Rolling Stones – Prodigal Son

It’s nice to be back to normal… no holiday is mentioned in this song!

When I bought Beggars Banquet I knew about Sympathy for the Devil and Street Fighting Man… this song drew me into the rest of the album. I love the acoustic blues played by Keith. It sounds old…really old. This album doesn’t have a bad track on it to me.

This sounds like what influenced the Stones in the first place. This album is one of the Stones’ great ones and the first one produced by Jimmy Miller. Prodigal Son has remained one of my favorite Stones tracks.

Beggars Banquet peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in the UK, and #3 in Canada in 1969.

This song was written by Robert Wilkins, a reverend who recorded Delta Blues in the 1920s and 1930s. Keith Richards enjoyed Blues music and admired the work of Wilkins in the ’60s, which is how The Stones came across this song. Robert Wilkins’ original version was titled “That’s No Way To Get Along.” The Stones gave their version the title “Prodigal Son.”

The Prodigal Son is a story told in the Bible (Luke 15: 11-32) about a father who has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance early and goes off to spend the money on hedonistic pursuits. After wasting all the money, he comes home repentant, and the father welcomes him with a feast in his honor. This doesn’t go over well with the older son, who feels that he should be rewarded for good behavior, but the father stresses the value of forgiveness.

Prodigal Son

Well a poor boy took his father’s bread and started down the road
Started down the road
Took all he had and started down the road
Going out in this world, where God only knows
And that’ll be the way to get along

Well poor boy spent all he had, famine come in the land
Famine come in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land
Said, “I believe I’ll go and hire me to some man”
And that’ll be the way I’ll get along

Well, man said, “I’ll give you a job for to feed my swine
For to feed my swine
I’ll give you a job for to feed my swine”
Boy stood there and hung his head and cried
Cause that is no way to get along

Said, “I believe I’ll ride, believe I’ll go back home
Believe I’ll go back home
Believe I’ll ride, believe I’ll go back home
Or down the road as far as I can go”
And that’ll be the way to get along

Well, father said, “See my son coming home to me
Coming home to me”
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Said, “Sing and praise, Lord have mercy on me”
Mercy

Oh poor boy stood there, hung his head and cried
Hung his head and cried
Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried
Said, “Father will you look on me as a child?”
Yeah

Well father said, “Eldest son, kill the fatted calf,
Call the family round
Kill that calf and call the family round
My son was lost but now he is found
Cause that’s the way for us to get along”
Hey

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

33 thoughts on “Rolling Stones – Prodigal Son”

  3. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, “At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.

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  4. You can totally see why that song was right up Keef’s alley. The original “Prodigy Son” is not much unlike Robert Johnson, except at 9:45 minutes I guess it’s the equivalent of what in the ’80s would be called a maxi-single!

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  5. a new one to me and quite atypical compared to what I think of when I think of the 60s version of the Stones. Not bad at all. My minister said that the story of the Prodigal son was one of the toughest in the Bible and maybe the one the most people had questioned him about in his years, since most of us are inclined to think ‘hey, that’s not fair – reward the good one who stayed home!’

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  6. Thanks to my older brother, I knew the original before I heard the Stones’ version. The album cover for Beggars Banquet credits Jagger/Richards as writing the song. The discs themselves credit Jagger/Richard on Decca and Wilkins on some London labels but Jagger/Richards on others. As for who the royalties went to, that I don’t know. If you listen to both, there is absolutely no doubt that it is not a Jagger/Richards song.

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    1. I totally agree…it’s absolutely obvious. Jaggers and Richards were usually good about crediting outside writers like Willie Dixon and others…not like Zeppelin.

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  7. Glad to hear there was no Holiday mentioned in this song. One can grow tired of days such as New Year’s Day, Labor Day, Inauguration Day, National Day of Prayer, Grandparent’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Mother’s Day,
    Groundhog Day, Armed Forces Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Juneteenth, Columbus Day, Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day,
    President’s Day, Memorial Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Independence Day, April Fool’s Day, Easter, Halloween,
    Earth Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, to name just a few. Not to mention the Greek Orthodox Christmas which I hope you’re going to celebrate.

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  8. Well as a cover song guy I have to say this was a real education, I knew nothing past running across the name of Robert Wilkins. Just when I think I know about something you come along and do a post like this. Great stuff Max.

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      2. Mick and Keith were always good at crediting the blues players…they really respected them…I’m sure they gave his family royalities…

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      4. After I heard the vinyl I liked it. I think you will start seeing a lot of their old albums being remixed soon and back on the market.

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      6. No I haven’t at all…do I know them? I used to be like that until I heard two albums remixed…The Stones Goats Head Soup and The White Album…they sound so fresh and the new generation likes them.
        I know that the early Beatles and Stones albums were two tracks…that means you could not separate them but now they can. It will happen…it’s just a matter of when.

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      8. No I would NOT be in favor of changing the music by adding guitar, voices or whatever to a finished song. It’s just a different more clear mix…which I don’t mind at all.

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      2. Glad you mentioned him CB…I heard that one and then right underneath that one was Taj Mahal…hard to beat those two.
        A good situation to go to.

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    1. Clapton did it very well… I do like when they redo these blues songs. Many of them I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

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  12. Never knew this was a coverture. Stones could always take a cover tune and make it their own and no one would know any difference. Zep did that to thinking they wouldn’t get caught. lol

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  13. Pingback: Rolling Stones – Prodigal Son – MobsterTiger

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