Here comes the wise man
And there goes the fool
It's a big, bad world that he's living in
I don't need to look for the rules
Here comes the donkey
Chained to a ten-ton plough
He'll never make that hill in a million years
Whip crack beat him down
He loves his brother
He'll sell him for a fistful of gold
He needs to slave for his vision of the Promised Land
No I don't believe a word
Take me anyway your wind blows
You'll never know
Just what you wanna do, or where you wanna go
I think it's time
That you found what the world is waiting for
I think it's time
To get real
Here comes the wise man
And there goes the fool
It's a burned-out world that he's living in
I don't need to look for the rules
He loves his brother
He'll sell him for a fistful of gold
But he needs to slave for his vision of the Promised Land
No I don't believe a word
Take me anyway your wind blows
You'll never know
Just what you wanna do, or where you wanna go
I think it's time
That you found what the world is waiting for
I think it's time
To get real
Anytime you want it then it's there
All you gotta do is stop me, on the corner and ask
Say hey ! You don't live today
Stop the world
Stop the world, I'm getting off
I'm getting off
You've had enough
I'm getting off
Lyrics by:
Squire / Brown
Music by:
Squire / Brown
Written:
1989
Personnel:
John Squire (guitar)
Ian Brown (vocals)
Gary Mounfield (bass)
Alan Wren (drums)
Produced by:
John Leckie
Available on:
See Fool's Gold
Turns Into Stone (3.55)
The Complete Stone Roses (3.55)
The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (3.53)
First live performance:
Never performed live
Details:
What The World Is Waiting For was originally intended as an A-side to Fool's Gold.
The lyric "He loves his brother, he'll sell him for a fistful of gold" is referring to one of two events in the Bible (I don't read 'gold' as literally meaning 'gold'; I think it was used in the song because it sounded better than 'silver'):
1) The handing over (selling) of Jesus by Judas for 30 pieces of silver. Being a disciple of Jesus, Judas would have been like a 'brother' to Him.
or
2) The selling of Joseph by his brothers for 20 pieces of silver. Perhaps the lyric stems from this depiction by Friedrich Overbeck (1789 - 1869), 'Joseph Being Sold by his Brothers', which captures the exact moment of physical transaction of the fistful of silver.
Just as on Going Down, this song may contain a nod a Jimi Hendrix song, in this case 'I Don't Live Today'. In the following lines, Hendrix is expressing dissatisfaction with life:
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, I Don't Live Today (1967)
In WTWIWF, Ian expresses the same feelings, (except the 'I' is changed to 'you'):
This part possibly is bivalently referring to Joseph's prediction that he is about to die ("You don't live today"). In the following passage, Joseph speaks of the Promised Land ("He needs to slave for his vision of the Promised Land" - note the use of the word 'slave' in the lyric, with Joseph being sold as a slave):
Joseph dies at this point in the Bible, at the end of Genesis, having lived for a hundred and ten years ("Stop the world, I'm getting off"). The song may also be covering the story of Moses in some capacity, a prophet with a uniquely close relationship with God who features in I Am Without Shoes, Moses and Something's Burning. From his experience at a burning bush (I Am Without Shoes), Moses believed that God had called him to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery and take them to the land that he believed God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Promised Land. Moses led the Jews out of the bonds of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land of Israel, dying on Mount Nebo, shortly before the Jews entered Israel.
The request "Take me anyway your wind blows" has its origins in (John 3: 8):
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
(John 3: 8)
In a miracle, Jesus demonstrated that He had control over the wind (and sea). Jesus (who was sleeping) and the disciples were out at sea when suddenly a storm threatened the safety of the boat. From Mark's Gospel, 'Jesus Calms the Storm':
Perhaps The Acts of Thomas (Didymus), a gnostic script missing from the Bible, is a source of inspiration however. In this text, Jesus asks Thomas (who, it states, is his twin brother) to go to India to preach the word, which Thomas refuses to do:
Because of his refusal, Jesus then sells 'his brother' into slavery to an Indian King so that he can preach the word. The following is text from the Acts Of the Holy Apostle Thomas (Didymus) (I have highlighted text particularly relevant to the story of WTWIWF):
Now the Lord seeing him walking in the market-place at noon said unto him: Wouldest thou buy a carpenter ? And he said to him: Yea. And the Lord said to him: I have a slave that is a carpenter and I desire to sell him. And so saying he showed him Thomas afar off, and agreed with him for three litrae of silver unstamped, and wrote a deed of sale, saying: I, Jesus, the son of Joseph the carpenter, acknowledge that I have sold my slave, Judas by name, unto thee Abbanes, a merchant of Gundaphorus, king of the Indians. And when the deed was finished, the Saviour took Judas Thomas and led him away to Abbanes the merchant, and when Abbanes saw him he said unto him: Is this thy master ? And the apostle said: Yea, he is my Lord. And he said: I have bought thee of him. And thy apostle held his peace.
3 And on the day following the apostle arose early, and having prayed and besought the Lord he said: I will go whither thou wilt, Lord Jesus: thy will be done. And he departed unto Abbanes the merchant, taking with him nothing at all save only his price. For the Lord had given it unto him, saying: Let thy price also be with thee, together with my grace, wheresoever thou goest.
 
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