Mick Jagger – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Rolling Stones – Monkey Man

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

This song is a great album cut. The way I would describe the song? It is the actual sound of sleaze, and that is a compliment. It was used well in Goodfellas, the 1990 movie, in a scene where the gangsters are trafficking cocaine. One of my favorite Stone songs. I always liked the Stones album cuts more than their hits. This is when they had the perfect producer (Jimmy Miller), the perfect guitar player (Keith Richards), and the perfect sound. This is the Stones I love, their golden period.

What makes this song is Keith Richards’ riff, and it is menacing and on the prowl, practically alive in this song, stalking you outside your bedroom window. Only Keith could make a riff sound dangerous, and it builds up through the song. Richards laid down the main riff on a late-night jam, a hypnotic riff, with just enough space for Nicky Hopkins to work in his piano. Hopkins’ playing on this is greatness: melodic and sinister all at once. He reportedly improvised much of it, adding those runs that make the song snarl.

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!).

This song is the Let It Bleed track I always come back to when I want to feel the Stones at their most human and feral.

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

Rolling Stones – Rocks Off

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

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 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)

…

Frederick Knight – I’ve Been Lonely For So Long

I love early seventies soul…this is a cool gem of a song and very overlooked. I remember this one when I was around 5-6 being played on A.M. Radio. He released this on Stax Records in 1972. Stax was starting to go down around this time.

In the early 1970s, under the leadership of Al Bell, Stax expanded too rapidly and faced financial difficulties due to over-expansion and mismanagement. Despite producing some hits during this period, including Isaac Hayes’ successful albums, Stax declared bankruptcy in 1975.

The song was written by Posie Knight and Jerry Weaver. It peaked at #27 on the Billboard 100, #8 on the Billboard R&B charts, and #23 in the UK in 1972. It’s been covered 15 times and one cover was by Mick Jagger on his 1993 solo album Wandering Spirit. Paul Young also covered it on his debut album No Palez in 1983.

He didn’t chart any more top 40 songs on the top 100 and he would be known as a one-hit wonder which is a shame. He kept releasing music until 1981 and did get a song in the top 40 of the R&B Charts with I Betcha Didn’t Know That in 1975.

In the mid-1970s, Knight founded his own record label, Juana Records. Through Juana Records, he produced and promoted music for other artists, including the successful disco group Anita Ward, who had a hit with Ring My Bell in 1979.

I’ve Been Lonely For So Long

I’ve been lonely for so longDon’t seem like happiness will come alongI’ve been lonely for so longDon’t seem like happiness will come along

These ain’t rain clouds over my headEverybody’s throwing rocks in my bedJust can’t seem to get ahead in lifeOoh, nothin’ I do ever turn out for the right

Won’t somebody help me please

‘Cause I’ve been lonely for so longDon’t seem like happiness will come alongI’ve been lonely for so longDon’t seem like happiness will come along

I lay awake every nightTryin’ to figure out how to make things rightThere’s got to be a better way I knowTo shake this monkey off ’cause he’s makin’ me so

Won’t somebody help me please

‘Cause I’ve been ooh, lonely for so longDon’t seem like happiness will come alongI’ve been lonely so longDon’t seem like happiness will come along

Yes, I know what it feels like to be lonelyTo have your friends turn their backs on youTo never know the real meaningOf peace of mind, oh

Just can’t seem to get ahead in lifeOoh, nothin’ I do ever turn out for the right

Won’t somebody help me please

‘Cause I’ve been lonely for so longDon’t seem like happiness will come alongI’ve been lonely for so longDon’t seem like happiness will come along

I’ve been down so longI’ve been down so longI’ve been down so longI’ve been down so long

I get lonely, I get lonelyI get lonely, I get lonelyI get lonely, lonely

…

Rolling Stones – Going To A Go-Go

Tattoo You was released in 1981 and they did a massive tour that didn’t come near Nashville. Back then no big band like The Who or Stones would come here. Vanderbilt was the only place big enough and they went through a period where they didn’t allow concerts. In 1972 they did come to Nashville to the Municipal Auditorium and Stevie Wonder opened up for them. I still tell my sister…you could have seen Stevie Wonder and The Stones but you picked the Osmonds and David Cassidy! It doesn’t phase her.

In 1982 they released this single off of their live album Still Life. It was a good album and entry to point to a lot of people…the problem was the live album I knew was Get Your Ya Ya’s Out…which ranks among the best live albums ever. I did like the album though and bought two singles from it before I got the album. I think it has the definitive version of Time Is On My Side and this song…Going To A Go-Go. It was a feel-good live album and the joke was going around on how incredibly old they were…hmmm if only we knew!

This was the last tour you could actually see JUST The Stones and not a stage full of other musicians. They always carried a keyboard player which is cool but after this, they carried backup singers and a huge entourage of players on stage. I never liked that…I would rather hear Keith’s thin backup vocals than professional singers.

I remember watching Friday Night Videos and seeing a clip of Keith Richards clubbing a guy over the head with his guitar. The guy deserved it…remember this was 1981, a year after their good friend John Lennon was murdered. Intruders on stage were not welcomed. Here is a small clip of it.

Going to a Go-Go peaked at #25 on the Billboard 100, #4 in Canada, #24 in New Zealand, and #26 in the UK in 1982. Jagger and Richards didn’t write this one. It was written by Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore, Bobby Rogers, and Marvin Tarplin. Smokey Robinson and The Miracles released in the song in 1965 and it peaked at #11 on the Billboard 100.

The two singles from the album were Time Is On My Side and Going to a Go Go. Time Is On My Side hit the top 10.

Going To A Go Go

Going to a go go, everybody
Going to a go go, c’mon now
Going to a go go, everybody
Going to a go go, c’mon now

Well there’s a brand new place I found
People coming from miles around
They come from everywhere
If you drop in there
You see everyone in town

Going to a go go, everybody
Going to a go go, c’mon now
Don’t you wanna go
And that’s alright tell me

Going to a go go, everybody
Going to a go go

It doesn’t matter if you’re black
It doesn’t matter if you’re white
Take a dollar fifty
A six pack of beer
And we goin’ dance all night

Going to a go go, everybody
Going to a go go, c’mon now
Don’t you wanna go
And that’s alright, tell me

…

Rolling Stones – Time Waits For No One

You could blindfold me and I could tell you if Mick Taylor was playing with The Stones live. He had his own unique sound because of the Les Paul he played. He made those songs in the classic Stones period go.

Many people think that Mick Taylor went uncredited on this and many songs. The melody doesn’t sound like a Keith melody but in any case, Jagger/Richards get credited with this one. They rarely if ever play it live.

The solo in this song is great by Mick Taylor. It reminds me a little of Carlos Santana. He quit shortly after this album was released and it was the end of the classic Stones era. They would never sound the same again after this. The song was on It’s Only Rock and Roll which was a good album but not up to the level of the five preceding albums. A big reason was because of the absence of producer Jimmy Miller.

So why did Mick Taylor leave the band? I’ve read different things from him and others. Taylor felt underappreciated and frustrated that he didn’t receive proper credit for his contributions to the band’s music. He claimed to have co-written several songs, such as Sway and Moonlight Mile but Jagger and Richards would not give a songwriting credit to him. I do believe that because Brian Jones and Ronnie Wood also had the same problem.

His health and well-being were also factors in his decision to leave. The intense touring schedule and the pressures of being in The Stones took a toll on him. Besides pot…he said he didn’t take drugs when he joined the band but like others before and after him…he slowly started to do harder drugs while with the band. When he quit the band it took him a while to get off of heroin.

The song is a favorite among many Stones fans I know and it should be more well known.

Time Waits For No One

Yes, star-crossed in pleasure, the stream flows on byYes, as we’re sated in leisure, we watch it fly, yes

And time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for meAnd time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for me

Time can tear down a building or destroy a woman’s faceHours are like diamonds, don’t let them waste

Time waits for no one, no favors has heTime waits for no one, and he won’t wait for me

Men, they build towers to their passingYes, to their fame everlastingHere he comes, chopping and reapingHear him laugh at their cheating

And time waits for no man, and it won’t wait for meYes, time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for thee

Drink in your summer, gather your cornThe dreams of the nighttime will vanish by dawn

And time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for meAnd time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for meNo, no, no, not for me, no, not for me

…

Rolling Stones – Fool To Cry

This song was on the forgotten Black and Blue album. My all-time favorite Stones song is on that album…Memory Motel.

This album was made when the best guitarist the Stones ever had…left them. That’s no knock on Keith, Brian, or soon-to-be Ronnie Wood at this time…Mick Taylor was just that good. He was on 4 of the 5 classic albums they are mostly known for. Another significant person left before Taylor did…Jimmy Miller produced the albums Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, and Goats Head Soup. He was the most important producer they worked with. He gave them a sound that they did not have before.

Ronnie Wood is not the guitar player in this song. They were auditioning guitar players on this album. The three guitar players were Wayne Perkins, Harvey Mandel, and Ronnie Wood. Wayne Perkins, a super-session player, was the lead guitar player on this song. He didn’t get the job because he was from Alabama. Keith said that was hard to get over because they wanted the Stones to remain an English band. Wayne Perkins was probably the best guitar player they auditioned…but Ronnie Wood looked the part and fit in.

The album was not as well received but still peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, #2 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1976.

Fool To Cry peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, #6 in the UK, and #38 in New Zealand.

Mick Jagger has said of this song: This dates from the period when I had a young child, my daughter Jade, around a lot, calling me daddy and all that. It’s another of our heartmelting ballads, a bit long and waffly at the end maybe, but I like it.

Keith Richards: “I was just glad somebody in the band could sing that falsetto. I got a pretty good falsetto myself. But when you got a singer and he can hit those notes, baby go for it. And Mick was always fascinated with the falsetto Soul singers like Aaron Neville. That’s crafty stuff, you know what I mean? But he’d been listening to so many people. It’s kinda like what goes in, will come out. You’ll just hear a phrase or a piece of music. And one way or another it’s part of your experience. And a lot of the time it comes out what you do without even realizing it. I don’t really like to think about these things too much. It’s more to do with feeling than intellectualizing about it.”

Keith Richards: Ronnie wasn’t necessarily a shoo-in as our new guitarist, despite our closeness at the time. He was still, for one thing, a member of the Faces. We tried other players before him–Wayne Perkins, Harvey Mandel. Both great players, both of them are on Black and Blue. Ronnie turned up as the last one, and it was really a toss-up. We liked Perkins a lot. He was a lovely player, same style, which wouldn’t have ricocheted against what Mick Taylor was doing, very melodic, very well-played stuff. Then Ronnie said he had problems with the Faces. So it came down to Wayne and Ronnie. Ronnie’s an all-rounder. He can play loads of things and different styles, and I’d just been playing with him for some weeks, so the chips fell there. It wasn’t so much the playing, when it came down to it. It came down to the fact that Ronnie was English! Well, it is an English band, although you might not think that now. And we all felt we should retain the nationality of the band at the time. Because when you get on the road, and it’s “Have you heard this one?,” you’ve all got the same backgrounds. Because of being London-born, Ronnie and I already had a built-in closeness, a kind of code, and we could be cool together under stress, like two squaddies. Ronnie was damn good glue for the band. He was a breath of fresh air. We knew he’d got his chops, we knew he could play, but a big decider was his incredible enthusiasm and ability to get along with everybody. Mick Taylor was always a bit morose. You’ll not see Mick Taylor lying on the floor, holding his stomach, cracking up with laughter for anything. Whereas Ronnie would have his legs in the air.

Fool To Cry

When I come home baby
And I’ve been working all night long
I put my daughter on my knee, and she says
Daddy what’s wrong?
She whispers in my ear so sweet
You know what she says, she says
Ooh, daddy you’re a fool to cry
You’re a fool to cry
And it makes me wonder why

Daddy you’re a fool
You know, I got a woman (daddy you’re a fool)
And she lives in the poor part of town
And I go see her sometimes
And we make love, so fine
I put my head on her shoulder
She says, tell me all your troubles
You know what she says?
She says, ooh, daddy you’re a fool to cry
You’re a fool to cry
And it makes me wonder why

Daddy you’re a fool to cry
Yeah, she says
Oh, Daddy you’re a fool to cry
You’re a fool to cry
And it makes me wonder why

She says, ooh, daddy you’re a fool to cry
Ooh, daddy you’re a fool to cry
Ooh, daddy you’re a fool to cry
Ooh, daddy you’re a fool to cry

Even my friends say to me sometimes
And make out like I don’t understand them
You know what they say?
They say, ooh daddy you’re a fool to cry
You’re a fool to cry
And it makes me wonder why, ah

I’m a fool baby, ah ya
I’m a certified fool, ah yeah
Gotta tell ya, baby
I’m a fool baby, ah yeah
Whoo
Certified fool for ya, mama, ya, yeah, come on, yeah
I’m a fool, yeah

Mick Jagger – Memo From Turner

This song should have been a Rolling Stones song but it was on the soundtrack of a movie Jagger did in 1969. It’s my absolute favorite thing Jagger ever released under his name only. The slide guitar in this song is just downright nasty. Ry Cooder did the honors in this song.

Mick Jagger starred in this movie called Performance in 1970. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel so I’ll paste the plot from IMDB:

Chas is an East London thug who works for gangster Harry Flowers and his associates (although they don’t use the word gangster to describe themselves). Chas is generally sadistic in his nature and thus revels in his work. But his sadistic nature also pervades his personal life. As such, he will work on his own personal agenda outside of the work for Harry. It is in this vein that an encounter with Joey Maddocks, a man with whom Chas has a history, leads to Chas needing to hide out from Harry and his associates. Ultimately Chas feels he needs to clandestinely leave the country. In the meantime, he, based solely on a private conversation he overhears between strangers, manages to take refuge in the basement of a Notting Hill flat owned by a man named Turner, who lives there with two female companions named Pherber and Lucy. Chas considers their lifestyle bohemian and one of free love, which is outside of his mentality. Turner is an ex-rock musician who has lost his “demon” and thus his desire to be a performer. As Chas makes arrangements for his departure out of England, he gets caught up in Turner’s lifestyle, Turner who is working on his own agenda in spending time with Chas.

I saw this movie in the 1980s…it’s a good movie. It’s not Mary Poppins by any stretch of the imagination so you will be seeing an R-rated movie that can border on X. They had to cut a few scenes to make it an R back then. Jagger does a great job in it…it’s been said more than playing himself in this film… he was playing his ex-bandmate Brian Jones.

The song was credited to Jagger/Richards and on some takes only Jagger. There were 3 versions of the song. The first take was from Mick with some of the band Traffic backing him but it wasn’t officially released. The 2nd version was a version of it by The Stones with Ry Cooder on slide. The third version was recorded in 1970 featuring Mick Jagger, Ry Cooder on slide guitar, Russ Titelman (guitar), Randy Newman (piano), Jerry Scheff (bass), and Gene Parsons on drums. That is the one that everyone knows.

Keith Richards didn’t want anything to do with it. He was not happy with the love scenes between his actress girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and Mick Jagger. Keith held a lot of resentment over that for a long time and let Mick know in his 2010 book Life. He ripped Jagger pretty well over it and it took them a few years to start talking again.

This is a very dirty and grimy song…it would have been a perfect fit on Exile On Mainstreet or Sticky Fingers. Any Goodfellas fans out there might remember it in that movie.

The song peaked at #32 on the UK Charts in 1970.

Memo From Turner

Didn’t I see you down in San Antone on a hot and dusty night?
We were eating eggs in Sammy’s when the black man there drew his knife
Didn’ you drown that Jew in Rampton when he washed his sleeveless shirt
With that Spanish-speaking gentlemen, the one we all called “Kurt.”

Come now, gentleman, there must be some mistake
How forgetful I’m becoming, now you fixed your business straight

I remember you in Hemlock Road in nineteen fifty-six
You’re a faggy little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick
You’re a lashing, smashing hunk of man
Your sweat shines sweet and strong
Your organ’s working perfectly, but there’s a part that’s not screwed on

Weren’t you at the Coke convention back in nineteen sixty-five
You’re the misbred, grey executive that I’ve seen heavily advertised
You’re the great, gray man whose daughter licks policemen’s buttons clean
You’re the man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine

Come now, gentleman, your love is all I crave
You’ll still be in the circus when I’m laughing, laughing in my grave

When the old men do the fighting and the young men all look on
And the young girls eat their mothers meat from tubes of plastic on
So be wary please my gentle friends of all the skins you breed
They have a nasty habit that is they bite the hands that feed

So remember who you say you are and keep your noses clean
Boys will be boys and play with toys so be strong with your beast
Oh Rosie dear, don’t you think it’s queer, so stop me if you please
The baby is dead, my lady said, “You gentlemen, why you all work for me?”

Rolling Stones – Shine A Light

This song was on the Exile On Main Street album. The original lyrics were started in 1968 about Brian Jones while he was still a member. It was about his drug habits and decline as a musician and human. After Brian died, Mick rewrote some of the lyrics and we got this gospel-sounding song with the help of Billy Preston and Leon Russell. Leon and Mick Jagger recorded an early version of this song called “(Can’t Seem To) Get a Line on You.”

Keith Richards and Charlie Watts are not on this song. Mick Taylor has claimed to play guitar and bass. Bill Wyman later said that he played bass on the song, not Taylor but Taylor did play guitar. The producer Jimmy Miller played drums on this track with Billy Preston on piano and organ. Clydie King, Joe Greene, Venetta Fields, and Jesse Kirkland sang back up.

Allen Klein owned all of the rights to Stones’ songs written before 1970. Somehow he fooled Mick and Keith into signing all of their rights away to their sixties catalog. Klein got wind of five songs on this album that were written in the 60s and yes…he sued them and got a share of the profits on this album. The songs were Sweet Virginia, Loving Cup, All Down the Line, Shine a Light, and Stop Breaking Down. Although this song is credited to Jagger-Richards…Leon Russell is said to have co-written it with Mick.

The song gave its name to a 2008 Martin Scorsese film chronicling the Stones’ Beacon Theatre performances on the latter tour, and the 2006 performance is included on the soundtrack album. Mick Jagger has named this his favorite song on Exile on Main Street.

Mick Jagger: “When I was very friendly with Billy
Preston in the ’70s I sometimes used to go to church with him in Los
Angeles, it was an interesting experience because we
don’t have a lot of churches like that in England. I hadn’t had a lot of firsthand experience of it.”

Mick Jagger: “It was quite an early one from Olympic Studios London, with Billy Preston. Once it was finished, we never played it on stage for years and years. Then it became this favorite after we recorded it for the Stripped album. So ‘Shine A Light’ was this funny thing that started off as something you did once at that time and never went back to.”

(Can’t Seem To) Get a Line on You with Jagger and Russell in 1969.

Shine A Light

Saw you stretched out in Room ten oh nine
With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye
Whoa, come see to get a line on you, my sweet honey love
Berber jewelry jangling down the street
Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet
Could not seem to get high on you, my sweet honey love

May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song (you sing) your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun

When you’re drunk in the elevator, with your clothes all torn
When your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn
Just seen too many flies on you, I just can’t brush them off

Angels beating all their wings in time
With smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyes
Whoa, thought I heard one sigh for you
Come on up, come on up, now, come on up now

May the good Lord shine a light on you, yeah
Make every song you sing your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you, yeah
Warm like the evening sun

Come on up now, come on up now, come on up now, come on up, come on

May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song you sing your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun, yeah, yeah

Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women

Of all the Rolling Stones songs I have posted…B sides and album cuts…I’m astonished that I haven’t posted this one. This is one of the Stones’ best 60s singles. It’s B side was You Can’t Always Get What You Want. I consider Jumping Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, and Brown Sugar their best rock singles. A case could be made for Satisfaction and Start Me Up as well.

When the Stones finished this recording on June 8, 1969…they drove to Brian Jones’s house to fire him. By this time he was trying to get himself clean of drugs and actually was getting better. He also had an arrest on his record that would stop the Stones from touring at the time. He started to record demos on his own and other people have said that it sounded like Creedence Clearwater Revival and that style. He would die on July 3, 1969, from drowning in his pool under a lot of controversy that still is questioned to this day. The song was released on July 4, 1969

This song was also the track that introduced Stones fans to guitarist Mick Taylor. The former member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers was brought in to replace founding member Brian Jones. Taylor, only 20 at the time, provided the glue for the song, helping the transition from verse to chorus. Guitarist Ry Cooder also was an inspiration for the song.

The song started on a trip that Richards and Mick Jagger took to Brazil. Inspired by the cowboys working the ranch where they were vacationing, the two started knocking together a Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers-inspired tune, with Jagger using the countrified tone of the music as inspiration for his lyrical ode to the working women of the Old West. That version you can hear in Country Honk on the Let It Bleed album. Honky Tonk Women was released as a non-album single.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, in the UK, in New Zealand, and #2 in Canada in 1969.

Keith Richards: ‘Honky Tonk Women’ started in Brazil. Mick and I, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg who was pregnant with my son at the time. Which didn’t stop us going off to the Mato Grasso and living on this ranch. It’s all cowboys. It’s all horses and spurs. And Mick and I were sitting on the porch of this ranch house and I started to play, basically fooling around with an old Hank Williams idea. ‘Cause we really thought we were like real cowboys. Honky tonk women. And we were sitting in the middle of nowhere with all these horses, in a place where if you flush the john all these black frogs would fly out. It was great. The chicks loved it. Anyway, it started out a real country honk put on, a hokey thing. And then couple of months later we were writing songs and recording. And somehow by some metamorphosis it suddenly went into this little swampy, black thing, a Blues thing. Really, I can’t give you a credible reason of how it turned around from that to that. Except there’s not really a lot of difference between white country music and black country music. It’s just a matter of nuance and style. I think it has to do with the fact that we were playing a lot around with open tunings at the time. So we were trying songs out just to see if they could be played in open tuning. And that one just sunk in.”

Honky Tonk Women

I met a gin-soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride
She had to heave me right across her shoulder
‘Cause I just can’t seem to drink you off my mind

It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

I laid a divorcée in New York City
I had to put up some kind of a fight
The lady then she covered me with roses
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind

It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues
It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

Rolling Stones – Salt Of The Earth

Let’s drink to the hard-working people
Let’s drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

This song is on my favorite Rolling Stones album, Beggars Banquet. There is not a bad song on the LP. This one and Prodigal Son I always liked. The album peaked at #5 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in the UK, and #3 in Canada in 1969.

I played this album to death. As with most Stones albums, you get what you get…rock, blues, and a little country thrown in the mix. I got this album when I was 12 and it opened my eyes wide to the Stones…much more than a collection of their hits would ever do.

This album is not considered up there with Sticky Fingers or Exile On Main Street but I have the strongest connection to it. I’ve always related Beggars Banquet to the White Album. They were both released in 1968 and were raw and honest. No studio trickery to either…a big departure from the psychedelic era of 1967 for both bands. I think the Stones and Beatles also owe a nod to The Band’s rootsy music (Music From Big Pink) which was influencing everyone around this time.

I learned that a greatest hits package from The Beatles and Rolling Stones was NOT enough. Those two bands taught me to buy albums and not just rely on the “hits” which even at that time were worn out. You never got the really good songs that lay hidden like this one. The two well-known songs off of the album were great like Sympathy for the Devil and Street Fighting Man but I liked some of the others just as much. Now with certain artists…yes, a Greatest Hits package is fine but not with the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and a few more.

I don’t think Jimmy Miller gets enough credit for their sound. That is not a knock against the Stones but the Miller-produced albums are special. He produced them during their 5 album stretch golden period. Keith and Mick Jagger both sing on this with the Los Angeles Watts Street Gospel Choir singing background…Nicky Hopkins is on piano. It was written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

The title refers to the working class…they are “The salt of the Earth.” Jagger later said: “The song is total cynicism. I’m saying those people haven’t any power and they never will have.”

Speaking of albums. My friend Paul has a massive site with album reviews called The Punk Panther Music Reviews. I can almost promise you he will have what you are looking for.

Also, Graham has a wide selection of albums that he reviewed…it’s called Aphoristic Album Reviews. When I want to see album reviews I go to those two sites. I hardly ever do album reviews because frankly, I’m not that good at it but I still try once in a while.

Salt Of The Earth

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

And when I search a faceless crowd
A swirling mass of gray and
Black and white
They don’t look real to me
In fact, they look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the uncounted heads
Let’s think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And when I look in the faceless crowd
A swirling mass of grays and
Black and white
They don’t look real to me
Or don’t they look so strange

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth
Let’s drink to the two thousand million
Let’s think of the humble of birth

Rolling Stones – Tops

Around 1990 I was playing a club and we usually got off around 2am in the morning. Early on a Sunday morning around 2:30…the guitar player and I packed the car and headed out to Pensacola Florida. One of those spontaneous trips. On the way, we listened to a Dennis Leary comedy tape and The Rolling Stone’s Tattoo You. This is the song that stuck with me on that trip for some reason.

Tattoo You was made up of outtakes and songs that were almost a decade old going back to Emotional Rescue, Black and Blue, and the Goats Head Soup album. Tattoo You to me…was their last great album. They originally recorded this song around 1972 (that version at the bottom). They worked on this song at least 4 different times. : Dynamic Sounds Studios, Kingston, Jamaica, Nov. 25-Dec. 21 1972; Village Recorders, Los Angeles, USA, Jan.13-15 1973; EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, France, Jan. 5-March 2 1978; June 10-Oct. 19 1979. In 1981 Mick redid all of his vocals to the song.

Even though he had left the band seven years earlier, Mick Taylor’s guitar solo was left on this track and it is fantastic. Pianist Nicky Hopkins also appears on the track, as does the band’s old producer Jimmy Miller, who plays percussion.

Associate producer Chris Kimsey remembers there was a need to put an album out very quickly. A tour was already planned and Mick and Keith were not talking that much at the time. Kimsey told the band that he could probably make an album just out of the unused songs they had going back to 1972. Despite coming from different eras the songs fit together quite nicely. Personally, I think the album was much better than it’s predecessor Emotional Rescue.

The song was written by Jagger/Richards and was pulled from 10 years prior…it was one of the few not pulled as a single.

A version they recorded in 1972

The Tattoo You version from 1981

Tops

Every man is the same, come on
I’ll make you a star
I’ll take you a million miles from all this
Put you on a pedestal
Come on (come on, come on)

Have you ever heard those opening lines?
You should leave this small town way behind
I’ll be your partner, show you the steps
With me behind, you’re tasting of the sweet wine of success
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby (hey, baby)

I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, baby
I’ll take you to the top

Step on the ladder, toe in the pool
You’re such a natural, you don’t need no acting school
Don’t need no casting couch or be a star in bed
And never, never let success go to you pretty head
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby
I swear I would never gonna stop, baby

I’ll take you to the top
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
You take your chance now, baby
I’m sorry for the rest of your sweet loving life, baby
Oh, sugar
Hey sugar, I’ll take you to the top

I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, sugar
I’ll take you to the top
Oh, baby

I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top

Rolling Stones – Sway ….Sunday Album Cuts

This was one of the great songs on Sticky Fingers…which has been called their greatest album alongside Exile on Main Street.

Mick Taylor wrote this track with Jagger, believing he’d receive his due acknowledgment, but it was ultimately credited to the Jagger/Richards duo. It was the type of slight that the guitarist took in his stride in the early days but, would grow into a larger issue in the coming years.

The Black Crowes were influenced by this song heavily on their track Sister Luck… they captured the same feel. I thought of this song because of a blogger friend (Jeremy James). He doesn’t blog much any more but has a cool youtube channel. He shows how to play this slide solo. He analyzes guitar effects, and equipment, and shows how to play different songs on guitar….check him out.

Sticky Fingers was the first album The Stones recorded on their own label and the first in which Mick Taylor played guitar on nearly all the tracks. The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, and #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1971. They had a lot of competition that year with The Who’s Who’s Next and Led Zeppelin IV.

On December 2, 1969, the band had begun work on what would be their first album of the 1970s, and the one upon which so much of their myth and mystique would be built.

At the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, they cut three tracks Brown Sugar, Wild Horses, and You Gotta Move in three days, all of which would subsequently appear on the band’s ninth LP, Sticky Fingers. They did this before they played at the disaster that was known as Altamont…where Meredith Hunter lost his life…on December 6, 1969.

Sway

Did you ever wake up to findA day that broke up your mindDestroyed your notion of circular time

It’s just that demon life has got you in its swayIt’s just that demon life has got you in its sway

Ain’t flinging tears out on the dusty groundFor all my friends out on the burial groundCan’t stand the feeling getting so brought down

It’s just that demon life has got me in its swayIt’s just that demon life has got me in its sway

There must be ways to find outLove is the way they say is really strutting out

Hey, hey, hey nowOne day I woke up to findRight in the bed next to mineSomeone that broke me up with a corner of her smile, yeah

It’s just that demon life has got me in its swayIt’s just that demon life has got me in its sway

It’s just that demon life has got me in its swayIt’s just that demon life has got me

It’s just that demon life has got

Rolling Stones – Start Me Up

I’ve been running hot
You got me ticking gonna blow my top
If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I’ve never covered this song before because of all the Stones songs…this one is up there with the ones that radio has simply worn out. But the bottom line is…it’s a great rock song. Even if you don’t like it…you would have to admit that. It might be one of their albums’ best intro songs.

Let’s go back to 1981…I was over at my friend Kenny’s house and I heard this song. Kenny loved animals and had a tarantula, piranha, and other sorts of fun animals. I think it was his radio alarm that went off but I heard this song and knew exactly who it was and I was hooked. This was before it was worn completely out. The opening riff is straight out of the 5-string open G tuning for all of you guitarists. That tuning helped Keith come up with all of those great riffs.

All the news at the time was on their tour. They were called old and over the hill…funny now thinking back…they were only in their late 30s and early 40s. Nowadays that is a young band. I went out and bought the album and loved it. The next year I bought the live (from that tour) Time is On My Side and Going To A Go-Go singles. I then broke down and bought the Still Life live album they came from.

In my opinion, Tattoo You was their last brush with greatness. They did have Undercover, Steel Wheels, and others but this one is very good. The album was made up of outtakes and songs that were almost a decade old going back to Emotional Rescue and the Goats Head Soup album. They would never be this raw again…but there still is time.

Start Me Up started as a reggae-type song but soon developed into a full-blown rock song that kicked the doors down. It has become a staple in their concerts along with Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Satisfaction.

It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #7 in the UK, and #33 in New Zealand in 1981. I loved the low quality of the main video for the song. It looked like it was made by a poor high school rock band…it fit perfectly. It’s what you call a one-take video. You can see Charlie laughing at the front three.

The early version of Start Me Up

Start Me Up

If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop
If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop

I’ve been running hot
You got me ticking gonna blow my top
If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop
Never stop, never stop, never stop

You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
Spread out the oil, the gasoline
I walk smooth, ride in a mean, mean machine

Start it up
If you start it up
Kick on the starter give it all you got, you got to, you got to
I can’t compete with the riders in the other heats

If you rough it up
If you like it I can slide it up, slide it up, slide it up, slide it up

Don’t make a grown man cry
Don’t make a grown man cry
Don’t make a grown man cry
My eyes dilate, my lips go green
My hands are greasy
She’s a mean, mean machine

Start it up
Start me up
Give it all you got
You got to never, never, never stop

Slide it up
Baby up just slide it up
Start it up, start it up, start it up
Never, never, never

You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
Ride like the wind at double speed
I’ll take you places that you’ve never, never seen

If you start it up
Love the day and we will never stop, never stop, never stop, never stop
Tough me up
Never stop, never stop

You, you, you make a grown man cry
You, you make a dead man cum
You, you make a dead man cum

Rolling Stones – You Got The Silver

I posted the song Happy a while back and I was commenting on Keith Richards lead vocals. He always would sing songs that reflected him and his voice. I heard this song in the 80s and fell in love with it.

This is one of the times that Keith Richards sang the entire lead vocal. They did record a version with Jagger singing lead but decided to release the one with Richards singing.

Supersession man Nicky Hopkins played piano and organ on this. He played with The Stones on albums from Between The Buttons through Black And Blue. Along with Ian Stewart and Billy Preston, Hopkins was one of the three major contributors on keyboards for The Stones. Hopkins also played with The Beatles, Who, Kinks, and Jeff Beck.

The song was included in the Michaelangelo Antonioni 1970 film Zabriskie Point…but it wasn’t on the soundtrack. This song was the B side to the Let It Bleed single…also it was featured on the album Let It Bleed.

Supposedly Keith Richards wrote this about his then-girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg. She was with his bandmate Brian Jones before leaving Brian for Richards. This didn’t help Brian’s mental state at the time.

Brian Jones played the autoharp on this track. Jones played many unusual instruments for The Stones, and this was one of the last songs he contributed to. To be fair he rarely showed up to the Let It Bleed sessions and was not always functional when he did.

Personally, I’m a Brian Jones fan. When they got rid of him they lost their ultimate utility knife. He flavored the music with different instruments and they never sounded the same again. As much as Mick Taylor made so much of their sound from here on…that variety that Brian provided was missed.

I do understand why Mick and Keith did what they did but…it’s no secret that they dominated the songwriting and did not want songs from anyone else in the band. Taylor had to sue to get credits for songs he helped write years later after he left the band.

George Harrison and Brian Jones were close because they were in a similar situation with their respective bands. George at least got some songs on albums, unlike Brian. I would recommend any Stones fan to read Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones by Paul Trynka. Brian could be nasty and also a good guy…in other words, he was human. Sometimes it gets overlooked that Brian started The Rolling Stones.

The Stones didn’t play this live until 1999, but then it became a regular part of their otherwise hit-packed setlists. Richards was surprised how well it went over with fans.

You Got The Silver

Hey babe, what’s in your eyes?
I saw them flashing like airplane lights
You fill my cup, babe, that’s for sure
I must come back for a little more

You got my heart you got my soul
You got the silver you got the gold
You got the diamonds from the mine
Well that’s all right, it’ll buy some time

Tell me, honey, what will I do
When I’m hungry and thirsty too
Feeling foolish (and that’s for sure)
Just waiting here at your kitchen door?

Hey baby, what’s in your eyes?
Is that the diamonds from the mine?
What’s that laughing in your smile?
I don’t care, no, I don’t care

Oh babe, you got my soul
You got the silver you got the gold
If that’s your love, just leave me blind
I don’t care, no, that’s no big surprise

…

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