Elephant Stone

Burst into Heaven
Kissing the cotton clouds
Arctic sheets and fields of wheat
I can't stop coming down

Your shrunken head
Looking down on me above
Send me home like an elephant stone
To smash my dream of love

Dreaming till the sun goes down
And night turns into day
Rooms are empty, I've got plenty
You could move in right away

Seems like there's a hole
In my dreams
In my dreams
In my dreams

Down through the heavens
Jump on the cotton clouds
Arctic sheets and fields of wheat
I can't stop coming down

Your shrunken head
Looking down on me above
Send me home like an elephant stone
To smash my dream of love

Did your bed and bookshelf go
And run run run away ?
These four walls saw the rise and fall
And your midnight getaway

Seems like there's a hole
In my dreams
Or so it seems
Yet nothing means anything
Anymore

Demo version (1987)

Burst into heaven
Kissing the cotton clouds
Arctic sheets and fields of wheat
I can't stop coming down
Your shrunken head
Looking down on me above
Send me home like an elephant stone
To smash my dream of love

There's no use in knocking
You can knock-knock for a day
Rooms are empty, I've got plenty
We'll move in right away

Yeah you kick-kick-kicked a hole in my dreams

Down through the heavens
Jump on the cotton clouds
Arctic sheets and fields of wheat
I can't stop coming down

Your shrunken head
Looking down on me above
Send me home like an elephant stone
To smash my dream of love

Your bed and bookshelf
Have run-run-run away
These four walls saw the rise and fall of
Your midnight getaway

Yeah you kick-kick-kicked a hole in my dreams
Or so it seems
Yet nothing means
Anything
Anymore

Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1986

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

Produced by:
Peter Hook

Format:
Released October 1988:
Elephant Stone (7" Version) / The Hardest Thing In The World (Silvertone, ORE 1, 7")
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Elephant Stone (7" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World (Silvertone, ORE T 1, 12")

Released November 1989:
What The World Is Waiting For / Fool's Gold / She Bangs The Drums (12" mix) / Elephant Stone (12" mix) / Guernica / Going Down (Alfa-Silvertone, 18B2-103, Japanese CD)

Released February 1990:
Elephant Stone (7" Version) / The Hardest Thing In The World (Silvertone, ORE 1, 7" reissue)
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Elephant Stone (7" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World (Silvertone, ORE T 1, 12" reissue)
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World / Elephant Stone (7" Version) (Silvertone, ORE CD 1, CD)
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World / Elephant Stone (7" Version) (Silvertone, ORE C 1, cassette)
Elephant Stone / Made Of Stone / She Bangs The Drums / Fools Gold (Silvertone, ZD43632, The UK Singles)

Released June 1990:
Elephant Stone (7" Version) / The Hardest Thing In The World & Made Of Stone / Going Down (Silvertone, ORE 1/2, Australian 2 x 7" limited edition poster pack)
Elephant Stone (7" Version) / The Hardest Thing In The World & Made Of Stone / Going Down (Silvertone, CSORE C 1/2, Australian 2 x cassette limited edition poster pack)

Released 1990:
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World / Elephant Stone (7" Version) (Silvertone, ZD43600, German CD)

Released 1992:
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World / Elephant Stone (7" Version) (Silvertone, ZD43600, German CD from Maxi Collection)

Released June 1992:
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World / Elephant Stone (7" Version) (Alfa-Silvertone, ALCB-539, CD from Japanese Singles Collection boxset)

Released 1996:
Elephant Stone (12" Version) / Full Fathom Five / The Hardest Thing In The World / Elephant Stone (7" Version) (Silvertone, ALCB-539, Japanese CD)

UK chart details:
Elephant Stone entered the charts on 3rd March 1990, spending 6 weeks in the charts and reaching a highest position of 8.

Also available on:
Turns Into Stone (4.48)
The Complete Stone Roses (3.00)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (4.53)

First live performance:
In early 1987

Artwork details:
The Elephant Stone artwork is from 'Elephant Stone' (1988), calico on wood, 18" x 18"

Details:
By 1988, Pete Garner and Andy Couzens had left The Stone Roses and the band recruited bassist Gary Mounfield, thus completing the definitive lineup. The band quickly became much tighter as musicians, and developed a trademark visual style - baggy clothes and Jackson Pollock adorned releases and equipment. The band's third single, the psychedelia tinged Elephant Stone followed, along with an album deal with Jive / Zomba offshoot Silvertone Records. Two differently produced versions of Elephant Stone were produced: the Turns Into Stone version (by John Leckie) which contains a splendorous ‘summery’ intro, and a Peter Hook produced shorter version which opens with Squire's guitar making the sound of an elephant.

An Elephant Stone is supposedly the name given to a rock collected from Mars by scientists.

The song opens with "Burst into Heaven", which is reversed in the second half of the song, where an experience of a downward spiral is depicted. The experience of "kissing" clouds in the opening is replaced by a choking sensation later in the song, and the final verse is an expression of regret at the passing of a euphoric trip. This kaleidoscopic scene has religious elements - the figure who "burst into Heaven" and is "coming down" is Jesus. In 'Jesus the Bread of Life', Jesus tells his Disciples that he has come down from Heaven:

"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me."
(John 6: 38)

The "shrunken head" looking down on Him from above is God the Father. Jesus spoke of an exclusive relationship between Father and Son; in (John 6: 46), Jesus states that "No-one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father."

The rejection inherent in "Send me home like an elephant stone to smash my dream of love" may be from (John: 6: 36):

"But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe".

Perhaps the direction of Jesus's dialogue here is switching from God to the Disciples, with Jesus feeling as if he is being rejected in the minds of His Disciples.

Several references are made throughout the Bible that Jesus will come in the clouds of Heaven. For example, (Matthew: 26: 64):

"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

The lines "Rooms are empty, I've got plenty. You could move in right away" repeat the message of Jesus in 'Jesus Comforts His Disciples' (John 14: 1 - 4):

"In my Father’s house are many rooms: if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you."
(John 14: 2)

The Clash appear to be a slight influence on this song lyrically:

Arctic sheets and fields of wheat
......
Dreaming till the sun goes down

The juxtaposition of 'arctic sheets' and 'wheat' in Elephant Stone is not without precedent (note also the lyric about the sun going down). From The Clash's 'London Calling':

The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin

The Clash, London Calling (1979)

Recommended live performances are Blackpool and Tokyo, both from 1989; the Roses wisely dropped Elephant Stone from the set after Reni left as Robbie, one feels, would have struggled to cope with the drumming parts.

This is John Squire speaking about the Elephant Stone artwork, entitled 'Elephant Stone':

"In a way, that’s probably the most original. It preceded any sort of research: it was me throwing paint at the canvas and seeing what happened. I liked it: it seemed to me like there were two Marvel superheroes going nose-to-nose in there. That made it a success - although maybe that was missing the point; that it should be rhythmic, disconnected from any kind of figurative tradition."
('John Squire Artworks 1988 - 2004')

The Elephant Stone video features the band performing for 'Music Box', with 'Untitled 3' as a backdrop (Ian and John were also interviewed in front of this artwork for the programme). Ian's shirt and John's guitar are both pollocked - Mani would later follow suit, his pollocked bass featuring on the Roses' Late Show (performing Made Of Stone) and Hits Studio International (performing One Love) appearances.

This is the above Silvertone press release typed out (with spelling mistakes corrected):

THE STONE ROSES 'ELEPHANT STONE' SILVERTONE ORE1

When 900 sweat-soaked bodies cram the dance-floor of Manchester's International to ogle an unsigned band, you just know something special is going down. Of course, the city's wild youth takes it all in its stride; it is no stranger to greatness, this huge amorphous pimply pop pundit. And now, ever eager to attach itself to Manchester's best, it has dug its claws lustily into The Stone Roses.

Some 18 months back the Manchester warehouse scene gave life to a rare underground rock phenomenon. Playing regular sets at illegal venues The Stone Roses consistently stirred up a frenzied reception whenever they appeared. In March '87 the band released their debut 45 'So Young' to a promising response. But it was in the July of last year, just as the stream of enthusiasm for the band was about to break its banks, that the Stone Roses made their first real splash with the follow up 'Sally Cinnamon.'

Since then The Stone Roses have struck out in search of a wider audience than their hometown fanatics. Playing selected gigs around the UK, their policy of quality rather than quantity (you only shovel shit in big heaps), has paid dividends with a growing national following and a spanking new deal with Silvertone Records. The result of the collaboration with Silvertone is 'Elephant Stone', an achingly good song propelled by the kick and thrust production of New Order's Peter Hook, and primed for deep appreciation by the mixing know-how of John Leckie.

The Stone Roses are curiously (un)Manchester. Make of that what you will, but think on this; on the one hand they wilfully fail to connect with the 'Manchester Band' ethos, the unbridled SMITHery of it all. Yet on the other hand their single-minded self-determination seems a pre-requisite for a Manchester band destined for greatness.

The Stone Roses are loathed to cite any influences, (painter Jackson Pollock is the only one that the band will not object to). After digesting the music, these influences start to make sense; perfectly formed pop songs knocked mischievously off centre by splashes of musical colour bordering on the psychedelic.

With a debut LP planned for release in early '89 The Stone Roses will be setting the standards for pop songs in the 1990's. The band have a strong sense of 'all or nothing'; half measures are no good if a band truly believes in what it does. Expect great things from this band. Remember, if it's 12 inches of The Stone Roses, something special must be afoot.

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