Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 21:17

My Roses Story starts riding in a car with my brother who is 7 and a half years older than me. I was in my freshman year of high school.. somewhere in late 93 or early 94. He had a mix tape in and I didnt like any of his music I made sure that I made some type of comment to insult his taste of music.. he was into classic rock and I was kind of into Americas alternative thing (dont worry.. thats passed). Then Elephant Stone came on, and I couldnt for anything say ii didnt like it I LOVED it I asked if he had this CD and he said that he just taped it off one of his friends. I asked what group they were and he told me the Stone Roses. I borrowed that tape a lot for awhile and played Elephant Stone over and over.

I didnt really have a favorite group at that time, and I thought I should. Just out of whim, I decided to try to make the Roses mine. The summer between freshman and sophomore year, while at Dickinson College for a summer program, I went to the mall and found the CD. (My CD still has the mall stores sticker on it, and Im never taking it off). There were actually two CDs there. "The Stone Roses" and "Turns Into Stone". Which one was I supposed to get? I only knew Elephant Stone and they both had that song. I took the one with the earlier date because I figured that was the earlier release. I came back to my dorm and announced to my hall that they were going to be hearing a lot of the Roses down the hall. I played Elephant Stone non-stop, and soon fell in love with Fools Gold.

You have to remember, I was still somewhat into classic rock myself (though I wouldnt admit it to my brother), and Nirvana-type alternative. I tried to get into the other songs on the CD, but they just werent coming. American Alternative, you expect minor chords and non-sequitir chord progressions. The chord progressions in the CD were traditional, and in the major keys mostly. I didnt get to enamored with them right away, although Ii became increasingly fond of Waterfall.

After the three weeks at Dickinson College, I spent 3 weeks and Franklin and Marshall, where I started becoming more and more fond of the songs on the album. This is the One particularly grew on me. I kept wondering, however, because no one seemed to have ever heard of them and they seemed like a decent enough band. Soon I adored every song on the CD and they truly were my favorite band.

I got home for the start of sophomore year and read up on the Roses. It seems they were the biggest thing to hit England since the Beatles perhaps. I was in total amazement and loved them more. Then I read in Entertainment weekly (I still have the review) that the roses were coming out with a new album VERY shortly. As soon as it came out I walked from my school to Record Theatre, whilst listening to the first CD. I fell in love with them even harder and I walked even faster. I bought the CD and walked back to school. Some of my classmates said that they HAD heard of the Roses and they stressed something about a "shes my sister" song. I thought they were talking about Sugar Spun until I heard the CD. (I didnt really listen to the radio back then.. I just kind of played tapes and CDs). I heard Breaking into Heaven and thought that this CD was even better than the first.. (soon the first would grow on me even more but this was then.) The next week I went straight to the mall and bought Turns Into Stone. I was kind of disappointed at that CD, but like the first one after listening to it over and over it is one of the best CDs I have!

One day, I was walking in a mall and found a CD I had never seen before: the Complete Stone Roses. Although it was obviously in an overpriced CD store (the Wall), I bought it immediately. I did not regret that at all.

Summer 1995 came and I went off with my 4 Stone Roses CD to University of Pennsylvania Summer Science Academy. Another college program for high school students. It was here that I was first introduced to the web.. which I thought was amazing I learned that Reni left, which kind of got me mad but I could live. I finally found out the lyrics to Elephant Stone and I read some interviews from the Stone Roses Newspage.. now known as the Stone Roses Fan HQ. Soon everyone knew that I was obsessed with the Roses. in almost every letter I got from correspondences with people from that summer program, they asked how me and the roses were doing.

Junior year, I bought as many singles as I could, and they truly were my favorite band. I loved everything about them, and for all the summer programs I went to, I spread the Roses around. I lost attention for them for awhile cuz nothing new seemed to be happening so I didnt check the web for news until about the end of April and was shocked by Johns departure. It was devastating. But still, my intrigue was piqued again about my favorite band, and I went from hard-core fan to mega-obsessed hardcore fan.

I really dont think theres any mystery as to why I love the Roses. We all do. The tail years of my Roses following are very undetailed for a reason, we all know what its like to be at this stage where we embrace the roses with everything we have. But each of our beginnings are different.

To this day, my brother constantly reminds me that if not for him, I might never know the Roses the way I do today. Ironically, he doesnt have a Roses album. (He leeches dubs off of me.)

From one Roses fan to another, Dave