Ten Storey Love Song

When your heart is black and broken
And you need a helping hand
When you're so much in love
You don't know just how much you can stand

When your questions go unanswered
And the silence is killing you
Take my hand
Baby, I'm your man
I've got loving enough for two

Ten storey love song
I built this thing for you, oooh
Who can take you higher
Than twin peak mountain blue
Oh well I built this thing for you
And I love you true

There's no sure-fire set solutions
No shortcut through the trees
No breach in the wall that they put there to keep you from me
As you're lying awake in this darkness
This everlasting night
Someday soon, don't know where or when
You're gonna wake up and see the light

Ten storey love song
I built this thing for you, oooh
Who can take you higher
Than twin peak mountain blue
Oh well I built this thing for you
And I love you true

Ten storey love song
I built this thing for you, oooh
Who can take you higher
Than twin peak mountain blue
Oh well I built this thing for you
And I love you true

Lyrics by:
Squire

Music by:
Squire

Written:
1992

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

Producer:
Simon Dawson & Paul Schroeder. Partly recorded by John Leckie.

Engineer:

Format:
Released 1995:
Ten Storey Love Song (Geffen, PRO-CD-4731, US 1 track promo CD)
Ten Storey Love Song (Geffen, PRO-CD-4743, US 2 track promo CD)
Ten Storey Love Song / Moses / Ride On (Geffen, GED 21974, German CD)

Released February 1995:
Ten Storey Love Song (Geffen, Gold acetate CD)
Ten Storey Love Song / Moses / Ride On (Geffen, MVCG-13024, Japanese CD)

Released March 1995:
Ten Storey Love Song / Ride On (Geffen, GFS 87, 7" jukebox copy)
Ten Storey Love Song / Moses / Ride On (Geffen, GFSTD 87, CD)
Ten Storey Love Song / Ride On (Geffen, GFSC 87, cassette)
Ten Storey Love Song / Ride On (Geffen, GFS 87, 7")
Ten Storey Love Song / Moses / Ride On (Geffen, GFST 87, 12")

Released May 1995:
Ten Storey Love Song / Moses / Ride On (Geffen, GEFDM-21974, Australian CD)

UK chart details:
Ten Storey Love Song entered the charts on 11th March 1995, spending 3 weeks in the charts and reaching a highest position of 11.

Also available on:
Second Coming (4.29)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (4.25)

First live performance:
Oslo Rockefeller Music Hall (19 April 1995)

Artwork details:
The Ten Storey Love Song artwork is from 'David And His 34 Slightly Misshapen Brothers' (1993).

Details:
Some argue that if Ten Storey Love Song had been released as the Roses' comeback single, instead of Love Spreads, they would have had a Number 1 single on their hands (Second Coming was released before the Ten Storey Love Song single).

The attention to detail on the intro (a take on 'The End' by The Doors, in its heavy Eastern influence; there was a definite attempt made on the song following TSLS - see Daybreak - to create the sound of The Doors) is a particular highlight on this track. Simon Dawson, speaking to Sound On Sound magazine in May 1995, detailed the construction of the intro:

"We created the intro and the outro to this around what John Leckie had already recorded, partly at Loco Studios, where we went for a couple of weeks, and partly at Rockfield. There's an old Moog analogue synth on it, actually. There's a particular kind of synthy noise at the beginning and the end of that track, although you hear it more at the end now, I think. I didn't play that, though ! That was from a late night session with Reni and Paul Schroeder, before he left. The Studio Manager at Loco had this Moog at home, and he bought it in for us to play around with."
(Simon Dawson speaking to Sound On Sound magazine, May 1995)

The fill by Squire at 1.17 is a note-for-note take on a guitar part (0.20) of The Clash's 'Straight To Hell'. The note values and tone are different but it is played in exactly the same way. The heart-tugging piece that Squire plays at 3.08 is the highlight of the song for me (replaced by a "hey, yeah" vocal from Ian, live). Reni's backing vocals provide a beautiful echo to the end of Ian's lines, lending the song that heart-tugging quality. However, Reni's 'rock' style of drumming on this track does not quite gel with the rest of the parts laid down. The lack of coherence between the different instruments and vocals is a quite annoying result of the fragmented production.

The chorus is musically and lyrically one of transcendence, where one is taken higher "than twin peak mountain blue". "Take my hand, baby I'm your man" is suggestive of a relationship. I propose that the ‘thing’ built* is the temple built by King Solomon to house the Ark of the Covenant, in which there were the two tablets of stones outlining the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God. Given Squire's preoccupation with cherubim circa Second Coming (see Joe Louis), the specific origin of this concept (ten storey love song) may have been the two identical cherubs built by Solomon in the inner sanctuary, each ten cubits high:

In the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits - ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. The height of each cherub was ten cubits. He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. He overlaid the cherubim with gold.
(1 Kings 6: 23 - 28)

Solomon "built this thing" for God (The Lord passed the responsibility of building this temple from David to Solomon):

The word of the LORD came to Solomon: "As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel."
(1 Kings 6: 11 - 13)

Michelangelo's David (1501 - 1504), who was the father of Solomon, forms the front and back cover of the Ten Storey Love Song single artwork (see below). The accompanying video to Ten Storey Love Song depicts a fight against the struggle of drug addiction. Thus, the choice of David for the front cover can be seen as symbolic of a triumph over a daunting, seemingly impossible, obstacle (Goliath). Here is John speaking about the origin of 'David And His 34 Slightly Misshapen Brothers', a photo of which was used for the cover artwork:

"Here we have 34 Michelangelo's Davids that I saw in an Oxfam shop in Stretford. I shot them up with an air pistol."
(John Squire speaking to Select Magazine, November 1997).

If anyone is in doubt as to whether Solomon's actions form the basis of the song, consult (1 Kings 8: 31 - 53) of 'Solomon's Prayer of Dedication'. Note how for lines 1, 3 and 5 of the song, Squire begins with "When.....", a feature throughout Solomon's prayer. This is the passage detailing the placing of the Ark of the Covenant:

The priests then brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles.
(1 Kings 8: 6 - 7)

Go to http://www.acns.com/~mm9n/cherub/ for three visual representations of this, the third of which is the most accurate in relation to Biblical text.

Ten Storey Love Song, one of the finest songs of the '90's for me, remains one of the most moving of The Stone Roses' records.

* Speaking about his fourth solo album, 'Solarized' (2004), Ian's response to his friend ('Well, it might be about God') supports one's argument elsewhere on this website that The Stone Roses' 'love songs' have a religious dimension:

"I thought after 9/11, the only thing that you could write were love songs and the state of the world," he adds. "They're either romantic - my mate said, 'Is that about a girl?' and I said, 'Well, it might be about God' - or social commentary songs."
(Ian Brown quoted on Manchester Online, 24th September 2004)

February 1995 - Ten Storey Love Song video:

Back To The Songs