Love Spreads

The Stone Roses, 1994, from Second Coming. Solo by John Squire.

Squire reinvented himself with heavy, Zeppelin-inspired slide playing on the Second Coming lead single.

Love Spreads was the sound of John Squire reinventing himself. The jangling, psychedelic textures of the Stone Roses' debut gave way to heavy, bluesy slide guitar that owes plenty to Jimmy Page and 1970s hard rock. Squire's slide lines are thick and swaggering, riding a strutting groove and sliding into notes with real weight. As the lead single from Second Coming, it announced a very different band, and it showed that guitar music of the Britpop years could reach back to classic rock without sounding like a copy. Listen for the way the slide phrases answer Ian Brown's vocal, filling gaps with snarling, ringing notes rather than taking over the song.

Love Spreads by The Stone Roses is ranked #236 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by John Squire and the song was released in 1994. It appears on 1 lists, placing as high as #2 (Far Out Magazine).

In our lists

• The Road Trip 50 — #49
• The 25 Greatest Britpop Guitar Solos — #7
• Slide Guitar — #10
• The Best The Stone Roses Guitar Solos — #3

Sources

• Far Out Magazine: The 10 greatest guitar solos of the 1990s — #2
• The Metal Circus (Spain), reproducing Q magazine: Los 20 mejores solos de guitarra — #4