The Stone Roses - Classic or Dud? And also, Search and Destroy?

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united rockers and ravers

I hear they were all fighting with chains and then I am the Resurrection came on and they put them down and started raving together to the 4 minute guitar outro.

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dear Ronan

I was trying to make the point to that other chap that Spacemen were heavily influenced by narcotics when they wrote music and as such, their prospective audience was stroke is likely to have similar interests.

I think perhaps you may be presupposing I am against such interests. Where does it say so in my ranting that this is so?

Don't be such a dufus. My references to Spacemen were used to underline my point that the music of the Roses was stroke is more open to mass consumption (though through no 'fault' of the band or sinister marketing tactic) than that of the Spacemen since the Roses' music was arguably less obviously informed by getting fucked up.

Although having said that, now that I think on it... I'm not so sure about that last bit. The Roses were crazy for it... Perhaps it is more oblique in their musical trajectory than in that of the Spacemen though. Or perhaps getting fucked up was less important to the music.

Anyway, chill mothafucka.

Roger fascist, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

but unless you are keen on a wee bit of narcotic indulgence, you're not gonna dig shit like the Spacemen

That's what I had the problem with, because it's just not really true and there's no sensible defence for it unless you think Spacemen 3 are shit and are being sarcy, which I doubt. I am chilled but I just think it's funny.

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I happen to be listening to Spiritualized right now, under no narcotic influence beyond a bit of hot chocolate an hour ago, and it's rapturously wonderful. Claims that drugs are needed for such enjoyment are lazy crap, full stop.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

If Spacemen 3 had called their albums by different names you wouldn't be able to say for sure that their music was influenced by drug usage (you still aren't, really FOR SURE 100%), the fact that it sounds like it was to you is only your opinion, someone else could think it sounds like it was "influenced" by some other activity, maybe even one less steeped in rock heritage than being fucked on drugs.

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Perhaps I am guilty of some oversimplification or laziness as you say Mr Raggett. Of course I would never presume that it was required to be fucked out of your head to appreciate ANY music (did you really think that's what I was saying??? Come on!!!).

In future I will try to be more clear but I presumed perhaps foolishly, that it would be apparent what was being said between the lines ie: this fucking point about the Roses music being less informed and tuned to narcotic intake.

And as a footnote, there is absolutely no way Spacemen made music without narcotics. No way.

Roger Fascist, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

raggett take more drugs now

mark s, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeah Roger, I know that's absolutely certain but the point is it's irrelevent what they did when they were making the music. Who gives a shit.

You don't know they took drugs because of how the music sounds(this is impossible), you know because it's well reported.

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wrong. Of course you can 'hear' drugs in music. Jesus Christ what are you talking about??? You might not be 100% certain but as a listener you can have a pretty well-informed guess. Have a think about that last claim you made man, cos it's disappointingly wide of the mark (clue: psychedelia, Happy Hardcore).

Roger Fascist, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

raggett take more drugs now

A command or a suggestion? ;-)

I really couldn't care whether during recording Spacemen 3 took enough mind-altering substances to choke a horse or not, the point is that I don't need them myself to enjoy the end results. That they loved their candy is pretty clear; I'm hardly beholden to follow them.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Stone Roses are the worst band in the history of bands except CSNY and the MC5.

david h(0wie), Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I reckon some 'psychedelic' music though was made by people who hadn't actually taken acid but had an idea of what it might be like.

Where are all those threads about dance music and E? I'm sure Ronan weighed in on those too.

Tom, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

''Stone Roses are the worst band in the history of bands except CSNY and the MC5.''

they are the late 80s version of CSNY for sure.

david- now go and put a good rec on: like big black's 'Steelworker'.

julio Desouza, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Also - I can 'hear' drugs in music that I've never actually taken. This is because I've heard enough music - and read about that music enough - to know what a record 'influenced by heroin' might sound like. But I've no idea how much that sound actually maps onto the experience of taking heroin. (I have taken acid and I know that most 'psychedelic' music maps onto the acid experience incredibly poorly, for instance.) Even so I could, if I was a musician, make a record that sounds like 'heroin music' with no actual drug experience - i.e. the musical 'vocabulary' of drugs has broken away from any roots in actually doing drugs it might have had.

Tom, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

You might not be 100% certain but as a listener you can have a pretty well-informed guess

There's a difference between hearing something and deciding that it shows an understanding of how someone on E/whatever drug appreciates music, and being able to decide that something was made while the person was fucked.

For your claim to be true about any single genre in the world, everyone would have to hear things in the same way you do. Is that the case?

Whether something "sounds like it was made on E", "sounds like the Velvet Underground", or "sounds like metallica getting fucked in a blender" depends on who's listening.

Also the fact that being on E, for example, makes pretty much anything pleasurable means that "they made this on e" or "they made this for people on E" pretty meaningless. Of course I can say, as I have "Orbital is the perfect music for being on Ecstacy" and lots of people might agree, but only really because they like Orbital anyway.

The point I'm making is, any artist whose aspiration was "to make music for people on E" hasn't set his heights very high, in fact has no sights at all. Just because an artist wanting to make the perfect dance song or almost any type of dance song is going to end up appealing to people on E anyway this doesn't mean this has to be part of his intentions.

You're just working backwards from fans to producers.

And while it IS true that lots of happy hardcore people did do E (99 percent probably) it's impossible to say that based solely on their music and comments like "god they were fucked when they wrote this" I bet are only based on people's preconceptions and the stereotypes which surround a particular scene eg rock/hash dance/e etc etc etc etc.

You can hear drugs in music? Bullshit, you can make an interpretation based on all sorts of things periphery to the music, but that's all it is. And since there's a MILLION other factors which make someone write a song (it's a thought process, try and fucking quantify it we'll be here all day) it's worth nothing and can never be wholly proven.

Well, all it's worth is a discussion about whether the band were "so baked" or weren't "so baked" and since I'm not in college for the summer I'd rather not fucking go there.

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

(also worth noting, this is the second time in a post on the same topic where someone has assumed I'm actually defending drug usage when I'm criticising the more silly aspects of it)

I will say I think you'd have to do a fucking stupid amount of drugs to start thinking they were needed for anyone to like some music you like. (like Spacemen 3)

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

there seems to be some overlap in whether we are meaning 'the band were obviously on drugs' and 'the audience were on drugs', and does one neccesarily follow the other?

i was thinking about dego & mac (manix/reinforced) stuff and how incredibly druggy it sounds, but why does it? they themselves were not only non-e takers, but, i believe, possibly anti-e? (in which case, why make music that plays on e preconceptions/sounds? or are they even e sounds at all?), but their music does sound woozy/hyper mdma style to me - am i feeding that through my own experience rather than imagining theirs? of course, i only have my own experiences to filter things through

they were playing this is the one on the commonwealth games on tv, and it sounded better than i remember it (this is the only song of theirs that still sounds 'manchester' - the rest seems to have been co-opted by the rest of the country, so they don't 'seem' like a manchester band anymore - unlike, say, happy mondays, the fall or john cooper clarke who somehow seem more evocative fo m'cr)

gareth, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

there seems to be some overlap in whether we are meaning 'the band were obviously on drugs' and 'the audience were on drugs', and does one neccesarily follow the other?

That's what I've been trying to say. There is no way of knowing the band were on drugs without hearing it for certain from a newspaper or something. Your own ears aren't even trustworthy, just like the way if you say "this sounds like band x" it isn't a fact, or "band x are good".

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

ok kids, have we had our Fun With Trolls for the day? why bother?

Dave M., Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't think Rodge necessarily fits into the troll category, despite his screen name, I mean the guy was engaging in musical conversation, same as anyone else here really, and I don't think he was necessarily trying to irritate people.

Ronan, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

seemed pretty closed-minded to me...then again, so am i

Dave M., Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorry I had to leave the rather cyclical ranting. I think everybody was talking at cross-purposes to be perfectly frank, earnest.

I can't really remember what I was arguing now but might I make a few points

1: Drugs (or at least the imbuement of substances and the heightening of the senses via external stimuli) and music have always gone together.

2: I am not a troll, I am a fascist. Close minded? Rather not prepared to accept the warblings of the blind.

3: The Stone Roses rock. CSNY are phenomenal (for at least their first two albums - c'mon, 'Deja Vu' - right off the first track and that Neil organ breakdown with David's bass working up the scale you know it's classic, you know it) and the MC5 are vastly overrated.

4: Nobody said nuthin' about the necessity for getting high to appreciate music so don't get all excited.

5: Errr

6: Ah.

7: Hello.

Roger Fascist, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

but unless you are keen on a wee bit of narcotic indulgence, you're not gonna dig shit like the Spacemen

Nobody said nuthin' about the necessity for getting high to appreciate music so don't get all excited.

Sorry what was that? I'm dead excited now! Going mad I am. It's nice to see you can still remain calm though cos you might be able to give one distinct meaning for the bullshit sentence that is "drugs and music have always gone together". Yeah rock on man, then the ravers and rockers were united with the drugs and we all got fucking wasted. Hey rodge do you do pills man? We should go out some time and bang loads of pills! Yeah wicked! Cool! Pills!

Ronan, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ronan man, I already explained that the Spacemen comment was intended to underline a specific point that we already got well into. Let it go. Please. You are right - there were no rockers or ravers who were blown away with Fools Gold and the Stone Roses are shit.

And no, I never pilled in my life kid. Straight up. That's how wide of the mark you are and that's why I said I think there might be some cross purpose talk here.

Roger Fascist, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I wasn't really that interested in knowing that I just wanted some decent answers or something less glib than that pretty lame list. And I'm happy now.

Ronan, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

ronan kill this fascist.

Julio Desouza, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

You want to kill me??? Part of me hopes you are joking Jules. If not, I hear the true rhetoric of a fascist. Are you offended by my name? Or can't you comprehend how someone would like CSNY or the Roses? Is my attachment to these bands an affront to you in some way? What is the angle? Where is your tolerance? Although you may not 'like' whoever you happen to think I 'am' the opinions I have expressed on this board are hardly enough to warrant a death sentence, albeit one from a university student. Perhaps I should have chosen a less inflamatory stroke satirical name, though I think I might have upset Ronan when I said the Prodigy's latest single is "Absolute Gash." Sorry 'bout that. But it is.

Roger Fascist, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

i am joking...your statements are quite funny (though it could unintentional). I like the name actually.

the roses are really bad though and your enthusiasm for some of the bands (evevn the stuff i love like hendrix is kinda cartoonish).

Julio Desouza, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

haha you didn't upset me, and I didn't care that you don't like it, it's more the total uselessness of the comment itself that I picked up on. I know lots of people who don't like the Prodigy whom I could ask "what do you think of the prodigy" for an answer as dull as that one. If you're going to slate something at least do it with a bit of wit.

Ronan, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ah, the unfettered enthusiasm of a true fan I'm afraid. Cartoonish is perhaps an slightly disparaging description, but perhaps it's just my English reserve you're getting there.

Anyhoows, Ronan, I'm sorry my gash comment didn't amuse. I must say I thought it was quite funny in it's utter disregard. Still, you can't please all of the peole all of the time or whatever. As you say, I will attempt to employ more wit on the next ocassion I offer a critique of the artless self-parodying, marketing exercise of a tired, once great dance outfit.

Roger Fascist, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Well that last paragraph didn't kill you did it.

Ronan, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

''but perhaps it's just my English reserve you're getting there''

I am english though i am in toronto at the moment (will be back in 10 days when this account will go). I thought you were american actually.

Julio Desouza, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

ouch.

The Actual Mr. Jones, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

ok desouza, this time you've gone too far! i'm not even american and i'm offended by that.

Dave M., Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

it's just...OK I won't go there actually.

Julio Desouza, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

two years pass...
Lloyd Cole on the Roses:

"I don't have the venom of old, but I still hate the first Stone Roses album as much as ever. They were just a bunch of car thieves. Nothing wrong with being a car thief as long as you don't make crap records.
Overrated rubbish."

tee hee!

Bumfluff, Friday, 6 August 2004 12:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Can I just say "OUCH" for the Stone Roses

Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 6 August 2004 12:55 (nineteen years ago) link

... and, believe me, when it comes to making crap records and being overrated rubbish Lloyd Cole knows what he's talking about

Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 6 August 2004 12:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Aye, but he knows fuck all about nicking cars.
Roses 1 Cole 0

Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 6 August 2004 13:32 (nineteen years ago) link

*senses a Pinefox looming in the distance*

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 6 August 2004 14:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I'd take The Stone Roses' first album over everything Lloyd Cole ever even got within breathing distance of, and probably then some.

Why do cut-rate talents like Lloyd Cole try and piss on the Roses? Do they think it makes them sound edgy and revolutionary? Cos really it just makes them sound bitter and jealous...

rentboy (rentboy), Friday, 6 August 2004 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link

jealous of the stone roses! Ha!

danh (danh), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:11 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...
Well I think they're great. I love both Lps but prefer the 1st one. I wonder if John Squire had listened to Cane and Abels 'Girl You Move Me' before writing 'Breaking Into Heaven'. It's not that they have the same tune or anything, it's just they have a spookily similar feel and arrangement. they've both got that sort of initial 'siren (i know it's not a siren it's a guitar but if you listen to both you'll see what I mean) then the slow build with echoey guitar trills that builds to a loose funky wah wah shuffle. Then the big chorus and widdly guitar at the end.

babysquid (babysquid), Friday, 23 June 2006 09:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I tend to listen to The Second Coming more now than the 1st. Saw them on that tour and they were fantastic. If they dropped 2 of the acoustic songs in the middle it wouldve been a better more cohesive album IMO.
Very underrated album. I think Melody Maker was the only good review it got.
Most people didn't like it because it wasnt full of nice 3/4 min pop songs.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Friday, 23 June 2006 10:00 (seventeen years ago) link

I got it originally on 2LP and was disappointed. (but not as, as a lot of people)

Much later, I got it on CD and thought it fine indeed.

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 June 2006 10:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Search the entire original "Stone Roses" album. Destroy the rest apart from "Ten Storey Lovesong".

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 23 June 2006 11:18 (seventeen years ago) link

*fakes shock that Geir doesn't rate Begging You*

Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 23 June 2006 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link

kinda dud.never fully understood why they are considerd classic.

emekars (emekars), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link

the first album is great. (never heard the second.) it definately stands the test of time.

marbles (marbles), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link

roflol @ awesome julio in his bad-tempered phase, and ronan tag-teaming rogfascist, upthread.

I could probably pull out a few tracks I still like - the 2nd album has more good stuff than the 1st, I think. I kind of like the less as the years pass though. They're another band who fucked up, and who could probably have done much better than they did, though admittedly they had some excuse in this case w/the rotten deal they got.

The drummer, by the time of the second album, was amazing. One of the few great british rock drummers of the nineties.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 23 June 2006 14:02 (seventeen years ago) link

why would they bother with a new album, they'll make more money just doing shows

Οὖτις, Monday, 2 November 2015 19:17 (eight years ago) link

Really amazing how this band stays in the news year after year without actually doing anything.

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 3 November 2015 00:10 (eight years ago) link

Yeah, I completely agree... this band seem to have "not actually doing much" down to a fine art, and to be quite honest it was a bit like this when they were in existence the first time around, so they've hardly fucked with the formula. Of course, there's many that would say that The Stone Roses "not actually doing much" is a good thing.

I'll be honest here: I have a lot of time for the self-titled Stone Roses album, possibly even more time for the B-sides and additional singles of their 1987-1991 period, and I even enjoy quite a lot of cuts from Second Coming. When I do listen to The Stone Roses, most of the appeal for me comes from what the rhythm section is doing, particularly Reni.

HOWEVER, I will never understand why some folks rate them as highly as they do. As great as Reni's drumming can be, the self-titled Roses album is more '60s pastiche than a fusion of "indie" and dance music to my ears. Their most widely-regarded track, the so-called "baggy anthem" 'Fool's Gold', is basically nothing more than a funk lick grafted onto a well-worn drum loop and to be quite honest, I find it to be one of their more overrated songs. Also, as pleasant as their 1987-1991 stuff is, there's nothing there that's particularly out of the ordinary, and some great performances by the rhythm section aside, it sounds even more and more ordinary with each passing year.

The hardcore Roses fanbase, too, particularly post-Oasis, seems to be made up of a large percentage of laddish tosspots.

Turrican, Tuesday, 3 November 2015 18:48 (eight years ago) link

Or, to slightly quote Neil Tennant, they've made such a little go a very long way.

Turrican, Tuesday, 3 November 2015 18:49 (eight years ago) link

meanwhile in America, practically no one I know has ever heard of them. Sounds like a lot of Brits would enjoy that circumstance...

skip, Tuesday, 3 November 2015 19:29 (eight years ago) link

Basically, they have a very, very, very over-inflated reputation here that doesn't correspond with what they've actually done, and that's something I guess that rankles people a lot, especially at this stage.

Turrican, Tuesday, 3 November 2015 19:37 (eight years ago) link

Always surprised that "Fools Gold" doesn't get a pass from haters, it's the best baggy song by a zillion miles, funky, minimal, deee-lite covering can

brimstead, Tuesday, 3 November 2015 19:38 (eight years ago) link

I really think the first album is pretty much flawless, in terms of guitar pop. If they hadn't released Second Coming, their mystique would be a little more understandable

brimstead, Tuesday, 3 November 2015 19:39 (eight years ago) link

have always liked "i wanna be adored" but it's nothiing that the bunnymen hadn't already done five years earlier. rest of the first album makes a good case for them being the missing link between the wonder stuff and dodgy

Haino Corrida (NickB), Tuesday, 3 November 2015 20:03 (eight years ago) link

seven years pass...

And now, the live TV broadcast you've all been waiting for. The Stone Roses!

...at Reading '96.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7IE3yhhR0xpXt_iP4NIt9nRkosjGswde

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 February 2023 00:13 (one year ago) link

I didn’t really “get” the Sex Pistols influence with this band until I heard garage flowers

not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Tuesday, 14 February 2023 00:25 (one year ago) link

The worst concert ever on that stage.

Meanwhile, the best concert ever, on the other stage, at the exact same time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jst8yoqPTmo

you can see me from westbury white horse, Tuesday, 14 February 2023 04:15 (one year ago) link

that sounds like me singing along to that song in the car

the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Tuesday, 14 February 2023 04:18 (one year ago) link


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