Line #75 Music/TheStoneRoses


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sr2.jpg]]
2
3	->''"The past was yours but the future's mine''
4	->''You're all out of time"''
5	-->--"She Bangs the Drums"
6
7	The Stone Roses are an AlternativeRock band from [[UsefulNotes/FootballPopMusicAndFlatCaps Manchester]], known primarily for being the TropeCodifier for the Madchester movement in the late [[TheEighties eighties]] and early [[TheNineties nineties]], despite the fact that they [[BlatantLies did not consider themselves members of the Madchester scene]]. They're as revered in the native UK as Music/{{Nirvana}} is in the States.
8
9	Their style is largely a mixture of indie rock, psychedelic rock and dance music. Its defining traits are bright, catchy [[TheSixties sixties]]-style guitar riffs, a very funky rhythm section supplying good beats that you can dance to, slightly [[Music/TheBeatles Beatlesque]] vocals, frequent [[EpicRocking extended songs]] and a heavy influence from PsychedelicRock.
10
11	The band's key lineup, as seen in the picture above from left to right, was:
12	* Ian Brown, vocals (second, with the DullSurprise stare)
13	* John Squire, guitars and artwork (third, with the wannabe-sixties haircut)
14	* Mani[[note]]real name: Gary Mounfield[[/note]], bass (first, looking vaguely contaminated)
15	* Reni[[note]]real name: Alan Wren[[/note]], drums and backing vocals (fourth, fella with the bucket hat)
16
17	The band was formed in 1984 by Brown and John Squire, its initial lineup including Reni and [[ThePeteBest two other dudes who aren't important]] (guitarist Andy Couzens, bassist Pete Garner). [[BlatantLies They initially wasted time]] as a gloomy, synth-heavy goth-rock band inspired by Music/JoyDivision, but permanently changed their sound in 1987 by firing the unimportant dudes and bringing in Mani, which led to them discovering their SignatureStyle, "PsychedelicRock you can dance to".
18
19	Now signed with Silvertone Records and working with producer John Leckie, their debut album ''[[Music/TheStoneRosesAlbum The Stone Roses]]'' was released in 1989 to massive critical acclaim and huge commercial success, and is still regarded today as one of the best British albums and best debuts ever. The record spawned several successful singles, such as "I Wanna Be Adored", "She Bangs the Drums" and "Waterfall", all major hits on both the UK Singles Chart and the newly implemented Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. The Stone Roses embarked on a successful tour of England, which culminated in a huge outdoor gig on Spike Island attended by 27.000 people on 27 May 1990 (plagued by bad organisation and sound problems), and continued to release singles.
20
21	Soon, the band decided to capitalise on their newfound success by moving to a major label, but Silvertone refused to let them out of their contract. An injunction filed in September 1990 prevented the band from recording with another label and started a long legal conflict between the band and Silvertone. The band eventually won in court and moved to Creator/GeffenRecords, but the conflict blocked their activity at a critical time and slowed down their career by forcing them out of public view. In the meantime, Silvertone released the compilation ''Turns into Stone'' in 1992, containing all the non-album singles released until that point mixed with B-sides and new material, and [[MoneyDearBoy re-released the band's previous singles as well]].
22
23	The sessions for a new album finally commenced in 1993 but were repeatedly hampered by personal turmoil, culminating in Leckie's departure and the relocation to Wales with engineers Simon Dawson and Paul Schroeder. The album, entitled ''Second Coming'' (AKA the [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead "I like it."]] album), was finally released in 1994, seeing the Stone Roses break from their colourful, psychedelic dance-rock and moving towards a heavy blues-rock sound patterned after Music/LedZeppelin and Music/JimiHendrix. The album drew a lukewarm reception with critics (a main criticism towards it being "endless soloing" on Squire's behalf) and only moderate commercial success, although first single "Love Spreads" became the band's highest charting single in their entire career.
24
25	The album's resulting tour was disastrous and saw their gradual disintegration, with Reni leaving in March 1995 (replaced by Robbie Maddix) and Squire leaving in April 1996 (replaced by session guitarist Aziz Ibrahim). After two infamously bad performances at Benicassim and Reading festivals in August that year, the group was finally disbanded by Brown and Mani in October 1996.
26
27	Ian Brown thereafter continued with a solo career, Squire carried on for a while with a new band The Seahorses before retiring from music in favour of painting, Mani joined Music/PrimalScream, and Reni... [[ReclusiveArtist kinda fell off the face of the planet or something.]]
28
29	While The Stone Roses' moment in the sun only lasted about two and half years and Madchester collapsed very quickly, their music remains critically acclaimed today, and their combination of Sixties-style guitar riffs and dance rhythms proved to be highly influential on {{Britpop}}. Music/{{Oasis}} frontmen Noel and Liam Gallagher in particular are self-professed fans of the Stone Roses. The bandmembers themselves liked Oasis in return (Squire showed up at one of their concerts to play additional guitar on "Champagne Supernova" and Oasis borrowed Stone Roses equipment during the recording of ''Definitely Maybe''), but disliked the rest of the Britpop scene, calling them "Kensington art-wankers".
30
31	On the 18th of October 2011, the band reunited and embarked on a world tour. They released two new singles in 2016, "All For One" and "Beautiful Thing", their first new material in decades, and then toured until June 2017. At that time, Brown made cryptic remarks indicating that the band had split again, with Squire confirming the breakup in a 2019 interview.
32
33	In 2024, John Squire would join [[Music/{{Oasis}} Liam Gallagher]] to make a new album together.
34
35	!! Discography
36	* 1989 - ''[[Music/TheStoneRosesAlbum The Stone Roses]]''
37	** Which was remastered and re-released for the MilestoneCelebration in 2009.
38	* 1992 - ''Turns into Stone'' (compilation of non-album singles, B-sides and new material)
39	* 1994 - ''Second Coming''
40
41	There's also ''Garage Flower'', an OldShame 1996 release of an album originally recorded in 1985 with Martin Hannett and showing them in their initial crappy PostPunk incarnation, some [=EPs=] (''Sally Cinammon'' and ''Crimson Tonight''), some singles remixed by Silvertone without the band's approval and some cheap cash-in compilations (''The Complete Stone Roses'' and ''The Very Best of the Stone Roses'' - the latter at least had band input into song selection).
42
43	----
44	!! I Wanna Be Troped:
45	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Turns into Stone'' is named after the final line of "One Love".
46	* ArtImitatesArt: The B-side of "Made of Stone", "Going Down", references Jackson Pollock's No. 5, 1948. Pollock's paintings influenced the cover art that guitarist John Squire made for the single and the album.
47	* AuthorAppeal: Republicanism, the May 1968 student riots in Paris.
48	* BrickJoke: A musical example of this shows up in the [[EpicRocking 8-minute long]] "I Am the Resurrection". The first three minutes are dominated by a Motown-influenced groove with a catchy, descending bassline. After Ian Brown finishes his vocals, the band launch into an epic 5-minute funk-rock improvisation. And towards the end, Mani works in the descending bassline again.
49	* CapitalismIsBad: "What the World Is Waiting For" isn't particularly subtle with its imagery, with the donkey here symbolising an exploited proletariat:
50	--> Here comes the donkey\
51	Chained to a ten ton plough\
52	He'll never make that hill in a million years\
53	Whip crack beating down\
54	\
55	He loves his brother\
56	But he'd sell him for a fistful of gold\
57	He needs a slave for his vision of the promised land\
58	No, I don't believe a word
59	* ChildhoodFriends: Ian and John knew each other from Altrincham Grammar School for Boys. They became friends when Ian helped John in a fight against the school bully.
60	* ContinuityNod: "Fool's Gold", "What the World Is Waiting For" and "One Love" all recycle the same drum beat [[{{Sampling}} sampled]] from "Hot Pants" by Bobby Byrd.
61	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Second Coming'', especially "Begging You". There is a '''''lot''''' of debate over whether the DarkerAndEdgier shift was successful.
62	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Their first single "So Young" demonstrates a very different aggressive punk style than their later material with Reni in particular showcasing a more exuberant drumming style.
63	* EchoingAcoustics: Hey, check out the eighties gated reverb on the drums on ''[[Music/TheStoneRosesAlbum The Stone Roses]]''.
64	* TheEndingChangesEverything: "Sally Cinnamon" is a sweet-natured, pleasant-sounding bubblegum pop song about the titular Sally. Then it gets to the third verse and reveals the protagonist is just wistfully reading a letter he found on a train and fantasizing about the unknown woman it's addressed to.
65	* EpicRocking: "I Am the Resurrection" (8:15), "Fool's Gold" (9:55), "One Love" (7:46), "Something's Burning" (7:46), "Breaking into Heaven" (11:21), "Daybreak" (6:33), "Tears" (6:50), "Love Spreads" (5:46), and "Beautiful Thing" (7:02). Emphasis on the "epic" part.
66	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Ian is melancholic, John is choleric, Mani is Sanguine, Reni is Phlegmatic.
67	* GenreMashup: [[PsychedelicRock Psychedelic]] FunkRock. They also incorporated dance music, acid house, alternative rock, several different strains of pop, hard rock, and more into their style, making them somewhat difficult to classify. Many critics just settle on "Madchester" or "{{Britpop}}", though they have actually denied being part of the former movement.
68	* GenreShift: ''Second Coming'', a HardRock[=/=]BluesRock album with techno bits.
69	* GoldFever: "Fool's Gold" is loosely based on this trope. Ian himself admitted it was inspired by ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre''.
70	* HiddenTrack: "The Foz" is hidden after 12 (or more, depending upon the release) short silent tracks on ''Second Coming''. Presumably just to mess with the listener, there are eight more tracks of silence after ''that'' too, with nothing else hidden after them this time.
71	* IconicItem: Reni frequently wore bucket hats while with the band, to the point that they're now nicknamed "Reni hats".
72	* LeadDrummer, LeadBassist: To some extent, Mani and Reni are Type A and Type D. They don't necessarily overshadow Squire, but they do somewhat overshadow Brown; they are both exceptionally skilled musicians, and their instruments are foundational to the Roses' music, given their emphasis on rhythm. Reni's instrumental prowess is particularly acclaimed; [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]] once called him "the most natural drummer I've seen since Keith Moon".
73	* LimitedLyricsSong: Several of their songs qualify, but "I Wanna Be Adored" is the most extreme, since it basically consists of variations of four lines: "I don't have to sell my soul/He's already in me", "I wanna be adored", and "You adore me". Sometimes Brown sings "I don't ''need'' to sell my soul" or "I ''gotta'' be adored" instead, but these are minor variations.
74	* LongestSongGoesLast: "I Am the Resurrection" (8:15) was the last song on the [[Music/TheStoneRosesAlbum self-titled album]]. In the U.S., the album was reissued in 1990 with "Fool's Gold" added to the end after that song became a moderate hit, but the trope still applied, since "Fool's Gold" runs for 9:55. ''Second Coming'', for its part, inverts the trope, with "Breaking into Heaven" (11:21) as the first song on the album.
75	* LongRunnerLineup: Type 5: The band's best-known lineup of Brown, Squire, Mani, and Remi existed from 1987 to 1995, and reunited from 2011 to 2017.
76	* LyricalDissonance: Often.
77	** "Bye Bye Badman" is an upbeat pop-rock song about the May 1968 student riots in Paris.
78	** "Made of Stone" is another anthemic, catchy tune whose lyrics reference the 1968 riots again, especially using imagery of burning cars.
79	** "Shoot You Down" is laid-back funk-rock song about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin shooting someone down]], also mentioning about how said [[AssholeVictim victim always had it coming]].
80	** "Elizabeth My Dear" is a Music/SimonAndGarfunkel-style ballad (with the melody even borrowed from the old English folk tune "Scarborough Fair", which is most famous from Simon & Garfunkel's recording) about wanting to dethrone the Queen.
81	** "Ten Storey Love Song", which really isn't a love song at all, so much as the obsessive rantings of a creepy stalker frustrated that the object of his affection doesn't return his feelings; he seems convinced that it's self-evident that she should love him back and that there must be some kind of conspiracy by some nebulous "they" keeping them from being together.
82	* MinisculeRocking: "Elizabeth My Dear" is only 53 seconds long.
83	* MoodWhiplash: "One Love"'s verses are, in rough order: IntercourseWithYou-implying boasting, LSD-implying WordSaladLyrics, optimistic chorus, repeat.
84	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Second Coming'' eschewed their first album's acid house funk rock in favour of a shady, heavy blues rock sound.
85	* OopNorth: They're from Manchester, and Brown has a pretty thick accent at times.
86	* OvershadowedByAwesome: John, Mani and Reni are well-respected for their instrumental prowess (Reni at one point was called "the best drummer in indie"). Ian... is the singer. In some interpretations Ian gets cast as TheLoad because of his average vocals and infamous trouble with staying in tune while singing anywhere that isn't a recording studio (one reviewer said that in concert he sounded like a man who sang into a bucket).
87	* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: They spent a lot of time apparently watching football instead of working on their second album, which is why there was a five-year gap between their debut and ''Second Coming'', not counting the part where they had to waste two years in court to get out of their contract with Silvertone.
88	* TheQuietOne: John Squire would give complete silence during band interviews.
89	* RecordProducer: John Leckie is often credited as helping the Roses become awesome, which is quite justified when one hears the demos of the songs from their first album.
90	* ScrewDestiny: "Breaking into Heaven".
91	* SingleStanzaSong: "Elizabeth My Dear". Thirty words, less than a minute long, and extremely creepy.
92	* StopAndGo: "I Am the Resurrection". During the aforementioned epic 5-minute funky improv, at one point the band stop playing. There's a few seconds of silence before they start again as if nothing had happened.
93	* SubduedSection: Quite a few (example: "Standing Here").
94	* TakeThat: According to John Squire, "I am the Resurrection" was aimed at someone he and Ian Brown knew and hated.
95	* TitleOnlyChorus: "I Wanna Be Adored" and "This Is the One" are almost this trope.
96	* WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma: The back cover of ''Turns into Stone'' doesn't have apostrophes. This has served to confuse some fans into thinking the songs are actually called "Fools Gold" and "Somethings Burning".
97	* WhenSheSmiles: "Standing Here"'s chorus.
98	* WordSaladLyrics: Pretty frequent actually.
99	** "Don't Stop", due to being a more experimental composition: The band laid new instrumentation over a backwards recording of their song "Waterfall", complete with new lyrics based on what the reversed vocals sounded like.
100	--->''Here the sea spray give''
101	--->''I was with her''
102	--->''We're under the ship, so get me over''
103	--->''Now that was me''
104	--->''Now she fishes not''
105

Context Music / TheStoneRoses