Mersey Paradise



River splashes against the rocks
And I scale the slope
I hope the tracks won't
Lead me down to dark black pits or
Places where we fall to bits

If she were there I'd hold her down
I'll push her under while she drowns
And couldn't breathe and claw for air
She doesn't care for my despair

Or is it me ?
The one that's wrong ?
You see in the sea
River cools where I belong
In my Mersey paradise

As I stare an oil wheel comes
Sailing by and I feel like
Growing fins and falling in
With the bricks the bikes the rusty tins

I'll swim around without a care
I'm eating sand when I need air
You can bet your life I'll meet a pike who'll
Wolf me down for tea tonight

I want to be (I want to be)
Where the drownings are (drownings are)
You see in the sea
River cools where I belong
In my Mersey paradise

I want to be (I want to be)
Where the drownings are (drownings are)
You see in the sea
River cools where I belong

Oh yeah

I want to be (I want to be)
Where the drownings are (drownings are)
You see in the sea
River cools where I belong
In my Mersey paradise


Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1987

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

Produced by:
Paul Schroeder & The Stone Roses

Available on:
She Bangs The Drums single (as b-side)
The Complete Stone Roses (2.44)
Turns Into Stone (2.44)

First live performance:
In 1987

Details:
Ian pronounces some words in Mersey Paradise quite vaguely. "You see in the sea" sounds like "You see in this heat". The line following that ("River cools where I belong") about a 'cooling river' would suggest the latter. The subject matter of the song is Manchester's link (beginning in Warrington, Cheshire) to Liverpool via the River Mersey. Musically, it is influenced by 'Here Comes The Sun' by The Beatles.

River Mersey

Liverpool bands notoriously have found the sea as a source of inspiration, with The La's perhaps epitomising this:

The La's

The rough and ready dockside areas have generated and influenced some of the most important bands in musical history. The old r'n'b vinyl which came in with the sailors on import in the 1940's and 1950's started the British beat craze (John Lennon often cited the importance of this in his musical development).

Mersey Paradise, on the surface, appears to be about someone attempting to drown a female figure ("I'll push her under while she drowns" - whether this is playful - kids perhaps ? - or serious is not made entirely clear). Bob Mould would use this theme for Sugar's 'A Good Idea' from the 'Copper Blue' (1992) album. Ian pronounces "River cools where I belong" almost as "Liverpool's where I belong" throughout the song. I think that Ian intentionally sings the first "River cools where I belong" as "River kills where I belong". Compare the first time he sings "River cools" to the other times it is sung in the track. Later on, it is clearly pronounced "River cools" but the first time he says "cools" (48 seconds into the track), he pronounces it ambiguously - I hear it as "kills". In particular, compare "cools" at 0.48 and 2.15 in Winamp - there is an intentional (in my opinion) difference in pronunciation. If that is intentional, that would mean there are three possible interpretations of the lyric "River cools where I belong":

The line "You can bet your life I'll meet a pike who'll wolf me down for tea tonight" draws inspiration from poetry by Jim Morrison (see lines in bold below). In Morrison's 'Wilderness' book under 'Poems 1967 - 1971', there is a poem entitled 'THE FEAR':

Jim Morrison's Wilderness


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