Don't Stop

Don't stop
Isn't it funny how you shine ?
Don't stop
Isn't it funny how you shine ?

Hear the sea spray give
I was with her
We're under the ship so get me over
Now that was me
Listen
Now she fishes now
Listen
There was no one out there we used
There is the news for me useless
Now so much waste
How we'll be teased

Don't stop
Isn't it funny how you shine ?
Don't stop
Isn't it funny how you shine ?

Won't you just ask me
You're an imbecile
What's the matter for everyone I feel
Pain blue singer
He's
Pain just a guitar
From the top

I wake I steal look I feel loose
We're all here to know who's the first
He's into my heart
He must
Be one of us

Don't stop
Isn't it funny how you shine ?
Don't stop
Isn't it funny how you shine ?

Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown

Music by:
Squire

Written:
1988

Personnel:
John Squire (guitar)
Ian Brown (vocals)
Gary Mounfield (bass)
Alan Wren (drums)

Producer:
Paul Schroeder & The Stone Roses

Engineer:
Paul Schroeder

Available on:
The Stone Roses (5.17)
The Stone Roses (10th Anniversary Edition) (5.20)

First live performance:
Copenhagen Patrol (15 May 1990) (and used as intro music earlier than this, for example at Blackpool Empress Ballroom in 1989)

Details:
In order to save on studio costs, the sessions for The Stone Roses' debut album were all-nighters, 7 p.m. - 7 a.m., resulting in a lot of fatigued humour. Living a bohemian lifestyle, the band were sharing a rented house at Kensal Rise, in north-west London, with a businessman called Jonathan; the band would come in, stoned, just as a suited Jonathan would be eating his breakfast, about to set off for his day's work. It was part of the Zomba contract that the band had to use their studios, and The Stone Roses were the first act to get out of that arrangement, and go to Rockfield. Don't Stop, Bye Bye Badman and Shoot You Down were the last songs to be written for the debut LP, penned in the intervening period between the first recording sessions in July 1988, and the next sessions in September 1988. Don't Stop is an old sixteen-track demo of Waterfall reversed, with the bass drum triggered, and overdubbed vocals and cowbell. John Squire wrote the lyrics by listening to Waterfall backwards and writing down what he heard. "It's good fun doing that, because you sort of remove your involvement from the song, you don’t really know what's going to come next." (John Squire, The Guitar Magazine - August 1997). The producer of The Stone Roses' debut LP, John Leckie, had crafted tracks of this nature previously, with XTC. I remember reading a Beatles special feature in Mojo magazine (I think.... it may have been Q) where different artists were asked to name their favourite track by The Beatles. John Squire's answer was 'Rain' (1966), the first release to feature a backmasked message: "Sunshine ... Rain ... When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads." Backmasking was popularised by The Beatles, who used backward vocals and instrumentation on numerous songs of their 1966 album, 'Revolver'. Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. Both John Lennon and producer George Martin both claim to have discovered the backward recording technique during the recording of Revolver, which can be heard on tracks such as 'I'm Only Sleeping' and 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. Lennon stated that, while under the influence of marijuana, he accidentally played the tapes for that day in reverse when he got home, and enjoyed the sound. The following day, he shared the results with the other Beatles, and the effect was used first in the guitar solo for 'Tomorrow Never Knows', and later in the coda of 'Rain'. According to Martin, the band had been experimenting with changing the speeds of and reversing the 'Tomorrow Never Knows' tapes, and Martin got the idea of reversing Lennon's vocals and guitar, which he did with a clip from 'Rain'. Lennon then liked the effect and kept it. The 'Paul is dead' rumour further increased the interest in backmasking popular music; this urban legend alleged that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike and sound-alike. Purported clues include statements heard when particular Beatles songs are played backwards, symbolism found in obscure lyrics, and ambiguous imagery on album covers. Jimi Hendrix followed the lead of The Beatles, and backmasking was a feature on his band's debut LP, 'Are You Experienced' (1967).

"That's me... with the first backwards tape on any record anywhere. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before any fucker. I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint."
(John Lennon speaking in 1980)

Top left: The Beatles on the set of the Rain video. Works such as Rain by The Beatles, and the hypnotic dual guitar break on Change Is Now, from The Notorious Byrd Brothers LP, set the template for The Stone Roses' backwards experimentation. When John Lennon appeared on The Tomorrow Show in 1975, interviewer Tom Snyder rather prophetically suggested, "But don't you know that in about 1988, there's going to be a group come out that is going to pick right back to the sound that you guys had since you were 15 years old. And all kinds of critics and all kinds of artists are going to say, 'Wow, look at this. We've got this whole new sound that's reminiscent of The Beatles back in the '60s.'" That group turned out to be The Stone Roses.
Top right: 'Are You Experienced' by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Bottom: '25 O'Clock' (left) by XTC, released under the pseudonym, The Dukes of Stratosphear, produced by John Leckie in 1985. Ian, John and Reni went to Mani's house and listened to this Dukes of Stratosphear LP, impressed at how it captured a psychedelic - yet modern - sound. Leckie had produced punk outfit, The Adverts' debut LP, 'Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts' (right), a record which Ian Brown won in a Manchester Evening News competition in 1978, in which he had to name the first single by The Adverts. The answer was 'One Chord Wonders', which was the first punk single that Ian had bought, in 1977.

There is a possible Biblical reference in the song, in the line, "He must be one of us"; this was the message Jesus gave to His Disciples in 'Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us' (Mark 9: 38 - 41). He who drives out demons in Jesus' name, Jesus said, is 'one of us', contrary to what the Disciples thought:

"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."
"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.
(Mark 9: 38 - 40)

It is interesting to compare media articles regarding Don't Stop. Compare John Leckie's comments to those of Paul Schroeder, regarding the choice of tracklisting for the debut LP:

"Don't Stop is simply the original demo of Waterfall run through John's Portastudio so that the two tracks play backwards. They played it to me and I just said, that's got to go on the record."
(John Leckie quoted in Q magazine, April 2000)

"The running order was decided by Leckie and the band. I think that Don't Stop was the only bone of contention, but the band were adamant to have it on."
(Paul Schroeder speaking exclusively to This Is The Daybreak, 2nd February 2003)

I followed this up with Paul Schroeder via email and he confirmed to me that John Leckie was pushing for Don't Stop to be dropped from the LP. Ian was probably the one pushing most for Don't Stop to be kept on there:

"It was accidental, it sounded great backwards...that's my favourite thing on the LP. There's 20 seconds at the end that's killer, the little rhythm that comes in."
(Ian Brown quoted in Q magazine, April 2000)

The Chemical Brothers too rate this very highly; in their list of greatest songs of all time, they said that they would put this in their Top 10.

The end of Don't Stop at Spike Island is a highlight, especially the way in which Squire’s guitar cuts out, leaving only Reni and Mani playing, with Reni performing military-style snare drumming.

In 1989, John Squire created an artistic work, entitled 'Don't Stop' (oil on canvas, 3' x 5'), for an NME competition in their Christmas 1989 Issue.

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