Standing Here

I'm standing on a hilltop
A hundred miles from home
I can see the light surrounds me
I want you to show me 'round

I'm standing here
I really don't think you could know that
I'm in heaven when you smile*

I'm drifting through the city
I'm swinging from a tree
I can touch, but you can't feel me
You hear me as you speak

I'm standing here
I really don't think you could know that
I'm in heaven when you smile
And I'm everywhere
I really don't think you could know that
I'm in heaven when you smile

But I don't think you think like I do
No matter how, how hard I try
Always thought I'd have the answer
Let me tell you what I've got

I'm looking through your window
I might just have the key
Over me my free-fall baby
You hear me as you speak

I'm standing here
I really don't think you could know that
I'm in heaven when you smile
I'm standing here
I really don't think you could know that
I'm in heaven when you smile

But I'm everywhere
I really don't think you could know that
I'm in heaven when you smile

But I don't think you think like I do
No matter how, how hard I try
I always thought I'd have the answer
Let me tell you what I've got
Oh let it rot I made them stop

I could park a juggernaut in your mouth
And I can feel a hurricane when you shout
I should be safe forever in your arms**
I should be safe forever in your arms

I could park a juggernaut in your mouth
And I can feel a hurricane when you shout
I should be safe forever in your arms
I should be safe forever in your arms

Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1989

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

Produced by:
John Leckie

Format:
Released 1992:
Standing Here (Silvertone, JDJ-4201-2, US promo CD)

Also available on:
She Bangs The Drums single (as b-side)
The Complete Stone Roses (5.05)
Turns Into Stone (5.05)

First live performance:
In 1989

Details:
Standing Here is a take on 'Foxy Lady' by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. On the subject of inspiration, Oasis's b-side 'Cloudburst' takes much from Standing Here.

The song is sung from the perspective of an omnipresent figure, who is "everywhere". The opening verse appears to derive from 'Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven' (Acts 1). When Jesus was about to leave His disciples standing on a hilltop, and Himself go back to heaven, He told them they should go back to Jerusalem and wait. His words to the disciples were:

"...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you"
(Acts 1: 8)

The surrounding "light" in Standing Here, I propose, is the Holy Spirit, which would visit the disciples at Pentecost. From the footnote corresponding to (Acts 1: 12), we learn why a specific distance may have been incorporated into the opening line of Standing Here:

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk*** from the city.
(Acts 1: 12)

Jesus and the disciples were standing on a hilltop, 1,100 metres from 'home' (like 'gold' on What The World Is Waiting For, the specific detail - in the case of SH, the exact distance - has been amended to suit the roll of the line). Pentecost follows their return, which appears to relate to the second verse (the Holy Spirit 'touching' the disciples.... the disciples hearing - welcoming - the Holy Spirit as they spoke in other tongues):

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues**** as the Spirit enabled them.
(Acts 2: 1 - 4)

The strong element of Abstract Expressionism in the video (for example, the exploration of the subconscious using fridge magnets) suggests perhaps that Squire had some part in its creation. The video is strongly influenced by Harry Smith (1923 - 1991), an artist whose activities and interests put him at the centre of the mid twentieth-century American avant-garde.

I recommend that you watch a video entitled 'Early Abstractions (1941 - 1957)', which has the following seven short films (played to the music of The Beatles). Numbers 1 and 2 especially appear to have influenced the 'Blue Monday'-esque Standing Here video:

No. 1: Hand-drawn animation of dirty shapes - the history of the geologic period reduced to orgasm length.
No. 2: Batiked animation. The action takes place either inside the sun or in Zurich, Switzerland.
No. 3: Batiked animation made of dead squares, the most complex hand-drawn film imaginable.
No. 4: Black and white abstractions of dots and grillwork made in a single night.
No. 5: Colour abstraction. Homage to Oscar Fischinger - a sequel to No. 4.
No. 7: Optically printed Pythagoreanism in four movements supported on squares, circles, grillwork and triangles with and interlude concerning an experiment.
No.10: An exposition of Buddhism and the Kaballa in the form of collage. The final scene shows Agaric mushrooms growing on the moon while the Hero and Heroine row by on a cerebrum.

date n / k - Standing Here video stills (Thanks to Dave Roberts for capturing these):

* The line "I really don't think you could know that I'm in heaven when you smile" is a take on 'Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)' by Van Morrison (made famous by Dexy's Midnight Runners on TOTP in 1982, with a backdrop of Jocky Wilson, the darts player !).
** The line "I should be safe forever in your arms" could also be interpreted as "I should be safer ever in your arms". The Roses avail of this ambiguity in lyrics in several songs, particularly in situations like the above where words run into each other naturally to create two (or more) different possibilities. On occasion, Brown ambiguously pronounces a line to create that effect (see Mersey Paradise and Here It Comes).
*** That is, about 3/4 of a mile (about 1,100 metres).
**** Or languages; also in verse 11.

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