I Am Without Shoes

This is a follow up to my post last week about the various backwards B-sides released by The Stone Roses in 1988-89. The version of Full Fathom Five I posted- Elephant Stone backwards if you recall- is the CD single version, with extra guitars added to the ghostly swirl. The original version, found on the 12" single, is different (fewer if any additional guitar parts). But what can also be discovered from the Elephant Stone 12" single is that if you reverse the version of Full Fathom Five you get the Peter Hook produced cut of Elephant Stone single i.e. before John Leckie mixed it. Hook's version is sparser and less produced, a truer version possibly, opening with a blare of Squire's wah-wah pedal. So what I'm getting from all of this is that the 12" version of Full Fathom Five is the Hook version of Elephant Stone played backwards and the CD single (and what Silvertone have served up in re-issues and re-releases ever since) is the Leckie version of Elephant Stone played backwards with extras.

  

There is also this which I had forgotten about until reminded by reader Michael- I Am Without Shoes...



I Am Without Shoes is She Bangs The Drums backwards with additional forwards words and is the equal of any of the other backwards B-sides. The fade in of backwards guitars and vocals at the start is a sort of slow-rush and the whole thing shimmers and burns.

The Youtube poster above has gone a step further, reversing the backwards version at 1.26 and adding it to the original backwards one, resulting in Ian's forwards vocals from She Bangs The Drums returning at the end. According to Google the additional forwards lyrics are...

'I'm serious
I want her
I have to be sure
I admit that I'd hate to die
Please help me
I am without shoes
I wouldn't be selfish
I cursed myself and they laughed
Please
I am Without Shoes

Yeah
I don't think I need to stare
Please help me
I am without shoes
I wouldn't be selfish
I cursed myself and they laughed
Please
I am Without Shoes

Yeah
I don't think I need to stare
Please'

These new forwards lyrics are fairly untypical Roses fare, possibly the result of Squire's backwards lyric writing method of writing down what the backwards vocals suggested once the tapes were switched around. The title went on to inspire a Charlatans song too, from 1997's Tellin' Stories.

I Am Without Shoes was sometimes used as their intro music when they took the stage during the long tour they did to promote the release of their album through the spring of 1989, the tour that broke them nationally, with increasingly positive and breathless press reporting building through to a gig at the ICA where Bob Stanley said he'd seen the light and finished his review with 'Sweet Jesus, The Stone Roses have arrived!'. On other occasions they entered to the trippy, rolling drums and bass and screeching sounds of this piece of music, built around a drum break from Small Time Hustler by Dismasters...

The Stone Roses Intro Music 

Next job is to put all these together- the intro tape, the two versions of Full Fathom Five, I Am Without Shoes, Guernica, Simone and Don't Stop.