So Young

In the misery dictionary
Page after page after page
In the misery dictionary
Page after page

Where there's life there's gotta be hope
And where there's a will there's a way
One man's in is another's out
I gotta get up today

Where there's life there's gotta be hope
And where there's a will there's a way
Admit defeat yet you're so young
You know I gotta get up today

In the misery dictionary
Page after page after page
In the misery dictionary
Page after page

And where there's a will there's a way
You gotta get out your mess today
Today

Lyrics by:
Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1984

Personnel:
John Squire (lead guitar)
Ian Brown (vocals)
Andy Couzens (rhythm guitar)
Pete Garner (bass)
Alan Wren (drums)

Produced by:
Martin Hannett

Format:
Released July 1985:
So Young / Tell Me (Thin Line, THIN001, 12" promo, pink label test pressing)
So Young / Tell Me (Cartel / Thin Line, THIN001, 12" promo in Cartel sleeve)

Released September 1985:
So Young / Tell Me (Thin Line, THIN001, 1,200 pressed, 12")

Released June 1992:
So Young / Tell Me (Silvertone, ORE CD 37, CD from Singles Collection boxset)
So Young / Tell Me (Alfa-Silvertone, ALCB-544, CD from Japanese Singles Collection boxset)

UK chart details:
N / A

Also available on:
The Complete Stone Roses (3.30)
Garage Flower (3.18)

First live performance:
In 1985

Artwork details:
The So Young artwork is from 'Wreckage By Johnny' (c. 1985)

Pseudonyms:
'Misery Dictionary'

Details:
The title sums this effort up really. In 1985 The Stone Roses released their debut single, the Martin Hannett produced So Young, a doom-laden affair later disowned by the band. The opening lines possess the 'miserablist' tones of Morrissey* but the band saw it as unwise to share categorization with The Smiths - the song was actually going to be called 'Misery Dictionary', but they changed the name. Years later, speaking to Uncut magazine in June 2006, Ian described seeing the Roses in 1989 as Technicolor, marking a distinct shift from a perceived dour scene. At the time of the debut album's release, Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed, "The Roses are blooming in Technicolor."

Who is the main songwriter of the band and what are the lyrics about ? "I write all the lyrics" says Ian.

"Mainly the lyrics are about personal experiences, about my friends or about how I feel. The single 'So Young' is about when I lived in Hulme, everyone who lived there seemed to think it was great to stay in bed until tea time. It's just a waste of life. I'm saying you've got to get out of bed today. They could be doing something more worthwhile with their time."

What happened to Misery Dictionary ? "We changed the title from Misery Dictionary to So Young because we didn't want people to think we were another Manchester band with another doom and gloom title, like The Smiths or Joy Division.", explains John. "The song is anti-miserable, telling people, there's no need to be sad even if they're on the dole."
(The Stone Roses speaking to Paula Greenwood of Muze, August 1985)

Ian's frustration with people doing nothing with their lives would remain as strong years after the track was written; The Stone Roses' positivity strongly distinguished them from the insular bedsit mentality of their Manchester contemporaries:

"It's this theme of Manchester as grey and moping, this whole poverty-as-romance idea. It's rubbish. The sick thing is that people read that and take up that sort of lifestyle. Sit alone in a bedsit and mope. That scene was set up by Joy Division and New Order."
(Ian Brown, Melody Maker 03 / 06 / 89).

The influence of Kirk Brandon of Theatre of Hate, a gothic, post-punk rock band formed in 1980, is evident on this track and others from the early years of the band. Visually, Brown took much from Brandon in this period.

This is John Squire talking about 'Wreckage By Johnny', the front cover image of the 1,200 press Manchester-only 12" So Young:

"I smashed an old radio, glued all the pieces on a board and painted them. It's abstract, but it doesn't use any of Jackson Pollock's techniques. Someone told me there were similarities with Kurt Schwitters."
(John Squire speaking to Select Magazine, November 1997).

* Ian Brown and Morrissey have contrasting opinions regarding the respective rise of The Smiths and The Stone Roses. Compare Morrissey's comments on this page to Ian Brown's below. Each figure attempts to argue an unaided rise of one's own band, while stressing the assistance necessary for the other's rise:

"We were isolated in Manchester but that made us more determined, because in them days they'd say to make it you had to move to London, go to all the parties, get your face about. The Smiths had moved to London, which disappointed us. We believed we could do it from Manchester, we stuck by that and we did."
(Ian Brown speaking to Uncut magazine, February 1998)

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