Superstar

Hey, I see you from afar
You're a living superstar, that's what you are yeah
Hey, I see you from afar
You're a living superstar
You are yeah

Some people living like they won't get very far
Some people living like they're living life on Mars
The naked eye can only see so many stars
Some people living like they're living life on Mars

Hey, I see you from afar
You're a living superstar, that's what you are yeah
Hey, I see you from afar
You're a living superstar
You are yeah

I'd sooner eat the snake than have to eat the sand
The desert wind creates Stone Roses underland

All things shall be revealed, all crazy laws shall be revealed
All things shall be revealed, all crazy laws shall be revealed
All things shall be revealed, all crazy laws shall be revealed
All things shall be revealed, all crazy laws shall be revealed
You're a living superstar (Repeat to fade)

Lyrics by:
Brown / McCracken

Available on:
Whispers (as b side) (4.47)
Bonus track on Japanese edition of Music Of The Spheres

Details:

"The desert wind creates Stone Roses underland..." The Saharan desert rose. "Underneath the desert, the sand is blown by the wind and forms what are called desert stone roses. The name was thought up by John Squire." Ian Brown (TOTP Q & A session, 1998). This imagery would resurface on the Ian Brown-penned track, 'Give The Young A Chance', which features on Sami Yusuf's 2010 album, 'Wherever You Are' ("Through the sandstorms where the high wind blows. A desert rose does bloom."). Coincidentally, as well as the band's name originating in sand, so too does the earliest meeting of the band's songwriting partnership - Squire's first recollection of meeting Brown is as toddlers in a sandpit.

This fine bonus track is influenced by the 1998 Pras hit, 'Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)', which featured Ol' Dirty Bastard and Mưa.

 

The chorus of this Pras track is a reworking of 1983's Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton hit, 'Islands in the Stream', written by the Bee Gees.

This track's buoyant message can perhaps be traced to Ian Brown's meeting with Northern Soul legend Geno Washington, fresh from a gig at Manchester University. Ian held a party for his girlfriend's 21st birthday at their Hulme flat; one of his friends who worked at Salford University was in Geno's road crew, and he invited him to the party. Dexys Midnight Runners had recently reached the Number One spot with 'Geno', their tribute to the singer. Geno told Ian at the party that he was "a star" ("You're a living superstar...") and that he should "be an actor, be a singer." Ian, buoyed by this encounter, took John Squire up on his offer to sing in The Waterfront (Squire had asked Ian to share vocal duties with Kaiser only a few days previous to this encounter with Geno).

Back To Ian Brown Songs