This Is The One

A girl consumed by fire
We all know her desire
From the plans that she has made
I have her on a promise
Immerse me in your splendour
All the plans that I have made

This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
Oh this is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

I'd like to leave the country
For a month of Sundays
Burn the town where I was born
If only she'd believe me
Bellona Belladonna
Burn me out or bring me home

And this is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
Oh this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

Oh this is the one
Oh this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

This is the one
Oh this is the one
Oh this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
Oh this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

I had a plan
But it might go wrong
This is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

And this is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

And this is the one
Oh this is the one
Ah this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

Lyrics by:
Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1985

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

Producer:
John Leckie

Engineer:
Paul Schroeder

Available on:
The Stone Roses (4.58)
Garage Flower (3.42)
The Stone Roses (10th Anniversary Edition) (4.59)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (5.02)

First live performance:
In 1985.

Details:
The Stone Roses were locked in a room by producer Martin Hannett and not allowed out until they wrote a song; This Is The One was the result of that curfew. On Breaking Into Heaven, the Roses took a vocal part from a later part of the song and played it in the intro. On This Is The One, it is the opposite - the ending contains a looped vocal of an earlier part of the song, leading into the opening drumbeat of I Am The Resurrection. Written in 1985, in the same year as I Wanna Be Adored, these two tracks were wisely not considered fit for release until the structure achieved four years later. The earlier punkier, version of these songs can be found on the Garage Flower LP, but are too frenzied, lacking the assured structure of the John Leckie production. Speaking to Q Magazine in April 2000, Leckie stated that of all the debut album tracks, This Is The One required the most work:

"This the One caused the most problems. There was always a big question as to whether it should go on the record. It worked real well live, a bombastic thing that got faster and faster and was a bit Nirvana-ish. But we had to work hard on getting the dynamics right and making the speed changes work smoothly. I Am The Resurrection took a bit of time too. We wanted something epic to end the album and that was the song they'd been ending the live set with, so we literally built that massive crescendo piece by piece."
(John Leckie, Q magazine, April 2000)

The song's title originates from John the Baptist's words in the Bible, in 'Jesus the Lamb of God':

The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world ! This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'"
(John 1: 29 - 30)

'The Baptism' (1442) by Piero della Francesca (c. 1415 - 1492). Jesus identified John the Baptist as the greatest prophet of the Old Testament era.

After her months of pregnancy, Jesus was the one that Mary had waited for ("This is the one she's waited for"). The verses, I propose, switch between documenting the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, and Satan's expulsion from Heaven. For example, the lyric "I have her on a promise" refers to Mary's betrothal to Joseph; Joseph had Mary 'on a promise' of marriage.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
(Matthew 1: 18)

The Wedding of the Virgin by Raphael (1483 – 1520)

The line immediately following this, 'Immerse me in your splendour', refers to Ezekiel 28: 1 - 19, 'A Prophecy Against the King of Tyre ', the latter half of which strongly evokes imagery of Lucifer's expulsion from Heaven. Just as the song musically switches, between loud and quiet, so too does its lyrical content; the chorus documents a figure who spoke in the highest regard of Jesus, John the Baptist, while the verses incorporate a figure who plotted to destroy His power, Satan. One of God's cherubs, Lucifer, rebelled against His order, and was expelled from heaven. Verses 1 - 10 of the passage below refer at least primarily to the prince of Tyre then reigning, Ittiobalus by name, according to Josephus. Verses 11 - 19 use language which is difficult, if not impossible, to refer to any mere man, e.g., verses 12 - 14. There are however, other verses that seem to indicate an earthly kingdom, e.g., 16 and 18. We frequently find in prophecy that the prophet transmits the message of a contemporaneous event by linking it to some event of the last times, of which the contemporaneous event is in some respects a type. So swift is the transition from the one to the other that it is difficult to mark exactly where it takes place.

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, take up a lament concerning
the king of Tyre and say to him: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
" 'You were the model of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden,
the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you:
ruby, topaz and emerald,
chrysolite, onyx and jasper,
sapphire, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared.

You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.

You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.

Through your widespread trade
you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, O guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.

Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings.

By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you,
and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground
in the sight of all who were watching.

All the nations who knew you
are appalled at you;
you have come to a horrible end
and will be no more.' "
(Ezekiel 28: 11 - 19)

"Immerse me in your splendour" (This Is The One)
"...and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor." (Ezekiel 28: 17)

"A girl consumed by fire" (This Is The One)
"So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you" (Ezekiel 28: 18)

 

'The fall of Lucifer' (left) and 'Lucifer' (right), Gustave Dorι (1832 - 1883) illustrations for 'Paradise Lost' by John Milton.

Both Mary and Joseph were visited by the Archangel Gabriel in dreams and told that they would be the parents of the Son of God. "With only but a donkey" (see demo verse below) refers to when they fled Bethlehem with the baby Jesus to go to Egypt, when they had only a donkey to bring them there. The bible does not state that the journey was by donkey, but it was either via donkey or foot; The Nativity Story incorporates a donkey. This was a trip of about two hundred miles by foot or donkey, over mountains, wilderness, and desert that would have taken at least ten days to complete. God sent His angel to command them to undertake such a gruelling trip because Herod's power did not reach to Egypt, and thus the child Christ would be safe there. Furthermore, historically Egypt had been the land of refuge for those fleeing from Palestine; for example, Jacob and his family, Jeroboam, and the prophets Uriah and Jeremiah at various times all sought refuge there. The original lyrics to the second verse of the This Is The One demo, from 'The First Coming' CD, are as follows:

He'd like to leave the country
For a month of Sundays
For all the things that we've been told
With only but a donkey
I had her on a promise
All the thoughts that I had laid

(This Is The One)

Top: 'Annunciation' (1472 - 1475) by Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519).
Middle: 'The Census in Bethlehem' (1566) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525 – 1569). Bruegel's painting of The Census in Bethlehem is filled with men, women, children and animals. Although entitled 'The Census in Bethlehem, Bruegel sets it in a busy Flemish village in winter, bringing home the story for himself and his audience. Bruegel's art unifies this random bustle. No obvious focal points direct us as we look at the painting, because Bruegel wants us to enter into the village and orient ourselves as visitors would have done. When we get our bearings we notice that a crowd of people is collecting in front of the building in the foreground left. Just inside, some men sit at a table examining documents and making notes in a ledger. The villagers crowd around, waiting their turn. Surveying the work from left to right, one notices two large wooden O's made by the wheels of some hay wagons. The circle has been universally accepted as the symbol of eternity and everlasting existence; as the monogram for God, it stands for both the perfection and the eternity of God. Then we notice a young woman on a horse led by a man on foot. The woman is almost hidden by her heavy winter clothing. But we realize this is Mary, and suddenly we are aware of how mundane events can be transformed into miracle.
Bottom: 'The Flight into Egypt' (1600 - 03) by Bartolomeo Carducci (1560 – 1608).

The song makes several references to a 'plan' which might go wrong, which was God's plan for the salvation of mankind, through Jesus being born on this earth; Satan did his utmost to thwart this plan. The plan could certainly have 'gone wrong' because there were so many potential obstacles towards its completion. Would Mary and Joseph accept the abrupt news from the angel of the Lord that Mary would give birth to the Son of Man ? The law in the first century stated that a betrothed women who became pregnant as an adulteress was subject to death by stoning. The lyric, "I'd like to leave the country for a month of Sundays" refers to Joseph leaving Nazareth, Galilee, to go to Bethlehem, Judea. This was prompted by Caesar Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, issuing a decree calling for a census to be taken of the entire Roman world, with everyone having to go to their own town to register. Joseph and Mary left the country for the final month of Mary's pregnancy, known in the Christian calendar as Advent: a period of time beginning with the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ending with Christmas Eve. Hence, they left the country for 'a month of Sundays.' The previously mentioned 'plan' came perilously close to going wrong when Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, an episode of mass infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great, that appears in the Gospel of Matthew 2: 16 - 18. King Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the village of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews, whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi. "Burn the town where I was born" refers to this Massacre of the Innocents; after Herod was unsuccessful in his effort to fool the Magi into leading him to Jesus so that he could kill Him, he became furious and ordered a massacre of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Herod was unsuccessful in his attempt to kill Jesus and, after hearing news of Herod's death, Jesus, Mary and Joseph returned 'home' to Nazareth, hence 'Burn me out or bring me home':

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."
So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."
(Matthew 2: 19 - 23)

'The Massacre of the Innocents' (1629) by Nicholas Poussin (1594 - 1665), painted at the height of the Thirty Years War.

Bellona was an Ancient Roman war goddess (Satan is at war with God in this song), who accompanied Mars into battle and is taken variously as his sister, wife or daughter. Politically, all Senate meetings relating to foreign war were conducted in the Templum Bellonae (Temple of Bellona) on the Collis Capitolinus, outside the pomerium. The name 'Bellona' derived from the Latin word for 'war' (bellum), and is directly related to the modern English word, 'belligerent' (lit., 'war-waging'). Near the beginning of Shakespeare's Macbeth (I.ii.54), Macbeth is introduced as a violent and brave warrior when the Thane of Ross calls him "Bellona's bridegroom" (i.e., Mars). In art, she is portrayed with a helmet, sword, spear, and torch; the goddess has proved popular in post-Renaissance art as a female embodiment of military virtue. The name Bellona, the goddess of War, is tacit within the letters Belladonna, and Ian names first the goddess, then the plant; Bellona's priests used belladonna in religious ritual.

 

 

Top left: Atropa belladonna or 'deadly nightshade', a perennial herbaceous plant. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane alkaloids. These toxins include scopolamine and hyoscyamine, which cause a bizarre delirium and hallucinations. The drug atropine is derived from the plant. The genus name 'atropa' comes from Atropos, one of the three Fates in Greek mythology, and the name 'atropa bella donna' is derived from an admonition in Italian and Greek, meaning 'do not betray a beautiful lady'.
Top right: Amaryllis belladonna or Belladonna Lily or 'naked ladies', a monotypic genus of plant. Amaryllis belladonna has religious connotations with the Virgin Mary, a central figure of this song.
Bottom left: 'The Garden of Eden' (c. 1410) by an unknown German Master, in which the serpentine intertwinement of the two trunks of the trees on the left serves as a memory of Man's Fall. One of the many flowers associated with 'Mary's garden' is the aforementioed 'Amaryllis belladonna'. Another is the 'Madonna Lily', symbolic of Mary's purity, the flower presented to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation (see 'Annunciation' above, by Leonardo da Vinci). The beauty of the lily is commented upon by Christ Himself (Luke 12: 27). This garden is a harmonious scene of beauty, where angels play. The crowns are golden garlands of flowers, St Cecilia's grasp of the psaltery forms a mirrored symmetry to the instrument itself, and the parallel lines of grasses appear to be growing from the strings of the psaltery. Pre-Reformation paintings of Mary and Jesus often place them in an enclosed garden (hortus conclusus) with St Anne and other female saints. They are a reminder that, while Christ's divinity came from God, His humanity came from female flesh.
Bottom right: 'Marie de Medici as Bellona' (1622 - 25) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640).

At home fixtures, Manchester United walk on to the Old Trafford pitch to This Is The One. For Gary Neville's testimonial in May 2011, Ian Brown sang the song a cappella for the player's entrance on to the pitch. Stone Roses lyrics are a feature of banners among the United supporters. Next to a "One United - One Love" (referencing The Stone Roses song, One Love) banner at Old Trafford is one saying, "Sent to me from Heaven, you are my world" (from Sally Cinnamon) with pictures of George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards. Ian Brown requested that his NME 'Godlike Genius' award in 2006 was presented to him by one of the club's treble winning side of 1999, Teddy Sheringham. Ian Brown's solo work continues to inspire banners, with "MUFC: For EveryManc A Religion" taking inspiration from F.E.A.R. Stone Roses lyrics also feature on banners of FC United of Manchester, founded in 2005. One would imagine that Ian Brown and Mick Hucknall would not have been particularly approving of the career path chosen by Sylvan Richardson in July 2010. The former Simply Red guitarist, who was mooted to be replacing John Squire in The Stone Roses in 1996 (and was later Ian's bass player) became a masseur at Liverpool FC in 2010 !

 

 

Top left: The F.E.A.R-inspired 'For EveryManc A Religion' banner. All four Stone Roses are Man United fans and can often be seen attending games. When John and Reni were informed of the band's victory in the Silvertone court case on 15th May 1991, there was double cause for celebration for John, as he was with Reni in Rotterdam to see Manchester United defeat Barcelona 2-1 in the European Cup Winners' Cup final. In a February 2009 Observer feature, Ian Brown states that The Stone Roses are all Manchester United fans bar Reni, a Manchester City fan, dating back to when he was a City ball boy.
Top right: Man United banner inspired by both One Love and Sally Cinnamon.
Bottom left: FC United of Manchester banner inspired by The Stone Roses' I Wanna Be Adored. This alludes to Manchester United having 'sold their soul' for their dealings with the Glazer family. After Manchester United F.C. was floated on the stock market in 1990, the high value of the club made it seem unlikely that a hostile takeover would be possible. Nevertheless, in June 2005, Malcolm Glazer succeeded not only in gaining control of the club through his takeover vehicle, Red Football Ltd., but converting it into a completely private company. Between 2003 and 2005, Glazer gradually bought out the shareholders in Manchester United in a deal that valued the club at around $1.47 billion. The takeover was fiercely opposed by many fans of the club, who organised themselves in the form of the independent 'Manchester United Supporters' Trust' (formerly 'Shareholders United'), partly because the Glazer takeover saddled the club with a large debt (over $850m) and interest that comes with it (approximately £60 million a year) but also because of many fans' belief that the club should be in the hands of fans and not businessmen. The escalation in ticket prices took place at a time when the club received more money than ever from TV and sponsorship deals. Since 2005, the ticket prices at Old Trafford have increased dramatically, confirming MUST's fears that the fans' support would be the source of the finance to service the huge debt. In anger at the takeover, thousands of fans refused to renew their season tickets, instead coming together to set up a new club called F.C. United of Manchester. This new club has enjoyed great success.
Bottom right: FC United of Manchester banner inspired by The Stone Roses' I Am The Resurrection. FC United of Manchester perceives itself to be the 'Resurrection' of a 'dead' club.

Modal analysis (by Steve Davidson):

This song is in E Ionian mode all the way through. The chords are E major, B major and A major. Here are the notes:

E F# G# A B C# D# E

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