Guernica

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The backwards Stone Roses tracks deserve some serious explanation: why, when you play them backwards, do you hear the lyrics to the original song, rather than the overdubbed (on the original reversal song) lyrics backwards?

My favourite is Guernica. Named after Picasso's famous painting on the horror of war, the tune is essentially Made of Stone played backwards. This fits well - the guitar notes and drum beat of Made of Stone are haunting, eery and together with the lyrics, evoke images of sudden destruction, of a world being burned to the ground before the listener's eyes. In reverse, the tune is accompanied by what sounds like rotor blades hammering through the wind, and which may be simply Reni's drum beat turned on itself and sped up.

You wanna hurt me stop the row
The both of us are stitched up now 

 This seems to me to be a commentary on the inevitability of war between elites, between the people commanding the horror. The only way for one to truly hurt the other is to stop the row. The fortunes of both are tied into the bloodshed. The generals, commanders and government officials see death as a source of energy and growth, drinking from it in search of power.


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