High Time

Woke up this morning only thinking of you
I found the meaning to the things that you do
I was only saying just the other day
Maybe you'll need some time to wipe your tears away

But you go down that road it seems so far
No turning back you know it's hard to go home
There's so many of you who tried it before
Let's stop pretending and I'll unlock the door

'Cause it's high time to witness a lie
I saw the struggle, don't know who's in your side
But it's high time, witness a lie
I saw the struggle, don't know who's in your side

Although the time has gone it seems like yesterday
We got together, had some luck on our way
And for the life of me, I cannot understand
You're that, the reason it seems so long to land

'Cause you've gone down that road it seems so far
No turning back you know it's hard to go home
There's so many of you who tried it before
Let's stop pretending and I'll unlock the door

'Cause it's high time to witness a lie
I saw the struggle, don't know who's in your side
But it's high time, witness a lie
I saw the struggle, don't know who's in your side

Yeah it's high time
Well it's high time
It's high time
It's high time

There I'll go down that road I'm touching the sky
No turning back I feel like I'm gonna fly
You will now join the queue who tried it before
Let's stop pretending and I'll unlock the door

'Cause it's higher time to witness a lie
I saw the struggle don't know who's in your side
But it's higher time to witness a lie
I saw the struggle don't know who's in your side
Yeah it's high time

It's high time
It's high time
'Cause it's high time
It's high time

Lyrics by:
Brown / Mounfield / Maddix / Ipinson

Music by:
Brown / Mounfield / Maddix / Ipinson

Written:
1996

Personnel (live):
Aziz Ibrahim (guitar)
Ian Brown (vocals)
Gary Mounfield (bass)
Robbie Maddix (drums)
Nigel Ipinson (keyboard, backing vocals)

Produced by:
N / A

Available on:
Never released on any official album. Live performance available on Reading (25th August 1996) bootleg.

First live performance:
Reading Festival (25th August 1996)

Details:

 

 

Top row: The setting for the crowning moment of the Seattle sound would also serve as the death-knell for Manchester's finest. A jaded-looking Ian Brown at the 1996 Reading Festival (top right). On the night before the festival, Ian went out with former band member Cressa, smoking weed, thereby ruining his voice for the gig. Backstage during the performance, Cressa could be heard saying: "It's a nightmare, it's awful. Tell him ! Just tell him how bad it was. Tell him to finish it, it's a travesty !"
Second row: Sunglasses were a staple of the rock 'n' roll fraternity; the real Stone Roses never, ever did shades. Things were coming full-circle at the 1996 Reading Festival; journalist and friend of the band John Robb recalls overhearing members of the audience criticising Ian Brown for attempting to impersonate Liam Gallagher.
Bottom: 1996 Reading Festival lineup. Ian and Mani were both scathing in their criticism of Squire at the Reading press conference; Mani and John quickly patched up their differences, while Ian and John remained on non-speaking terms for many years after the split. It would not be until December 2011 that the songwriting duo would share a stage again.

The Stone Roses lost the second member of the 'classic' lineup on April Fools' Day 1996, when John Squire announced his decision to leave the band. Squire's last encounter with his colleagues took place at the London offices of their lawyers, Babbington & Bray. "When the rights to the name came up, I said, 'You can have the vowels and I'll have the consonants.' Mani laughed, then checked himself. With Ian, steam was coming out of every orifice." (John Squire speaking to Q magazine, February 2005). Recruiting former Asia and Simply Red session guitarist Aziz Ibrahim to fill Squire's shoes, the band persevered for only another six months, before Ian Brown and Mani dissolved the group in October 1996. High Time was one of two new tracks previewed at the Reading '96 Festival, giving an insight into the new musical direction that the band could have taken. While Ice Cold Cube was released on Ian's debut solo LP, High Time has never seen the light of day, with Ian's explanation being that he lost the master tape. The Reading performance of this song is a ray of light emerging from an otherwise utterly dismal affair.

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