Mother's Little Helper

Flowers
Track 9
"Mother's Little Helper" – 2:46




A Stones song about someone else's drug abuse? Is this supposed to be ironic or something? I never understood what was going on in this song.

Musically, there was a lot going on. Brian Jones plays that lick after each verse that sounds like a sitar (actually a 12-string played with a slide). Bill Wyman overdubs those same bass slides that he used on "Paint It, Black" over Charlie Watts' double-time beat – some nice acoustic guitar rounds out the rhythm section. A great modulation to the major for the bridge.

Still, what the fuck? I just don't get this song. What is the point of telling me about mom's Valium addiction? Are they trying to tell me that the squares who busted them for drug use were hypocrites? "See, it's not just us, everyone is doing drugs"? If that's it I am going to be sorely disappointed. Is it a "The Darker Side of the Suburbs" slice-of-life observational study? Is it about someone they knew? I wish I knew the point of all this.