Something's Burning

Don't count your chickens 'cause they're never gonna hatch
You can't catch a monkey with a shotgun and a sack
'Cause you're too dumb, baby, you can't see the wood for the trees
'Cause you're too slow, baby, you just couldn't get off your knees

Don't count your chickens 'cause they're never gonna hatch
You can't catch a monkey with a shotgun and a sack
'Cause you're too dumb, baby, you can't see the wood for the trees
'Cause you're too slow, baby, you just couldn't get off your knees

I can see the love and the hate in your eyes
Penny for the thoughts behind the disguise
What you gonna do and what you gonna say ?
I'm not the only one believing there's an easier way

It doesn't pay to be sorry, you take me
It doesn't cost to be someone
I am the vine
And you are the branches

Don't knock a young man, you don't know what he'll get done
You can't kick an old man, see what he's become
You are far too lazy
You stick to your pillow with ease
'Cause you're much too lazy, you just couldn't get off your knees

I can see the love and the hate in your eyes
Penny for the thoughts behind your disguise
What you gonna do and what you gonna say ?
I'm not the only one believing there's an easier way

It doesn't pay to be sorry, you take me
It doesn't cost to be someone
I am the vine
And you are the branches

Don't count your chickens 'cause they're never gonna hatch
You can't catch a monkey with a shotgun and a sack
'Cause you're too dumb, baby, you can't see the wood for the trees
'Cause you're too slow, baby, you just couldn't get off your knees

I can see the love and the hate in your eyes
Penny for the thoughts behind your disguise
What you gonna do and what you gonna say ?
I'm not the only one believing there's an easier way

What you gonna do with the rest of your life ?
Penny for the thoughts behind your disguise
What you gonna do with the rest of your life ?
Penny for the thoughts behind your disguise
What you gonna do with the rest of your life ?
Penny for the thoughts behind your disguise
What you gonna do with the rest of your life ?
Penny for the thoughts behind your disguise

I am the vine
And you are the branches

Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1990

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

Produced by:
John Leckie

Available on:
One Love single (as b-side)
The Complete Stone Roses (3.37)
Turns Into Stone (7.50)

First live performance:
Copenhagen Patrol (15 May 1990)

Details:
Something's Burning is available in two versions: a three and a half minute version and an eight minute version (with extra verse) which includes an atmospheric extended intro, as well as a vibraphone played by Reni (see answer to Q4 of TITD John Leckie interview). The song is very similar in places to 'Paperhouse' by Can, the opening track of their 'Tago Mago' (1971) album; note in particular the drum beat and hushed vocals in each.

'The Vine and the Branches' (John 15: 1 - 17), from John's Gospel, provides the lyrical inspiration:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.
(John 15: 1 - 17)

In John 15:1 – 16:4, Jesus spoke of three relationships that the disciples would have in the future:

1) Their relationship with Jesus (John 15: 1 - 10)
2) Their relationship with one another (John 15: 12 - 17)
3) Their relationship with the world (John 15:18 – 16:4)

Something’s Burning relates to the first of these three relationships. Jesus identifies Himself as the “true vine” (John 15: 1). In the Old Testament, Israel is presented as a vine that God planted, intending it to produce the fruit of godly character (Isa. 5: 1-7). Israel failed to produce that fruit. Here, Jesus is stating that He Himself is the true – the authentic – vine, and will accomplish the transformation that ancient Israel could not. Jesus identifies God as the vinedresser (John 15: 1). God is the expert on whose skill the production of fruit depends. The branches (John 15: 5) are individual believers who are united to Christ. The word 'fruit' (see also She Bangs The Drums) is used consistently in Scripture (Isa. 5: 7, Gal. 6: 22, 23), symbolic of godliness. Jesus uses this analogy to teach His disciples that, just as only a branch attached to the vine can produce fruit, similarly Man is powerless to accomplish his own transformation; this is achieved only through Jesus, the vine, who enables us to bear fruit. Fruitfulness depends upon our willingness to maintain a union with our Lord. Jesus informs His disciples that, in order to do this, they must keep His commandments (John 15: 10). As long as we remain in fellowship with Christ, His power will flow into our lives. The title 'Something's Burning' originates from (John 15: 6):

"If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned."
(John 15: 6)

The lyric "I'm not the only one believing there's an easier way" is connected by two biblical events (bear in mind that Ian speaks the words of Jesus in this song, as the first of the above two passages demonstrates. This is also the case on other songs, e.g. I Am The Resurrection. On other songs, he sings to Jesus, e.g. The Fisherman). The first of these was when Jesus was predicting His death to his Disciples, Peter rebuked him, saying:

"Never, Lord !" he said. "This shall never happen to you !"
(Matthew 16: 22)

Here, Peter was telling Jesus that there must be an easier way to fulfil His Word; why must someone as powerful as the Son of Man, capable of carrying out any miracle, face the ignominy of crucifixion ? The second Biblical event is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus Himself must have believed that there was an easier way; otherwise He would not have made pleas to God to take away the cup of suffering from Him. Jesus and Peter respectively believed that there was an easier way; thus Jesus was not "the only one". Jesus saw Satan in Peter's open expression of this:

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan ! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
(Matthew 16: 23)

Peter's statement had echoes of one of Satan's three temptations to Jesus in the desert, when he suggested that Jesus should throw himself from the highest point of the temple to test God's protection. While Jesus asked God in the Garden of Gethsemane for the possibility of this "easier way" to unfold, He never once gave into temptation to follow that path. Even when taunted by onlookers and one of the criminals at His side to save Himself during the crucifixion, Jesus followed the torturous path of humiliation and suffering to the end.

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