The Stone Roses’ eight minute epic, “I Am the Resurrection”, must be one of the greatest album closers of all time. Easily the Roses’ most anthemic song, “I Am the Resurrection” and its many remixes were a favorite at Manchester raves in the late 80s and early 90s.
“I Am the Resurrection” begins with a short drum intro played by Reni until the song’s bassline, which is actually just the bassline to The Beatles’ “Taxman” played backwards, comes in. The drumming in this song is the most upbeat and punkish of any of the tracks from the Roses’ debut album. Ian Brown sings the first verse with just the bass and drums accompaniment before John Squire comes in on guitar. When the song gets to the chorus, the guitar part has an interesting sort of thumping sound to it that I really dig.
The arrangement of “I Am the Resurrection” differs from previous releases by the Roses that followed the traditional verse-chorus form. In “I Am the Resurrection”, there are three verses and choruses before the song goes into its culminating bridge. The song concludes with a nearly five minute jam that highlights the musical prowess of each of the band’s members. Brown even joins in on the bongos.
The lyrics of “I Am the Resurrection” describe a broken down relationship between two people, one of whom is the messiah. The song is told from the messianic narrator’s point of view and reads like a hate letter for most of the song, with the verses being filled with lines such as, “Stone me why can’t you see, you’re a no one no where washed up baby who’d look better dead.” The tone shifts in the bridge though, with the lines, “I am the resurrection and I am the life, I couldn’t ever bring myself to hate you as I’d like,” lampooning the narrator’s god-complex along with religion in general.
Although “She Bangs the Drums” is my favorite song by the Roses, I believe that “I Am the Resurrection” contains perhaps the greatest single minute of sound in the history of pop music. The song’s minute long bridge that precedes the instrumental outro caught me off guard the first time I listened to it. The first couple minutes of “I Am the Resurrection” are very rhythmic and somewhat rigid, but after the third chorus there is an unexpected drum fill that leads directly into the bridge with Brown proudly proclaiming, “I am the resurrection.” This is one of the best examples of how amazing the production is on the Roses’ debut. I can’t even really tell what’s going on for the most part, I just know that it sounds fantastic.
Typically, I don’t listen to many of the Roses’ live performances specifically because of what a terrible live singer Ian Brown is. However, with “I Am the Resurrection”, Brown’s vocals are the draw for the live recordings. Despite still being horribly off-key, Brown delivers the lyrics with such passion that he could have the voice of Kermit the Frog and I would still happily listen.
Next week I will be discussing the Roses’ first top-10 hit: “Fool’s Gold”.
I definitely see where you are coming from with this song because its absolutely amazing. However, it would be sacrilegious of me not to believe that the song “Salome B-Side” by U2 or “Train in Vain” by The Clash to be the greatest songs in existence. My opinion may be biased but I think you are really on the money for the talent the Stone Roses have.