Love Spreads

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"Love Spreads"

Single by The Stone Roses
from the album Second Coming
Released	November, 1994
Format	CD, cassette, vinyl record 12"
Genre	Madchester
Length	5:46
Label	Geffen
Producer(s)	Simon Dawson
Chart positions
#2 (UK Singles Chart)
The Stone Roses singles chronology
"I Am The Resurrection" (1992)	"Love Spreads" (1994)	"Ten Storey Love Song" (1995)

"Love Spreads", written in 1992, was the first single from The Stone Roses' Second Coming. The single was released in the UK, U.S., Japan, Spain, and Australia.

Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream hailed "Love Spreads" "as the greatest comeback single ever." The track showcased a bolder, edgier direction for the Roses' sound, especially John Squire's guitars, which had a Led Zeppelin-tinged influence.

Squire was responsible for writing the lyrics of the song. "Love Spreads" is a scathing attack on the traditional image of Jesus; Squire portrayed the crucifixion of the Messiah with a black woman on the cross. This continued the band's theme of questioning the depiction of Christ, first used in the track "I Am The Resurrection".

"Love Spreads" was used on Help! (a compilation of songs for the charity War Child).

"Love Spreads" was used in a season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, "Invisible Evidence".

1 Cover Artwork
2 Music video
3 Track Listing

[edit] Cover Artwork

John Squire designed the "Love Spreads" cover with the photograph of a stone cherub at the popular Newport Bridge in Clarence Place, Newport [1]. The stone cherub is modelled after Newport's coat of arms, which also contains a cherub with winged sea lions.

The cherub design was found on many pieces of Second Coming merchandise.

The cherubs were subsequently ripped from their mounts on the bridge, allegedly taken as souvenirs by fans of the band.

[edit] Music video

There are three music videos of "Love Spreads". The original UK version consisted of home footage. There are scenes of Mani, Squire, and Brown dressed as a chicken, the devil, and Death respectively. These scenes were interspliced with hidden images. A third video, made by the Maoist Internationalist Movement is a home made fan video.

MTV was unsatisfied with the quality of the second video, so the band produced a second video for American audiences. This video featured the band in front of oilrigs mining for gold. Beck makes a cameo appearance as a gold prospector. In this video, Squire incorporated artistic influences from the likes of Andy Warhol and Andrew Wyeth. Fitting with the crucification theme of the song, Squire also opens the video sitting on a donkey, just like Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The [MIM video shows rare footage from revolutionary China and interprets the song as relating to transcendant asexuality and possibly as a materialist rejection of mainstream Christianity.