I Wanna Be Adored

I don't have to sell my soul
He's already in me
I don't need to sell my soul
He's already in me

I wanna be adored

I wanna be adored

I don't have to sell my soul
He's already in me
I don't need to sell my soul
He's already in me

I wanna be adored

I wanna be adored

Adored

I wanna be adored

You adore me
You adore me
You adore me
I wanna
I wanna
I wanna be adored
I wanna
I wanna
I wanna be adored
I wanna
I wanna
I wanna be adored
I wanna
I wanna
I gotta be adored

I wanna be adored

Lyrics by:
Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1985

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

Producer:
John Leckie

Engineer:
Paul Schroeder

Format:
Released November 1989:
I Wanna Be Adored (Edit) / I Wanna Be Adored (LP Version) / Going Down / Simone (Silvertone / BMG, 1301-4-JS, US cassette)
I Wanna Be Adored (Edit) / I Wanna Be Adored (LP Version) / Going Down / Simone (Silvertone / BMG, 1301-1-JD, US 12")
I Wanna Be Adored / Where Angels Play (Silvertone / BMG, 1301-2-JDJ, US CD Promo)

Released 1991:
I Wanna Be Adored (7" Version) / Where Angels Play / I Wanna Be Adored (12" Version) / Sally Cinnamon (Live At The Hacienda) (Silvertone, ZD44994, German CD)

Released September 1991:
I Wanna Be Adored / Where Angels Play / Sally Cinnamon (Live At The Hacienda) (Silvertone, ORE T 31, 12")
I Wanna Be Adored / Where Angels Play / Sally Cinnamon (Live At The Hacienda) (Silvertone, ORE Z 31, 12" with print)
I Wanna Be Adored / Where Angels Play (Silvertone, ORE 31, 7")
I Wanna Be Adored / Where Angels Play (Silvertone, ORE 31, 7" paper cover)
I Wanna Be Adored (7" Version) / Where Angels Play / I Wanna Be Adored (12" Version) / Sally Cinnamon (Live At The Hacienda) (Silvertone, ORE CD 31, CD)
I Wanna Be Adored / Where Angels Play (Silvertone, ORE C 31, cassette)

Released November 1991:
I Wanna Be Adored (12" Version) / Where Angels Play / Sally Cinnamon (Live At The Hacienda) / Fool's Gold (Alfa-Silvertone, ALCB-392, Japanese CD)

Released 1992:
I Wanna Be Adored (7" Version) / Where Angels Play / I Wanna Be Adored (12" Version) / Sally Cinnamon (Live At The Hacienda) (Silvertone, ZD44994, German CD from Maxi collection)

Released 2000:
I Wanna Be Adored (Rabbit In The Moon's Acid Hacienda) / I Wanna Be Adored (Rabbit In The Moon's For The Love Of Acid) / Waterfall (Justin Roberton's Mix) / I Wanna Be Adored (Rabbit In The Moon's Sex, EFX and 909) (Jive Electro, JDAB-42672-1, US 12" promo)

UK chart details:
I Wanna Be Adored entered the charts on 14th September 1991, spending 3 weeks in the charts and reaching a highest position of 20.

Also available on:
The Stone Roses (4.52)
The Complete Stone Roses (3.28)
Garage Flower (3.25)
The Stone Roses (10th Anniversary Edition) (4.51)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (4.55)

First live performance:
In 1985

Artwork details:
The I Wanna Be Adored artwork is from 'Sugar' (1988), oil on canvas, 32" x 32"

Details:
After mixing The Stone Roses' third single, Elephant Stone, in October 1988, John Leckie spent a few days in rehearsal with the band in Manchester, before the album sessions commenced at North London's Battery Studios. Here, four tracks were recorded within the space of ten days: I Wanna Be Adored, She Bangs The Drums, Waterfall and This Is The One. Thereafter, the band relocated to Rockfield Studios in Wales, where they would re-record Waterfall, as well as tracking sessions for (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister, Made Of Stone, Shoot You Down and I Am The Resurrection. Including further recording sessions at Konk Studios in London, and mixing at Battery Studio One and Abbey Road's Studio Two, the debut album took a total of 55 working days to complete, spanning October 1988 to March 1989. Written in 1985, the band's first known rehearsal of I Wanna Be Adored was at Spirit Studios in Chorlton, near Cosgrove Hall. Spirit Studios founder John Breakell gave The Stone Roses free studio time in a period when money was tight for the band. Howard Jones saw The Stone Roses at Spirit Studios for the first time and soon after, the band signed their first recording deal with his Thin Line label. The band also made an important contact there in Steve Adge, who helped run the studios, and was a very well-connected figure within the Manchester music scene. It was Steve who, aware of the band's need of a manager, encouraged Howard to come in to the studios to see them. The Stone Roses used Spirit Studios to make a demo, which was copied on to a hundred cassettes; it featured the first of Squire's cover designs - the band's hand-drawn logo stuck on to a paisley shirt.

 

 

 

 

Top left: John Leckie, producer of The Stone Roses' debut LP. John Leckie was suggested as producer to The Stone Roses by Geoff Travis (top right), founder of Rough Trade Records. The band had secured a singles deal with Rough Trade to release Elephant Stone, but an album deal was not forthcoming. In attendance at the band's London Dingwalls gig in January 1988 were representatives from both Rough Trade and Zomba. Travis offered the band a two single deal, expressing a preference to see how well these performed in the charts, before any album deal negotiations took place. Zomba's Roddy McKenna instead offered The Stone Roses an eight album deal, and the band opted for this long term contract. Zomba purchased rights to the Elephant Stone single from Rough Trade, and Travis sent Ian Brown a postcard saying, "I think you've made the wrong decision, but I'd still use John Leckie as your producer."
Second row: North London's Battery Studios.
All other photos: Rockfield Studios, Wales.

I Wanna Be Adored dates back to 1985, at which time the Roses played it at a much faster pace. Opening with industrial sounds (from a keyboard sampler) and Squire's subdued feedback accompanying the rhythm section, it was the perfect album opener, and was also put to effective use as their opening song live, even for the Second Coming gigs. It was not always used as their intro song at gigs, only becoming the designated opening number in 1989. Some pre-1989 gigs opened with tracks such as Here It Comes or She Bangs The Drums, which did not have the same power as I Wanna Be Adored in setting the mood. The industrial sounds at the beginning of I Wanna Be Adored have been compared by John Leckie to a train arriving at its destination; Squire grew up in Timperley, near the train line straight into Manchester and that ride in made a great impression on him, as he explained to City Life in 2009. "When you go past all the old mills, you start to see the history of Manchester - or you used to anyway, before gentrification. All the broken windows and empty factories." This decaying setting had a bearing on Squire's output as far back as infant school; his mother kept a lot of his work from school and the buildings and cars that he drew were all falling apart and rusting, with weeds growing out of them. I Wanna Be Adored has parallels with 'Felch', the opening track of A Certain Ratio's album, 'To Each....' (1981). 'Shadowplay', from the Joy Division album 'Unknown Pleasures' (1979), is perhaps the strongest influence on the track. In a January 2001 edition of Mojo, Mani cited this as being his favourite album of all time. Ian Brown's first ever gig was Joy Division at Bowdon Vale Club, South Manchester, in March 1979.

Mojo: What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album ?
Mani: It would have to be Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures. It just reminds me of wanting to be in a band.
(Mojo, January 2001, p. 28.)

   

Top: Joy Division at Bowdon Vale Club, South Manchester, 14th March 1979. A 16-year-old Ian Brown was amongst the crowd, attending his first ever gig.
Bottom left: Ian Curtis in a live performance of Shadowplay.
Bottom middle: Unknown Pleasures (June 1979) by Joy Division is the band's debut album, produced by Martin Hannett and recorded at Strawberry Studios, Stockport. Arriving as punk music was waning, Unknown Pleasures inhabits an eerie, twilight world. Decay and alienation envelop singer Ian Curtis, whose cavernous, but dispassionate, voice belied the intensity he brought to bear. Rolling drum patterns, thudding bass lines and uncluttered synthesizer combine to create a dank, brooding atmosphere, chillingly supporting the songs' bleak lyrics.
Bottom right: Martin Hannett (1948 - 1991), an original partner in Factory Records with Tony Wilson, would go on to produce 'Garage Flower' for The Stone Roses, and 'Bummed' for the Happy Mondays. Hannett was best known for his production of Joy Division's work, with his trademark sound most apparent on Unknown Pleasures and its dirge-like follow-up, Closer. His production was spare and eerie, sonically matching frontman Ian Curtis' dark, depressive musings and baritone vocals. As a producer, Hannett was notoriously difficult to work with due to his drug problems and erratic behaviour.

The statement made in the song - 'I wanna be adored' - should not be taken literally. Ian has since stated that the song is about sin, that people would do anything to be idolised. The Bible is a dominating influence on the Roses' debut, lyrically and structurally, with the tracklisting of the album mirroring the Gospels' story. The title of the opening track, I Wanna Be Adored, perhaps influenced by the song 'O Come Let Us Adore Him', is a reference to the Adoration of the Magi at Jesus' birth, while the closing track, I Am The Resurrection, is a reference to Jesus' Resurrection after His death. Furthermore, the placing of This Is The One directly prior to I Am The Resurrection signifies the coming of 'The One', as predicted by the harbinger, John the Baptist. Note that Ian is 'playing the part' of Christ on each track bookending the album (I Wanna Be Adored, I Am The Resurrection - I have investigated this aspect on this page). Ian does not sing 'I Am The One' (nor is the track titled as such), as the song documents the prediction of John the Baptist rather than any personal sentiment of Jesus (Ian did actually throw in the line "I am the one you've waited for" at a gig in Manchester in 1986, testament to the song referring to Christ). 'Second Coming' draws upon the Bible just as strongly, from the opener, Breaking Into Heaven, to the apocalyptic Begging You, to the closing track, Love Spreads, which portrays the crucifixion of Christ. The debut LP opener sees Ian (playing the part of Jesus) rejecting any notion of selling his soul, because something ('he') is invested within him already, which relates to the three temptations of Jesus by Satan. Jesus would have been selling His soul to the devil (a theme explored later on Driving South), had he given in to any of the three temptations. The assertion, "He's already in me", is alluding to the greater authoritative power invested in Jesus by the Father, which will crush Satan. Ian would go on to use one of Jesus' responses to Satan on The Fisherman, in the lyric "Man shall not live by bread alone." The opening song of the debut album references Jesus' birth and His first 'official' act as an adult, His meeting with Satan in the wilderness (the desert-esque landscape of Lanzarote, as chosen for the Fool's Gold video, thus proved an apt backdrop for the I Wanna Be Adored video). Musically, the song becomes more and more frenetic as the three stages of the struggle between Jesus and Satan take place. The opening song of the second album, Breaking Into Heaven, also depicts a struggle between the author and a powerful figure; on that occasion, not with Satan, but with God.

 

Left: 'Adoration of the Magi' (1634) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640).
Right: 'The Temptation of Christ' (1854) by Ary Scheffer (1795 - 1858).

This is John Squire speaking about the I Wanna Be Adored cover artwork. The detail for I Wanna Be Adored is from the top-right of the 'Sugar' piece, rotated:

"Another detail from the picture used for 'She Bangs The Drums'. That was another Pollock lift, from when he was actually touching the canvas with his brush and making shapes. I've only seen one Pollock, at the Tate in London."
(John Squire speaking to Select Magazine, November 1997)

I Wanna Be Adored features in the 1997 film, 'Welcome to Sarajevo'. I Wanna Be Adored and Waterfall both feature on the soundtrack to the 2005 film, 'Green Street', a film about football hooliganism in England, starring Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam. While the ideal choice for album - and concert - opener, this should not have been the choice of their eighth single however as it does not fulfill its purpose on its own; it only works well as an introduction, or prelude, for what is to come.

Modal analysis (by Steve Davidson):

Chords for the verse and chorus are G major, D major and E minor. The Key centre (or the chord that makes the song sound finished) is the E minor chord. All these chords belong to the Key of E Aeolian. Here are the notes:

E Aeolian scale (E F# G A B C D E)

For the middle 8 / guitar solo section, the chords are D major and C major. The song's tonal centre shifts towards the D chord instead of the E minor here, so we have a modal change to D mixolydian. Here are the notes:

D Mixolydian scale (D E F# G A B C D)

Note that both the E Aeolian and D Mixolydian scales have the same notes. However, the emphasis is on a different chord at different points in the song. This dictates which mode is being created.

 

Left: I Wanna Be Adored 7 inch front cover.
Right: I Wanna Be Adored 7 inch back cover.

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