Mani taking the part of the Pope. A time period of fifty years joins Alfred Hitchcock's and Kate Bush's respective creations. Here we see an influence spanning several centuries. Velázquez's own creation was inspired by El Greco's (1541 - 1614) 'Portrait of a Cardinal' (1600) (see below). A line can subsequently be drawn from 1650, the year of Velázquez's painting, to Bacon's own masterpieces in the twentieth century based on the subject, to Squire's own creation in February 1995.
In the creation of his paintings of an anguished Pope, Bacon fused the Velázquez painting from 1650 with a shot from the Odessa Steps sequence of Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece of cinema, 'Battleship Potemkin' (1925), where a nanny is screaming after being stabbed in the eye by a Cossack:
One's influences will penetrate the visual and aural aspects of one's work. Taking Alfred Hitchcock and Jackson Pollock in the work of Kate Bush and John Squire respectively as examples: the influence of Hitchcock is to be found in the visual (Hounds Of Love video - see above) and aural (this clip from Experiment IV evokes the shower scene in 'Psycho') aspects of Kate's work. Pollock has had a huge influence on the visual aspects of Squire work (Pollocked album, single sleeves, guitar, drums, etc) and the aural ("Yeah she looks like a painting - Jackson Pollock's Number 5", a lyric from Going Down). Sometimes, influences are hidden in such an obscure manner that they are not easily noticed. Note how, in 'The Big Sky' video, when the scene changes to an overhead shot of Kate and the band on the line, "And we pause for the jets", there are split-second flashes of eyes around the screen, briefly copying the 'dream sequence' of Salvador Dalí (1904 - 1989), in Hitchcock's 'Spellbound'.
I think that the most striking image of the video, the crashing of the Hindenburg that Ian is watching on a gigantic screen, as well as being illustrative of Squire's Led Zeppelin fixation circa Second Coming (see the album cover below), is documenting Bacon's childhood memory of the Zeppelins crashing in the First World War. The Hindenburg crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on 6th May 1937, killing 35 of the 97 people on the airship (13 passengers, 22 crew and one ground crew died).
In a scene at the end of the video, where Mani is bouncing a football in front of Ian, a gigantic screen appears, showing people on the ground running to the scene of the flames to help. John and Mani recreate the running of two particular people in that footage (the two side by side, with one running first and the other following his lead). They run 'into' the footage, with the big screen disappearing, and are part of the ensuing haphazard rescue operation. John and Mani run towards the flames and a second later, only John is running back (i.e., without Mani). Is the absence of Mani perhaps meant to represent the one ground crew that died ? Led Zeppelin used a photo of the Hindenburg crashing for their sleeve front cover for 'Led Zeppelin I'. George Hardie, who was chosen to design the front sleeve, sent Jimmy Page a design showing sequential images of a zeppelin. Jimmy Page didn't like it and instead opted for the single image of the burning Zeppelin that he'd found in a book.
With the passing of such a great artist as Francis Bacon in 1992, there would have been a renewed interest in his work, although Squire needed no introduction to his work. Squire has been a follower of Bacon's work as early as 1989 / 90 (see the 'Crucifixion photoshoot near the end of this essay) and having an avid interest in art, would have been well aware of "the greatest painter in the world and the best this country has produced since Turner" (Lord Gowrie, England's Minister for the Arts - http://www.francis-bacon.cx/articles/bacon-news-singing.html). Squire was not the only notable artist using Francis Bacon's work as the basis for a music video in the mid-Nineties. David Bowie, heavily influenced by Bacon, used his work as the basis for his 'Dead Man Walking' video (1997), and there is a discernible influence too, on the 'Little Wonder' video, from the same year. Like Squire, Bowie does not strictly limit himself to the work of Bacon in the video, incorporating the work of other artists also. Bowie's bassist, Gail Ann Dorsey, in the following shot is playing the part of Joel-Peter Witkin. The first shot is from the Dead Man Walking video; the second is 'Portrait of Joel-Peter Witkin' (1984) by photographer Cynthia Witkin. See also the video for 'Lotus' (1998) by R.E.M., directed by Stephane Sednaoui, for an example of another music video clearly influenced by Francis Bacon.
The TSLS video appears to be addressing the dependence of drugs (and attempts to kick the habit) of several of the band members, perhaps even all four of them. In one scene, Ian creates space on the bed for an extra person by moving the pillows and his self to one side of the bed. This shot is shown on the word "two" in the line "I've got loving enough for two". Just as in Vincent van Gogh's (1853 - 1890) 'The Bedroom at Arles' (1888), there is a theme of yearning for renewed friendship here. Van Gogh did the first version of this painting during one of the happiest interludes in his life, believing that his move to Arles would mark a new chapter in his art. He asked his brother, Theo, to persuade Paul Gaugin (1848 - 1903) to join him and rapidly painted a series of works to hang on the walls and create a welcoming atmosphere for his new guest. In 'The Bedroom at Arles' (just as in the Ten Storey Love Song scene) there is a duality in the placement of items - two chairs, two pillows, two pairs of pictures - signalling his expectation of companionship. The point at which Ian's face stays on the T.V. screen showing the second Love Spreads video, John (seated beside Mani) looks to the camera and then at his watch. Reni is the missing fourth Rose in this shot (Ian is predominantly represented digitally on the T.V. screen), with John perhaps asking him bivalently "We're all here. What's keeping you ?" and "We're all here for you" (the second of these two is the most likely, considering the manner in which the two scenes are merged together). John looking at his watch is also a recognition of the theme of time in this scene. We are watching him watch a video of himself and the band from the previous month. Time is an important theme throughout this video. The manner in which a large number of images of the band are shown in seconds at the end of the first Love Spreads video attempts to highlight the ephemeral nature of life. In the Ten Storey Love Song video, time is drawn out for the sufferer, played by Ian, of Cold Turkey. We see him bored throughout the video, attempting to find respite from anything he can around him. All that greets him however, are an 'evil' Mani and a 'sulking' John. This theme of difficulty involved with the passing of time is beautifully portrayed in the video for There Goes A Tenner by Kate Bush, where time is pressing for Kate and her accomplices. In one scene, on the line, "All my words fade...", Kate's lip movement is slowed down, while her voice continues to be heard at normal speed. We can tell something worrying is taking place as the camera angle at this point erratically changes from an upright position in combination with Kate tilting her head to one side. The scene then changes to one of Kate and the robbers waiting in despair beside a pendulum, thinking that something is going to go wrong with the robbery. To emphasize the distortion of the 'vocal' in the previous scene, the video changes in a visual nature, with a full-screen image being replaced by a cropped cinematic one for the pendulum sequence. In the Ten Storey Love Song video, visual techniques of this manner are availed of also - note how the camera races along at certain points of the video, which contrasts with Ian's prolonged boredom at the slow passing of his recovery time from Cold Turkey.
That the scene of Ian creating space in the bed for a second person goes directly to the scene of John looking at his watch perhaps suggests that Ian is creating the space for Reni (in the very last shot of the video, where Ian looks forlornly towards the camera, note how he is very much to one side of the bed). All four of the Roses (alleged) use of drugs is symbolized in the video however. Someone - I think it was Tony Wilson - once said that it wasn't the Roses being on drugs circa Second Coming that caused the split of the band, but that they were all on different drugs. The scene recreates the setting of the right panel of Bacon's 'Crucifixion' (1965), which shows two seated figures and one on a bed. The solitary male figure was inspired by Michelangelo's (1475 - 1564) nudes and is wearing an armband with a delicately drawn swastika (http://www.francis-bacon.cx/crucifixions/triptych_1965.html). Bacon subverted artistic conventions by using the triptych format of renaissance altarpieces to show the evils of humanity, rather than the virtues of Christ.
For the Ten Storey Love Song back cover, Squire would superimpose the Love Spreads cherub logo (with the chevron turned upside down) onto the genitalia of one of Michelangelo's David's, on 'David And His 34 Slightly Misshapen Brothers'. Squire covering the genitalia of David is something which takes place on royal visits; at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, a stone fig leaf is kept in a case close to their plaster cast of the 'David' for this purpose. Michelangelo's sculptural masterpiece represents a triumph over unequal odds and acts as the perfect visual embodiment of the song and video. The lovers separated by the wall with no breach; the hugely straining battle against drug addiction depicted in the video.
This scene where John looks around at us watching him watch Ian, all through the medium of television, is an embodiment of postmodernism. We witness a representation of a representation. One loses the grasp of what is real - are we living in a hyper-reality world of nothing but images ? Is Squire even looking at you / I, another band member or at the cameraman / camerawoman ? (Since the main Zeppelin crashing scene takes place later in the video, he could even be placing himself in the position of someone waiting for the Zeppelin's arrival in 1937. The Zeppelin arrived later than intended, at 7:20 p.m. Squire may be questioning its whereabouts, looking at his watch, just as the watching media and bystanders did on the ground in 1937).
In one's analysis of this video, one should take into account the findings of Laura Mulvey (Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema). Mulvey draws on Freud's idea of looking by concentrating on the look of the camera, the characters and that of the spectator. These three tools construct the male gaze, according to Mulvey. It is important that one questions why, throughout the video, we are given particular views and angles of events, why the camera focuses on specific details, characters, etc. The uncertainty in deciphering who Squire's gaze meets (or what causes him to turn round for that matter) shares with the outward gazes in Velázquez's masterpiece, 'Las Meninas' (1656), in that it is impossible to conclusively tell. Are they looking round at the entry of Philip and Mariana (who we see in the mirror) into the room from where we stand ? Is that actually a mirror or instead a painting ? Who is Velázquez painting - the King and Queen, or their daughter ?
The aesthetic approach (the other two being philosophical and sociological) to postmodernism argues that the world around our existence is merely endless imagery. There is no reality. In cinematic terms, Paul Verhoeven's 'Total Recall' (1990) can perhaps be viewed as the epitome of this questioning of reality. In the opening credits of 'The Royle Family', we ourselves are being watched by the family, breaking the traditional conventions of us, the viewer, voyeuristically watching them. Squire is disrupting our learnt viewing practices as we do not expect him to be aware of our presence - he is breaking our voyeuristic gaze. This gaze meeting the passive viewer forces him or her to become active. It is Orwellian (Nineteen Eighty-Four's Big Brother) in its nature in illustrating that none of us are free from scrutiny. Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rebecca' illustrates this. We are watching Mrs de Winter (played by Joan Fontaine) and Maxim de Winter (played by Laurence Olivier) watching a video reel of themselves on honeymoon. The reel in the machine malfunctions during their viewing, and there follows an unexpected black screen for a split second. This is illustrative of how our voyeuristic view is liable to intrusion. Olivier in the film controls what we view on the screen they are watching; Hitchcock controls what we see through our own screens, as he demonstrates with the black screen, mimicking the malfunction of the de Winter's reel. In the postmodernist scene in Ten Storey Love Song, Squire has the role of Olivier and Hitchcock: he controls what we watch on their T.V. screen and also what we watch on ours. Squire unexpectedly turning around to meet our gaze, showing that he is aware of our presence, is his 'Hitchcock black screen.'
David Bowie's video for 'Ashes To Ashes', critically adjudged to be one of the best in music history, should be viewed for its encapsulation of postmodernism. In the opening minute of the song, the scene moves from one Bowie character to the next via a held up screen, which freezes the previous character's movement. David Bowie's character, Newton, in 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' struggled to attain any grasp of reality on earth, sitting in front of numerous television screens, epitomizing postmodernism. Just as in the TSLS, one can read into why we are presented with particular camera angles at specific points during the ATA video. One 'frozen' image of Bowie moves to a slanted one of Bowie locked in a room, indicating a mental instability (watch also the video for 'Sweet Bird Of Truth' by The The for a wonderful overt usage of the slanted camera angle technique). The sudden shine of light from the top right of the room following this, I propose, borrows from Caravaggio's (c1572 - 1610) The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599 - 1600). This would not be the last occasion on which this piece by Caravaggio was used as inspiration in a music video. See the end of the video for 'Sadeness' by Enigma, which clearly borrows from this.
At one point in Hitchcock's 'Rear Window', we are watching and listening to the dialogue between James Stewart and Grace Kelly. We also have the choice (?) of viewing 'Ms Torso' in the background. The selection of Ms Torso by Hitchcock for this scene conforms to what John Berger later recognized as the 'male gaze'; that is, our media panders to and caters for the male spectator. Berger argues that this is not only existent today in the media, but that it can be traced back through centuries of art. "Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." (p. 47. Berger). I propose that this scene is a 'reversal' of the Judgement of Paris, possibly based on this depiction from 1600 by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640). In the Judgement of Paris, Paris chose one of three women; in this Hitchcock scene, Ms Torso chooses one of three men. While the gender roles are reversed, the theme of the woman being the 'prize object' still exists strongly however. As Peter Conrad concludes, "Vertigo is the story of Pygmalion in reverse: a man who wants a live woman to be a statue (or at least a shop-window mannequin)" (p.70, 'The Hitchcock murders'). In his films, Hitchcock appears to be interested in reversal, viewing from the opposite perspective. Stewart remarks to Kelly that Ms Torso is wise in choosing the richest man. Here, we see that different criteria exist than from the Judgement of Paris; beauty is not the sole criterion. This is a twentieth century Judgement of Paris with the issue of wealth prevalent. We also have a scene where the viewer watches Stewart and Kelly watching Ms Torso (and the man she chooses) on one side, and two men watching proceedings on the other. Thus, the viewing is not exclusively in one direction, as Stewart realizes near the end of the film when Raymond Burr looks back at him. This scene epitomizes Berger's argument that women watch themselves being looked at, in that Grace Kelly is viewing in the character of Ms Torso a personification of herself - the 'woman on display'. That there is no palpable reaction from Kelly to the male-dominated proceedings is because she is in acceptance of the female's role confined to being looked at as an object.
This TSLS scene embodying postmodernism, watching oneself through the medium of television, is one to be found in previous videos by other acts. See, for example, the video for 'Return Of The Los Palmos 7' where Suggs is watching the Madness video 'One Step Beyond' and he then looks around to the camera, meeting the viewer's gaze. That the Ten Storey Love Song scene possibly takes inspiration from this Madness video adds to its postmodernist nature, with bricolage seen to be the embodiment of our postmodern society. The scene is polysemic as it works on several different levels, thus making it potentially open to various different interpretations. See also the video for 'Happy When It Rains' by The The Jesus and Mary Chain, where the band watch a number of previous music videos they have made.
There is a brief close-up of Mani running his hands through his hair, which again may be copying the right panel of a Bacon triptych painting. In this case, right panel of Bacon's 'Three Figures in a Room, 1964'. The only difference is that Mani does not have his arm arced around his head like the figure in the Bacon painting.
In one scene, Ian looks over to Mani who is dressed as a Pope and the screen becomes completely blurred, with the image fading into vertical lines of the preceding image.
Compare this shot of Mani to a Bacon painting entitled 'Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X' (1953):
These two images are strikingly similar, differing only in the colour of the upper clothing of the Pope (purple in the Bacon painting, red in the video. In this respect, Squire is using the Velázquez painting, 'Portrait of Pope Innocent X'). Note how the screen fades out into vertical lines similar to the effect created in the Bacon painting, by articulate use of brush strokes. Mani biting his nails before 'becoming' the Pope is symbolic of the nervous, tormented demeanour of the Pope in Velázquez's portrait. In his appraisal of the painting, Bacon said that he could relate greatly with the torment inherent in the portrait and this feature is developed upon in the Ten Storey Love Song video.
Compare the second (close-up) shot above of Mani to the following Bacon painting, entitled 'Head VI' (1949):
Note how in the Bacon painting, the Pope's gaping mouth forms the central focal point of the painting, acting almost as an abyss - an effect recreated by Squire in the close-up shot of Mani. The top part of the face in this Bacon painting is faded out in a similar way to the bottom half of Squire's face when Ian is looking over towards him later in the video.
Approximately one minute into the video, Ian's legs are shaped like < >.
Compare that to this Bacon painting entitled 'Sleeping Figure':
Just before John kisses his reflection in the mirror, there is a shot of him sitting beside Ian, clasping his hands together, staring at the ceiling.
He then gives instructions with his hands as to how the camera is to pan down towards him and past Ian. This is proof, if proof were needed, that Squire is the creative, directive force in the construction of the videos. Even as early as the late-80s interview with Ian and John, where John asks the cameraman "Can I.... just have a look through there mate ?" and proceeds to look at Ian through the lens, one senses that John would rather be on the other side of the camera, directing activities.
The final position of Squire, when he is moving his clasped hands, closely resembles the right panel of one of Bacon's masterpieces, Study for Self-Portrait, 1985.
