Keith Richards – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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 – 2000 Light Years From Home

Their Satanic Majesties Request…the more I listen to this album the more I like it. It wasn’t up to their normal standards but it is nice to know the St0nes stretched themselves and tried something different. They would later dip into reggae and disco but this was an album worth of change that never happened again.

This psychedelic period was coming off of one of their best stretches which I think they produced some of their best music with songs like Ruby Tuesday.

Mick Jagger got the idea for this while in jail on drug charges from the famous Redland’s bust.

On this track, their lead guitarist, Brian Jones, played a Mellotron, an early synthesizer. Jones played a number of unusual instruments in his time with the band, which lasted from their founding in 1962 until 1969, when he was fired after a number of clashes with the rest of the Stones.

Brian Jones has been over rated and underrated but his subtle touch on songs was missed.

Just weeks after leaving the band… Jones drowned in his swimming pool.

After Brian was gone it was noticeable in the Stones. He was a great utility guy who could play about any instrument. Mick Taylor replaced him and that lead to the Stones golden period. In my opinion, Taylor was the best guitar player the Stones ever had in the band. He was a huge part of their sound. When he left there was a hole in the sound that never came back.

From Songfacts

Space exploration was big at the time, and was probably an influence on this song. Pink Floyd was making music with a similar sound.

The psychedelic sound reflected the times. It was the summer of love (1967).

The Stones played this on their Steel Wheels tour in 1989. A show in Atlantic City was broadcast with this song shot in 3D, which viewers could see using those goofy glasses.

Various echo effects and drum sounds were added in overdubbing.

The ’90s psychedelic group The Brian Jonestown Massacre recorded a tribute to the Stones’ psychedelic period (and this song) called Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request.

2000 Light Years From Home

Sun turnin’ ’round with graceful motion
We’re setting off with soft explosion
Bound for a star with fiery oceans
It’s so very lonely
You’re a hundred light years from home

Freezing red deserts turn to dark
Energy here in every part
It’s so very lonely
You’re six hundred light years from home

It’s so very lonely
You’re a thousand light years from home
It’s so very lonely
You’re a thousand light years from home

Bell flight fourteen you now can land
See you on Aldebaran
Safe on the green desert sand
It’s so very lonely
You’re 2000 light years from home
It’s so very lonely
You’re 2000 light years from home

Rolling Stones – Shattered

I remember this one very well. I bought the single and then the album a little while later. It’s a great rock song with some punk in it. It’s on the album Some Girls that was released in 1978.

This was the last song on Some Girls. While they were recording this album, Keith Richards had drug charges hanging over his head from a bust in Toronto. Facing a maximum sentence of life in prison, Keith let Mick take control of the album, which is shown on songs like this. Richards ended up getting off easy… he was sentenced to probation and ordered to play a concert for the blind.

Richards came up with the guitar riff on this and the line “Sha-doobie.” Jagger wrote the rest.

They performed this on Saturday Night Live and to this viewer they were not as tight as normal. Turns out they drank a lot of alcohol, did some seventies substances and rehearsed a lot before show time… after watching the rehearsals it seems like they made the mistake of peaking too early during the rehearsals. By showtime they didn’t sound as strong as usual…but it still was a good show.

The song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100 and #32 in Canada in 1978.

From Songfacts

The lyrics are a bleak picture of life in New York City. The Stones always had a love/hate relationship with the US, and Mick Jagger’s lyrics were often influenced by his thoughts on the country (see “Satisfaction”). New York in particular is a place where you could be wildly successful, but is also a city filled crime, drugs, and poverty. It should be noted that The Stones have taken shots at their home country of England as well, notably on “Hang Fire.”

Just after this was released, The Stones performed it on Saturday Night Live. It was memorable for Mick Jagger licking Ron Wood on the lips for about 5 seconds. This stuff just didn’t happen on TV back them.

When Jagger sings, “Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta, I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue, this town’s been wearing tatters,” he’s making reference to the fashion district of New York City, which is on 7th Avenue. The word “Shmatta” is slang for old, worn clothing.

Shattered

Uh huh shattered, uh huh shattered
Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I’m in tatters!
I’m a shattered
Shattered

Friends are so alarming
My lover’s never charming
Life’s just a cocktail party on the street
Big Apple
People dressed in plastic bags
Directing traffic
Some kind of fashion
Shattered

Laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex
Look at me, I’m in tatters
I’m a shattered
Shattered

All this chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter ’bout
Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta, I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue
This town’s been wearing tatters (shattered, sha ooobie shattered)

Work and work for love and sex
Ain’t you hungry for success, success, success, success
Does it matter? (shattered)
Does it matter?

Ah look at me
I’m shattered
I’m shattered 0
Look at me, I’m a shattered, yeah (shattered)

Pride and joy and greed and sex
That’s what makes our town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street
And look at me, I’m in tatters, yeah
I’ve been battered, what does it matter
Does it matter, uh-huh
Does it matter, uh-huh, I’m a shattered

Mmm, I’m shattered, unh
Sha oobie, shattered, unh
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered, shattered

Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the West Side
Bed bugs uptown
What a mess this town’s in tatters, I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Sha oobie, shattered, shattered, what say
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered

Uh-huh, this town’s full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don’t mind the maggots, huh
Sha oobie, my brain’s been battered
My friends they come around they
Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
Pile it up, pile it up, pile high on the platter

Rolling Stones – Sad Sad Sad

Out of all of the tracks on Steel Wheels…this one sounded like the old Stones. The open G chord that Keith Richards made famous is in full display on the intro. This is the first track from Steel Wheels, an album that brought The Stones back together.

With the album Dirty Work, the Stones did look like it could be over. Jagger and Richards were not getting along. They took shots at each other in the press. Jagger released two albums, She’s The Boss and Primitive Cool. Keith Richards also released a solo album…a very good album Talk Is Cheap.

Keith and Mick finally took time out to talk to each other and get the band back together. Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and Ron Wood joined them and this would be Bill’s last album and tour. Bill has had musical projects since then and he has rejoined the Stones onstage a few times.

The song peaked at #14 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1989. Mixed Emotions was the big hit off of the album.

Charlie Watts helped write this, but as was custom for The Stones, it was credited only to Jagger/Richards.

From Songfacts

The horns were played by the Brass ensemble The Kick Horns.

Ron Wood played bass. Bill Wyman, The Stones bassist, had to deal with the press after announcing his engagement to 18-year-old Mandy Smith, and was not available. Wyman and Smith divorced soon after their marriage.

Sad Sad Sad

Fling you out into orbit
No one’s gonna hear you shout
And fools ain’t gonna follow
You don’t need to sleaze about

Now you’re sad sad sad
Sad sad sad
Sad sad sad
But you’re gonna be fine

The elephant’s in the bedroom
Throwing all his weight about
And I’m locked in the bathroom
Your screams are gonna drown me out

Now you’re sad sad sad
Sad sad sad
Sad sad sad
But you’re gonna be fine

Oh, yeah

I got a cold chill
I get a cool thrill
Are you ready for the gilded cage?
Are you ready for the tears of rage?
Come on baby, don’t let them drown you out

Sad sad sad
Bad bad bad
Sad sad sad
But you’re gonna be fine

Sad sad sad
Sad sad sad
Sad sad sad
But you’re gonna be fine

You’re gonna be fine
You’re gonna be fine
You’re gonna be fine fine fine fine
You’re gonna be fine fine fine fine
Fine fine fine fine

Ooh, yeah
Ooh, yeah
Ooh, yeah
Gonna be fine fine fine fine
Fine fine fine fine
Fine fine fine fine

Rolling Stones – Dandelion

This song was recorded in 1966 but not released until the summer of 1967. The psychedelic sound fit in perfectly with the summer of love. The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Later on Keith named his first daughter Dandelion but she decided later to use her middle name “Angela” instead…Her mom was the late Anita Pallenberg.

The Stones had some nice psychedelic pop songs in the mid-sixties that you don’t hear as much now. Personally I wished this period would have gone on a little longer. This song made #49 in Rolling Stone magazine rating the top 100 Rolling Stones songs.

Because of their drug bust at Keith’s home Redlands the Stones were not as involved in the summer of love as other bands. The song peaked at #9 in Canada and #14 in the Billboard 100 in 1967.

Keith Richards: “We didn’t have a chance to go through too much flower power because of the bust. We’re outlaws.”

Dandelion

Prince or pauper, beggar man or thing
Play the game with ev’ry flower you bring
Dandelion don’t tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion

One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock, four o’clock chimes
Dandelions don’t care about the time
Dandelion don’t tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion, blow away dandelion

Tho’ you’re older now its just the same
You can play this dandelion game
When you’re finished with your childlike prayers
Well, you know you should wear it

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailors lives
Rich man, poor man, beautiful, daughters wives
Dandelion don’t tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion, blow away dandelion

Little girls, and boys come out to play
Bring your dandelions to blow away
Dandelion don’t tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion, blow away dandelion

Rolling Stones – Memory Motel

You’re just a memory of a love
That used to mean so much to me

When someone will ask me what my favorite Rolling Stone song is…this is the one I usually say. It rarely if ever changes. It probably wasn’t their best song but I’ve always liked it. Happy Friday to everyone.

The Memory Motel is in Montauk on Long Island. It’s near The Church Estate, which Andy Warhol bought in 1972. Arthur Schneider, who owns the Memory Motel, said that The Stones stayed at Warhol’s estate when they were on tour in 1975-’76.

Since the Memory Motel was the only place in the area with a pool table and a piano, The Stones would occasionally come by and hang out at the bar. The owners at the time were not impressed…they hated The Stones.

With Mick Taylor gone, The Stones were auditioning lead guitarists while recording Black And Blue. Harvey Mandel from Canned Heat played lead on this while session man Wayne Perkins played acoustic, but Ron Wood eventually got the job.

The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, #2 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1976.

It has a haunting melody and lyrics that stick with you. Some say the Hannah in the song is referring to Carly Simon and some say it’s Annie Leibovitz. Whoever the muse was, they inspired a beautiful song.

From Songfacts

It’s widely speculated that “Hannah Honey” with the curled nose is none other than Carly Simon. Jagger had been romantically linked to Carly around this time, and her physical traits are eerily similar to the song’s descriptions. One theory is that Simon wrote “You’re So Vain” after a one-night-stand with Jagger at The Memory Motel. Simon has never said who that song is about.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards duet on vocals. Richards did not play guitar on the track – a rarity.

Jagger played the acoustic piano, Richards the electric piano, and Billy Preston the synthesizer.

On their live album No Security, Dave Matthews duets with Jagger in place of Richards. Matthews joined The Stones onstage from time to time and also sang this with Jagger on a televised St. Louis concert in 1997

Memory Motel

Hannah honey was a peachy kind of girl
Her eyes were hazel
And her nose were slightly curved
We spent a lonely night at the Memory Motel
It’s on the ocean, I guess you know it well
It took a starry to steal my breath away
Down on the water front
Her hair all drenched in spray
Hannah baby was a honey of a girl
Her eyes were hazel
And her teeth were slightly curved
She took my guitar and she began to play
She sang a song to me
Stuck right in my brain
You’re just a memory of a love
That used to be
You’re just a memory of a love
That used to mean so much to me
She got a mind of her own
And she use it well
Well she’s one of a kind
She’s got a mind
She got a mind of her own
And she use it mighty fine
She drove a pick-up truck
Painted green and blue
The tires were wearing thin
She turned a mile or two
When I asked her where she headed for
“Back up to Boston I’m singing in a bar”
I got to fly today on down to Baton Rouge
My nerves are shot already
The road ain’t all that smooth
Across in Texas is the rose of San Antone
I keep on a feeling that’s gnawing in my bones
You’re just a memory of a love
That used to mean so much to me
You’re just a memory girl
You’re just a sweet memory
And it used to mean so much to me
Sha la la la la
She got a mind of her own
And she use it well
Mighty fine, she’s one of a kind
On the seventh day my eyes were all a glaze
We’ve been ten thousand miles
Been in fifteen states
Every woman seemed to fade out of my mind
I hit the bottle and hit the sack and cried
What’s all this laughter on the 22nd floor
It’s just some friends of mine
And they’re busting down the door
Been a lonely night at the Memory Motel

Famous Rock Guitars Part 4

This is obviously the 4th edition of this series. Part 1, Part2, and Part 3 we covered Brian May’s Red Special, Willie Nelson’s Trigger, George Harrison’s Rocky, Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat, Bruce Springsteen’s guitar, and Neil Young’s Old Black guitar.

Part 5 will be right after the holidays. Next week I will have a post on a not so famous guitar…one of my guitars with an interesting back story.

Today we will look at two Alpha males of their bands. Plus an odd Bonus!

John Lennon’s Epiphone Casino and Keith Richard’s “Micawber” … + Bonus!

John was best best known for two guitars. His Rickenbacker 325 and this Epiphone Casino.

In 1964 Paul McCartney bought a 1964 Epiphone Casino and he would end up using on songs like Taxman and Paperback writer. In 1966 John Lennon and George Harrison would buy 1965 Casino’s for themselves.

John’s was a double-cutaway semi-hollow f-hole body, P-90 pickups, vintage tuners with small buttons, trapeze tailpiece and originally a sunburst finish. However, after hearing from Donovan Leitch that a guitar would sound better without a heavy finish, he decided to sand the paint off the instrument, leaving it with a natural wood finish.

John played this guitar on the White Album and Abbey Road. He continued to play it many times for the rest of his career.

Lennon was never a “gear” head. He was known as an impatient man and would just plug in and go. Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick said he played around with the famous Rickenbacker at the Double Fantasy recording session but John didn’t play it on that album because it was in such bad shape. Rick said “the set list from Shea Stadium was still scotch-taped to the back of the guitar”…he said it was almost unplayable. It had rusty strings.

This video is about an Epiphone newer Casino model that was released it was inspired by Lennon’s guitar.

Bonus Guitar…John Lennon’s Sardonyx guitar

This is a “Bonus” guitar…the one John Lennon used on the Double Fantasy recordings. One of the oddest guitars I’ve ever seen. It is a Sardonyx guitar made in the seventies. It had built in effects and the rails acted as a guitar stand.

John Lennon bought this guitar from Matt Umanov’s guitar shop in Manhattan’s West Village… which is the shop where Jeff Levin sold many of his guitars through. Ken Schaffer actually sold most of them. Ken sold Jeff’s guitars to Ian Hunter, Howard Leese, Jeff Lynn, Pappy Castro, and a couple bass models to Phil Lynott and Bootsy Collins. It was Ken who sold John Lennon his Sardonyx, directly.

It’s not famous but it was so odd I had to include it.

Ken Schaffer: Months after John bought the guitar, I got a call from John’s personal assistant, who asked me to come to the Dakota. John had been impressed by the electronics I‘d stuffed into the Sardonyx, and asked to retain me to design the kill-all stereo he had in mind for the new apartment in the Dakota. In the small bedroom, which was to be Command Central for the system, hung above and behind the bed, vertically — the Sardonyx! MY Sardonyx! (Tears were welling up) … “Fred – you mean – John is using my guitar as a ($#%$&%*$) WALL ORNAMENT?!” Fred was John’s PA, and fought to settle me down, “No, man – wrong! He loves that guitar so much it hangs over his head when he’s sleeping!” (Tears dried) Whoa! And, in fact, there were pictures of this amazing guitar on the packaging of “Double Fantasy.” It was the guitar he used throughout.

Keith Richards’ Micawber

Micawber is a Butterscotch early fifties Telecaster Blackguard that Keith got around the recording of Exile on Main Street. The guitar was given to him by no other than Eric Clapton as a birthday present.

After the 1972 tour, Keith’s tech at the time, Ted Newman Jones III, replaced the neck pickup with a 50’s Gibson PAF humbucker upside down and the bridge pickup with a pickup out of a Fender lap steel which he chose because it was as close as he could find to the pickups used in a Broadcaster

In the 80’s Keith gave the guitar the nickname “Micawber” after a character in a Charles Dickens novel. Micawber has been Keith’s go-to for any song using Open G tuning.

In the eighties then guitar tech Alan Rogan made more modifications…Sperzel locking tuners and a modified brass bridge in which the low E saddle is removed to accommodate his five-string tuning.

I have used this 5 string tuning before. You can play a lot of the Stones catalog with that 5- string opening G tuning.

***Thanks to run-sew-read for pointing out this song by Barclay James Harvest called John Lennon’s guitar. It would be about the Epiphone Casino.

From Songfacts….Barclay James Harvest guitarist John Lees wrote this song. On the original recording of “Galadriel,” he played the Gibson Epiphone Casino that Lennon had played during the Beatles’ last ever live performance, in January 1969. This song describes that experience

Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue

Good morning everyone… hope you have a great Monday.

I bought the Emotional Rescue single when it was released. I also bought the album and it was a let down to me after the great Some Girls album. The title track is heavily leaning toward disco and I do like it. What attracted me to the song is the superb bass line in the intro.

Ronnie Wood played bass on the song and Bill Wyman played synthesizer. Ronnie is a great bass player. He played bass on Rod Stewart’s Maggie May. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #9 in the UK, and #1 in Canada.

The Stones played this for the very first time in concert on May 3, 2013, 33 years after they recorded the song. Keith Richards was not a fan of the song and it never made a Stones setlist until the first show of their 50 and Counting tour at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Mick Jagger: ‘We were just doing dance music, you know. It was just a dance music lick I was just playing on the keyboard. Charlie has a really nice groove for that.”

From Songfacts

This alienated many Stones fans who thought it was a sell out to disco, but it was still a Top 10 hit in the US and UK.

Mick Jagger sang much of this in a falsetto, which was the thing to do with disco songs. The Bee Gees did the same thing, but unlike The Stones, were never able to get back the fans they lost to disco.

Bobby Keys’ sax solo and Mick Jagger’s vocals were added almost a year after the rhythm track was recorded.

Jagger wrote this on an electric piano.

The video for this used the same thermal imagery effect as the album cover. It was cutting-edge visual stuff in 1980.

Emotional Rescue

Is there nothing I can say, nothing I can do to change your mind?
I’m so in love with you, you’re too deep in, you can’t get out
You’re just a poor girl in a rich man’s house
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Yeah, baby, I’m crying over you

Don’t you know promises were never meant to keep?
Just like the night, they dissolve off in sleep
I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Yeah, the other night, cryin’, cryin’ baby yeah I’m cryin
Yeah I’m cryin, I’m your child baby, child,
Yeah I’m a child, I’m a child, I’m a child

You think you’re one of a special breed
You think that you’re his pet Pekinese
I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
Ooh ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Yeah, I was dreamin’ last night baby
Last night I was dreamin’ that you’d be mine
But I was cryin’ like a child
Yeah I was cryin’, cryin’ like a child
Could be mine, mine, mine, mine, mine all mine
You could be mine, could be mine, could be mine all mine

I come to you, so silent in the night
So stealthy, so animal quiet
I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Yeah, you should be mine, mine, ooh!

Mmm yes, you could be mine, tonight and every night
I will be your knight in shining armor
Coming to your emotional rescue
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine

I will be your knight in shining armor
Riding across the desert on a fine Arab charger

Build-A-Band

Remember Build-A-Bear? Well this is the rock edition. I think this post may go under…”looked great on paper but…” but lets give it a try. Have you ever thought about if you could have a pick of any musicians living or dead and bring them together in their prime…what combinations would you come up with?

Who would you pick if you could pick anyone? We have a time machine so don’t worry…Jimi Hendrix is just a trip away. This is a discussion my friends and I have once in a while. I always wondered what a band with Keith Richards and John Lennon together would have sounded like…probably as raw as you could have sounded…a band with Big Star’s Alex Chilton and the Beatles Paul McCartney? It would be interesting.

There are many musicians I have left out…most likely they were here in previous editions that I’ve went through in the past few weeks.

Now… I would want to make at least two or three different bands…a rock, hard rock, and a pop/rock band. Now I could go on and on…Soul, Blues, Funk, Country/Rock, and even Heavy Metal. Who would you pick? What would your “dream” band be? If I had time I would have listed around 10 different kind of bands…but these 3 will do for now.

Rock band.

John Lennon – Rhythm Guitar/vocals
Keith Richards – Rhythm guitar/vocals
Duane Allman – Lead guitar
John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) – Bass
Charlie Watts – Drums
Leon Russell – Keyboards
Rod Stewart (early seventies version) – Lead Vocals

Hard Rock Band

Jimi Hendrix – Lead guitar and vocals
Eric Clapton – Lead guitar and vocals
John Entwistle – Bass
Keith Moon – Drums
Steve Marriott (Small Faces and Humble Pie) – Lead Vocals
Jon Lord (Deep Purple) – Keyboards

Pop/Rock Band

Paul McCartney – Bass/Lead Vocals
Alex Chilton (Big Star) – Guitar/Lead Vocals
Elvis Costello – Rhythm guitar/Lead Vocals
Clem Burke (Blondie) – Drums
Brian Wilson – Keyboards/Vocals

Rolling Stones – No Expectations…Sunday Album Cuts

This song will chill you out on this Sunday. No Expectations was on the 1968 album Beggars Banquet. The song is a favorite of mine on the album. This one and Prodigal Son is a throwback to some of their older blues influences. The feeling and the emotion of this song is fantastic.

Brian Jones was on the album and made one of his last contributions with slide on this song. The following year Brian would die in a swimming pool at his home.

This is one of the great Stones album tracks.

Mick Jagger: “That’s Brian playing steel guitar. We were sitting around in a circle on the floor, singing and playing, recording with open mikes. That was the last time I remember Brian really being totally involved in something that was really worth doing. He was there with everyone else. It’s funny how you remember – but that was the last moment I remember him doing that, because he had just lost interest in everything.”

From Songfacts

When Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones died in 1969, this song took on new meaning, as lyrics like “Our love is like our music, it’s here and then it’s gone” made it a fitting elegy. Jones’ slide guitar on the song was one of his last meaningful contributions to the group; after years of drug addiction and squabbles with the band, he was fired from the group in June 1969 and died less than a month later.

The Stones performed this on Rock and Roll Circus, a British TV special The Stones taped in 1968, but never aired. Brian Jones played this with a passion he was clearly losing as drugs took over his life. Rock and Roll Circus was released on video in 1995.

Nicky Hopkins, who also played with The Who and The Beatles, played piano on this.

Lenny Kravitz opened several shows for The Rolling Stones in 1994, and was invited onstage to jam with them at a Cleveland show. Kravitz helped out Mick Jagger in 2001, co-writing, performing on, and producing his song “God Gave Me Everything.”

This song was featured in the 1978 ant-war film Coming Home, with Jane Fonda and John Voight

No Expectations

Take me to the station
And put me on a train
I’ve got no expectations
To pass through here again

Once I was a rich man and
Now I am so poor
But never in my sweet short life
Have I felt like this before

You heart is like a diamond
You throw your pearls at swine
And as I watch you leaving me
You pack my peace of mind

Our love was like the water
That splashes on a stone
Our love is like our music
It’s here, and then it’s gone

So take me to the airport
And put me on a plane
I’ve got no expectations
To pass through here again

…

Rolling Stones – Stupid Girl

This song is for Song Lyric Sunda y for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Smart/Stupid. Hope everyone had a good safe Halloween.

Not a feel good song by the Rolling Stones. The song was on their album Afterman released in 1966. This was the B side to the great song Paint It Black. The Stones are known for a good amount of misogyny in their songs…this one and Under My Thumb are no exceptions.

Aftermath peaked at #2 in the Billboard Album Charts and #1 in the UK in 1966.

Stupid Girl was recorded at Los Angeles’ RCA Studios on 6–9 March 1966.

Mick Jagger: “It’s much nastier than Under My Thumb. Obviously, I was having a bit of trouble. I wasn’t in a good relationship. Or I was in too many bad relationships. I had so many girlfriends at that point. None of them seemed to care they weren’t pleasing me very much. I was obviously in with the wrong group”

Keith Richards: “Songs like “Under My Thumb” and “Stupid Girl” were all a spin-off from our environment – hotels, and too many dumb chicks. Not all dumb, not by any means, but that’s how one got.”

Stupid Girls

I’m not talking about the kind of clothes she wears
Look at that stupid girl
I’m not talking about the way she combs her hair
Look at that stupid girl

The way she powders her nose
Her vanity shows and it shows
She’s the worst thing in this world
Well, look at that stupid girl

I’m not talking about the way she digs for gold
Look at that stupid girl
Well, I’m talking about the way she grabs and holds
Look at that stupid girl

The way she talks about someone else
That she don’t even know herself
She’s the sickest thing in this world
Well, look at that stupid girl

Well, I’m sick and tired
And I really have my doubts
I’ve tried and tried
But it never really works out

Like a lady in waiting to a virgin queen
Look at that stupid girl
She bitches ’bout things that she’s never seen
Look at that stupid girl

It doesn’t matter if she dyes her hair
Or the color of the shoes she wears
She’s the worst thing in this world
Well, look at that stupid girl

Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up
Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up
Shut up, shut up, shut up

Like a lady in waiting to a virgin queen
Look at that stupid girl
She bitches ’bout things that she’s never seen
Look at that stupid girl

She purrs like a pussycat
Then she turns ’round and hisses back
She’s the sickest thing in this world
Look at that stupid girl

Rolling Stones – 100 Years Ago

Don’t you think it’s sometimes wise not to grow up?

100 Years Ago has a good melody and it changes it’s focus in the last three-quarters of the way through…a good song with an interesting outro. It’s an album cut and you never hear much on the radio. It’s worth a listen. If you see them in concert and want to hear this song…don’t hold your breath.

It was only played on the first two performances of European Tour of 1973, and has not been performed live since. Come on guys! Play it again…it’s not like the world can’t do without another version of Satisfaction.

I took an instant liking to this song. It starts with a little country influence and then ends with a funky free for all. I have the new version of Goats Head Soup and this one cleaned up really well.

The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, The UK, and Canada in 1973.

The Stones recorded this at Kingston’s Dynamic Sound Studios in November and December, 1972. Jagger performs lead vocals and is accompanied by Mick Taylor on backing. Taylor performs the song’s guitars while Keith Richards and Charlie Watts perform bass and drums, respectively. Nicky Hopkins provides piano while Billy Preston performs clavinet.

“100 Years Ago”

Went out walkin’ through the wood the other day
And the world was a carpet laid before me
The buds were bursting and the air smelled sweet and strange
And it seemed about a hundred years ago
Mary and I, we would sit upon a gate
Just gazin’ at some dragon in the sky
What tender days, we had no secrets hid away
Well, it seemed about a hundred years ago
Now all my friends are wearing worried smiles
Living out a dream of what they was
Don’t you think it’s sometimes wise not to grow up?
Wend out walkin’ through the wood the other day
Can’t you see the furrows in my forehead?
What tender days, we had no secrets hid away
Now it seems about a hundred years ago
Now if you see me drinkin’ bad red wine
Don’t worry ’bout this man that you love
Don’t you think it’s sometimes wise not to grow up?
You’re gonna kiss and say good-bye, yeah, I warn you
You’re gonna kiss and say good-bye, yeah, I warn you
You’re gonna kiss and say good-bye, oh Lord, I warn you
And please excuse me while I hide away
Call me lazy bones
Ain’t got no time to waste away
Lazy bones ain’t got no time to waste away
Don’t you think it’s just about time to hide away? Yeah, yeah!

…

Rolling Stones – Before They Make Me Run

A great “Keith” song on the great Stone’s album Some Girls released in 1978. Some of the lyrics make me laugh because of how honest they are. Maybe one of the best lines in Rock “I wasn’t looking too good but I was feeling real well”… It doesn’t get much more straightforward than that.

Some of the others are not so fun such as “Booze and pills and powders, you can choose your medicine, Well here’s another goodbye to another good friend.” In the world Keith was living in, it rang true. I’ve read that this line was about Keith’s good friend Gram Parsons who had died of a heroin overdose in 1973.

Richards recorded the song in five days without sleeping in March of 1978, a year after he was busted for heroin in Canada.

This and Happy are my favorite Keith Richards songs with the Stones. You Got the Silver is up there also. This is a Jagger/Richards song but Keith wrote most if not all of this one.

Great raw Rock and Roll song.

Keith Richards: “For sheer longevity – for long distance – there is no track that I know of like ‘Before They Make Me Run.’ That song, which I sang on that record, was a cry from the heart. But it burned up the personnel like no other. I was in the studio, without leaving, for five days… I had an engineer called Dave Jordan and I had another engineer, and one of them would flop under the desk and have a few hours’ kip and I’d put the other one in and keep going. We all had black eyes by the time it was finished… That’s probably the longest I’ve done. There have been others that were close – ‘Can’t Be Seen’ was one – but ‘Before They Make Me Run’ was the marathon.”

From Songfacts

This is about the rock and roll lifestyle that got Keith Richards in trouble. The song was recorded while he was out on bail after getting caught with heroin and arrested for drug trafficking in Toronto in 1977. He was found guilty of the lesser charge of heroin possession, and sentenced to probation.

Richards sang lead and did the majority of the work on this song. With Keith’s drug charges pending, Mick Jagger took a lot of control on the album, but this song was pretty much all Keith.

The original title was “Rotten Roll.”

Richard’s vocals were double-tracked to make them stand out.

A member of The Byrds, Parsons died in 1973 at age 26 after taking an overdose of alcohol and morphine. His corpse was stolen and burned in the Mojave Desert.

An engineer named Dave Jordan helped mix this song. He went on to work with groups like The Specials and The Pogues.

Before They Make Me Run

Worked the bars and sideshows along the twilight zone
Only a crowd can make you feel so alone
And it really hit home
Booze and pills and powders, you can choose your medicine
Well here’s another goodbye to another good friend

After all is said and done
Gotta move while it’s still fun
Let me walk before they make me run
After all is said and done
I gotta move, it’s still fun
I’m gonna walk before they make me run

Watched my taillights fading, there ain’t a dry eye in the house
They’re laughing and singing
Started dancing and drinking as I left town
Gonna find my way to heaven, ’cause I did my time in hell, oh yeah
I wasn’t looking too good but I was feeling real well

Oh after all is said and done
I gotta move I had my fun
Let us walk before they make us run

After all is said and done
I did alright, I had my fun
But I will walk before they’ll make me
I will walk before they’ll make me (run)
I will walk before they’ll make me (run)
I will walk before they’ll make me run

So if it’s all been said and done
I gotta move I had my fun
Let me walk before they make me run

So let me walk before they make me run
I want to walk before they’ll make me run

Rolling Stones – Rip This Joint…Sunday Album Cut

This was recorded during an all-night session at Keith Richards’ rented villa in the South of France. The band rented houses in the area and used Keith’s basement as a studio.

This song was on Exile On Main Street and it’s an incredibly driven song. It comes right at you and never slows down.

Understanding lyrics in Rolling Stones songs has always been a challenge but Mick’s voice is lower than usual in this one. The song contains some obscenities and sexual references, but they are very hard to understand.

But no worries… just sit back and enjoy the ride and this song takes you on one. It also contains references to President Nixon and his wife Pat, but they are almost impossible to understand.

Exile on Main street peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, Canada, and the UK in 1972.

It’s Sunday…just turn this up to full blast and enjoy it.

From Songfacts

The “Butter Queen” is a reference to a famous groupie known as “Barbara the Butter Queen.” Her real name was Barbara Cope, and she would do her thing when bands came through Dallas. She was very proficient, and had a killer gimmick: she would use a stick of butter when servicing the rock stars and crew. The butter supposedly made her activity smell like movie theater popcorn.

This song was particularly inspirational to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. He told Rolling Stone magazine: “When I went to my first rehab, at a place called Hazelden, I brought Exile on Main St. on cassette. I remember waking up the first morning there and realizing I hadn’t been sober once for the past 12 or 15 years, from LSD to heroin and cocaine and acid. The only way I could get a buzz at that point was to listen to ‘Rip This Joint.'”

Rip This Joint

Mama says yes, Papa says no
Make up your mind ’cause I gotta go
We’re gonna raise hell at the Union Hall
Drive myself right over the wall

Rip this joint, gonna save your soul
Round and round and round we go
Roll this joint, gonna get down low
Start my starter, gonna stop the show (Yeah)

Whoa, yeah!
Mister President, Mister Immigration Man
Let me in, sweetie to your fair land
I’m Tampa bound and Memphis too
Short Fat Fanny is on the loose
Dig that sound on the radio
Then slip it right across into Buffalo
Dick and Pat in ole DC
Well they’re gonna hold some shit for me

Ying yang, you’re my thing
Oh, now, baby, won’t you hear me sing
Flip Flop, fit to drop
Come on baby, won’t you let it rock?

Oh yeah! Oh yeah!
From San Jose down to Santa Fe
Kiss me quick, baby, won’tcha make my day
New Orleans with the Dixie Dean
To Dallas, Texas with the Butter Queen

Rip this joint, gonna rip yours too
Some brand new steps and some weight to lose
Gonna roll this joint, gonna get down low
Round and round and round we’ll go
Wham, Bham, Birmingham, Alabam’ don’t give a damn
Little Rock and I’m fit to top
Ah, let it rock

Rolling Stones – Monkey Man

This song is a great album cut. It was used well in Goodfellas, the 1990 movie in a scene where the gangsters are trafficking cocaine. One of my favorite Stone songs.

This song was on Let It Bleed and it was recorded after Brian Jones was fired and before Mick Taylor replaced him. On Monkey Man, Keith Richards played electric and slide electric guitar, Bill Wyman played bass, and producer Jimmy Miller assisted drummer Charlie Watts on tambourine.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote “Monkey Man” as a tribute to Italian pop artist Mario Schifano, whom they met on the set of his movie Umano Non Umano! (Human, Not Human!).

From Songfacts

The lyrics don’t seem to make much sense, but they are probably about heroin or a bad acid trip. You can certainly draw this conclusion from the opening lines:

I’m a fleabit peanut monkey
And all my friends are junkies

Nicky Hopkins was featured on piano. He and Ian Stewart made significant contributions to The Stones on keyboards, but were never credited with being official members of the group. Hopkins and Stewart both toured with the band as well.

Most of the album was recorded after the death of Brian Jones but before his replacement, Mick Taylor, joined the band. >>

The Stones performed this on their 1994-1995 Voodoo Lounge tour.

This song was used in the 1990 movie Goodfellas in a scene where the gangsters are trafficking cocaine. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese, who directed the 2008 Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light.

Monkey Man

I’m a fleabit peanut monkey
And all my friends are junkies
That’s not really true

I’m a cold Italian pizza
I could use a lemon squeezer
What you do?

But I’ve been bit and I’ve been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town
Have you babe?

But I am just a monkey man
I’m glad you are a monkey woman too

I was bitten by a boar
I was gouged and I was gored
But I pulled on through

Yeah, I’m a sack of broken eggs
I always have an unmade bed
Don’t you?

Well I hope we’re not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
But we love to play the blues

But well I am just a monkey man
I’m glad you are a monkey woman too
Monkey woman too babe

I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey
I’m a monkey
I’m a monkey
I’m a monkey
Monkey, monkey
Monkey

Monkey
I’m a monkey