For those who were musically aware during the late 80s and early 90s but not actual fans of The Stone Roses, there are two songs by the band that they will likely still know. The first of these is “I Wanna Be Adored”. The first single released after the band put out their debut album, The Stone Roses, “I Wanna Be Adored” is one of the Roses’ most beloved songs.
“I Wanna Be Adored” has a strange yet gripping intro. There are no distinguishable instruments for the first 40 seconds of the song, only a mysterious whirring mixture of noises. The best way I could describe the song’s opening sounds is the northern lights in sonic form. The noises’ dominance over the intro ends with the appearance of Mani’s bass. For a band as bass heavy as the Roses were, it is a big deal to award one of their songs the title of “best bassline”, but I have to give it to “I Wanna Be Adored”. Although it is very simple musically, the bassline absolutely makes the song, putting the listener into a hypnotic trance which only deepens with the first notes played by John Squire’s guitar. When I listen to this song I’ll often repeatedly rewind it to hear Squire’s intro over and over. The beginning of “I Wanna Be Adored” is second only to “Elephant Stone” in terms of Roses intros.
The lyrics of “I Wanna Be Adored” are very sparse. There are only three different lines in the main portion of the song. The first two, “I don’t have to sell my soul, he’s already in me”, make up the song’s verses, while the chorus contains the song’s titular line, “I wanna be adored”. While the chorus might fool listeners into thinking the song is about wanting to be loved, the true meaning is more apparent when one focuses on the verse lyrics. In the first two lines, the narrator discusses how he has been possessed by the devil. With this in mind, the “I wanna be adored” line sounds more like a confession of sin than the sigh of a hopeless romantic. The song ridicules those who are vainly obsessed with gaining the approval and adoration of others.
With its position as the first track on The Stone Roses’ legendary self-titled debut album, “I Wanna be Adored” has been the first Roses song that many, including myself, have ever heard. Before I started listening to the Roses, I had been a big fan of the band Oasis. I was listening to an interview with the lead singer of Oasis, Liam Gallagher, and he mentioned that he first knew he wanted to pursue a career in music after attending a Roses show in 1988. Trusting the word of the lee man, I decided to give them a listen starting with their debut album. I was skeptical of the band at first because of the slow buildup of “I Wanna be Adored”, but once that bassline began I was hooked.
Next week I will be discussing the closing track of The Stone Roses’ debut album: “I Am the Resurrection”.
In a 2009 interview with Clash Magazine, Brown explained that he “didn’t actually want people to adore me. I was trying to say then, if you want to be adored, it’s like a sin, like lust or gluttony or something like that.”