She Bangs The Drums

I can feel the earth begin to move
Hear my needle hit the groove
And spiral through another day
I hear my song begin to say
Kiss me where the sun don't shine
The past was yours but the future's mine
You're all out of time

I don't feel too steady on my feet
I feel hollow I feel weak
Passion fruit and holy bread
Fill my guts and ease my head
Through the early morning sun
I can see her, here she comes
She bangs the drums

Have you seen her have you heard
The way she plays there are no words
To describe the way I feel
How could it ever come to pass
She'll be the first she'll be the last
To describe the way I feel
The way I feel

Have you seen her have you heard
The way she plays there are no words
To describe the way I feel
How could it ever come to pass
She'll be the first she'll be the last
To describe the way I feel
The way I feel

Have you seen her have you heard
The way she plays there are no words
To describe the way I feel
How could it ever come to pass
She'll be the first she'll be the last
To describe the way I feel
The way I feel

Acoustic demo version (1987):

I can feel the earth begin to move
Hear my needle hit the groove
And spiral through another day
I hear my song begin to say
Kiss me where the sun don't shine
The past was yours but the future's mine
You're all out of time

I don't feel too steady on my feet
I feel hollow I feel weak
Passion fruit and holy bread
Fill my guts and ease my head
Through the early morning sun
I can see her, here she comes
She bangs the drums

She fills me up with all I need
She gives me hope, she gives me speed
Yeah
Oh yeah

I don't feel too steady on my feet
I feel hollow I feel weak
Passion fruit and holy bread
Fill my guts and ease my head
Through the early morning sun
I can see her, here she comes
She bangs the drums

She fills me up with all I need
She gives me hope, she gives me speed
Yeah
Yeah yeah

Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1987

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

Producer:
John Leckie

Engineer:
Paul Schroeder

Format:
Released July 1989:
She Bangs The Drums / She Bangs The Drums (Silvertone, ORE DJ 6, 7" promo)
She Bangs The Drums / Standing Here (Silvertone, ORE 6, 7")
She Bangs The Drums / Standing Here (Silvertone, ORE X 6, 7" with postcard, 3,000 pressed)
She Bangs The Drums / Mersey Paradise / Standing Here (Silvertone, ORE T 6, 12")
She Bangs The Drums / Mersey Paradise / Standing Here (Silvertone, ORE Z 6, 12" with print, 5,000 pressed)
She Bangs The Drums / Mersey Paradise / Standing Here / Simone (Silvertone, ORE CD 6, CD)
She Bangs The Drums / Mersey Paradise / Standing Here / Simone (Silvertone, ORE C 6, cassette)

Released 1989:
She Bangs The Drums / Standing Here (Silvertone, ALFA 09B3-46, Japanese 3" CD)
She Bangs The Drums / Mersey Paradise / Standing Here / Simone (Silvertone, ZD42970, German CD)

Released November 1989:
What The World Is Waiting For / Fool's Gold / She Bangs The Drums (12" mix) / Elephant Stone (12" mix) / Guernica / Going Down (Alfa-Silvertone, 18B2-103, Japanese CD)

Released February 1990:
Elephant Stone / Made Of Stone / She Bangs The Drums / Fools Gold (Silvertone, ZD43632, The UK Singles)

Released 1992:
She Bangs The Drums / Mersey Paradise / Standing Here / Simone (Silvertone, ZD42970, German CD from Maxi Collection)
She Bangs The Drums / Mersey Paradise / Standing Here / Simone (Alfa-Silvertone, ALCB-541, CD from Japanese Singles Collection boxset)

Released 2nd May 2005:
She Bangs The Drums / She Bangs The Drums (Elephant Remix) (Simply Vinyl S12, S12DJ194, 12")

UK chart details:
She Bangs The Drums entered the charts on 29th July 1989, spending 3 weeks in the charts and reaching a highest position of 36. It re-entered the charts on 31st March 1990 for 3 weeks, reaching a highest position of 34.

Also available on:
The Stone Roses (3.42)
The Complete Stone Roses (3.42)
The Stone Roses (10th Anniversary Edition) (3.52)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (3.52)

First live performance:
In late 1987

Artwork details:
The She Bangs The Drums artwork is from 'Sugar' (1988), oil on canvas, 32" x 32"

Details:
She Bangs The Drums, the Roses' first Top 40 hit, has to go down as one of the finest singles of its era, with b-sides Standing Here, Mersey Paradise and Simone on the CD and cassette versions. The ecstatic couplet, "Kiss me where the sun don't shine. The past was yours but the future's mine", like Rain by The Beatles, boldly marked a generational shift. The two versions are identical in length but are two different mixes; the single version, the more 'pop' sounding of the two, omits the hi-hat intro and features a slightly heavier guitar sound with more bite, more prominent bass and a superior backing vocal arrangement. On the demos of She Bangs The Drums, Reni doesn't actually play the snare drum until the solo; the first part of the song is just the bass drum. Right up until the last take in the studio, Reni was adamant that he was not going to play the snare drum until the solo, but was persuaded by Leckie to play it from the beginning. She Bangs The Drums is the only track on the debut that features a piano, which Reni plays half way through the song. The band's songwriting partnership felt that the production of the debut LP could have been better:

"To us, that first LP always sounded flat. I think Q magazine said it was monochrome and that's how we felt about it. As we were rehearsing, the bass and drums got you in the belly every time but, as it turned into a record, it sounded like another 60's thing. We're not happy with that first LP."
(Ian Brown speaking to Record Collector, February 1998)

"'I think it was mainly the production,' he ponders. 'We saw there being a huge gulf between the live sound of The Stone Roses and that first album. It was mostly recorded on an SSL desk, and it just didn't sound fat or hard enough."
(John Squire speaking to The Guitar Magazine, August 1997)

The middle section of She Bangs The Drums borrows from The Beach Boys' 'Here Today', Track 11 of their 'Pet Sounds' LP. In 1996, John Squire designed and donated a surfboard to Brian Wilson, in aid of Warchild (it later appeared on the debut 7" of Travis, 'U16 Girls' as well as their debut LP, 'Good Feeling'). This is Squire speaking about 'Warchild Surfboard' (vinyl lettering on polypropylene, 8' x 3'), on which is emblazoned some of John's favourite Beach Boys lyrics and song titles:

"The Beach Boys were the first band I fell in love with, via the TV advertising campaign for Twenty Golden Greats. I owe them a great deal, so here for Brian is a small token of my affection and, in the true spirit of a gift, it's something he'll never use."

"This was all done over the phone with a surf shop in Santa Monica. When The Stone Roses were signed to Geffen, a lady at the office over there kindly liaised with the surf shop for me. She got my design translated into a longboard - a surfboard from the Beach Boys era. They are lyrics and titles from Beach Boys songs that I loved."
(John Squire speaking to the official Warchild website)

 

 

Top left: Pet Sounds (May 1966) by The Beach Boys. Brian Wilson quit touring with the band in order to focus his attention on writing and recording, and the resulting Pet Sounds marked a higher level of sophistication in the band's recording techniques. Wilson wove elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, coupled with sound effects and unconventional instruments such as bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, dog whistles and the Tannerin. The Beatles have said that Pet Sounds was a major influence on their album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, completing a circle begun by The Beatles' influence on Wilson; Wilson describes The Beatles' 1965 LP Rubber Soul as being the catalyst for Pet Sounds.
Top right: The 1976 Beach Boys compilation album, '20 Golden Greats.'
Second row (left): 'Warchild Surfboard' (and close-up) by John Squire in 1996, which pays homage to The Beach Boys. John Squire is himself a keen surfer, getting his first taste for the sport while touring in Australia.
Second row (right): John Squire adopting the Brian Wilson 'look.' Squire made clothes for The Stone Roses in the early days, including recreations of The Beach Boys' striped shirts.
Bottom: A John Squire artwork from 2007 is entitled 'Pe'ahi' (glass, 12" x 8"). Peahi is a place on the north shore of the island of Maui, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It has lent its name to a big wave surfing break, also known as Jaws.

Compare the following sound clips.

A euphoric first verse in which the author has an air of invincibility is followed by one in which he feels "hollow", "weak" and unsteady. That is, until the intake of "Passion fruit and holy bread" fills and comforts him, and he subsequently witnesses a figure appearing through the early morning sun. I propose that "holy bread" and "Passion fruit" in the context of this song represent the body and blood of Christ; as with Caravaggio's (1571 - 1610) 'Supper at Emmaus' (1601), symbolism, I propose, is being used here in the choice of fruit. The blemished apples and cracked figs on the table of this work by Caravaggio are symbolic of Man's original sin, while the pomegranate is symbolic of Christ's triumph over sin through His Resurrection. In She Bangs The Drums, is Passion fruit symbolic of the Passion of Christ which would follow the Last Supper, at which the disciples ate 'holy bread' ? The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including His trial and crucifixion. In She Bangs The Drums, 'She' is Jesus Christ and the scene presented to us in these lines is the Last Supper. For parallel in the music sphere, see U2's 'Until the End of the World', which references 'bread' and 'wine.' The figure coming through the early morning Sun is a clear reference to the subsequent Resurrection of Christ. Thus, it follows that the narrator is an apostle of Christ who has seen Her resurrected. (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister also appears to be written from the perspective of an apostle. The figure on that track who "wakes up with the sun" is the same one here that comes "through the early morning sun", the risen Jesus Christ. This has been depicted by many artists, e.g., Matthias Grünewald's (c. 1475 - 1528) 'The Resurrection of Christ', from the Isenheimer Altarpiece (1510 - 1515). At the end of the chorus, we learn that she'll be the first and the last "to describe the way I feel." On three occasions in Revelation, Jesus proclaims Himself to be "the Alpha and the Omega", meaning 'the first and the last' (the statement appears four times in the King James version, but the authenticity of Revelation 1: 11 is disputed):

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
(Revelation 1: 8)

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
(Revelation 21: 6)

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
(Revelation 22: 13)

 

Top: Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, depicted here by Leonardo da Vinci in 1498.
Second row (left): 'The Resurrection of Christ' by Grünewald, from the Isenheimer Altarpiece (1510 - 1515).
Second row (right): Ian in Messianic pose.
Penultimate row: 'Supper at Emmaus' (1601) by Caravaggio (1571 - 1610). The Supper at Emmaus is a post-Resurrection appearance of Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke 24: 13-35. Jesus appeared to Cleopas and one other disciple as they walked to Emmaus. At first "their eyes were holden" so that they could not recognize Him - this is the Meeting at Emmaus. Later, while having supper at Emmaus, "their eyes were opened" and they recognized Him. "When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us ?" (Luke 24: 30-32). In the Bible, Jesus often used fruit (e.g., 'The Fig Tree Withers', Matthew 21: 18 - 22) as an analogy to help us understand that our actions reveal our hearts just as fruit identifies a tree.
Bottom: 'Eucharist in Fruit Wreath' (1648) by Jan Davidszoon de Heem (1606 - 1684). The chalice (of gold, silver and precious jewels) and the luminous Host offer Salvation, and are surrounded by a superfluity of wheat and grapes of different types. Rare fruit of all kinds, large plums, peaches, cherries, oranges, lemons, and others in state of ripeness together with hanging garlands, individual blooms, leaves and tendrils are all delicately painted as decoration and adornment.

The She Bangs The Drums artwork is a detail from the bottom-right of the 'Sugar' piece, rotated:

"That was a detail of a larger picture that was also used later on 'I Wanna Be Adored'. We just honed in on one section of it. We were running out of time, and I didn't have time to work on it properly."
(John Squire speaking to Select Magazine, November 1997)

Two music videos were produced for She Bangs The Drums. The first was composed of video footage of the band recording in a studio in January 1989, where they are shown goofing around in slow motion, with Squire's artwork in the background. The second video featured clips from the Roses' Blackpool Empress Ballroom gig on 12th August 1989. She Bangs The Drums, their most energetic song, remains one of band's finest moments.

Modal analysis (by Steve Davidson):

Chords for the verse are E major and D major. The tonal centre here is the E major chord. The chords come from the Key of E Mixolydian. Here are the notes:

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

For the chorus the chords are A major, D major and E major. The tonal centre shifts towards the A chord so we have a modal change to A Ionian. Here are the notes:

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

Again, note that both E mixolydian and A Ionian modes have the same notes. It's just another case of the tonal centre shifting to a different chord which dictates the mood or mode of the song.

For the bridge section the chords switch between A major and E major while the main riff is played back and forth 4 times. The emphasis is still on the A major chord, so we are still in A Ionian mode. For the guitar solo the emphasis shifts again back to the E major chord as the song goes between the E major and D major chords (Basically repeating the verse structure). So we're back to E mixolydian again. When the chorus comes back in again, the tonal centre returns to the A major chord. So it's back to A Ionian mode until the end of the song.

 

Left: She Bangs The Drums 7 inch front cover.
Right: She Bangs The Drums 7 inch back cover.

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