What The World Is Waiting For

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
Yeah I'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: 1) The betrayal of Jesus by Judas for 30 pieces of silver; being a disciple of Jesus, Judas would have been like a 'brother' to Him. 2) Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery for 20 pieces of silver.

'Joseph Being Sold by his Brothers' by Friedrich Overbeck (1789 - 1869). Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, but rose to become the most powerful man in Egypt after Pharaoh. He then brought his entire family down to Egypt, where they were settled in the land of Goshen.

In the following passage, Joseph speaks of the Promised Land ("He needs to slave for his vision of the Promised Land"):

'Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place."'
(Genesis 50: 24 - 25)

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 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)

Jesus demonstrated to His Disciples that He had control over the wind and sea when a storm threatened the safety of a boat, in which He was sleeping:

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet ! Be still !" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid ? Do you still have no faith ?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this ? Even the wind and the waves obey him !"
(Mark 4: 39 - 41)

What The World Is Waiting For cassette.

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