Under The Paving Stones: The Beach

Under The Paving Stones: The Beach contains no lyrics

Available on:
Unfinished Monkey Business (1.49)
Remixes / B-Side Tracks: 1. Can't See Me (Harvey's Invisible Mix) / 2. Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Vocal Dub) / 3. Lions (With Denise) / 4. Under The Paving Stones: The Beach (Gabriel's 13th Dream Remix) / 5. Jesus On The Move (Polydor, POCP 7357, Japanese CD, released 12th January 1998)

Details:
A lively opener to the album. The use of Church bells portrays a Sunday morning; since Ian would have viewed this opening song somewhat as the resurrection of his career when most had written him off (indeed, he was fully aware that the intention of the NME was to bury him at Reading '96), it is in keeping with past ventures into this subject matter by the Roses ("Chimes sing Sunday morn" - Waterfall, "Dawn sings in the garden" - Going Down).

Under The Paving Stones: The Beach ("Sous les pavés, la plage !"), a slogan from the Situationist movement, continues a theme explored by the Roses on Bye Bye Badman. A Situationist rallying cry from the riots developed when the students ripped up paving stones to throw at the police, and found sand underneath them; under the oppressive rules of civilisation lies freedom. The phrase can be seen near the end of Jean-Luc Goddard's 1968 Rolling Stones film, 'Sympathy For The Devil'.

Further evidence the influence of May 1968 on Ian Brown, I propose, can be found on the See The Dawn/Come Again French CD Promo cover:

Ian said in an interview that he used a toy belonging to his son for the guitar solo at the beginning of this track. This toy can be heard in 'Jerry Maguire' (1996), in a scene where Tom Cruise gets out of bed and stands on it, waking him from his slumber.

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