It was a turbulent year, to say the least. We lost two proponents of peace—Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Other events include the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, riots in Washington, DC, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and heightened social unrest over the Vietnam War, values, and race.
The music was also toughened up by moving away from psychedelic music. The social climate and The Band’s album Music from Big Pink had a lot of influence on this. You still had psychedelic music released but overall, music was more stripped down to the basics.
Let’s start off with The Band…Music From Big Pink was one of the most important albums ever released. Its influence was everywhere. The song The Weight was also later included in the movie Easy Rider.
The Beatles would release the super single Hey Jude/ Revolution and The White Album. I could go with many songs like Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Back in the USSR, Helter Skelter, Dear Prudence, and the list is almost endless… but I’ll go with Revolution. This song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney…but mostly Lennon.
The Rolling Stones released what some considered their best song ever with Jumping Jack Flash. It was written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
Maybe the first supergroup in rock…Cream with White Room. Pete Brown wrote the lyrics and Jack Bruce wrote the music. Bruce was inspired by a cycling tour that he took in France. The “white room” was a literal place: a room in an apartment where Pete Brown was living.
Now we will go with the legendary Otis Redding singing (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay.
The song is a true classic. Stax guitarist Steve Cropper wrote this with Redding. Cropper produced the album when Redding died, including this track with various songs Redding had recorded the last few years.
Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967, a month before this song was released (January 8, 1968) and three days after he recorded it. It was by far his biggest hit and was also the first-ever posthumous #1 single in the US.
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 Banquetto 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
This may be the best year ever in pop music. So many choices but as Ricky Nelson said “You Can’t Please Everyone…” so here it goes.
There are so many Beatles songs this year like Day Tripper, Eleanor Rigby, Paperback Writer, and more. My two favorite Beatles songs of this year would be And Your Bird Can Sing and this one…the B side to Paperback Writer…Rain. The bass in this song is incredible. The song was credited to Lennon/McCartney but it’s more of a Lennon song.
Now we have The Beatles arch-rivals…just kidding. Actually, they were friends who worked together and made sure their releases didn’t overlap each other. The Rolling Stones in Paint It Black. Personally, I like this one better than Satisfaction. Paint It Black was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Wild Thing…you make my heart sing. That’s all that needs to be said by this band. They were not a one-hit wonder though. I’ve been a fan of The Troggs since I bought their single as a kid in the late seventies. Their hits included Wild Thing, With a Girl Like You, and the song that has been covered many times…Love Is All Around. They were punk rock before punk rock. The song was written by Chip Taylor.
Let’s go to the American band The Lovin Spoonful who scored huge with this single. The song was written by John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian, and Steve Boone.
This man would change rock guitar forever and some still consider him the best. Hey Joe was released in December of 1966. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was making its debut. The song’s songwriting credits have been disputed. Here is what Wiki said: Public Domain (1st pressing), Dino Valenti a.k.a. Chet Powers (2nd & 3rd pressings), and Billy Roberts (copyrighted)
All of these songs are stone-cold classics. The first two are probably the best-known in their catalog by their respective artist…and that statement is saying a lot. These are in no order but we will kick it off with the song that Keith Richards wrote the riff in bed and then turned over and went to sleep. Luckily he had his tape recorder running and the next morning he listened to his riff and him snoring for hours. The Rolling Stones‘s Satisfaction.
Bob Dylan has his mega vindictive hit Like A Rolling Stone. It’s been voted in some polls as the best rock single ever. I picked a live version backed by the future Band at the Royal Albert Hall the following year.
The Beatles released their second soundtrack album in 1965. The album would bridge Beatlemania to Mid Beatles. It was one of John Lennon’s personal favorite songs he wrote. How they did those great backup vocals without proper monitors is beyond me.
The Who released My Generation in 1965. It wasn’t a top seller in America but it would become one of their best-known songs. They would release brilliant singles throughout the 60s and then help to invent arena rock in the 70s. A band we will be hearing more from.
This fifth spot was hard. I’m being open and honest…it was between Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and The Byrds. This whole thing is based on what I like the most…well, I like Tracks of My Tears and Mr. Tambourine Man around the same. I’m going to include Smokey coming up.
I loved those glasses that Mcguinn wore so much that in 1987 I tracked a pair down. No, they were not easy to find in the eighties. Parachute pants? One white glove? Hair spray? yes…but not the out-of-style small rectangle glasses.
Hope you all are having a good week…happy Wednesday!
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones Excitable boy, they all said well, he’s just an excitable boy …. Warren Zevon
I’ll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon And another girl can take my pain away…Rolling Stones
We were the first band to vomit at the bar and find the distance to the stage too far meanwhile it’s getting late at ten o’clock rock is dead they say Long Live Rock…The Who
Cause when life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door… The Grateful Dead
Then here come a man with a paper and a pen tellin’ us our hard times are about to end… The Band
I could walk like Brando right into the sun then dance just like a Casanova… Bruce Springsteen
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe …The Beatles
Mother, you had me but I never had you I, I wanted you You didn’t want me so, I just got to tell you goodbye … John Lennon
Exchanging “good luck”s face to face checkin’ his stash by the trash at St. Mark’s place …The Replacements
We come from the land of the ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow… Led Zeppelin
Every day, I look at the world from my window but chilly, chilly is the evening time Waterloo sunset’s fine… The Kinks
I don’t wanna be a candidate for Vietnam or Watergate… Queen
If I ventured in the slipstream between the viaducts of your dream… Van Morrison
I am just a dreamer but you are just a dream and you could have been anyone to me… Neil Young
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies and walked off to look for America…Simon and Garfunkel
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
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 find A day that broke up your mind Destroyed your notion of circular time
It’s just that demon life has got you in its sway It’s just that demon life has got you in its sway
Ain’t flinging tears out on the dusty ground For all my friends out on the burial ground Can’t stand the feeling getting so brought down
It’s just that demon life has got me in its sway It’s just that demon life has got me in its sway
There must be ways to find out Love is the way they say is really strutting out
Hey, hey, hey now One day I woke up to find Right in the bed next to mine Someone that broke me up with a corner of her smile, yeah
It’s just that demon life has got me in its sway It’s just that demon life has got me in its sway
It’s just that demon life has got me in its sway It’s just that demon life has got me
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
A soulful song by Billy Preston that was produced by his friend George Harrison. It was released in 1969 on Apple Records. This song had an ALL-STAR band backing it. George told Preston he would “invite some of his friends” over. Billy had no idea those friends were Eric Clapton on guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Ginger Baker on drums. That alone makes the song worth listening to. Also, the backup vocals were done by Doris Troy and Madeline Bell.
This song peaked at #62 on the Billboard 100 Charts, #61 in Canada, and #11 in the UK in 1969.
Preston was good friends with the Beatles…playing on the Let It Be album and the Get Back film. They signed him to Apple Records after getting him out of his contract with Capitol Records. He ended up with 5 top 5 hits including 2 number 1’s. He also toured with the Rolling Stones throughout the seventies.
The album was called That’s the Way God Planned It and it peaked also at #62 in the Billboard Album Charts. Critic David Fricke said: “Preston would have bigger hits in the Seventies but never make a better one than this album’s rapturous title track … The rest of the album is solid church-infused soul, with Preston covering both Bob Dylan and W.C. Handy.”
In 1979, after a few years without a hit, he would hit the charts again with Syreeta Wright on the ballad “With You I’m Born Again.” Preston suffered from kidney disease in his later years and would pass away on June 6, 2006.
Billy Preston:“I first met [them] in Hamburg in 1962, I was backing Little Richard and they were just one of 14 other groups. They used to dedicate ‘Taste Of Honey’ and ‘Love Me Do’ to me and they were the only group I bothered to watch.”
That’s The Way God Planned It
Why can’t we be humble Like the good Lord said He promised to exalt us For love is the way
How men be so greedy When there’s so much left All things are God given And they all have been blessed
That’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants it to be, didn’t He Well, that’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants it to be, for you and me Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let not your heart be troubled Let mourning sobbing cease Learn to help one another And live in perfect peace
If we just be humble Like the good Lord said He promised to exalt us For love is the way
That’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants it to be, doesn’t He You better believe me That’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants it to be, for you and me Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
That’s the way, alright Come on, come on, come on
I hope you get this message And where you won’t others will You don’t understand me But I’ll love you still
That’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants it to be You better believe me That’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants, He wants it to be
That’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants it to be Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah That’s the way God planned it That’s the way God wants it to be Oh, yeah
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
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
Dave from A Sound Day (check out the other posts on Dave’s “Turntable Talk”) posted this on November 5, 2022. He wanted a group of us to write about what we thought was the best year in music…I ended up picking the turbulent year of 1968.
When I think of the best year of music …for me it’s between 7 years. I would pick 1965 through 1971. I cannot pick all so here it goes…I pick 1968. It had some of the greatest albums and singles ever.
It was a turbulent year, to say the least. We lost two proponents of peace—Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Other events include the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, riots in Washington, DC, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and heightened social unrest over the Vietnam War, values, and race.
The music was also toughened up by moving away from psychedelic music. The social climate and The Band’s album Music from Big Pink had a lot of influence on this. You still had psychedelic music released but overall, music was more stripped down to the basics.
My favorite album of all time was released by The Beatles. My favorite album by The Rolling Stones was released that year as well. Let’s look at the albums released in 1968…it’s outstanding.
The Beatles – The Beatles (The White Album)
The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
The Kinks – Are the Village Green Preservation Society
That list could be on my desert island list… those albums are still being played today. I’ve only scratched the surface of the albums that year.
The Holy Trinity of Rock all released music that year… which would be The Beatles, The Who, and The Stones. I can’t imagine living in the era when these bands were in their prime and roamed the earth. The Who didn’t release an album, but they did release some singles and were gearing up for the following year. Let’s look at some of the singles of that year.
The Beatles – Hey Jude/Revolution
The Beatles – Lady Madonna
The Who – Magic Bus
The Rolling Stones – Jumping Jack Flash
Steppenwolf – Born To Be Wild
The Doors – Hello, I Love You
The Rascals – People Got To Be Free
Cream – Sunshine Of Your Love
Otis Redding – The Dock of the Bay
The Supremes – Love Child
The Chamber Brothers – Time Has Come Today
Janis Joplin – Piece of My Heart
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Suzie Q
Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends
The year featured the debut album of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Brian Jones made his final album with the Rolling Stones and it was the start of their great 5 album stretch. The Who started to record the album that would break them worldwide with Tommy. Dock of the Bay would be released posthumously after Otis Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. The Grateful Dead would release their second album Anthem of the Sun and continue to build one of the largest fan bases ever. Jimi Hendrix was breaking barriers with his experimentation in the studio as well as live.
The Band would change the game by releasing Music From Big Pink. It influenced nearly everyone at the time to go back to a rootsy kind of music. Fleetwood Mac would release their debut album this year. Jeff Beck would release his legendary album Truth.
FM radio was getting huge at this time and showed that audiences didn’t have to have top 40 hits to buy albums. Take Van Morrison for instance. Astral Weeks didn’t have a “hit” on the album but continued to be played and sell. The Beatles The White Album is as diverse as you can get… Pop, Rock, Country, Folk, Reggae, Avant-Gard, Blues, Hard Rock, and some 20’s British Music Hall thrown in for good measure. No singles were released from this album or Sgt Pepper the previous year. They treated singles and albums as two different things. Hey Jude and the hit version of Revolution was recorded during the White Album but yet they left those two off. The Stones would do the same and leave off Jumpin’ Jack Flash from Beggars Banquet.
1968 set the stage for the coming decade’s rock music. Bands like The Who, Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin didn’t need hit singles. You bought the album now and listened to the music in the context of that format. There were still pop/rock singles but the albums were gaining traction.
To wrap it up…I think any of the years between 1965-1971 could have a strong argument for my tastes. If you are into disco or synth music…not as much.
This was the first book I read on the Rolling Stones when I was around 13. It’s an easy but dark read. It’s written by Tony Sanchez, Keith’s drug dealer and sometimes partner in crime. Tony was also a photographer who took photos of the Stones and the Moody Blues. Spanish Tony, as he was called hung around with the Stones, Moody Blues and also knew the Beatles.
It’s full of wrecked cars, heroin, dead friends, sleazy characters, and some eventful journeys. At first, I would take some of the stories with a grain of salt but most of the events were verified by Keith’s book “Life.”
Tony Sanchez and Keith Richards
Tony had some underworld connections like the famous Kray Twins of the 60s. He opened a club with some backing from the Stones and according to him saved Keith from some setups from time to time with his connections. The Nellcote in France period is covered well and the film of the 1972 tour that was never released except for a bootleg was explained.
Anita Pallenberg came off looking worse than anyone. Tony talks about Anita’s interest in black magic, Kenneth Anger, and how she would practice some of the rituals. He described her as a very nasty and petty woman, especially to Bianca. She was first with Brian…then with Keith and a brief spell with Mick. Marianne Faithfull was also a subject in the book and she came off really well.
Tony and Keith were pretty tight. On the original back cover of Beggars Banquet you can see “Spanish Tony Where Are You” written on the wall. He had been out of the country at that time.
Anita Pallenberg, Tony Sanchez, Keith Richards
The book concentrates on Keith and Mick…big surprise there…also on Brian Jones. He goes through the dynamics between the three. He talks about the bust at Redlands and Tony trying to bribe some high-ranking police investigators to “lose” the evidence but it didn’t work.
He tells one story that happened at Mick Jagger’s 26th birthday party at the club that Tony partly owned (The Vesuvio Club) and the DJ was playing the Stones new song Sympathy for the Devil…In walks, Paul McCartney with the Hey Jude and Revolution demo single under his arm and it was played… people went nuts. Tony said that Mick felt upstaged…After that Tony had his cousin…a big Beatles fan…attempt to drive John Lennon home…but he could hardly drive the car because he was so nervous…John and Yoko were jerked all over the back seat so John ended up getting out and walking…
There are some funny stories in this about Keith and the world he created.
Tony was with the Stones until 1976 and he just walked away after some confusion backstage over a backstage pass…He was carrying dope to someone and so he says he checked himself in rehab.
Everyone seemed to like the first one so I thought I would bring it back. I did list many of the lyrics that you suggested in the comments on the other post…SO… this post was written by all of us…and uh…the ones that actually wrote the songs!
Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear,it’s not dark yet but it’s gettin’ there... Bob Dylan
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me…Rolling Stones
I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked The Beatles, I asked Timothy Leary, but he couldn’t help me either, they called me the Seeker…The Who
Cows are giving kerosene, the kid can’t read at seventeen, the words he knows are all obscene, but it’s alright… The Grateful Dead
You take what you need and you leave the rest, but they should never have taken the very best… The Band
Wild thing you make my heart sing you make everything groovy… The Troggs
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away… Bruce Springsteen
Rich man, poor man, beggar man thiefyou ain’t got a hope in hell, that’s my belief… ACDC
The farther one travels the less one knows the less one really knows …The Beatles
My friends are gone and my hair is grey I ache in places I used to play…Leonard Cohen
Whatever gets you through the night … John Lennon
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung …The Replacements
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my faceand stars fill my dream I’m a traveler of both time and space… Led Zeppelin
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola La-la-la-la Lola… The Kinks
She keeps her Moet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet “Let them eat cake”, she says just like Marie Antoinette… Queen
Shammy cleaning all the windows singing songs about Edith Piaf’s soul… Van
You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon… Neil Young
Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again…Simon and Garfunkel
Sorry if you have seen this already today but it vanished in the reader so I’m republishing it. it…thank you.
Today we look at a song that is best known by the live version. Midnight Rambler is up there with Sympathy For The Devil for setting an eerie atmosphere. I’ve always liked this one…partly because it’s not worn out like many other Stones songs of this era.
The Boston Strangler was the likely inspiration for this song. As for the song, while the lyrics do not directly relate to the case, Jagger implies it when he sings, “Well you heard about the Boston…” before an instrumental stab cuts him off.
n 1965, Albert DeSalvo (the Boston Strangler), who was serving time in a mental institution on rape charges, confessed to the murders and was later sentenced to life in prison. There was no clear physical evidence that DeSalvo committed the crimes, however, and his confession has been questioned, with some forensic experts stating that there may have been multiple killers. DeSalvo died in prison in 1973; new evidence has come up in the case from time to time.
This song was on their great Let It Bleed album released in 1969. But the version that is more known is the version on what I think is their best live album… Get Your Ya Ya’s Out…it was released in 1970. They recorded the version in Madison Square Gardens on their 1969 tour. The sound they had with Mick Taylor was fantastic. His guitar tone was raw and fat and it is instantly recognizable. When he joined the Stones onstage recently…the Stones had that great sound again. Since Mick Taylor left they sound really thin live…to me.
Brian Jones is credited with percussion on the studio version. Even though he died before this album was released, a few of the songs were recorded during the Beggar’s Banquet sessions in 1968.
Keith Richards:“When we did Midnight Rambler, nobody went in there with the idea of doing a blues opera, basically. Or a blues in four parts. That’s just the way it turned out. I think that’s the strength of the Stones or any good band. You can give them a song half raw and they’ll cook it.”
Mick Jagger:“That’s a song Keith and I really wrote together. We were on a holiday in Italy. In this very beautiful hill town, Positano, for a few nights. Why we should write such a dark song in this beautiful, sunny place, I really don’t know. We wrote everything there – the tempo changes, everything. And I’m playing the harmonica in these little cafés, and there’s Keith with the guitar.”
Studio Album Version
Midnight Rambler
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
The one that shut the kitchen door
He don’t give a hoot of warning
Wrapped up in a black cat cloak
He don’t go in the light of the morning
He split the time the cock’rel crows
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Did you see him jump the garden wall
Sighin’ down the wind so sadly
Listen and you’ll hear him moan
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Well, honey, it’s no rock ‘n’ roll show
Well, I’m talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Yeah, everybody got to go
Well did ya hear about the midnight gambler?
Well honey its no rock-in’ roll show
Well I’m talking about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that
Don’t you do that, don’t you do that (repeat)
Oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that
Well you heard about the Boston…
It’s not one of those
Well, talkin’ ’bout the midnight… sh…
The one that closed the bedroom door
I’m called the hit-and-run raper in anger
The knife-sharpened tippie-toe…
Or just the shoot ’em dead, brainbell jangler
You know, the one you never seen before
So if you ever meet the midnight rambler
Coming down your marble hall
Well he’s pouncing like proud black panther
Well, you can say I, I told you so
Well, don’t you listen for the midnight rambler
Play it easy, as you go
I’m gonna smash down all your plate glass windows
Put a fist, put a fist through your steel-plated door
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
He’ll leave his footprints up and down your hall
And did you hear about the midnight gambler
And did you see me make my midnight call
And if you ever catch the midnight rambler
I’ll steal your mistress from under your nose
I’ll go easy with your cold fanged anger
I’ll stick my knife right down your throat, baby
And it hurts!
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 