"Love Spreads" is a song by The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...

, released in November 1994 as the first single from their second album Second Coming

Second Coming (album)

Second Coming is the second studio album by The Stone Roses, released through Geffen Records on 5 December 1994 in the UK and in early 1995 in the US. It was recorded at Forge Studios in Oswestry, Shropshire and Rockfield Studios near Monmouth in Wales between 1992 and 1994...

. The record was a number two hit in the UK, the highest peak for any song by the band, as well as the only Stone Roses song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, charting at number 55, making the song their most commercially successful track. It showcased a bolder, edgier direction for the Roses' sound, especially John Squire

John Squire

John Thomas Squire is an English musician, songwriter and artist.Squire is best known as the guitarist for The Stone Roses, a rock band in which he formed a songwriting partnership with lead singer Ian Brown. After leaving The Stone Roses he went on to found The Seahorses and has since released...

's Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

-tinged guitars.

Lyrics

The lyrics, written by John Squire, are an attack on the traditional image of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

. Squire portrays the crucifixion

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...

 of the Messiah

Messiah

A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

 with a black woman on the cross. This continued the band's theme of questioning the depiction of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

, which first appeared on the track, "I Am The Resurrection

I Am The Resurrection

"I Am the Resurrection" is a song by The Stone Roses and the final song on the UK version of their debut album.The last four minutes of the song is an instrumental outro. The song is in the key of B Mixolydian. The single was released on March 30, 1992, and reached #33 on the UK Singles Chart...

."

Cover art

John Squire designed the "Love Spreads" cover, using a photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

 of one of the four stone cherub

Cherub

A cherub is a type of spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God...

s on the Newport Bridge

Newport Bridge, Newport

Newport Bridge connects High Street and Clarence Place across the River Usk adjacent to Newport Castle in Newport city centre.- The 1800 bridge :...

 in Newport

Newport

Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

, South Wales

South Wales

South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

. The cherubs on the bridge are modelled after Newport's coat of arms

Coat of arms of Newport

The coat of arms of Newport is the heraldic emblem of the city of Newport, south Wales. They have been borne by the present Newport City Council since 24 July 1996 following the municipal reorganisation in April of that year.-Symbolism:Shield...

, which contains a cherub with winged sea lions. The cherub design was subsequently used on many pieces of Second Coming merchandise. Some of the bridge's cherubs were subsequently ripped from their mounts, allegedly taken as souvenirs by fans of the band.

Music video

There are two music videos for "Love Spreads." The original UK version consisted of home footage. There are scenes of Mani

Gary Mounfield

Gary Manny "Mani" Mounfield , is an English rock bassist of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream. He has a distinctive playing style that combines a fast moving rock style with a dance rhythm or dub groove...

, Squire, and Brown dressed as a chicken, the devil

Devil

The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...

, and Death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

 respectively. These scenes were interspliced with hidden images.

MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 was unsatisfied with the quality of the first video, so the band produced a second video for American audiences. This video featured the band in front of oil rigs mining for gold. Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

 makes a cameo appearance

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 as a gold prospector. In this video, Squire incorporated artistic influences from the likes of Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

 and Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century....

. Fitting with the crucifixion theme of the song, Squire also opens the video sitting on a donkey

Donkey

The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...

, just like Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....

.

Responses

Bobby Gillespie

Bobby Gillespie

Robert Bernard Andrew "Bobby" Gillespie is a Scottish musician. He is the lead singer and founding member of the alternative rock band, Primal Scream. He was also the drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain in the mid-1980s.- Early life :Born and raised in the south side district of Mount Florida in...

 of Primal Scream

Primal Scream

Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...

 hailed the song "as the greatest comeback single ever." In May 2007, NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 magazine placed "Love Spreads" at number 44 in its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.

Legacy

A re-recorded version of "Love Spreads" was used on The Help Album

The Help Album

The Help Album is a 1995 charity album devoted to the War Child charity's aid efforts in war-stricken areas, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina...

(a compilation of songs for the charity War Child

War Child

War Child or Warchild may refer to:* Child soldiers, children who are used in war, as soldiers or in combat support* Military brat, military slang for a child or teenager of a military family* Refugee, children who are refugees of war...

). It was also used in the season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...

, "Invisible Evidence" and in a season 5 episode of Entourage

Entourage (TV series)

Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...

, "Return to Queens Boulevard."

The song is featured in the music videogame Guitar Hero World Tour

Guitar Hero World Tour

Guitar Hero World Tour is a music video game developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision. It is the fourth main entry in the Guitar Hero series...

, appearing in the final bonus set in career mode. It is also available as a downloadable track for the music video game

Music video game

A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...

 series Rock Band

Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

.

The song is also heavily used in Mega Channel

Mega Channel

Mega Channel, also known as Mega TV or just Mega, is a major television network in Greece. Teletypos S.A. was founded in 1989 under the name Teletypos Television Programmes S.A...

Greek dramatic series I Zoi Tis Allis at end credits

12": [Geffen GFST 84]

1. "Love Spreads" (5:46)
2. "Your Star Will Shine" (2:56)
3. "Breakout" (6:04)
4. "Groove Harder" (4:26)

CD: [Geffen GFSTD 84]

1. "Love Spreads" (5:46)
2. "Your Star Will Shine" (2:56)
3. "Breakout" (6:04)