The latest news is that the Stone Roses have agreed to reunite and possibly make some new music.
I have to be honest, but the thought of this kind of scares me. Iconic bands re-uniting can always be hit and miss affairs. It's hard to recapture the magic that was once created by bands at the height of their youth. There is a chance that it could just be totally crap, like Cold Chisel's 1998 reunion record "The Last Wave of Summer" was, or the most recent Crowded House efforts, which were lacklustre at best. Let's not even go near Queen's atrocious "The Cosmos Rocks"...
There is, on the off chance, that it may be awesome. But when your legacy is huge, it's always a possibility that anything else you create will pale in comparison to your classic old work.
The Stone Roses really are about to be in this position - staring down at their own legacy. It will be interesting to see what develops.
The first time I ever heard the Roses was when I was watching Rage one morning on the ABC, watching the top 50 chart, and "Fool's Gold" comes on. The initial response was "What the **** is this? They look like a bunch of pommie yobs!", which really was ironic considering I was right into some pretty garish looking dudes playing Hair metal at the time - Guns 'n' Roses and Motley Crue especially.
My wife was introduced to their music by her cousin when she went to England in 1997, and I did kind of like "Love Spreads" whenever it appeared on the radio. She played me a tune called "Ten Story Love Song" which I thought is a killer tune. I kept that in the back of my mind until I heard the 10 minute version of "Fool's Gold" again and just fell in love.
Fast forward to 2005, the legend of the Stone Roses in music media builds. Maybe I need to check this band out again. I found a copy of "The Very Best of The Stone Roses" in a sale bin in a record store. I fell in love again. How the hell could I miss this band the first time around? This very album is one of a few fixtures on my MP3 player that I just do not ever remove from it.
Funny, "Dr Feelgood" doesn't have the same appeal anymore. I certainly haven't played it as much as I have the Stone Roses in recent years. Maybe the Stone Roses offer something more layered and musically substantial than the good old Hair bands, I dunno. Whatever the answer, I was kind of excited that they reunited today. Here's a collection of great tunes from the band for you all to check out.
