20 Landmark Songs Of The 80s

10. The Stone Roses - Fools Gold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSD11dnphg0 When The Stone Roses first exploded in the summer of 1989 they caught the mood of the times beautifully, their influence would stretch into the 90€™s and beyond which makes it easy to forget they released their killer records in the 80€™s. With the independent scene still bereft after the demise of The Smiths two years previously, here seemingly was a band who could step up to the plate and be the leaders of the indie guitar scene. With a cocky frontman, a gunslinger on guitar to die for and the funkiest rhythm section since the Talking Heads, The Stone Roses tapped into two crucial elements of the music of the late 80€™s; namely the tune and the groove and when they released €˜Fools Gold€™ they completely nailed both. This was the song would give birth to the oxymoron €˜Indie-dance€™, but this wasn€™t simply a case of sampling €˜Funky Drummer€™ by James Brown and having whining vocals and a weedy guitar on top. John Squire increased the sales of wah-wah€™s by probably 2000% with this song and not since Johnny Marr wrote €˜Barbarism begins at home€™ for The Smiths was funk guitar so prevalent on a song by an indie band. The running time of just under 10 minutes was unheard of for a guitar band and cleverly aligned them with the house music of the time, rather than the previous standard of a classic three minute pop song. The lyrics were loosely based on the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but more pertinently it was a tale of confidence, often misinterpreted as arrogance. The Stone Roses believed with a passion that they were the best band in the world, and when they released this, who could argue that they weren€™t?