A break-up song obscured by sea ship imagery that may not be of the romantic variety yet instead allude to the turbulent conditions during the making of Exile on Main St., "Soul Survivor" also doubles as another riff-driven Keith Richards work-out. Mick Jagger may or may not be singing about his frustration with his musical partner's impractical working methods and unofficial takeover of the recording sessions, but lines like "It's the graveyard watch, (the band staying up all night to record), "I wish I'd never had brought you," (the entire group moving to the South of France to avoid British tax laws), and "When you're flying your flags, all my confidence sags" can all be read as sly pokes at Richards. Taken as an autobiographical snapshot then, it is apropos to close the album out on, plus that closing guitar lick is killer.
Because the 1960s and 1970s were fucking bananas, most rock bands seemed required to churn out at least one song about engaging in hanky-panky with an underage girl, Beggars Banquet's "Stray Cat Blues" indulging in icky lyrics about banging a fifteen year old, (changed to a thirteen year old on the 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, oy vey). Such blatant sleaze can be chocked up to "Twas the style at the time" and/or different age of consent laws, but problematic subject matter aside, the track still remains a highlight amongst many on The Rolling Stones' finest album up until that point. Almost pummeling from a production standpoint, (that Jimmy Miller really did know how to make Charlie Watts' drums sound absolutely incredible), it plods along with its dark bluesy rhythms, lead guitar dancing, and some extra Mellotron coloring from Brian Jones.
Two exemplary ballads appear on Black and Blue, The Rolling Stones' transition album between guitarist Mick Taylor leaving and Ron Wood joining. "Fool to Cry" shows up second in the running order. It is one of two tracks on the record to feature lead guitar work from American Wayne Perkins who needless to say did not get the lead axe-slinger gig, as good as his work here was. Mick Jagger makes a rare appearance on electric piano, (Nicky Hopkins handling the acoustic piano and synthesizer part), frequently coming back to singing the song's title in a falsetto while the band lays back even more than usual behind him. R&B-tinged ballads being a highlight on a Stones record was nothing new, (nor where songs that addressed tears and crying), this one being nearly as great as "Memory Motel" which, (stay tuned), is on the way.
"Under My Thumb" was oddly never released as a single in either the US or the UK, though it rightfully pops up on any greatest hits compilation that will have it, as well as maintaining a steady live presence all these decades later. One of those live performances was at the infamous free Altamont concert where Meredith Hunter was murdered by Hells Angels members just as the band was finishing performing it. Appearing on Aftermath, it showcases some of the group's textured experimentation at the time, Bill Wyman going for a fuzz bass sound while Brian Jones incorporated the distinct marimba part. It features two frequented Charlie Watts groves, one where he lays the snare down on quarter notes and the other where he leans back and fills the space with ghost notes. Mick Jagger of course is taking on a misogynist point of view for the lyrics, one that seemed to poke fun at feminism with a nod and a wink.
The first and second best ballad on 1973's Goats Head Soup, "Coming Down Again" is entirely Keith Richards' baby, the guitarist naturally taking the lead vocal as well. Directly inspired by his relationship with girlfriend and baby mama Anita Pallenberg who he had infamously stolen from former/now deceased band mate Brian Jones, Richards plays the victim more than he expresses any forlorn guilt, proclaiming his helplessness as far as romantic entanglements are concerned, which is hardly an excuse yet certainly explains many a person's loose morals when it comes to butterflies in the stomach. Some low-key saxophone from Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor on bass, (Did Bill Wyman play on any of these songs?), and Keith putting some hefty wah guitar over such soothing sounds works ever so nicely.
Notable for being the first song that the band recorded with both new member Mick Taylor and frequent sax man Bobby Keys, "Live with Me" also marks the only appearance on a Rolling Stones track from Leon Russel, joining Nicky Hopkins on keys. A Let It Bleed highlight with an immediately gripping bass line, (once again performed by Keith Richards, that Bill Wyman guy clearly just never bothering to show up for sessions), Taylor's parts were overdubbed months after the initial track was laid down. It sets the template for the next several years of how sweet those leads would sound amongst Keith's riffage, and lyrically this is one of countless examples that would also become crystalized from here on out where Mick Jagger tells a seedy tale of less than hygienic sexual escapades.
Exile on Main St. definitely benefits from a lowdown Slim Harpo cover, "Shake Your Hips" being a faithful interpretation that sticks to the tempo, the percussive clacking, the guitar licks, and the same cadence and falsetto that Harpo utilized on the original. While one could argue then that The Rolling Stones' version is ergo redundant, they give it a grittier performance as only they could, especially at this stage in their careers where they were making magic in the most hedonistic working conditions. As various others were from the album, the track was worked on in more than one locale, first in London and then finished up in the South of France. Though the arrangement is minimal, the whole band plays on it, and it is one of several Exile songs that sounds as if they threw it together on the fly at three in the morning in the dingy, sweltering basement, surrounded by whisky bottles, smoke, cocaine mirrors, and passed out hangers-on.
Laid back and pounding blues rock as was the group's specialty, "Crazy Mama" closes out the otherwise more diverse and atypical for the time Black and Blue record, which primarily aligns itself with funk, reggae, and soul ballads. This song bares no similarities to any of that, sounding more like the Stones of old, meaning the Stones of only a few years prior during their dirty Exile on Main St. excess where loose riffs and slamming grooves just flowed out of them. Propelled by either Keith Richards or Ron Wood's excellent lead guitar hook, (their "art of weaving" locking in from the onset), the song was bashed together in the studio in Munich, Germany, Mick Jagger quickly dishing up some lyrics as well as playing rhythm guitar throughout. It is one of many examples of the band doing what they do often and best with little to no effort.
Originally worked on in acoustic form during the Sticky Fingers sessions, "All Down the Line" wound up kicking off the last side of Exile on Main St. and was apparently the first song whose mix was finished. Mick Jagger was keen on putting it out as the first single and in a technical sense, that is exactly what they did since their pianist Ian Stewart was tasked with running the tape over to a nearby LA radio station in order for the band to hear what it would sound like over the airwaves. The 1970s were a wild time for such shenanigans, and The Rolling Stones had more clout than just about anybody to pull off such shenanigans. It ended up being the B-side to "Happy" officially, and it is the type of nothing fancy, straight ahead rock song, (equipped with horns of course), that the band was effortlessly delivering at the top of their game.
Melding two tails of doomed individuals, (one of which references the infamous 1973 shooting of ten-year old Clifford Glover who was gunned down by police in Queens, New York), "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" juxtaposes its tragic subject matter with a relentless, uptempo funk arrangement. Aside from Charlie Watts getting those butts moving from BEHIND the kit, (See what I did there?), the immediate hooks are Mick Taylor's wah-wah guitar, Jim Horn, Jim Price, and Bobby Keys' horn arrangement, and Billy Preston's clavinet, all of which make this an obvious single and equally obvious hit from its accompanying Goats Head Soup album. The "doo doo doo doo doo" backing vocals done by the rest of the band, (sans Watts who never indulged in such things and Bill Wyman who sat the entire track out again), are also nothing to sneeze at.
One of The Rolling Stones' biggest hits in their pre-Beggars Banquet era, Between the Button's "Ruby Tuesday" could be the band's finest baroque pop example, a song that bares zero similarities to any of the material that would soon come in its wake, yet still encapsulates the type of experimentation that went on across the board for rock groups in the mid-to-late-1960s, the Stones obviously included. Though credited to Jagger/Richards as all of their originals were, the song was actually authored by Richards and Brian Jones, the latter coming up with the initial melody and providing the standout alto recorder, as well as piano. Both Richards and Bill Wyman share upright bass duties, (Richards bowing, Wyman fingering), and it is a pristine studio creation and easily one of the most successful before Jones tragically succumbed to narcotic influence and creative indifference.
A largely unrecognizable Robert Johnson cover and the first of two that they would record during their prime, "Love in Vain" further fuses The Rolling Stones' country and blues influences, this having one foot squarely in each genre. The band was particularly dedicated to and exceptional at blurring the lines between rock music's American roots, this having a slower, darker, and more twangy feel than Johnson's original. Let It Bleed being a transitional record where Brian Jones was out and Mick Taylor was just joining the fold, the track features the rest of the band in their usual roles, with Ry Cooder adding some mandolin that gives it further layers of bluegrass and mountain folk. Keith Richards' intro is particularly lovely, as is his molasses-leaking slide leads and Mick Jagger's vocal drawl.
The best and arguably only musically coherent song on Their Satanic Majesties Request, "She's a Rainbow" is the clear highlight on said album and one of the best baroque pop songs from the entire psychedelic era. Lyrically it is nothing more than Mick Jagger describing a woman as being colorful in various fashions, the specifics of what that means are probably intended to be allusive. The entire song has a playful and drugged-out nature, (as does every track on the album), but the splendid difference here is that it is driven by inventive hooks as well as tied-eyed whimsy. Most of the band provides "oo la la" background vocals, and the song frequently starts and stops in order for that piano hook to get the spotlight again, which was performed by none other than John Paul Jones who likewise did the excellent string arrangement.
A gospel standard that dates back to the 1940s, "You Gotta Move" had been recorded and interpreted by a number of artist before The Rolling Stones got their hands on it for Sticky Fingers. It bares the closest similarity to the Mississippi Fred McDowell version which was performed solo by the singer, the Stones slowing it down and embellishing it with some dual guitar work, harmony vocals, and sparse bass and percussion. This is foot-stomping, slow-chair rocking hill country blues, taking lyrics both from the McDowell reworking and one which was done in 1962 from Reverend Gary Davis. As always though, the Stones make it their own while being nothing but respectful towards it, propping up their roots and bringing it to an audience that would do themselves a favor by checking out the song's origins.
One of a small handful of notable collaborations that The Rolling Stones had with Phil Spector, "Play with Fire" was credited to the pseudonym Nanker Phelge which was utilized for a brief time for various reasons when other band personnel besides just Mick Jagger and Keith Richards contributed to something enough to receive a royalty split, or just when something was rooted in a blues standard without being a direct cover. This is ironic, both in the fact that this is not adjacent to the blues, and because Jagger and Richards are the only two Stones on it, one of several ballads between the duo where Keith is on acoustic guitar and Mick is handling the vocal, (as well as the "Wall of Sound"-treated tambourine). Spector also performs bass duties while his frequent collaborator Jack Nitzsche lays down the harpsichord, the sparse arrangement nevertheless sounding full and menacing.
Written and recorded during their late 1965 tour of the US and then for the Aftermath sessions, "19th Nervous Breakdown" was ultimately put out as a stand-alone single and remains of the band's strongest non-album tracks. Riff-based, it is jangly, bluesy, and driving all at once, featuring Keith Richards in top guitar lick form, as well as having a distinct rapid-fire "dive-bombing" bass run from Billy Wyman during the choruses. Mick Jagger had a thing for writing about girls who annoyed him, the target here being a presumably spoiled woman who is prone to throwing tantrums and being all-around difficult to deal with, despite the singer's noble posturing to keep her in line. Its point of view may be as misogynistic as any of the Stones' songs from the time period, but the upbeat and bordering frantic arrangement and performance from the entire band suits the subject matter well.
A notable addition to The Rolling Stones' repertoire in that it is the first song to feature Keith Richards delivering the lead vocal, "You Got the Silver" is an atmospheric, sleep time country/blues ballad amongst a good handful. An unofficial version exists with Mick Jagger singing the lead, a version that has a noticeably different mix that emphasizes some instrumentation not found on the Richards-led Let It Bleed track. The guitarist authored it on his lonesome, performing all of the guitars, (including the backwards slide one), with Brian Jones contributing some barely audible autoharp. This was in turn the last Stones track to feature any musical contribution from Jones, who was out of the band four months later and barely makes a dent on Let It Bleed to begin with. His services, (along with any from Jagger), are hardly necessary though, as this is one of many highlights from the record.
It is funny to think that such a definitive foot-stomping Rolling Stones song started off as one of their several reggae work outs before maturing into its final and now instantly recognizable form. "Start Me Up", (as the title would suggest), opens the Tattoo You album, and would go on to likewise open most of the band's tours since it is difficult to hear such a proclamation coming anywhere besides the front of the show. The band worked on the song for ages in the studio, jamming on it in its initial form whose working title was "Never Stop" before coming back to it a few years later, running through the two chord riff for minutes and minutes on end until they locked in the arrangement. This was a common practice for putting material together, and the results seem to be designed to get stadiums full of people standing up, clapping and hollering along.
Despite its title which clearly references an American musical genre that The Rolling Stones were much steeped in, Sticky Fingers' "I Got the Blues" is actually a straight up soul song, something that Otis Redding or any other gritty belter could have knocked out of the park. Keith Richards' slow arpeggiated guitar riff, Billy Preston's gospel-fueled Hammond-B organ solo, Jim Price and Bobby Keys' repeated horn refrains, and Mick Jagger's impassioned vocal performance about a lost lover; this is the Stones paying Stax Records a loving homage. It is unique amongst the other ballads on the record, (in fact every ballad on Sticky Fingers is singular from each other), this one providing some space after the rollicking "Bitch" and coming right before the more downtrodden and dark "Sister Morphine".
This gospel-tinged boogie-woogie tune has endured as one of it not the most popular song on Exile on Main St., an album that Stones purists generally listen to from front to back, as we should. An early, bluesier, and more piano-driven version called "Good Time Women" exists with different lyrics, one that was recorded sometime during the Sticky Fingers sessions. While that one is fine, the finished product that found its home on Exile is the superior one, painstakingly put together with call and response background vocals from Clydie King, Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews, a stop-start structure full of great drum breaks, (the coda of which was performed by producer Jimmy Miller), Mick Taylor's ever-present slide guitar, and a textbook laid-back feel to accommodate Mick Jagger's gambling glorifying lyrics.
No comments:
Post a Comment