Tag: Jimmy Miller

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

Rolling Stones – Happy

I had to double-check my index to make sure I didn’t post this song before. Well no I haven’t and I can’t believe it because it’s WAY up there in the top 3 of my favorite Stones songs. My order probably goes as follows… 1. Memory Motel, 2. 100 Years Ago, and 3. Happy.

This song is on one of my favorite double albums. Since I made a short list of my top 3 favorite Stones songs…I’ll make a short one of my favorite double albums. Number 1 is also my favorite album of all time…The Beatles The White Album, 2. would be Exile On Main Street (and that is where Happy is found), and number 3 The Clash London Calling. I’m thankful none of them were trimmed down.

I love Keith Richard’s voice. I wish he would have had lead vocals on more than he did. I think Jagger is terrific and the perfect singer for them but it’s a raw quality about Keith’s voice that I like. I’ve read that he sang in the choir as a youngster until cigarettes and other substances made it a little raw. The song is great and I can’t believe that Mick didn’t fight to sing this one.

I love the studio version but I also like the 1972 tour version of this song with Mick Taylor with his fat Gibson-sounding guitar driving it also. Everyone who reads me knows I’m a huge Mick Taylor fan. It’s not that I don’t like Ronnie Wood…he fits them perfectly but his and Keith’s guitar sometimes sound too much like each other with the same tones. There was no mistaking Taylor.

A few years ago Mick Taylor joined them onstage and they had that sound again as soon as he was chugging away at the chords. I want to mention one more thing about that era. Mick Taylor contributed as I said but also Jimmy Miller their producer. He needs a hell of a lot of credit for the success they had with that 5-album stretch. Without Jimmy Miller who knows if those albums would have had the same sound. Once he left…so did that sound.

Happy was recorded at Keith’s Villa Nellcote in France when The Stones left England to avoid paying taxes. They used the basement as a recording studio but had a hard time getting everyone together at once because of the party atmosphere. The only people to play on this were Keith (guitar, bass, vocals), producer Jimmy Miller (drums), and horn player Bobby Keys (percussion). Horns were dubbed in later.

The song peaked at #22 on the Billboard 100 and #9 in Canada. The B side was a song that is just as good as this one… All Down The Line. Exile On Main Street peaked at #1 on The Billboard Album Charts, Canada, and the UK in 1972.

Keith Richards:  “That’s a strange song, because if you play it you actually become happy, even in the worst of circumstances. It has a little magical bounce about it. I wrote it one afternoon when we were cutting Exile on Main St. in France and the studio was in my basement. And Bobby Keys was with me and they got this lick going. So we went down and I recorded it with just guitar and Bobby Keys on baritone saxophone. While we were doing that, Jimmy Miller, who was our producer at the time, came in. And he was a very good drummer as well. So we said, well let’s put down a dub, we’ll just sort of sketch it out and play it later. But it’s another one of those things that ended up being on the record. It was just one of those moments that you get that are very happy. And I can play it now and it gives you a lift. I don’t know why except for maybe the word.”

Happy

Well I never kept a dollar past sunset
It always burned a hole in my pants
Never made a school mama happy
Never blew a second chance, oh no

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy

Always took candy from strangers
Didn’t wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss ev’ry night and day

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love, baby won’t ya keep me happy
Baby, won’t ya keep me happy
Baby, please keep me

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby

Never got a flash out of cocktails
When I got some flesh off the bone
Never got a lift out of Lear jets
When I can fly way back home

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby

Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, oh, keep on, baby, keep me
Happy, now baby won’t you squeeze me
Happy, oh, baby got to feel it
Happy, now, now, now, now, now keep me
Happy, my, my, my, keep me
Happy, keep on baby, keep me
Happy, keep on baby, got to
Happy, my, my, baby keep me happy

Rolling Stones – Jigsaw Puzzle

This song is from my personal favorite Rolling Stones album, Beggars Banquet released in 1968. As great as Beggars Banquet is, it could have been considered  even better had they included the song they recorded during the early sessions….they released it as a single instead…the song was Jumping Jack Flash.

Jigsaw Puzzle is a great album cut on an album full of them.  The song seemed influenced by Bob Dylan. It has Nicky Hopkins on piano, Keith Richards on slide, and Brian Jones on Mellotron. This album was the first of 5 produced by Jimmy Miller.

Rolling Stone ranked it 69th in its countdown of the band’s top 100 songs, calling it “a country-rock blast of Highway 61 Revisited surrealism.”

Non guitar players may not see the significance in this but when Keith Richards found the 5-string open G tuning…some say from Ry Cooder… that changed the Stones future. Without that discovery I don’t think they have the songs or impact they ended up having.

Songs that were written around that tuning was Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash, Start Me Up, Street Fighting Man, and the list goes on and on. If you are a Stones cover band…most songs after 1967 is in this open G tuning…you have no choice but to learn it.

Those songs would not have sounded the same without that tuning or maybe not written at all. Keith showed Mick that tuning and he wrote the music to Brown Sugar. For the guitar players out there….the tuning is G-D-G-B-D staring with the A string after you remove the low E.

Jigsaw Puzzle

There’s a tramp sittin’ on my doorstep
Tryin’ to waste his time
With his methylated sandwich
He’s a walking clothesline
And here comes the bishop’s daughter
On the other side
And she looks a trifle jealous
She’s been an outcast all her life

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh the gangster looks so fright’ning
With his Luger in his hand
But when he gets home to his children
He’s a family man
But when it comes to the nitty-gritty
He can shove in his knife
Yes he really looks quite religious
He’s been an outlaw all his life

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Yes, yes now
Oh, all right

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh the singer, he looks angry
At being thrown to the lions
And the bass player, he looks nervous
About the girls outside
And the drummer, he’s so shattered
Trying to keep up time
And the guitar players look damaged
They’ve been outcasts all their lives

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh, there’s twenty-thousand grandmas
Wave their hankies in the air
All burning up their pensions
And shouting, “It’s not fair!”
There’s a regiment of soldiers
Standing looking on
And the queen is bravely shouting,
“What the hell is going on?”

With a blood-curdling “tally-ho”
She charged into the ranks
And blessed all those grandmas who
With their dying breaths screamed, “Thanks!”

Me, I’m just waiting so patiently
With my woman on the floor
We’re just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Rolling Stones – Bitch

Yeah when you call my name, I salivate like a Pavlov dog…One of the raunchiest riffs around. Combine that with the lyrics and you have a great little rock song. This is the Stones at the top of their game.

This song was the B side to Brown Sugar. Not a bad deal for your money. It’s another great song off of the Sticky Fingers LP. Here is a review of Sticky Fingers at Aphoristic’s site.

Below Andy Johns talks about the importance of Keith Richards…no matter if he was tardy a few times.

Andy Johns engineer: When we were doing “Bitch,” Keith was very late. Jagger and Mick Taylor had been playing the song without him and it didn’t sound very good. I walked out of the kitchen and he was sitting on the floor with no shoes, eating a bowl of cereal. Suddenly he said, Oi, Andy! Give me that guitar. I handed him his clear Dan Armstrong Plexiglass guitar, he put it on, kicked the song up in tempo, and just put the vibe right on it. Instantly, it went from being this laconic mess into a real groove. And I thought, Wow. THAT’S what he does

Bitch was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, “Bitch” was recorded during October 1970 at London’s Olympic Studios, and at Stargroves utilizing the Rolling Stones Mobile studio.

From Songfacts

Love is the “bitch,” not any specific woman. Mick Jagger had many relationships he could base this on, including his breakup with Marianne Faithfull. He broke up with her after she tried to commit suicide while they were in Australia in late 1969 (Mick was filming Ned Kelly). As soon as Marianne recovered, Mick dumped her.

The Stones recorded this song, and many others on the album, at the Stargroves estate in Hampshire, England, using their mobile recording unit manned by engineer Andy Johns.

Despite (or maybe because of) the rather provocative title, this became one of the more popular Rolling Stones songs, often appearing in their setlists. It wasn’t released as a single but got plenty of play on rock radio.

In 1974, Elton John broke the “bitch” barrier on pop radio with “The Bitch Is Back,” which went to #4 in the US.

Along with “Under My Thumb,” this didn’t help the Stones’ image with women’s groups.

The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol. It was a close-up photo of a man in a pair of jeans complete with an actual zipper. The zipper caused problems in shipment because it scratched the record. They figured out that if they opened the zipper before shipment, it did minimal damage.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Keith Richards said: “It comes off pretty smooth, but it’s quite tricky. There’s an interesting bridge you have to watch out for. Otherwise, it’s a straightforward rock and soul that we love. It’s Charlie Watts’ meat and potatoes.”

This features Bobby Keys on sax and Jim Price on trumpet. They provided horns on albums and tours for The Stones in the early ’70s.

The Goo Goo Dolls covered this in 1997 on the compilation album No Alternative.

The album title Sticky Fingers refers to the aptitude of a person who is likely to steal. It went well with the lawless image The Stones put forward.

Bitch

Feeling so tired, can’t understand it
Just had a fortnight’s sleep
I’m feeling so tired, I’m so distracted
Ain’t touched a thing all week

I’m feeling drunk, juiced up and sloppy
Ain’t touched a drink all night
I’m feeling hungry, can’t see the reason
Just ate a horse meat pie

Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog
Yeah when you lay me out
My heart is beating louder than a big bass drum, alright

Yeah, you got to mix it child
You got to fix it must be love
It’s a bitch, yeah
You got to mix it child
You got to fix it but love
It’s a bitch, alright

Sometimes I’m sexy, move like a stud
Like kicking the stall all night
Sometimes I’m so shy, got to be worked on
Don’t have no bark or bite, alright

Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog
Yeah when you lay me out
My heart is bumpin’ louder than a big bass drum, alright

I said hey, yeah I feel alright now
Got to be a
Hey, I feel alright now
Hey hey hey
Hey hey yeah
Hey hey hey
Hey hey yeah
Hey hey hey
Hey hey yeah
Hey hey hey
Hey hey yeah
Hey hey hey