The sunshine bores the daylights out of me
This song is a hell of an album opener. I wrote this last weekend, and I was going to post it for Jim’s SLS Sunday great album openers but I didn’t get to post it. This era was probably the pinnacle of the Stones’ career, both in the studio and live.
By the summer of 1971, the band had officially become British tax exiles. Facing crippling tax rates back home, they scattered across Europe, with Keith Richards renting Villa Nellcôte, a grand 19th-century mansion in Villefranche-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera. When I say renting, I mean turning it into a 24-hour rock ‘n’ roll asylum. The basement, humid, airless, and filled with cigarette smoke, became the main recording space. Mobile studio trucks parked outside ran cables through windows and stairwells.
Despite the drug use and long hours, they got it done. It would be hard to replicate this album because of how it was recorded. Many of the songs sound low-fi and make them even dirtier-sounding. The vocals on this song are not steady in volume, but that adds to it. This, to me, is how the Stones should sound. If they are too clean-sounding, it just doesn’t work for me in the studio or live. Mick Taylor’s guitar is a huge reason this album sounds so good as well.
This song opened their great Exile On Main Street album. Part of the charm is the muddiness of the recordings. It was recorded in the middle of heavy drugs, hangers-on, and a band fleeing from the taxes of England. It’s a wonder they got a song out of it, much less an album that some consider their best.
What you hear in those opening moments, Keith’s ragged riff tumbling down the stairs like it’s late for work, completely works. This song is sloppy yet tight and a bit menacing. It was a great opener for this album. It clearly told you what was coming next.
Exile On Main Street peaked at #1 on The Billboard Album Charts, Canada, and the UK in 1972. This was released as a single in Japan only.
Rocks Off
I hear you talking when I’m on the street
Your mouth don’t move but I can hear you speak
What’s the matter with the boy?
He don’t come around no more
Is he checking out for sure?
Is he gonna close the door on me?
And I’m always hearing voices on the street
I want to shout, but I can hardly speak
I was making love last night
To a dancer friend of mine
I can’t seem to stay in step
‘Cause she come ev’ry time that she pirouettes over me
And I only get my rocks off while I’m dreaming
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
I only get my rocks off while I’m sleeping
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
I’m zipping through the days at lightning speed
Plug in, flush out and fire the fuckin’ feed
Heading for the overload
Splattered on the nasty road
Kick me like you’ve kicked before
I can’t even feel the pain no more
And I only get my rocks off while I’m dreaming
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
I only get my rocks off while I’m sleeping
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
Feel so hypnotized, can’t describe the scene
It’s all mesmerized all that inside me
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me
Chasing shadows moonlight mystery
Heading for the overload
Splattered on the dirty road
Kick me like you’ve kicked before
I can’t even feel the pain no more
And I only get my rocks off while I’m dreaming
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
I only get my rocks off while I’m sleeping
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
And I only get my rocks off while I’m dreaming
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
I only get my rocks off while I’m sleeping
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
And I only get my rocks off while I’m sleeping
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
(Only get them off, only get them off, only get them off)
…
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
Agreed! A great album opener, later the influence for Primal Scream’s song of the same name.
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Thanks Clive! I’ll check it out.
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It’s a belter so I hope you like it 🤞
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I like it! I will end up posting that…thanks Clive! It’s a throwback no doubt…which I love
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I’m pleased that you do and look forward to seeing it! I had the album: great driving music for the long commute to work 👍
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It reminded me of a modern Faces song…that kind of rock…it’s cool finding newer songs like that.
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They were viewed here as a blatant Stones rip off! Never made it over there but sold a lot of records here and across Europe.
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Yea I’m reading about the critics..I usually ignore them…it’s great sounding…I really like this and I’d probably love the album…Tom Dowd produced it in Memphis… The old Stones producer Jimmy Miller remixed this one as well as a special version. The Black Crowes were doing this around the same time… for me…I’ll take this over grunge any day.
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I’ve been fairly critical of critics on my blog too!
It’s a great sound, isn’t it, though why Bobby Gillespie wore lipstick for the video I’ll never know 🤣
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LOL…you know Clive…I’ve posted them before. A song called Gentle Tuesday…a completely different sounding song! I had forgotten about that one…
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One from their indie beginnings, the only one of theirs I’ve played, for a Tuesday Tunes post around four years ago. A pleasant sound.
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It sounds very sixties which of course I love.
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Wow…1994
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Not that recent, is it!
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The video kind of looked modern so that suprised me.
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If you look at music history I think there is a much bigger difference in the thirty years up to the 90s than in the subsequent period.
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Oh I agree… you can tell the 50s-80s and some 90s (grunge) just by music, cars, houses, clothes, and etc…but from 2000 on…it all blends together. There is not many defining things about those decades since the turn of the century….it’s all muddy.
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Love these cats! 😎
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coincidentally in one of my posts today I mention that Rod Stewart moved away from Britain in the early-’70s. largely for the same reason – high taxes.
A good example of a song to show what the Stones were like when they were just a basic rock group with songs about sex and drugs. You’re right, the low-fil production helps the mood on it I think
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Yea…this is the Stones I love…when they are mixed low fi and Jaggers voice isn’t front and center….it’s kind of eating at the edges.
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Great opening track from a great band that made one of their best albums with this. I am glad that you finally got the chance to post this, Max. I wrote a post about new trends in music today, which is a long read filled with lengthy videos, but I thought you might enjoy it, if you manage to get the time.
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Better late than never I guess Jim…. I’m reading it now Jim…totally fascinating. I’m also watching Rick Beato’s video…I like that guy. I’ll comment in a few minutes.
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Great album. Only their ‘Let It Bleed’ album gets more of my rocks off 🙂
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LOL… my favorite album was the one before…out of those 5 albums they released during this time period is Beggars Banquet.
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Good cut off a good record.
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Wow, that live cut is even muddier. I prefer the studio version, ’cause I love the horns. It is a great album. I still find it hard to believe Charlie is gone.
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Yea it doesn’t seem right about Charlie being gone.
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Yeah, the horns (Jim Price – trumpet and trombone, clearly overdubbed with himself to play more than one part, and Bobby Keys – saxophones) and Nicky Hopkins’ piano drive the song.
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Hopkins really was the right guy for a few years, he adds enough around the edges without encroaching on the balance of the songs. What a session guy to have.
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Steve iirc, Keys was the guy that had the horse connections and did the runs to pick it up. That Nicky Hopkins got/gets around.
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Yeah. It is muddy…but, it’s The Stones.
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yep! That fits them
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This strutting yowling song and then ‘Rip This Joint’ double-kick this album right from the start. The best fit for two songs to kick off an album I can recall. Real nasty in a good way.
A bit of serendipity- a Stones song (well, a few choice lines) will likely make an appearance on some random blog today.
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Oh cool! I’m ahead of the game.
Yea Rip This Joint BPM must be through the roof.
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a lot bands that have been around forever have those different eras….I really haven’t been a fan of the Ronnie Wood era I have to say, but this was that album….it took what was before, and added Mick Taylor…and then Liz Phair gave us Exile in Guysville…..
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I agree with Wood…because Mick Taylor had such a unique sound…and his stamp is all over their great albums.
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Exile… isn’t an album I’ve listened to much but remember reading all about in Keith’s book. Lots of traffic in and out of that villa. I’m not ga-ga about the music part of the song, but the lyrics are potent. It feels like he’s talking about doing heroin, and that may be a no-brainer lol
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(Just a bit of trivia Li. At the recording of ‘Exile’ according to Mick there was a kid wandering around the dark smoky rooms with his hanger-on dad. Apparently he was helping his dad roll joints for the band and whoever else. The kid with the dab hands was Jake Weber, later to play Patricia Arquette’s screen husband in the TV show ‘Medium.’ Funny how in the show he plays a quite protective and Conservative minded papa!)
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Oh wow, Ob. Funny how “way leads on to way.”
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The making of that album alone is worth a movie or a book. Gram Parsons was there, Anita got into trouble by introducing heroin to someone, and even John Lennon showed up. I never thought about what the song was about until I read about it…
Yes…the song IS about shooting heroin….the line “Plug in, flush out and fire the fuckin’ feed”
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Totally agree it would make a kickass movie and probably more exciting than “A Complete Unknown” being for real for real. Thanks for introducing the song lyrics to me. Never would have understood the words while listening to the album.
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I just learned about it myself. Oh it would be exciting…I remember Keith saying that in one of the deals he made with the authorities because of Anita… was that he had to rent the place for a year after he was gone. It was some crazy price. I think 2500 lbs a month…in 1972 money!
You know what Lisa? It SHOULD be a movie! It would be a great biopic.
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Killer opening track and you can hear in those grooves that Aerosmith nicked a bit of that swagger that the Stones had. I was psyched when they played this on the Voodoo Lounge Tour.
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Yes it was a good opener…a song about shooting heroin lol…but it worked. I don’t think they played this when I saw them…
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