Tell Me



You can't tell me, you can't tell me
You can't tell me anything
I love only me, I love only me
I've got the answer to everything

There's only me to produce what I do
I am the garage flower
I don't need to stare, 'cause I know everywhere
And there's a place for me anywhere

Tell me, tell me
You tell me anything
You can't tell, you won't tell
Me anything, anything

I love only me, I love only me
I've got the answer to everything
I don't need to stare, 'cause I know everywhere
And there's a place for me anywhere

Tell me, tell me
You tell me anything
You can't tell, you won't tell
Me anything, anything

Tell me, tell me
You tell me anything
Tell me, tell me
You can't tell us anything

You can't tell, you won't tell
Me anything, anything
You can't

I am the garage flower

I am the garage flower


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

Released:
As a dual A-side with So Young

Available on:
The Complete Stone Roses (3.50)
Garage Flower (3.52)

First live performance:
In 1984

Pseudonyms:
'Garage Flower'

Details:

Around the time of the Stone Roses' appearance - thanks to manager Howard Jones - on the 'The Best of Manchester Show' put together by Mark Radcliffe and Tony Michaelides at London Dingwalls (08 / 02 / 85), Thin Line were waiting for Howard to find the right band for them; he knew that the Roses were that band. The band were duly booked in to Yellow 2 in Stockport in March 1985 for the Martin Hannett produced 'So Young' and 'Tell Me'. Mixing of the Hannett material was finished in December 1985 and in January 1986 the Roses asked Howard to fold Thin Line in order to concentrate on managing them. However, the Roses soon realized that they would have to share the spotlight with a number of other bands managed by Howard (for example the Railway Children) and were unhappy. The Roses OK'd the release of their early material if it was on a major company and thus Howard tried to place it with a few companies. The head of A & R Records came to Manchester to sign them only to find they had signed to FM Revolver that afternoon. This is where Gareth Evans enters the story of The Stone Roses, signing a management deal with the band. With Thin Line going bust, the album's worth of material from the Garage Flower era was thankfully not released (Gareth tried to buy the material off Howard on more than one occasion but was refused) as the band's first album, allowing the band to work on what would become their defining 1989 debut. The last line of Tell Me was the inspiration for the title of the poorly packaged album of early material - Garage Flower - released in February 1996 by Zomba / Silvertone.

The manner in which Brown draws out "flower" in the line "I am the garage flower" at the end has precedent in Lydon on the word "wall", at the end of 'No Feelings' ("See his picture hanging on your wall") by the Sex Pistols. The lyrics are a take on this Pistols track:


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