Chimes sing Sunday morn
Today's the day she swore
To steal what she never could own
And race from this hole she calls home
Now you're at the wheel
Tell me how, how does it feel ?
So good to have equalized
To lift up the lids of your eyes
As the miles they disappear
See land begin to clear
Free from the filth and the scum
This American satellite's won
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
See the steeple pine
The hills as old as time
Soon to be put to the test
To be whipped by the winds of the west
Stands on shifting sands
The scales held in her hands
The wind it just whips her and wails
And fills up her Brigantine sails
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown
Music by:
Squire
Written:
1987
Personnel:
John Squire (guitar)
Ian Brown (vocals)
Gary Mounfield (bass)
Alan Wren (drums, backing vocals)
Producer:
John Leckie
Engineer:
Paul Schroeder
Format:
Released 1991:
Waterfall (Silvertone, ORE T DJ 34, 12" promo)
Waterfall (7" version) / One Love (7" version) / Waterfall (12" version) / One Love (12" version) (Silvertone, 06192-10041-2, Canadian CD)
Released January 1992:
Waterfall (Paul Oakenfold / Steve Osborne Remix) (7" Edit) / One Love (Adrian Sherwood Remix) (7" Edit) (Silvertone, ORE 35, 7")
Waterfall / One Love (Silvertone, ORE ZT 35, 12" with print)
Waterfall (7" version) / One Love (7" version) / Waterfall (12" version) / One Love (12" version) (Silvertone, ORE CD 35, CD)
Waterfall / One Love (Silvertone, ORE C 35, cassette)
Released June 1992:
Waterfall (7" version) / One Love (7" version) / Waterfall (12" version) / One Love (12" version) (Alfa-Silvertone, ALCB-543, Japanese CD from Singles Collection boxset)
UK chart details:
Waterfall entered the charts on 11th January 1992, spending 4 weeks in the charts and reaching a highest position of 27.
Also available on:
The Stone Roses (4.37)
The Complete Stone Roses (3.36)
The Stone Roses (10th Anniversary Edition) (4.38)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (4.41)
First live performance:
In 1987
Artwork details:
The Waterfall artwork is from 'Waterfall' (1988), oil on canvas, 30" x 26"
Details:
While Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin was the benchmark for John Squire circa Second Coming, The Clash were the biggest influence on the pre-Second Coming Squire (See the Pennie Smith essay for the artistic influence of The Clash on Squire). Ian introduced John to The Clash, bringing records - such as their debut LP, 'God Save The Queen' by The Sex Pistols and 'One Chord Wonders' by The Adverts - to his house when they were in their teens. A week later, John had bought the first two of the aforementioned records and developed a strong interest in The Clash, following the band on their '16 Tons' tour. John did, however, miss out on an opportunity to meet his idols, due to other commitments. Ian Brown and Pete Garner heard that The Clash were rehearsing somewhere in Manchester. After some investigation, they made their way to the Pluto Recording studios in Granby Row, waiting expectantly outside. The Clash arrived to work on 'Bankrobber' and the two Patrol members blagged their way into the studios as part of the band's entourage. Ian was not impressed by the rock star demeanour of Joe Strummer, describing the experience as somewhat of a disappointment: "He sat under this grandfather clock, clicking his fingers in time with it. I thought, what a dick !" (Ian Brown speaking to Record Collector, 1998). This encounter would have solidified Ian's preference for The Sex Pistols, of the two punk acts. John's interest in The Clash continued to grow however - he had a Clash lyric, "Too chicken to even try it", from 'White Riot', emblazoned on his scooter in his younger days, while Ian had "Cranked Up Really High" on his scooter, the title of a Slaughter and the Dogs song. Of the two, Ian was the first to develop an interest in scooters - one that blossomed through his interest in Northern Soul - while John only became serious after watching 'Quadrophenia'; soon after this experience, he assembled his own Lambretta, rebuilding a GP200 from the frame.
The influence of The Clash on The Stone Roses can be found in The Clash documentary, 'Westway to the World', e.g., Paul Simonon talking about Pollocking his clothes and equipment. Note also in the documentary the DIY typography on shirts, which would be a feature of John's attire in his solo shows. Here is John Squire speaking to United We Stand fanzine in December 2004:
The genesis of John Squire's interest in painting was American painter Nancy Kominsky, as he revealed to The Guardian in 2007:
'Paint Along With Nancy' was a UK television programme made by HTV West in the mid to late 1970s, shown on the ITV network in a daytime slot - usually 12.30 or 3.30pm. The programme aimed to teach viewers - ostensibly housewives and sick school children (or in Squire's case, a school child playing truant) - to paint, following the instructions of Philadelphian artist, Nancy Kominsky, who would create a painting in twenty-five minutes. Initially, her 'assistant' was popular HTV West personality Alan Taylor. Starting with the ritual wash of burnt umber and turpentine, Nancy would then follow through with a set of grid lines (to place the subject) and roughly sketch in a drawing of sorts using a brush, before moving on to a palette knife. An unorthodox practitioner in the field, Nancy would implore viewers to copy from the Impressionists, "as they have distortion of form"; "Paint what you see and not what you know to be there." In response to a lady who asked her "Why paint ?", she replied, "I paint to match the drapes." Nancy had already done an earlier version, to facilitate 'the recap' at the end of the show, where the picture would paint itself in less time than even Nancy could manage. This sequence, (shot on 16mm although, curiously edited on VT) was always heralded by a luxurious chord on the harp. Titles of her work on the show included: 'Stawberries', 'Snow in Central Park', 'Twilight in the Cotswolds', 'Nasturtiums', 'Still Life - Vegetables', 'Yellow Tulips', 'San Juan Mountains, Colorado', 'White Daisies', 'Old Rome', 'Wind on the Adriatic', 'Last Three in Totterdown' and 'Red Apples'.
In his explanation of 'I'm So Bored With The U.S.A.' (Squire would play a cover of this track by The Clash as an encore for his 2003 solo tour, as a tribute to the deceased Joe Strummer*), Mick Jones, guitarist of The Clash, said that it was a criticism of the dominating influence of American culture on British life. The band went to an ice-cream parlour, bought ice-creams and wrote on the window with the ice-creams, 'I'm So Bored With The USA'. This Clash song made references to American support of dictatorships (something that was later elaborated on, on their track, 'Washington Bullets'), the over-riding dominance of American culture and the Watergate scandal, as Mick Jones explains:
In some 1989 interviews, Squire said almost those exact words about Waterfall. He explained how the song (and the accompanying artwork – the American flag overshadowing a British one - entitled 'Waterfall') was a criticism of the influence of American culture on British life:
A detail of the original 1988 painting, 'Waterfall', was originally used in the insert of the Roses' debut album. John would revisit 'Waterfall' on '15 Days' (2002) and 'Gtr' (2004). In 2007, 'Marshall Artist' asked a select group of artists to design a t-shirt, with £10 from each one sold being donated to the charity of the artist's choice. The complete list of artists were: Amp Fiddler, Ash, Larrikin Love, Lauren Laverne, Mani, Nightmares on Wax, Paul Oakenfold, Rob da Bank, Roots Manuva, Shaun Ryder, The Mitchell Brothers, The Subways, and Trevor Nelson. Mani's piece draws heavily upon Squire's Waterfall artwork for inspiration.
Waterfall, written in 1987, should be seen in the perspective of the Reagan (1981 - 1989) and Thatcher (1979 - 1990) administrations, but also against a backdrop of the entire twentieth century.
"This American satellite" in the third verse is Britain and these lines state that despite America's influence, it hasn't completely taken over as it would perhaps like to. As the historian T.C.W. Blanning argues, the year 1917 has a good claim to be a truly pivotal moment in European history, for it witnessed a paradigm shift in world power; it was in this year that Europe lost control of its own affairs. The arrival of American troops both sealed the defeat of Germany and ensured that the subsequent peace settlement would be framed according to American interests. If the nineteenth century was the century of Europe - in which Britain was the leading overseas power, Germany the strongest on the continent - the twentieth century belongs to America.*** That the proclamation of victory comes in the verse where the figure is at sea relates to Britain's naval strength; Britannia does indeed rule the waves (not that this song is in any way a celebration of British naval power). The mention of a Brigantine vessel (a sailing vessel of the 18th century with two masts, at least one of which is square rigged. They are now almost obsolete; there is currently only one sailing true brigantine in the world, the 'Eye of the Wind') means that this song is set, to some degree, in a previous century of British naval dominance, which one can trace back to the Spanish Armada (1588). Having had a marriage proposal rejected by Elizabeth I, Philip II of Spain, incensed by English piracy and forays in New World exploration, sent his Armada to raid England. England won the naval battle (due as much to bad weather as to English naval prowess) and emerged as the world's strongest naval power.
It is quite apt that the Britpop**** documentary, 'Live Forever' (2003), starts with Waterfall, since an embryonic form of Britpop is inherent within this lyric and overall song. Although the band would never espouse pro-British sentiments, and indeed were heavily critical of the nation's history and current policies in interviews, what was to become the Britpop manifesto is nevertheless crystallised within the aforementioned lyric. As John Harris states in his book 'The Last Party', part of Britpop's aim was to avenge the dominance of the USA, not only musically, but also in a broader cultural sense.***** The Stone Roses had little affiliation with Britpop values and had no desire to attach themselves politically to any party. The band were heavily critical of the previous Thatcher and Major regimes, but saw those taking over in 1997 as ineffectual: "Blair's got a massive landslide, the Tories smashed themselves and it was beautiful, but there's nothing to replace it. All the people who suffered through the Eighties... Blair wants to be everything to everybody, and he'll end up being none of them." (Ian Brown speaking to Uncut magazine, February 1998). The Britpop movement was characterised by a new-found pride in the Union Jack, and while Noel Gallagher had a Union Jack emblazoned on his guitar at the height of the movement, Ian Brown was furiously calling for one to be taken down by a member of the audience at the 1996 Reading festival.
As with the opening verse of Going Down, the Resurrection of Jesus on the Third Day (Sunday) is referenced implicitly here. "Chimes sing Sunday morn" refers to the Easter Sunday celebration of Jesus' rising from the dead. The main riff for the song sounds like Church bells played on a guitar. "She" who will "steal what she never could own" is Jesus. According to Ian, Waterfall is:
Ian's explanation of drug usage may simply be a mask for the inherent religious meaning (or religious meaning is supplanting the narrative of the Dover journey). In an interview with Chris Rolfe for a Canadian publication (26/01/98), Ian states that particular effort was made to hide meanings in the TSR era material:
While its follow-up, 1994's Second Coming, was a 'cocaine record', the debut LP was an 'Ecstasy record'. Similarly, distinction can be made in the releases of The Beatles' in the 1960s from their drug of choice at the time, with the middle of the decade marking a more expansive outlook in the band's work: Preludin (Hamburg era), Amphetamines ('A Hard Day's Night'), Marijuana ('Help'), LSD ('Magical Mystery Tour') and Heroin ('Let It Be'). Paul McCartney, the driving force behind 1967's 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', used cocaine for a year in the creation of that album. The release could not be described as a 'cocaine record' in the vein of 'Second Coming' or 'Be Here Now', however. Speaking in 2004, McCartney describes how he also took grass to "balance it out", adding that he was "never completely crazy with cocaine." The French flag is positioned at the very left of The Stone Roses' debut LP cover, so that the eye reads it as an 'E' (slightly more subtle then Shaun Ryder's attachment to the 'E' of a 'Hotel' sign in The Happy Mondays' 'Step On' video...). MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), most commonly known today by the street name Ecstasy, is thought to be an invention by the famous German chemist, Fritz Haber, in 1891. The patent for MDMA was originally filed on 24th December 1912 by the German pharmaceutical company Merck, after being first synthesised for them by German chemist Anton Köllisch at Darmstadt earlier that year. The patent was granted in 1914 and two years later, Köllisch died, unaware of the impact his synthesis would have. Due to the wording of the existing Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, MDMA was automatically classified as a Class A drug in 1977 in the UK, and was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance in the US from 31st May 1985. Before then, it was used both as an adjunct to psychotherapy and as a recreational drug. MDMA began to be used therapeutically in the mid-1970s after the chemist Alexander Shulgin introduced it to psychotherapist Leo Zeff. As Zeff and others spread the word about MDMA, it developed a reputation for enhancing communication, reducing psychological defenses, and increasing capacity for introspection. MDMA appeared sporadically as a street drug in the late 1960s (when it was known as the 'love drug'), but it rose to prominence in the early 1980s in nightclubs in the Dallas area, and subsequently in gay dance clubs. From there, usage spread to rave clubs, and then to mainstream society. The street name of 'Ecstasy' was coined in California in 1984. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ecstasy was widely used in the UK and other parts of Europe, becoming an integral element of rave culture and other psychedelic / dancefloor-influenced music scenes, such as Madchester and Acid House. The hedonism of the drug culture and its inherent 'living for the weekend' mentality, allied with years of frustration under Thatcher rule were its primary motivations. Flowered Up's 'Weekender' video, from 1992, is a fine depiction of the era. During the 1990s, along with the growing popularity of the rave subculture, MDMA usage became increasingly widespread among young adults in universities and later in high schools. It rapidly became one of the four most widely used illegal drugs in the US, along with cocaine, heroin and cannabis.
Ibiza, a popular Mediterranean tourist destination, became synonymous with dance music and once word spread to Britain about 'Balearic Beat' and the ready supply of Ecstasy, a clubbing utopia was established. Clubs like Amnesia where DJ Alfredo was playing a mix of rock, pop, disco and house music fuelled by Ecstasy, began to have an influence on the British scene and by late 1987, DJs such as Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling were bringing the Ibiza sound to UK clubs. But the 'Second Summer of Love' of 1988 needed an added ingredient, one that would come from America. In America, a more sophisticated sound was evolving, moving beyond merely drum loops and short samples. New York witnessed this maturity in the slick production of disco house crossover tracks from artists such as Mateo & Matos. In Chicago, Marshall Jefferson had formed the house 'super group' Ten City (from intensity), demonstrating the developments in 'That's the Way Love Is'. In Detroit there were the beginnings of what would be called techno, with the emergence of Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. The Stone Roses certainly were watching this scene with interest; their first choice to produce their debut LP was not John Leckie - the band had several others in mind before opting for him, including Sly & Robbie. Top of the list, Brown revealed to Mojo in May 2002, was DJ Pierre (stage name of Nathaniel Pierre Jones), a Chicago born DJ and performer of house music. He helped to develop the house music subgenre of Acid House as member of Phuture, whose 1987 EP, Acid Trax, has been cited as the first Acid House recording. Philippe Renaud, a journalist for La Presse in Montreal, states that the term 'Acid house' was coined in Chicago in 1987 to describe the sound of the Roland 303 bass machine, which made its first significant recording appearance on Acid Trax. Manchester's Haçienda nightclub, founded in 1982 by Factory Records, soaked up all these influences from overseas and became the focal point of the era. Forbidden raves sprang up in disused warehouses up and down the country; The Stone Roses themselves had been forerunners in this aspect of the scene, putting on warehouse parties in July and November of 1985. The Stone Roses at that point were mistaken for a goth outfit - based on their fashion sense - and had a punk, speed-fuelled sound, but it wasn't until the latter part of the decade that they would find their niche. The timing of this transformation in the band could not have been better, with the fusion of dance and rock culture that was taking place; the band's components - Squire's chiming guitars, a rhythm section of fluid, soulful bass grooves and funky drumming, merged with psychedelic-tinged lyrics - all combined to enhance the appeal of what was technically a guitar pop band, to a dance audience. The Stone Roses also hired their equivalent of The Happy Mondays' Bez, in the form of Cressa, to further the band's association with dance culture. Manchester, large enough to support a cultural infrastructure, yet small enough to form a community, fused a heady mix of styles from Ibiza, Chicago and Detroit into something tantalizingly new.
We learn that the vessel is a Brigantine, an apt choice of transport for someone 'stealing'. A Brigantine is a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing, swifter and more easily manoeuvered than larger ships, thus having particular use for piracy. From the opening verse, we learn that Sunday is the day she swore to steal what she never could own. The Bible states that a man can own everything in the world but lose his life; Jesus "stole" life after death by rising on the Third Day (Sunday). He swore that He would rise again in 'Jesus Predicts His Death':
Upon Jesus rising from the dead, the angel said to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary:
Jesus rose from his tomb ("...this hole", home - see Going Down, where the two days in the tomb are equated with eventual everlasting life with God; "this hole" works perfectly on two levels: Jesus' tomb and a derogatory reference to the previous residence of the 'Dover girl') and after greeting Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, raced ahead of the women and the disciples towards Galilee, to meet them there. In the Bible, God's love is compared to a waterfall; we cannot live without water, just as the Bible preaches that we cannot survive ultimately without His love. Thus, She (Jesus, the messenger of God) will carry on through it all "like a waterfall".
Jesus went through much hurt in His life, yet carried on through it all because He knew that He had to carry out the will of the Father. He carried on through the ultimate suffering of crucifixion, and rose to life again on the Third Day. As Love Spreads depicts, not only did Jesus carry on through it all, but He ultimately prevailed. If the crucifixion of Christ was a victory for His persecutors, Jesus 'equalised' with His rising from the dead, in which the promise made in His ministry was followed through. This "lifting up the lids of your eyes" works on two levels; Jesus lifted his eye-lids in His Resurrection and escaped from the tomb, while the 'Dover girl', after leaving home, is able to see for the first time in a metaphorical sense, through her encounter with drugs and willingness to explore. The song goes backwards chronologically in the fourth verse by depicting the crucifixion of Christ (the steeple pine is the cross of Jesus). Jesus was crucified on top of an old hill ("The hills as old as time") at Golgotha, 'The Place of the Skull'. Jesus was soon to be put to the toughest of tests, in making His way to Golgotha to be crucified. He was put to the test throughout His lifetime by those wishing to see Him fail, but this was His ultimate test. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked God if it was possible that the cup of suffering be taken from Him. Jesus knew that He was being put to the test and that He must carry out the will of His Father, despite the suffering He knew that He would have to face. The line "whipped by the winds of the west" is evocative of when Jesus was at sea, especially when related to the third line of the last verse. Since the first three lines of the penultimate verse focus on the crucifixion, it should instead be read metaphorically as Jesus being whipped by the Roman soldiers. Rome, Italy can be viewed as 'the West' (the song focuses on the West elsewhere, with the end of the third verse alluding to America and Britain, prominent representatives of the Western world). The story of Jesus' life is one of a struggle between Himself and Rome. Rome's leading figures wished to see the Roman Empire preserved and thus viewed Jesus' presence as a threat, rendering an end to His existence as imperative. It is worth noting that the imagery presented in the song, the crucifixion of Jesus combined with an attack on America, is not without precedent. The video for 'Kill Surf City' by The Jesus and Mary Chain, a B side on their 'April Skies' single (April 1987), shows 'Jesus' taking shots at an American flag. The cover for April Skies shows a still from the 'Kill Surf City' video:
The final verse evokes imagery of Judgement Day, where 'She' (a strong Gnostic element is evident in this song) has the scales of Judgement in 'Her' hands. The statue of Themis, Greek goddess of law and public assembly, is a traditional symbol at U.S. and U.K. courthouses. She appears as she was depicted in ancient times, holding the scales of justice; a blindfold was added by artists of the 16th century to denote impartial justice. God, Themis in the context of this song, holds the scales of justice over the earth’s population. God's very nature is justice; His name, Jehovah Mishpat, means 'God of Justice'. The "shifting sands" which She "stands on" places God in an hourglass, an allusion to the sands of time running out until the day of Judgement.****** The U.S. flag embodies Liberty and Justice according to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance (Waterfall focuses not on the Statue of Liberty but on the statue of Justice):
Jan Vermeer (1632 - 1675) used potent symbolism in 'Woman Holding a Balance' (c.1664), in which a Madonna-like woman holds a delicate - and empty - balance; behind her hangs a painting of Christ's Last Judgment in a heavy black frame. The woman's head obscures the place where Saint Michael customarily would be weighing souls in the balance, while the figure of Christ appears immediately above her head. The central vanishing point of the painting occurs at the woman's fingertips, with the little finger of her right hand echoing the horizontal arm of the balance and picture frame. On the table before her lie earthly treasures, pearls (these can also represent purity, as seen in Lorenzo Lotto's painting of Saint Catherine) and a gold chain. Behind her, Christ passes final judgment on the human race. The mirror on the wall is symbolic of vanity or self-knowledge, while a soft light raking across the picture sounds a spiritual note. The serene, contemplative woman, dressed in the traditional blue outfit of Mary, and seemingly expecting child (others conclude that her costume - a short jacket, a bodice, and a thickly padded skirt - reflect a style of dress current in the early to mid 1660s), stands in the centre of all of this, calmly weighing transitory worldly concerns against spiritual ones. One of the four Horsemen of the Apocaplypse carried a pair of scales, as depicted in Albrecht Dürer's 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' (1498). In Judgement, Jesus is depicted by artists according to the words of the Bible, as "sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." (Matthew 26: 64). To take two examples, 'Christ the Judge' (1447), Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto by Fra Angelico (1400 - 1455) and Michelangelo's (1475 - 1564) portrayal of Christ in 'Last Judgement' (1536 - 1541) (cropped) from the Sistine Chapel can be seen below. Squire and Brown place Christ within the sand of an hourglass in keeping with the scene of the song (the progression from land to sea by the boat of the 'Dover girl').
When asked when the band's high standard of songwriting started to emerge, Ian Brown cited Waterfall as being of great significance, telling Uncut magazine, "'Waterfall' was the first time we went, 'Wow, this is it.'":
The band's first live TV performance was Waterfall on 'The Other Side Of Midnight', hosted by Tony Wilson*******, in January 1989. Wilson had previously passed on the chance of managing the band; his introduction of the band contains an admission of error for failing to recognise their potential earlier. Wilson's researcher had been urging Wilson to have the Roses on the show, but he expressed no interest; this was until one night backstage with the Happy Mondays in Chester, Gary Whelan played him Elephant Stone on a cassette player - he was suitably impressed. Ian Tilton's shots from 'The Other Side Of Midnight' performance were subsequently used for the sleeve of the debut LP.
'April Come She Will' by Simon and Garfunkel is a significant musical influence. This is Ian Brown speaking to Q magazine in 2000 about the debut LP's production:
The single version, the more 'pop' sounding version to be found on TCSR, omits the essential guitar break near the end where it shifts to a funkier rhythm.
There Goes the Fear, from The Last Broadcast, The Doves' second LP, owes a significant debt to Waterfall. So too does the prominent throbbing bass on Kasabian's Processed Beats, from their Madchester-tinged debut album; a mix of this track with Waterfall was subsequently made. Waterfall was also sampled by DJ Sam Flanigan for a mashup with Lily Allen's LDN. Waterfall was used in the films 'Green Street' (starring Elijah Wood) and 'There's Only One Jimmy Grimble' (starring Robert Carlyle). A brief effect on Oasis's Wonderwall video, where a shot of Noel Gallagher is repeated in columns, borrows stylistically from the Waterfall video. 'The Panel', an Irish weekly chat show first broadcast on RTE2 in 2003, uses Waterfall as its theme song. Just as the essence of 'Revolution' by The Beatles was lost when it became used in a Nike advertising campaign (see Ian MacDonald's notes in 'Revolution In The Head'), it was perhaps inevitable that such an anthemic song as Waterfall would suffer the same fate. A song critical of the damaging influence of the commercialist and materialistic aspects of America on the U.K..... was used for the U.K. National Lottery advertising campaign in 2003.
* In his younger days, Squire built a monument to Joe Strummer in his bedroom. A later piece, 'Rotten 2c' (2004) portraying Strummer's contemporary, Johnny Rotten (then appearing on 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here !'), would, from literal interpretation its title (Rotten to see), appear to express that Squire was unimpressed by the punk figure's venture into reality TV.
** With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism in 1989, America's influence overseas was to increase further; Capitalism now had no ideological opposition. This is why historian Niall Ferguson argues in 'Colossus: the rise and fall of the American empire' that 11/9 (9 November 1989) rather than 9/11 (11 September 2001) was the real turning point in American foreign policy. Following the collapse of the Berlin wall, America had no identifiable 'enemy'. Saddam Hussein soon filled this void with his invasion of Kuwait on 2nd August 1990. He was to be the focus of two Gulf wars fought by America and her allies: (1990 - 1991) and (2003).
*** T. C. W. Blanning, Short Oxford history of Europe: the nineteenth century 1789 - 1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 247.
**** Britpop is the term given to the British alternative rock movement of the mid-1990s, characterised by the plethora of bands who, drawing heavily upon '60s and '70s influences, gave the impression that they were creating the soundtrack to the lives of a new generation of British youth. This period also witnessed the emergence of a multicultural British pop, focused firmly on the present rather than a gilded past. Drum 'n' bass, a genre characterised by fast tempo broken beat drums with heavy, often intricate basslines, broke through and the angst-sodden beats of Massive Attack came to reflect the millennial mood as much as the lumbering ballads of Oasis. The movement's 'capital' was Camden, where Noel Gallagher, Blur, Pulp and a host of other key figures from the scene would often congregate. The Good Mixer, a pub based in the back streets of Camden Town, soon became Britpop's early HQ. The movement reached its peak between 1994 and 1996. The Stone Roses' work is distinct from the Britpop body of work in that Britpop's songs were marked by social commentaries, often ironic or cynical, such as Blur's 'Country House' & 'Girls and Boys', Oasis' 'Cigarettes & Alcohol', and Pulp's 'Common People'. In contrast, The Stone Roses' debut LP was more idealistic and had a stronger element of innocent romanticism: "of travel rather than restriction, of sun rather than rain, of togetherness rather than atomized individualism - topped with a healthy dose of class revenge." (Jon Savage, Time Travel (London: Vintage, 1997), p. 266). To take the example of the aforementioned Oasis track, this showcased the appeal of cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and hedonism as a remedy to the banality of working class life; lyrics such as "Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for ?" tapped into the mood of British working class youth in the mid-1990s. 'Girls and Boys' contained much the same message - "Avoiding all work 'cause there's none available." Damon Albarn was inspired by a holiday in Magaluf to pen this commentary upon rampant 18-30 Club Med culture and a growing trend of pansexuality:
Blur, Girls and Boys (1994)
A rise of unabashed maleness and lad culture (football, lager & 'birds'), exemplified by Loaded magazine and FHM, was a prominent characteristic of the Britpop era. The Gallagher brothers personified this from the outset, whereas Damon Albarn was to later adopt this lifestyle: "I started out reading Nabokov. Now I'm into football, dog racing and Essex girls." Underworld's Born Slippy .NUXX, featured on the 1996 'Trainspotting' soundtrack, became a defining hedonistic anthem ("Babes and babes and babes and babes and babes. And remembering nothing boy...Shouting lager lager lager lager"). Football became credible among the professional and media classes. In 1995, Tony Blair could be seen doing headers with Kevin Keegan and in 1996, the Labour Party leader drew upon England's Euro '96 anthem, 'Three Lions', at a Labour Party conference speech: "Seventeen years of hurt. Never stopped us dreaming. Labour's coming home". 'Girl Power' (a term appropriated by Geri Halliwell from the 1995 Shampoo single of this title) also was a defining movement of the era, reaching its zenith with The Spice Girls' 1997 Brits performance of 'Who Do You Think You Are'. The Spice Girls were a key act in instituting a change in the charts away from Britpop, towards out-and-out pop. They beat off competition from Oasis, who were nominated for Best Single for 'Don't Look Back In Anger'. Earlier in the day, Liam Gallagher said he would not be coming to the awards, lest he "chin one of the Spice Girls." Upon receiving their award onstage, Mel C (aka Sporty Spice) pointed to her chin and said: "Come and have a go Liam if you think you're hard enough", exemplifying an era of 'laddishness' in both sexes of pop music. Only a year before, at the previous Brits, Oasis had delivered a similar put-down to Blur. Oasis were notorious for their Beatles fixation but it was to be Ginger, Sporty, Scary, Baby and Posh - and not the Gallagher brothers' outfit - who were to become the most widely recognised group of individuals since John, Paul, George and Ringo. This was clearly on the agenda as early as the band's 1996 debut single, 'Wannabe', which ended with the name of each Spice Girl shown collectively on-screen. In their early days, The Beatles created the identity of a group of young, working class lads who had got together and suddenly taken the pop world by storm, an identity fostered in their first film, 'A Hard Day's Night.' The band were not working class, however, with Ringo being the only Beatle not to go to a Grammar School. The Spice Girls, also wishing to create an 'ordinary' image, gatecrash an aristocratic party at St. Pancras Grand Hotel, London, at the beginning of the 'Wannabe' video. At the outset, the band are juxtaposed between the homeless and the upper echelon of society, and after expressing an empathy for the plight of the former (somewhat tactlessly, with Baby Spice bizarrely stealing a homeless person's cap) and a boredom with the lack of commonality with the latter, they proceed, uninvited, inside. Upon arrival inside, Emma throws the guest list in the air and after causing a commotion, the group leave by bus. The individual personas of the Spice Girls are more pronounced than those of The Beatles; the former were consciously aimed at a younger audience. Ginger, Sporty, Scary, Baby and Posh were able to transmit the message to young girls that they could forge a unique personality, without losing close relationships as part of a group.
The movement also exercised a brief period of cultural hegemony, one highlight being the aforementioned film, 'Trainspotting', and its Britpop-centric soundtrack (featuring Blur, Elastica, Pulp and Sleeper). Despite the majority of the 'Britpop' movement happening under the premiership of The Conservative Party's John Major, Tony Blair's New Labour was keen to attach and credit itself with this image of 'Cool Britannia', upon coming to power in May 1997. Inspirational sparks flew from the synergy between pop, politics, film, art and culture and the phrase was quickly adopted in the media and advertising, seeming to capture the 'It' quality of London at the time. The YBAs (Young British Artists) co-opted much of their stance from British pop. Blair's government was elected on a platform of modernisation and the Prime Minister's relative youth gave the idea fresh currency. Pictures of the Prime Minister with a Fender Stratocaster identified Blair with the movement, and his desire to infiltrate the culture was demonstrated further when a host of celebrities, including Noel Gallagher (above), were invited to Number 10 upon Labour's arrival in power. Those not adhering to script were quickly put in their place by the new regime; Damon Albarn, who refused an invitation to attend, questioned whether it was the right signal for a future Prime Minister to be sending his children to a grant-maintained school, and received a letter saying, "Don't talk about this." Albarn had previously flirted with Labour, having been summoned to the Commons to meet John Prescott and Tony Blair in 1995, but he was soon to become disillusioned with the realisation of New Labour's plans.
Oasis were keener to attach themselves to this harbinger of a new Britain, with Noel declaring at the 1996 Brit Awards, "There are seven people in this room giving a little bit of hope to young people in this country", proceeding to name-check the five members of his band, Creation Records' Alan McGee and Tony Blair. "And if you've got anything about you, get up there and shake Tony Blair's hand. He's the Man." This relationship solidified further with the Oasis songwriter's visit to Number 10; each will undoubtedly have recognised the parallels with the relationship between The Beatles and then Labour Leader and Prime Minister, Harold Wilson in the mid 1960s. Wilson exhibited his populist touch in 1965, when he nominated The Beatles with the award of MBE. The award was popular with the youth in society and created the image that the Prime Minister was 'in touch' with the younger generation, cementing Wilson's image as a modernistic leader and linking him to the burgeoning pride in the 'New Britain' typified by The Beatles. Similarly, New Labour surfed the 'Britpop' zeitgeist cannily and were a skilful operator of the media. As far back as the 1980s, Neil Kinnock had tried to wrest the Union Jack from the Tories, to redefine patriotism as something other than Queen, country, stately homes and 'the heritage industry'. New Labour quickly realised that the new Anglo-centric pop climate was doing the job for them, and could help marshal the youth vote into the bargain.
'Cool Britannia' was to 'Britpop' what the catchphrase 'Swinging London' was to the early years of Wilson's Labour government, a cultural parallel best illustrated by the Vanity Fair headline (above) with Patsy Kensit and Liam Gallagher: "London Swings Again!" Chris Evans' weekly variety show, TFI Friday, part of the televisual arm of Britpop, used Ocean Colour Scene's 'The Riverboat Song' to introduce guests. 'Shooting Stars' utilised large 'Mod' logos as part of the set and featured many prominent Britpop musicians as guests. The leading acts of the Britpop era all drew heavily from the imagery and sounds of the 1960s. Lewis Morley's photoshoot with Christine Keeler (below), one of the most iconic of the 1960s, was recreated collectively on the front cover of The Spice Girls' 'Who Do You Think You Are / Mama' single, while the 1965 film 'Faster, Pussycat ! Kill ! Kill !' provided the inspiration for the 'Say You'll Be There' video. Patrick Macnee, the actor who played John Steed in the 1960s television series, The Avengers, made an appearance in Oasis' 'Don't Look Back In Anger' video, while Blur's Damon Albarn struck up a close relationship with The Kinks' Ray Davies, with the two performing a duet of 'Waterloo Sunset'. In this respect, Blur were key in introducing another critical element of the Britpop movement, a mod-influenced 1960s view of English life, portrayed through a clear lyrical narrative, which had largely been missing from the preceding 'shoegazing' and 'Madchester' scenes. His most recent predecessor to do this to such great effect was arguably Paul Weller (on tracks such as The Jam's 'That's Entertainment' and 'Town Called Malice'), who himself enjoyed a career resurgence in the Britpop era with his 1995 solo album, 'Stanley Road', and guest appearance on Oasis' 'Champagne Supernova'.
The Jam, Town Called Malice (1982)
Blur laid the blueprint for this as early as their April 1993 single, 'For Tomorrow'. The year before the single was released, the band reached their lowest point. They were prone to giving drunken and loose performances and being far outclassed by other bands such as early rivals Suede. In this period, they embarked on a U.S. tour when the country was in the midst of the grunge era; audiences were unreceptive to their sound and the band detested the experience. After this tour, Damon Albarn began to write songs with a very British feel. 'For Tomorrow' was one such song, written on Christmas Day, 1992. The video, directed by Julien Temple, was filmed in a classic black and white style and opens with Albarn in typical British clothing, lying afloat in the Thames. Shot entirely in London, it switches between scenery from Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Column and Primrose Hill. The single front cover, showing two World War Two fighter planes, added further a sense of Britishness and national pride to the release. The band's 'Parklife' album became the quintessential Britpop album: confident, upbeat, yet containing an inherent cynicism and knowingness about English life. It also defined Britpop's iconography; despite being a primarily middle class outfit, the band shrewdly drew upon imagery from working class life: dog tracks, ice cream vans and package holidays. This British pride was embodied in the Parklife video, which featured spoken verses by actor Phil Daniels, who had starred in 'Quadrophenia'. Sleeper's 'Inbetweener' video positioned the band in a supermarket (with a guest appearance by Supermarket Sweep's Dale Winton) and laundrette, while in Pulp's 'Common People' video, Jarvis Cocker is pushed around a supermarket by Sadie Frost, an English actress (the single front cover featured the band in a typical British eating establishment). Blur, Oasis and Pulp were the premier acts of Britpop and Louise Wener aptly summarises the situation for those Britpop acts outside of 'the big three':
***** John Harris, The last party (London: Fourth Estate, 2003), p. xvii. The key 'anti-influence' on the Britpop movement was Grunge. In the wake of the American invasion led by Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, British acts were thrown on the defensive. America threw down the gauntlet and Britain formed its response in Britpop. A generation of Brits came of age in the mid 90's, who harboured resentment that America had enjoyed this unchallenged cultural hegemony. The contrast between 1994's 'Live Forever' by Oasis and the Nirvana b-side of the same year, 'I Hate Myself and Want to Die' (a title which Cobain had previously considered giving to the band's third studio album, 'In Utero') could not have been greater. The former imbued Oasis's army of fans with a united sense of immortality, while the title of the latter defined the attitude of the grunge bands popular at the time. Ironically, Blur would achieve their biggest hit in America with 'Song 2', which came close to - but just stopped short - of parodying grunge.
****** I propose too that the lyric from Oasis's 'Hey Now' - "Time as it stands won't be held in my hands" - is a take off from this. Noel has stated in interviews that "He lives under a waterfall," from Oasis's 'Supersonic', is a direct reference to The Stone Roses' Waterfall. Noel Gallagher, indie's finest magpie, fuses elements of The Beatles, The La's, The Rolling Stones, The Stone Roses and T-Rex to name only a few, in his work. A plethora of Stone Roses references can be found in Oasis's work, originally quite well disguised and innovative in utilisation but reaching a quite tiresome and blatant peak on their Be Here Now album:
- "Where angels fly, you won't play. So guess who's gonna take the blame for my big mouth."......"Into my big mouth you could fly a plane."
(My Big Mouth / Where Angels Play & Standing Here).
- "The future's mine and it's no disgrace. 'Cos in the end the past means nothing."
(I Hope I Think I Know / She Bangs The Drums).
- "They are sleeping while they dream. And then they want to be adored......My star will shine."
(Magic Pie / I Wanna Be Adored & Your Star Will Shine).
Noel also attempts to link his own songs in a 'riddle' with those of The Stone Roses, for example claiming that 'Sally', from their 1996 single 'Don't Look Back In Anger', is Sally Cinnamon and that (the figure) 'Lyla', their 2005 single, is "Sally’s sister." Listen to the end of 'Acquiesce' from the Oasis video 'There and Then' and The White Room performance (17 / 04 / 95), where Noel can be heard playing the riff from Sally Cinnamon. In interviews, Noel describes hearing Sally Cinnamon for the first time as a defining moment for him ("When I heard Sally Cinnamon for the first time, I knew what my destiny was.") Click here to view an Oasis rehearsal at Manchester Boardwalk from 1992, with Noel Gallagher running through the intro of Sally Cinnamon.
******* Tony Wilson, a journalist for Granada Television, founded the record label Factory Records and the Haçienda nightclub in Manchester. A semi-fictionalized version of his life and of the surrounding era was made into a 2002 film, '24 Hour Party People', which stars the comedian Steve Coogan as Wilson. Wilson often overplays the merit of Factory's Happy Mondays, on occasion claiming them to be a better, or more important, band than The Stone Roses (and claiming vocalist Shaun Ryder to be on a par with the great English poets and writers of the past - Shane MacGowan would be much more deserving of such an appraisal in the opinion of the editor). This somewhat inflated opinion of his own act is, one feels, an attempt to compensate for the one that got away; furthermore, Andy Couzens claims Wilson tried everything that he could to prevent the Roses' progression:
It is the opinion of the editor that the Happy Mondays were not in the same league as The Stone Roses, artistically or musically (to my knowledge, a Happy Mondays LP has never topped - or came close to topping - a best ever British LP list). In a 'Wired' Joy Division documentary in 1988, Wilson also makes the somewhat ludicrous claim that The Buzzcocks were "the greatest punk group."
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