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
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:

I wish you'd hurry up 'n' rescue me
so I can be on my miserable way
I don't live today

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, I Don't Live Today (1967)

In WTWIWF, Ian expresses the same feelings, (except the 'I' is changed to 'you'):

You don't live today
Stop the world
Stop the world, I'm getting off

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):

'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 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':

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)

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:

According to the lot, therefore, India fell unto Judas Thomas, which is also the twin: but he would not go, saying that by reason of the weakness of the flesh he could not travel, and 'I am an Hebrew man; how can I go amongst the Indians and preach the truth ?' And as he thus reasoned and spake, the Saviour appeared unto him by night and saith to him: Fear not, Thomas, go thou unto India and preach the word there, for my grace is with thee. But he would not obey, saying: Whither thou wouldest send me, send me, but elsewhere, for unto the Indians I will not go.
(http://wesley.nnu.edu/noncanon/acts/actthom.htm)

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):

2 And while he thus spake and thought, it chanced that there was there a certain merchant come from India whose name was Abbanes, sent from the King Gundaphorus [Gundaphorus is a historical personage who reigned over a part of India in the first century after Christ. His coins bear his name in Greek, as Hyndopheres], and having commandment from him to buy a carpenter and bring him unto him.

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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