The appearance of a fairy, sprinkling dust on Ian, could be meant to signify Ian being somewhat cured. However, we know that it is a false dawn for two reasons: firstly, Ian is indifferent to the dust being sprinkled on him. Secondly, he still undergoes traumas in the remainder of the video. Various forms of evil are evident in the TSLS video, for example, the 'evil' Mani who scares an Ian seeking a friend. The discernible presence of evil in the video is representative of the perils of drugs. In one scene, we witness the metamorphosis of Squire's body into an unusual shape while he moves towards a washbasin. He then tilts his head and kisses his reflection in the mirror. This five-second scene is composed of 'Figure at a Washbasin' merged into 'Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror' (see Figure 15 and Figure 16 respectively). The mirror into which John Squire is staring at himself becomes distorted, just as the mirror does in 'Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror.' The figure of Dyer, dressed in a gangster's lounge suit, is deformed and severed, with the reflection of his face fractured in the mirror. This portrayal of Bacon's lover and muse, Dyer, is symbolic of the strong sense of isolation and detachment that Bacon felt in their often stormy relationship. In creating this effect in the video, Squire is highlighting the narcissistic element in this Bacon work; that Squire resumes the posture of kissing himself in the mirror after his lips leave it is indicative of his character feeling worthy of such self-admiration. Just as Dyer's gaze of himself is captured forever in the Bacon painting, so also is Squire's (importantly, we are never shown Squire's lips leaving the surface of the mirror for the second time - he is captured in that pose forever).
This sequence whereby these two paintings are merged together by Squire can be seen as a microcosm of the usage of drugs. 'Figure at a Washbasin' is used to illustrate how the body becomes damaged by using drugs; 'Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror' perfectly illustrates the narcissistic elements of (Squire's alleged) cocaine usage. Ian is lying on a bed throughout the video, having very strange experiences (amidst steam rising) and sweating profusely at times.
When Ian sees John casually entering the room in one scene, he thinks he sees a friend he can talk to. He then moves from his bed for closer inspection, only to be scared when confronted by Mani's 'evil' face staring at him. This painting from 1968, entitled 'Version Two of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe', is of crucial importance in understanding this video:
Note the use of red in this painting and a strikingly similar use in the TSLS video (aspects to observe include: the colour of the chair that is prominent throughout the video, curtain backdrop to Ian in a particular scene, colour of the carpet - all red). This painting is thematically the basis of the video. Notice the 'cube' outline to the painting (a feature of many of Bacon's works) as if the person is somehow trapped in that world. Squire and Mani (and later Ian) throughout the video are smashing a large block of ice. Is this perhaps meant to represent someone who is trying to kick in / 'smash' a drug habit ? In order to create further the effect that Ian / the Roses are trapped inside this 'world' (cube), the walls of the room are made to look like an ice cube by their grimy transparency. Reni's nickname for Squire was 'Ice Cold Cube' - is this use of imagery by John a blatant self reference about his own (alleged) use of cocaine during the Second Coming years, which contributed to his isolation from the rest of the band ? The recurring appearance of horses in the video works on several levels, as I will later explain. One such way is its usage as a term for the drug heroin. Notice how in one scene, to confirm the direct link between Ian and the large ice cube, John rubs an ice cube on Ian's face, before putting the cube in his mouth (in case there was any doubt, the struggle is now definitely within Ian's own body).
The scene of John and Mani smashing the cubes is then interspersed with a close-up of Ian's head touching a large cube. Incidentally, the appearance of a block in front of a lying figure in a bed is also to be found in one of the most famous scenes of cinematic history, the end of Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'. That the block of ice is never smashed in the Ten Storey Love Song video is perhaps meant to be symbolic in the same way that the Monolith is always beyond human scope in '2001' - man is still reaching at death.
Look at John and Mani at the very first point at which they are about to smash the cubes. They are behind the ice cubes, but are made to look as if they are actually trapped inside them. Immediately after that, they almost jump up 'out' of the cubes and start smashing them. The fact that Ian takes a swipe at a full block of ice at the end (despite John and Mani making some headway into smashing it themselves) emphasises that despite the help of others, realistically one can only smash the habit by one's own effort and will. At the start of the video when Ian sings "and you need a helping hand", there is a shot of Mani yawning, seemingly oblivious to his plight. It is revealing that the addiction (block of ice) of one or more of the band members is not shattered completely at any point during the video, but just keeps reforming. In the scene after John juggling, Ian 'falls' on the bed, and there follows a cropped shot of him lying on the bed. Ian's dejected demeanour may be recreating part of Gustave Courbet's 'The Young Ladies On The Banks Of The Seine (Summer)' (1856 - 57):
That John sets down his guitar (the only occasion in the entire video when he is holding the instrument) to help 'Ian' is perhaps a demonstration that he is willing to give up (or delay) the music to help this person come through their difficulty. The solo is the occasion in the video at which most headway is made towards smashing the block of ice (habit). At the start of John's echoed solo, Ian has his eyes closed but opens them in time with the progression of the solo. He almost seems to come alive with the arrival of help in the form of Mani and Squire, to change his position. Compare this scene, where John and Mani move the bed (with Ian still lying on it - N.B.) around in a different position, to a triptych painting from 1972 by Bacon entitled 'Three Studies of figures on Beds' (1972). Bacon revived and subverted the use of the triptych, which, in the history of Christian iconography, represented the omnipresence of the Holy Trinity:
The circular arrows in the picture are referring to the movement of the two figures on the bed, but the beds are in different positions, which is the connection with the scene from TSLS. When a visibly sweating Ian is moved around on the bed by Mani and John, it seems as if the pair will now accompany Ian during his plight; however, as soon as Ian closes his eyes, they suddenly disappear, reinforcing that he has to get through this struggle alone. That the scene which directly follows this in the video is 'Sulking' by Degas (see below), in which the social division between Ian and John is portrayed, emphasises the impression that Ian is on his own in this battle. Both Sándor Radó (1933) and Otto Fenichel (1945) associated addiction with a regression to infantile stages. The video begins with images associated with birth (the cherubim toy that would hang above the cot of a baby) and early childhood, and ends with an image of death - Ian watching the Hindenburg crash - immediately after Mani bounces a football in front of him (Mani is also seen by Ian at another point of the video, jumping on the sofa like a child). The video's claustrophobic confinement to a solitary bed for its entire duration, like Frida Kahlo's (1907 - 1954) 'The Dream' (1940), is interplaying between the tendrils of life and death. All the important events take place in bed: conception, birth and death. Beds are symbolically resonant, measurers of time, and for Kahlo an ever-present reality, as she was confined to hers as a child, teenager and woman. It was also in bed that she began to paint.
The Second Coming videos for Love Spreads and Ten Storey Love Song are connected in some respects: John and Mani in the TSLS video are seen watching the second Love Spreads video on TV; the Love Spreads cherub logo forms part of the baby's toy, shown at the start of the video. The first Love Spreads video contains clues, in my opinion, as to the subject matter of the TSLS video. John would have possibly formulated an idea in his mind as to what direction the TSLS video was going to take. Very near the start of the Love Spreads video, the shot goes from John lying in a bath, to a shot of a cooker. In the pan on the cooker, there appear to be slices of bacon - here is the Francis Bacon clue. An amalgamation of two scenes at the end of the first Love Spreads video acts as a precursor to the Papal depiction in the TSLS video: a hidden clip of Squire's face superimposed onto a Papal model goes to a shot of Mani with his mouth wide open screaming. Combine these and one has 'Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X'.
This is not the first occasion on which Squire has done something of this nature; some feel that the short clip of the shooting gallery sign in the first Love Spreads video - '12 years and over' - is a clue that he sensed 1996 would be his last year with the band (The Stone Roses lasted from 1984 to 1996). This playful insertion of a subliminal message in a music video has precedent in, for example, 'Magical Mystery Tour', where, 15 seconds in, a shot of a costumed George Harrison is flashed on-screen. See also Joe Louis.
Bacon cited Nicholas Poussin's (1594 - 1665) 'The Massacre of the Innocents' as "the best human cry in painting" (http://www.wfu.edu/~laugh/painting2/all-photos.pdf) and the influence of this painting is tangible in Bacon's Pope series and, as an extension, Mani's (as the Devil) open-mouthed expression in the aforementioned Love Spreads scene and TSLS Pope scenes.
A scene in the first Love Spreads video recreates a work of art by Alfred Stevens (1823 - 1906) entitled 'The Bath' (1867). Look out for the clip of John Squire in the bath with a book at his side.
As mentioned previously, Squire also appears to be using the influence of Degas in the video. In one scene, John stands upright with his hands on a chair. Beside him is a table with a painting on it, showing horses in motion (Degas had a special preoccupation with horses).
Compare this to a Degas painting entitled 'Sulking' (c1869 - 71):
Note the careful positioning of the painting in each showing horses in motion and the fact that John and the lady are standing in similar positions, facing the same direction. A strong element of depression is evident within each scene. Note Ian's sombre expression, himself playing the part of the man in the Degas painting. Once the camera pans in on John in the Ten Storey Love Song video, there is a close-up of his face. Following a shot of him smiling, the camera uses special effects to give John's facial features a very sullen appearance. Is this perhaps a parody on the title of the Degas painting - 'Sulking' ? Note Ian's sombre expression directly at the camera after the 'Sulking' shot of John, with Ian playing the part of the older man in the Degas painting. This is a very pertinent choice of painting by Squire:
Ian and John are quite some distance apart physically in the corresponding scene in the video and it has been well documented how distant the two were emotionally circa Second Coming (this effect has been used in many works: in 'Citizen Kane', following the scene where Susan is piecing together a jigsaw, she, sitting on the floor, and Kane, on chair, sit a distance apart that illustrates their deteriorating relationship; Edward Hopper (1882 - 1967) went to great lengths in Sunlight In A Cafeteria (1958) to perfect a 'distance' between two figures). The TSLS video concentrates entirely on four bodies within a confined space; note the narrowness of the dead-end from which Mani walks when bouncing his football; there is no way out of this 'world' that Ian and the others are trapped in. Ian only moves off the bed once in the entire video, allowed a futile swipe at a complete block of ice at the end. Degas focused on the detail of the human figure, differing from an artist such as Turner in having a peripheral interest in nature and landscape. Degas's first stated attitude to portraiture was:
Squire certainly recognizes this in availing of special effects for his own facial features in order to convey the emotion between himself and Ian. Here, Squire is incorporating a work of art into a scene for the purpose of creating a mood. Hitchcock used this concept in many of his films (as I have stated previously, I believe that he recreates the scene of Rubens' 'Judgement Of Paris' in Rear Window), availing in the placing of a painting or sculpture to aid in evoking a mood for a particular scene. Even the shape of the frames of the paintings that Hitchcock used in his films were of importance on occasion. Note how, in the parlour scene in Psycho, a round picture frame occupies the wall behind Marion while cluttered angular frames form the backdrop to Norman, to denote the character of each.
In several paintings by Degas, the chair signifies an absent person. In 'Hélène Rouart in her Father's Study' (c. 1886), the chair signifies the absent father of Hélène.
In the TSLS video, the chair signifies the absence of Reni. This allusion to an absent figure is also a feature of an earlier part of the video, where Ian moves over on the bed, making space for a second person. In the video, we also see Mani sitting on a sofa; I propose that this is recreating Édouard Manet's (1832 - 1883) 'Le Ropos' (A Portrait of Berthe Morisot). Just as the hand of Morisot on an empty space on the sofa suggests space for another person, so too do Mani's gestures towards Ian in the video. Note the connection in names (Mani / Manet):
At the very beginning of the Ten Storey Love Song video, we are shown a number of images, one of which is a ballerina, as part of what appears to be a children's toy. Ballet is a prominent feature in several of Degas's paintings. It is natural for this field of Degas's work (ballet) to be accompanied by music (Ten Storey Love Song), given the obvious musical association of dance. A sharp juxtaposition occurs at the start, where we are shown clips of the Hindenburg crashing after a pleasant childlike opening (we see the expressions become worried in relation to the Hindenburg crash). This sharp juxtaposition of the product of life (the playful child) and death (the crashing of a Zeppelin) is perhaps not so awkward if one takes into account Francis Bacon's distant ancestor, Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam's words in his 'Essays': "It is as natural to die as to be born" (p. 9. Sinclair).
The TSLS video appears to be introducing elements of the tormented childhood of Francis Bacon, as documented in Chapter 1 (entitled 'An Awareness of War') of Andrew Sinclair's critically acclaimed biography of the artist. This chapter details his childhood, in which we learn that, from his cradle, Francis Bacon was brought up in sight of horses (p. 10. Sinclair), which may explain why as well as seeing a mixture of clips of children and a scene of running horses from a Western at the start of the video, we almost view the horses from that of a child's perspective (note how you are almost trampled upon by the horses from your vantage point). The sound of hooves in the Cavalry movements preceding the First World War were among the first long-held memories of the four-year-old Francis Bacon (p. 12. Sinclair). A cat in a young child's arms averts its eyes away from the presence of something (out of shot) in fear and into the chest of the young child at the beginning of the video. This may be alluding to Bacon's recollections from childhood of his grandmother's husband, Walter Lorraine Bell, in his horrific treatment of cats, for which he was known as 'Cat' Bell (p. 12. Sinclair). The biggest terror for Francis Bacon during the First World War were the Zeppelins, which equally dominate the child's gaze at the start and Ian's throughout the video. As Air Commodore L.E.O. Charlton testified, Britain suffered under a 'Zeppelin psychosis' for the better part of two years (p. 21. Sinclair). Bacon would have had experiences of the Zeppelins crashing down in flames, the first of which was brought down in September 1916 (p. 22. Sinclair).
World War I witnessed the first bombing of civilians, with the first attack (by a Zeppelin balloon) in January 1915 by the Germans on the Norfolk coast; London was attacked in May of that year (Source: 'World War I In Colour: Blood In The Air' documentary). The footage in this documentary of the Zeppelin making its way slowly, yet menacingly, across the sky - an awesome sight for a young child - graphically illustrates Sinclair's point.
When Ian (known for his striking simian features) looks vertically upwards at the children's toy while singing, at one point in the video, his facial position (and open mouth) bears a striking resemblance to 'Chimpanzee' (1955):
At the end of the video, Squire walks away from the camera but look back at us at the very last second, before the scene goes up in flames. This scene may originate from 'Study from the Human Body' (1949), in which we see a figure disappearing through the gap between two grey curtains.
Note how the figure in the Bacon painting looks back at you exactly like Squire in the video. A figure caught forever in the position of turning to look back is a recurrent theme in Bacon's paintings; that Squire uses this almost as the last shot of the video increases even more the effect of his 'held' figure being ingrained in our memories. It is interesting that Squire chose to incorporate the works of Courbet and Degas alongside those of Bacon in this video. Each of these two artists were an influence on Bacon himself. The lesbian undertones of Courbet's 'The Sleepers' are echoed in Bacon's work when he showed two men entwined on twisted bedclothes (p. 178. Sinclair). When asked by the National Gallery to choose from its masterpieces an exhibition of fourteen works called 'The Artist's Eye', one of his choices was Degas' 'Woman Drying Herself' (pp. 287 - 288.). While there is little or nothing of Jackson Pollock's influence inherent in the Second Coming era Squire artistic style, it is fitting that not a trace of Pollock's work is to be found in this video. Bacon disliked American abstract art, pouring scorn on the works of Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956) and Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970). Bacon would have been pleased that his own work was not amalgamated by Squire with what he considered to be an inferior form of art. If John Squire was influenced by Sinclair's biography of Bacon in his composition of the TSLS video, an explanation for the 'Reni mask' in the video can perhaps be found in this shot from the book:
Bacon's artwork is also to be found on the front cover of Second Coming. The image to the bottom-left of the 'As Seen On TV' logo is a scaled down, amended version (Squire had to change all the original works on Second Coming, for fear of copyright violation) of 'Blood on the Floor' (1986). An artwork by Squire entitled 'Strange Feeling' affirms that Francis Bacon is an influence on his work:
A short clip very near the beginning of the Ten Storey Love Song video is an edited piece from Shakespear's Sister 'Stay' video from 1992, directed by Sophie Muller (who directed this Stone Roses video). The shot originates from the scene in the video where Siobhan Fahey, who can be interpreted as being an 'angel of death', walks down the steps. I use the word 'edited' above because the Stone Roses video uses a cropped screenshot. In both the Stay and Ten Storey Love Song videos, we see a man lying on a bed and two people, reperesenting the forces of good (Marcella Detroit) and evil (Siobhan Fahey), fighting over him.
The influence of the Ten Storey Love Song video is very evident on Oasis's Champagne Supernova video, where Liam Gallagher, on a bed, surrounded by his bandmates, has distorted, seemingly drug-induced, visions.
- Like Ian Brown in the Ten Storey Love Song video, Liam Gallagher is a solitary figure on the bed (with pillows to one side and TV in close proximity) in need of companionship. This plea for help by Liam finds literal expression at the end of the video, when he puts together the toy blocks to spell 'HELP' (it also pays homage to The Beatles’ 1965 soundtrack single and LP of the same name. Noel Gallagher performed the song at certain Oasis concerts at a slower tempo. In later years Lennon said that the title track was a sincere cry for help, as the pressures of The Beatles' fame and his own unhappiness (what he later called his 'fat Elvis' stage) began to build, and that he regretted turning it from a downbeat Dylanesque song to an upbeat, poppy Beatles song because of commercial pressures. The camera focusing in on a close-up of Noel's eye, with a sharp subsequent recognition of this by the knowingly viewed figure at 3.38 recreates a similar shot of Lennon at 3.23 in the A Day In The Life video).
- Noel's nonchalant approach to the camera at 0.46 copies that of John in the TSLS video, while both videos end with each figure walking away from the camera.
- At 4.39, Liam momentarily takes the seated position akin to Mani's papal figure in the TSLS video.
- The children's toy (decorated with the Love Spreads cherub logo) in the TSLS video becomes one of stars in the Champagne Supernova video. This can be seen in flashes for example at 2.02, 2.03 and 3.38 in the Champagne Supernova video.
- The ‘sulking’ John / ‘evil ‘Mani’ of the TSLS video translates as a ‘hysterical’ laughing Noel in the Champagne Supernova video (see 4.22).
This Oasis video takes from the works of Francis Bacon in a secondary manner. The band would later base some videos directly on the work of artists - 'The Masterplan' video (2006), for example, is an animated film that sees Oasis transported into a world based entirely on the paintings of Mancunian artist L.S. Lowry (1887 - 1976).
Bibliography:
Berger, John. Ways of seeing (London: Penguin books, 1972).
Conrad, Peter. The Hitchcock murders (London: faber and faber, 2000).
Denvir, Bernard. The Thames and Hudson encyclopaedia of Impressionism (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990).
Forty, Sandra. The world of art (London: Parkgate books, 1999).
Marlow, Tim with Grabsky, Phil and Rance, Philip. Great artists: from Giotto to Turner (London: faber and faber, 2001).
Mulvey, Laura. Visual pleasure and narrative cinema Screen 16 (1973).
Prendeville, Brendan. Realism in 20th century painting (London: Thames & Hudson, 2000).
Sinclair, Andrew. Francis Bacon: his life and violent times (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1994).
Spate, Virginia. Degas: life and works (London: Cassell & Co, 2000).
World War I in colour: blood in the air documentary.
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Degas/html/indexc4.html
http://www.palantir.net/2001/index.html
http://www.wfu.edu/~laugh/painting2/all-photos.pdf
* Thanks to Dave Roberts for capturing the TSLS screenshots *
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Paul McAuley
http://www.thisisthedaybreak.co.uk
Email: Paul@thisisthedaybreak.co.uk
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