John Squire's own guide to his bumpy, brilliant career.
THE STONE ROSES
THE STONE ROSES
(1989)
Although the press at first shrug shoulders indifferently, 'the kids' go crazy for The Roses; the album is acclaimed as the record that defines the baggy era. The Roses' reputation for audacious self-belief (see I Wanna Be Adored and the epic I Am The Resurrection) is further bolstered by somewhat outrageous interview predictions of global domination; when one drooling interviewer asks Squire if he's the best guitarist in the world, he deadpans, 'Yes.' It's true that he plays a blinder, melding a chiming chordal style with funky chunks of distortion and soloing that result in various comparisons with Johnny Marr, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page (favourable). Surprisingly, Squire later dismisses the album as 'twee.'
'I think it was mainly the production,' he ponders. 'We saw there being a huge gulf between the live sound of The Stone Roses and that first album. It was mostly recorded on an SSL desk, and it just didn't sound fat or hard enough. From a guitar point of view I see my approach as the main failing; I completely deconstructed what I played live and rewrote everything for the studio. That just seems a bit simple, and the switch from chordal to solo stuff just doesn't seem to work. The album just doesn't have the stamp of a real guitar player to me, apart from a couple of the solos. It sounds like a two guitar band, which we weren't.
'But I do like the guitar playing on Bye Bye Badman. I worked through the guitar parts for that in this little breeze-blocked room at the back of the studio where all the air conditioning and mains switches were. I was just sat there with my little Portastudio sitting on top of its cardboard box; we were getting right down to the wire in terms of time, and when I went in to record I still didn't really know the part. I really enjoyed doing that.
'I like Don't Stop a lot too. It's the tape of Waterfall backwards, with the bass drum triggered, and the only real overdubs are the vocals and a bit of cowbell. I wrote the lyrics by listening to Waterfall backwards and writing down what was suggested, what the vocal might have been. It's good fun doing that, because you sort of remove your involvement from the song, you don't really know what's going to come next.
'I also like the fortuitous ending of I Am The Resurrection. We had some bits left over on tape which we just dropped in at exactly the right point - that little rhythm guitar bit at the end. Also the acoustic jangly stuff on the end section, too; I'd recorded it on this little Philips ghetto blaster and I got the engineer to drop it in. It's a bit out of time, because we were just pressing Play to try and get it in sync. I think we did only try it twice, so it's a bit out of time. I like it, though.
'The low point on that album ? I'd have just done less overdubs, had stronger main guitar parts.'
THE STONE ROSES
SECOND COMING
(1994)
Rather 'a while' coming, the Roses' grandly-titled follow-up sounds humungous; the songs are long, the lyrical themes (love, religion, redemption) heavy, the soloing extensive - though Squire concedes that a bit too much 'nose ningle' accounted for much of the indulgent noodling. Comparisons made with Jimmy Page (unfavourable). Second Coming is nevertheless much better than its detractors suggest. Squire pens nine of the 12 tracks alone, including the 11-minute plus Breaking Into Heaven, the majestical pop of Ten Storey Love Song and the swampy riff of Love Spreads.
'Second Coming got panned, yeah, but a lot of people have recanted since. I mean, it's not exactly without merit, is it ?
'I don't think Breaking Into Heaven is too long, as some people have said, but I think some of the other shorter songs would have benefited from a bit of creative editing. They're generally overlong and overwordy - I got into this habit of using four verses when two would have done. When we did get into the studio it was overworked because we had too much time and too much money. The overwriting can't be blamed for that, though, because most of it was done before we went into the studio.
'Some things were very live though. Daybreak was a demo, recorded in this little rehearsal room at a nightclub called Clapton's in Tintwhistle near Glossop. It started off as an instrumental jam, and Ian put lyrics to back at Rockfield. That's me improvising. You'd like more of that ? Well, that was the sort of thing that me, Reni and Mani would play all the time.
'The high points on Second Coming, for me, are the lyrical content of Your Star Will Shine and the riff to Driving South. I can play it properly now. Quite "Pagey" ? Yeah. Doesn't detract from the riff, though.'
'The low point, with the benefit of hindsight, is, of course, that it destroyed the band.'
But, guitar wise, what would he do again, given the chance ?
'Do again ? (mutters)
Over my dead body…
THE SEAHORSES
DO IT YOURSELF
(1997)
With new colleagues Chris Helme, Andy Watts and Stuart Fletcher, Squire contrives a distinctly lighter sound, and lyrics concerning giant squid, Weetabix and (ahem) nipples and knickers confirm a new-found levity. Comparisons made with Cast (ludicrous). Squire's intro chords to The Boy In The Picture - Bm to Bmadd9/Bb to D - cheekily copy Stairway To Heaven. Helme's vocal inflections have some observers judging DIY 'electric folk', though Squire shows he can still turn out 24 carat rock riffs with Love Is The Law. Squire pens eight tracks (Love Me And Leave Me with Liam Gallagher), while ex-busker Helme exhibits considerable mettle with three songs, including latest single Blinded By The Sun.
'I made an effort to be a lot more concise,' says Squire. 'I didn't feel the need to solo endlessly on this record. I think I can say as much on one guitar track now as I used to on four.
'We're working on an extension of Love Is The Law… it was a log longer at first, with a big improvised section, but Tony Visconti suggested it was edited down. We've been spending our time just getting The Seahorses set together, but I think it's time now to go out on a wire. Long improvisations were something I used to do with The Roses - as on Daybreak - and I'm starting to miss that now. We'll probably end up with egg on our faces nine times of of ten, but it's worth the risk - you can end up with some fantastic moments.
'The bad bits ? There are a few tuning discrepancies on The Boy in The Picture, probably because of those high frets I had put on my Les Paul. I'm pulling it a bit out of tune on that. I really like I Want You To Know (penned by Helme and Fletcher), when it breaks down without drums; Tony Visconti put on this Mellotron keyboard which sounds like something off an old Czechoslovakian horror film. The theremin on that's good, too. We all tried to see who was the most naturally gifted theremin player and Tony won. They're very strange, theremins; it's another step removed from fretless, isn't it ?; there's no physical contact at all. You can get vibrato by wiggling your knuckles ! Excellent.'
JOHN SQUIRE'S GUITARS
Squire's got through so many guitars over the years that he says he can't even remember his first electric. Still, he has fond enough memories of his tentative beginnings to recall a Satellite and Aria LP-ish cheapies, though by the time he'd set his sights on being in a band he'd invested in a Hofner 335-style semi; I've still got it,' he grins, 'But I've, erm, painted it with a splash of household gloss.'
The Gretsch Country Gentleman that features on the inside of The Stone Roses sleeve was a live favourite, but John Leckie vetoed its use for the album's recording, 'He said it was too woolly, and he was right. For a lot of the first album I hired in a pink '60s Stratocaster which I ended up buying because it sounded so good. The Gretsch went missing…
By the time Second Coming was underway Squire's main guitar was a sunburst '59 Les Paul Standard (see Roses cover feature in July '95's TGM, vol 5 no7) which was previously owned by (rock 'n'rooooooll !) Cheap Trick's Rick Nielson. 'The neck looked unplayable at first, it was so chipped - like a map of the Swedish coast.' Squire grins. 'But it sounded really nice. I don't know too much about guitars - I could easily be sold a fake - but I know when one sounds special.' When the Roses business affairs were liquidated, the '59 sunburst was sold as, strictly speaking, it was band property; 'I think it's in Japan now; in a bank vault, probably.'
For Do It Yourself John splashed out on a '57 Les Paul Goldtop (see left, from the inside sleeve of DIY), twangled a Gordon-Smith GS 12-string and borrowed Chris Helme's '73 Tele for many of the overdubs. For live use, he mostly totes a black '59 Les Paul Custom; 'They were sold as 'fretless wonders', weren't they,' he comments. 'When I first bought it the frets were like chewing gum wrappers, so I had some high ones put in. It's now got Sperzel machineheads, and I replaced the bridge 'cos the old ones' saddles fall out every time you change the strings. It's not quite as warm as the sunburst '59 was - it's a bit more spiky. And I don't use or need the three pickups, to be honest… I keep the selector down (voicing middle and treble humbuckers) all the time.'
Squire's natural finish 'Les Paul Custom' isn't, in fact, a Gibson at all, but a custom-ordered guitar built for Squire by Doncaster-based luthier Stewart Palmer.
'I don't think of it as a Custom,' Palmer tells TGM, 'I think of it as a '59 Les Paul with an extra middle pick-up. It took about a year to make, on and off; it's as close as we could get to a '59 spec. We used one-piece Brazilian mahogany for the back and neck, and a flamed maple top; even the headstock facing is wholly like the originals. John was very specific, he wanted it to be exactly the same. We used Brazilian rosewood, which is really hard to get hold of, for the fingerboard and it's got crown inlays with high gauge (Jim Dunlop 6100) fretwire. If I remember correctly, the pickups are '57 Classics - the ones Gibson used on the Historic Collection guitars.
The natural finish was a foible of Squire's. 'I like the feel of a plain oiled neck, but, yeah, I wanted that bald look, too' - but the quickness of the process was also a boon. 'I didn't think I was going to get the guitar ready for The Seahorses' tour', says Palmer, 'but because the finish is quick to do I just about managed it - it went out from my workshop straight to the venue for the first date !'
Palmer also built Squire's Strat/Jag mutant guitars, one sunburst, one white, which John played at the 'baggy Woodstock' TM Spike Island gig and waved around in The Roses' One Love video. Squire says the body shape was inspired by Fender 5-string basses, but the luthier reveals that the body is simply the horns of a Strat stuck to the lower body of a Jaguar. The neck is from the dismembered Jaguar. This was years before Kurt Cobain's JagStang,' points out Palmer cheekily, 'only we did it horizontally !'
'It was a real back-breaker,' grins Squire. 'At the time, I just wanted anything to avoid using Les Pauls; it was the whole Clapton, Page, Jeff beck, Slash thing - everyone seemed to have a Les Paul at some period and I spent a lot of time trying to avoid that. But I can see now why so many people use them. They sound right for the way I play, and they're comfortable.
Much of Do It Yourself was recorded using American Kendrick valve amps, with occasional squawks from a Fender Blues Deluxe and a vintage 8-watt Gibson combo belonging to engineer Rob Jacobs. The Kendricks, however, have not held up to the rigours of touring; although Squire mostly used Fender Twins in his Roses days, he now relies on good 'ol Marshall stacks. A Leslie rotating speaker cab is another Squire 'must have' - 'you can hear it on Standing On Your Head, Happiness Is Egg Shaped, Love Me Or Leave Me, Love Is The Law… and I use it on stage too.' Apart from that his only effects are a small EQ boost pedal and, for 'anarchic' sounds, a pitch shifter.
Although he insists he's no collector, Squire is increasingly acquiring pukka antique guitar finery; latest additions include a late '60s sunburst 335 12-string, a '50s Gretsch practice amp, a pristine '60s Fender Champ and 'this strange 1948 Gibson combo with a detachable head. I don't think it has a name, but it's got a tweed cover with an orange stripe going down the front. That sounds wicked - it's got a real ZZ Top sound.'
ZZ Top ! Coo. So, if someone gave Squire a big fat cheque tomorrow, what would be on the shopping list, eh ? A mint '50 Fender Broadcaster, perchance ?
'I got one the other day, actually. A big fat cheque, that is. I'm not going to spend it on guitars, though…'
Back To part one