One Love



Anytime you want me
Anytime at all
Anytime you need me
All you gotta do is call

Anytime you want me
Anytime at all
Anytime you need me
All you gotta do is call

I'm no dog I'm a dolphin
I just don't live in the sea
You feel my flow and you flood my brain
Show me your vision, your wild apparition
And sink to the depths of your soul

One love, we don't need another love
One love, one heart and one soul
You can have it all
Easy, easy

Anytime you want me
Anytime at all
Anytime you need me
All you gotta do is call

You put me one step clear of the chain gang
And two miles over the line
Oh all the scenes I saw left me wanting more
Show me your vision, your wild apparition
And sink to the depths of your soul

One love, we don't need another love
One love, one heart and one soul

Your fruit's in season
And these feet fall sure and sound
And what goes up must come down
Turns into dust, or turns into stone


Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown

Music by:
Squire

Written:
1989

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

Produced by:
John Leckie

Format:
Released May 1990:
One Love (7" Version) / Something's Burning (7" Version) (Silvertone, ORE DJ 17, 7" promo)

Released July 1990:
One Love / Something's Burning (Silvertone, ORE CD 17, CD)
One Love / Something's Burning (Silvertone, ORE C 17, cassette)
One Love (7" version) / Something's Burning (7" version) (Silvertone, ORE 17, 7")
One Love (7" version) / Something's Burning (7" version) (Silvertone, ORE 17, 7" with postcard)
One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (12" version) (Silvertone, ORE T 17, 12")
One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (12" version) (Silvertone, ORE Z 17, 12" with print)
One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (12" version) / One Love (7" version) (Silvertone, 1399-2-JS, US Digipak CD)
One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (12" version) / One Love (7" version) (Silvertone, 1399-1-JD, US CD)
One Love (7" version) / Something's Burning (7" version) (Silvertone, ZB43685, Spanish 7")
One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (12" version) (Silvertone, ZD43686, German CD)
One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (12" version) (Silvertone, ZT43686, German 12")
One Love (7" version) / Something's Burning (7" version) (Silvertone, ORE 17, Australian 7")

Released 1990:
One Love (7" version) / One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (Alfa-Silvertone, ALCB-103, Japanese CD)
One Love (12" version) / Something's Burning (12" version) / One Love (7" version) (Silvertone, 1399-4-JD, Canadian cassette)

Released 1992:
One Love / Something's Burning (Silvertone, ZD43686, German CD from Maxi Collection)

UK chart details:
One Love (Silvertone ORE 17) entered the charts on 14th July 1990, spending 7 weeks in the charts and reaching a highest position of 4.

Also available on:
The Complete Stone Roses (3.40)
Turns Into Stone (7.45)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (3.37)

First live performance:
Copenhagen Patrol (15 May 1990)

Artwork details:
The One Love artwork is from 'One Love' (1990), cellulose and paper, sand and oil on calico, 18" x 18"

Details:

 

 

 

Top left: 'All You Need Is Love' by The Beatles was an anthem for 1967's Summer of Love, first performed on Our World, the first live global television link. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by 400 million people, the programme was broadcast via satellite on 25th June 1967; the BBC commissioned The Beatles to write a song for the UK's contribution. They were surrounded by friends and acquaintances seated on the floor, who sang with the refrain during the fade-out, including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Graham Nash, Gary Leeds and Hunter Davies. On One Love (top right), The Stone Roses seemed to be attempting to write an anthem for the Second Summer of Love. The seeds of this were in Ian's mind as early as 12th August 1989, when the band spoke to Sounds magazine, on the day of their Blackpool gig: "You've got to believe in something. One Love - that'll do." Speaking to Dave Simpson of Uncut magazine in February 1998, Ian Brown on reflection felt that the single was a mistake, reasoning that the chorus was not strong enough: "We tried for an anthem. We wanted to cover all bases and ended up covering none." This view was shared by Squire, speaking to Mojo magazine in Autumn 2001: "I thought we'd rushed into that song. We didn't like the chorus, we were hacking it over that same drum beat...it wasn't what we should have been delivering." Ian Brown performed All You Need Is Love in his solo career with a brass section, at The Garage in Highbury in 2009.
Second row (left): A couple wrapped in a warm embrace at Woodstock Festival, August 1969. The Stone Roses had little interest in the standard rock 'n' roll circuit, preferring instead the Acid House route of staging their own events. One Love was released in May 1990 and that month's Spike Island festival was a Woodstock for the E generation. The Stone Roses had demonstrated that indie bands could stage events on a scale more commonly associated with acts such as U2 or Queen. Ian Brown's pronouncement at the Spike Island press conference, "Turn on, tune in, don't drop out", was a slight variation on the counterculture phrase coined by Timothy Leary (right) in 1966: "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar, Marshall McLuhan had suggested to Leary that he should come up with "something snappy" to promote the benefits of LSD. This distinction from Leary's message by Ian was a reflection of his own philosophy that drugs should never be allowed to take control of a person's life. Ian once commented that there was nothing more boring than hearing people boast about their drug use, and was fiercely critical of the literary path taken in this regard by luminaries such as Leary and William Burroughs.
Bottom: Musically, The Stone Roses tended to run through distinct phases, which they would explore thoroughly, before embarking on another; this is evident from the punk beginnings of the Garage Flower era, through to the blues rock of Second Coming. The 1989 debut LP captures a snapshot of the band soaking up a range of influences, culminating in mod-psychedelic, Sly-tinged power pop. In November of that year, they would explore a new musical direction, with the funk sound of Fool's Gold. Such distinctions can be made in their respective solo careers; the John Squire solo album, Time Changes Everything, is the sound of a man trying to be Bob Dylan. John Squire's guitarwork in late 1989 and 1990 was becoming strongly characteristic of Jimi Hendrix. In June 1990 (see, for example, that month's Provinssirock Festival performance), Squire is beginning to develop his guitar-slinger persona; the exhibitionist raised arm, two-and-a-half minutes into the One Love video, is pure Hendrix. The hiatus would see Squire's focus of inspiration switch from one 'Jimmy' to another, from Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page. Some who are critical of the extent to which Squire's guitar dominates the second LP feel that he should have spent longer exploring the pictured Jimi, as a source of inspiration. A discussion amongst The Stone Roses in The Face, in March 1995, as to what Second Coming's follow-up will sound like, illustrates the differing perspective of Ian and John. Ian answers, "We'll do a funk LP next, something completely different for 1996. And a live LP too before that." Squire immediately counteracts this proposition: "A funk LP ? I don't intend making a funk record, personally. I've got another album almost written, I made a list of songs up yesterday actually."

The Stone Roses were scheduled to be at Rockfield on the night of Sunday 28th January 1990, but did not appear, leaving producer John Leckie and the record company bemused by their absence. At about nine o'clock on Tuesday night, 48 hours late, the door opened and the band all stumbled in; giggling, and covered in blue and white paint, they told Leckie and engineer Paul Schroeder about their paint-splattering of Paul Birch. The band had been chaperoned by their tour manager, Steve 'Adge' Atherton, who warned them that the police would be arriving at any moment. Leckie got them to run through One Love and Something's Burning until four o'clock in the morning, and four hours later, the police woke the band (apart from Mani) and took them away. Mani was woken by the sound of tyres on the gravel, and peeked out of his curtains to see John and lan being helped into a police car. The police continued to knock on Mani's door but he refused to answer. Ian, John and Reni were kept in a cell from 11 o'clock in the morning, but the bassist and Steve 'Adge' handed themselves in at the police station at half past four that evening. The band spent two nights in the cells - one night in Monmouth, and another night in Wolverhampton - and had their fingerprints taken. Steve 'Adge' was released without charge. After the band's release from police custody on bail, they recommenced work on One Love and Something's Burning. Mixing the songs took six weeks: time enough for Leckie to travel to Seattle, produce an album by The Posies, and return to find the group and Paul Schroeder still embroiled in the task. Eventually, time was called, and One Love and Something's Burning were tentatively placed on Silvertone's release schedules. The single reached Number 4 in the UK charts, the Roses' highest chart placing to date, although musically it was something of an anti-climax after the high-water mark of Fool's Gold. After the release of One Love, things quickly began to unravel for the band. It was their last original release for four years, as manager Gareth Evans entered a protracted legal battle to wrestle out of the Silvertone deal, and sign with one of the corporate players who were expressing keen interest. After months of whispers - not to mention an injunction, preventing the group from recording any new material - the case came to court on 4th March 1991. By this time, the group had allied themselves with Geffen, who promised to meet all of their legal costs, if the tussle with Silvertone ended favourably. The band weren't confident of winning the case, but were determined to do or die. Had The Stone Roses not been released from their contract, they have refused to record for Silvertone, and thus were giving strong consideration to only releasing bootlegs, or simply touring. The case lasted two months, and in among the legal minutiae lurked all manner of nuggets: Gareth Evans' real name was lan Bromley, and it was revealed that his 10-year management deal entitled him to 33.3 per cent of all the band's earnings. The Silvertone contract could easily be construed as being rather one-sided. The label wasn't obliged to release Stone Roses records anywhere else in the world, and the group was only entitled to half-rate royalties on any greatest hits package. Perhaps most bizarrely, the reach of the deal was contractually defined as "the earth and the solar system." Evans was also alleged to have withheld £90,000 from the band. In May 1991, The Stone Roses emerged victorious, and Geffen signed the requisite cheques. Rumours suggested the deal was worth £20 million, and in the short term, there were more than sufficient funds to facilitate a brief period living the high life. Instead of knuckling down to recording, the band took Geffen's generous advance as their cue to jet off to the south of France, hiring a helicopter and staying in £500-a-night hotels for a few weeks. They flew into Nice first, chartered the helicopter from Nice to Cannes, then on to Saint-Tropez - staying in the luxurious Hotel Byblos - followed by Monte Carlo, where they were promptly kicked out of the casino. Some of Squire's Super 8 film from the trip was used for the video to their 1994 comeback single, Love Spreads.

 

 

Top left: Glasgow Green was Reni's final gig with The Stone Roses, and the band's last live appearance for nearly five years.
Top right: Soon after the release of One Love, The Stone Roses would be shackled by legal proceedings, as they made a bid to break free from their Silvertone contract. Here, Mani and Ian are mobbed by fans and press as they leave court. Amidst this hiatus, the group's dynamics were beginning to shift. In the wake of Spike Island, Squire and Brown had been packed away on songwriting trips - to the Hebridean island of South Uist and a waterside cottage in the Lake District. Yet the creative partnership that produced the eponymous debut LP had effectively dried up. Squire began to write new songs alone, coming up with material which was altogether more rock.
Bottom left: The 1990s began with the release of Nelson Mandela from Victor Verster Prison, South Africa. He had been imprisoned for 27 years, for opposing apartheid and white-minority rule in South Africa.
Bottom right: The year 1990 witnessed the end of Thatcher rule. A united stand against the introduction of the Poll tax, combined with Thatcher's belligerent stance against the European Community's plans for a common currency, led prominent figures to call for her resignation. Here, she is leaving Downing Street in November 1990, after eleven-and-a-half years in power, to be replaced by John Major.

Lyrically, the song merges elements of 'One Love' ("One love, one heart / Let's get together and feel alright") by Bob Marley, and 'All I've Got To Do' by The Beatles (from their second UK album, 'With the Beatles'):

The lyric "You feel my flow and you flood my brain" perhaps has its origin in John's Gospel. From 'Is Jesus the Christ ?' (John 7: 25 - 52):

 

 

 

 

Top row: One Love video shoot, 4th May 1990.
Second row (left): One Love 7 inch front cover. The band had a choice between versions by John Leckie and Adrian Sherwood, and rightly opted for the former.
Second row (right): One Love 7 inch back cover.
Third row (left): 'One Love' (1990), cellulose and paper, sand and oil on calico, 18" x 18", from the Manchester exhibition, May 2004. Alterations had to be made due to fears of a resemblance to a swastika: "That's another favourite. My brother (Matt Squire) photographed it and it was a little out of focus, I wasn't happy with it, but the deadline had gone for the artwork. The band were adamant that it looked like a swastika, so we had to change it. Someone's released the shirt now - I've seen people wearing it and I don't think 'What's the c*** doing with a swastika on his chest ?' That was inspired by the Italia 90 logo and a Duckhams oil can. It's one of the few I took the time to paint on a canvas and stretch over a frame. A lot of the others are on bits of calico and stuffed in boxes. This one's in a large, plywood storage box near Morecambe with all my other possessions." (John Squire speaking to Select Magazine, November 1997).
Third row (right): Duckhams advertisement.
Bottom row: Italia '90 logo (left) and mascot.


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