Album: The Stone Roses
Year: 1989
. . .
If “She Bangs The Drums” is The One, then “Waterfall” is The Other One, that other amazing song on an all-time great album that sometimes I like more than the song I always claim is my favorite. But like “My Little Underground” on Psychocandy or “Unsatisfied” on Let It Be or “Tumbling Dice” from Exile on Main St., I love “Waterfall” just slightly less than “Something’s Wrong” or “Answering Machine” or “Rocks Off.”
But still better than just about any other song ever.
Opening up with a chiming, psychedelic, hide-n-seek guitar riff from John Squire, “Waterfall” takes a second to get into full gear, with the first verse just Squire underneath the harmonies of John Squire & Reni. The utterly fucking exquisite harmonies, I should say, as one of the things that makes “Waterfall” so awesome is that they sing together then entire song, like they’re the fucking Byrds or some shit.
Chimes sing Sunday morn’
Today’s the day she’s sworn
To steal what she never could own
And race from this hole she calls home
At that point, the rhythm section crashes in, and “Waterfall” takes off, borne on the back of of Reni’s lighter-than-air drum part — the trick his how he alternates a basic kickdrum/hi-hat beat with occasional triplets on his snare — over which Squire’s guitar is now suddenly dancing, while those harmonies are still arcing ever skyward.
Now you’re at the wheel
Tell me how, how does it feel?
So good to have equalised
To lift up the lids of your eyes
As the miles they disappear
See land begin to clear
Free from the filth and the scum
This American satellite’s won
I’m not sure what any of this means, and honestly I don’t care, because Brown and Reni’s voices sound so great together, not to mention the entire band — bassist Mani also figures into the stew, though you kinda gotta listen for him — that you don’t even realize they’re in the chorus until it’s halfway over.
She’ll carry on through it all
She’s a waterfall
She’ll carry on through it all
She’s a waterfall
Which is why they do it twice, and feature a cool stop-time for each “she’s a waterfall.”
All of this is great, but it’s not even the best part of the song, which starts up after the second verse, and features some utterly extraordinary guitar work from John Squire.
First there’s some ringing guitars battle Reni’s snare drum work, but that’s over quickly, and as Reni drops back into the kickdrum/hi-hat beat, eschewing the snare entirely, suddenly — like Miles Davis in “Shh/Peaceful” or Lindsay Buckingham on “Go Your Own Way” or the Edge on “An Cat Dubh” — John Squire has entire universes of time to take between each note. And so he does, take his time, looking for the perfect riff. And lo! He finds it, a quick chugging riff, enhanced by wah-wah overdubs, and, t was great, a riff that could power an entire album, and he just plays it twice, knowing that we’ll be waiting for it for the rest of our lives.
After that, he and Reni explode into a fantastic guitar/drums duel — or is it a duet (duelet?) — based around the central guitar riff of the song, which is still going at the fade. Utterly fantastic.
So fantastic, as a matter of fact that for the next song on the album, they just took the original demo of “Waterfall,” played it backwards and wrote some new words, and behold! (sorry, I’ve been reading Lord of the Rings again) they created “Don’t Stop,” a backwards psychedelic extravaganza that I love nearly as much as “Waterfall,” though a lot of folks probably skip right past it.
Anyways, “Waterfall” was released as a single in 1991 — after the non-album singles “One Love” and “Fools Good” — but probably because The Stone Roses had been out for a couple of years, only made it to #27 on the U.K. charts. Or maybe it was because they cut out much of the amazing instrumental coda.
“Waterfall”
“Waterfall” live in Blackpool, 1989
“Waterfall” Live on The Other Side of Midnight
Did you miss a Certain Song? Follow me on Twitter: @barefootjim
The Certain Songs Database
A filterable, searchable & sortable somewhat up to date database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page