Gimme Shelter

Let It Bleed
Track 1
"Gimme Shelter" – 4:32




I was psyching myself up to get to this song – which I think is probably the Stones' greatest recording – and of course by the time I get to it I have nothing to say. Despite Scorsese's attempts to reduce "Gimme Shelter" to a cliché, it remains as vital as ever due to some terrific percussion work from Charlie Watts and producer Jimmy Miller.

Merry Clayton is the singer who comes in a steals the show. Friend of the blog Mondo hipped me to her solo recording of "Gimme Shelter":



Thanks to YouTube, I found a brief clip of Merry doing her thing:



"Gimme Shelter" seems to inpsire some rather unfortunate cover versions. Here is the normally surefooted Funkadelic performing the song in a desultory manner:



Patti Smith can't seem to get her head around the song either:



I don't know who the fuck these people are, but it's this type of stuff that guarantees that I avoid listening to music made after 1979:

Honky Tonk Women

"Honky Tonk Women" – 3:02



I don't know if Keith had ever recorded a song playing in open-G tuning previous to this. I'm looking over my notes, and while I see that he's used open-D a few times ("Jumpin' Jack Flash", for example), I can't find an instance of open-G. Maybe one of the blues tunes on the Stones' first couple of albums, although I've heard that it was Ry Cooder that showed Keith the wonders of open-G ("Five strings, three notes, two fingers, and one asshole") during the Beggars Banquet sessions. In any case, "Honky Tonk Women" is certainly the first time Keith really exploited its possibilities.

I was considering writing up an "Open-G for non-musicians" primer here, but concluded that would be needlessly pedantic. It will suffice to say that non-standard tunings facilitate certain note combinations that aren't usually heard – suspended 2nds and 4ths are its identifying traits. Additionally, it is possible to use open strings (ie strings allowed to ring freely without being fretted by the player's fingers) more often in this tuning, creating a really full sound. Furthermore, minor chords are more difficult to finger in open-G, and you'll note a relative lack of minor chords in the Stones songs from this period. Anyway, even if you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll recognise the sound, it is quite distinctive – think of the opening bars of "Start Me Up" or "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

From here on out, Keith used open-G a lot: almost half of the tracks on Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers used open-G (and most of the rest used open-D). On Exile, only "Loving Cup" and "Torn and Frayed" had Keith playing in standard tuning.

I am going on about the goddamn tuning because I want to avoid talking about "Honky Tonk Women", a song I don't particularly enjoy outside of Keith's great riff. I know it's part of their whole image and mystique, but the misogyny is really unappealing to me, and manages to poison the whole song. So there you go: a great riff ruined by Mick's personality.

BTW I should be starting Let it Bleed right now, but in this era bands like the Stones frequently released singles that did not appear on a contemporaneous studio album. Like "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and Beggars Banquet, "Honky" clearly is related to the material on Let it Bleed so I am sticking this entry here rather than wait for its actual album appearance (on the Through The Past, Darkly comp).

Also, check out this amusing document, from a Stones performance at Hyde Park in 1969.

BB King - You're Losin' Me (nonstones)

BB King
Completely Well
"You're Losin' Me"




Download here.

1969 saw the release of BB King's last great collection of songs, Completely Well. The idea behind the album was to combine BB King's straight blues singing and guitar playing with contemporary soul and funk arrangements. Unlike many of these types of experiments, it worked out great. The most well known track on the album, "The Thrill Is Gone", mixed King's slashing single-string work and his impassioned vocals with a low-key soul backing, including some Motown-like strings.

My favourite track however was "You're Losin' Me", which re-imagines a typical BB King cheatin' blues as a funk song. The standout is some nimble bass work by session player Jerry Jemmott, who has played with virtually every important soul and R&B artist in the 60s and 70s, but is in my Bassist Hall of Fame simply for playing on "Memphis Soul Stew".

Beggars Banquet Roundup

Beggars Banquet Roundup


1. "Sympathy for the Devil" – 6:27
2. "No Expectations" – 4:02
3. "Dear Doctor" – 3:26
4. "Parachute Woman" – 2:23
5. "Jigsaw Puzzle" – 6:17
6. "Street Fighting Man" – 3:18
7. "Prodigal Son" (Rev. Robert Wilkins) – 2:55
8. "Stray Cat Blues" – 4:40
9. "Factory Girl" – 2:12
10. "Salt of the Earth" – 4:51

See also the related single "Jumpin' Jack Flash".

A seminal album in many ways: It established a fruitful musical direction for the band, which they would explore for the next ten years, producing the bulk of their greatest output, perhaps best heard on Exile on Main Streeet. With it's country-ish songs and instrumentation, Beggars Banquet provided a blueprint that numerous other bands over the years would use – most memorably Rod Stewart's first few solo albums. Finally, the album gave the band's "dark side" image real definition, an image that gave credibility to later songs like "Torn and Frayed" and "Dead Flowers" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

Background from Wikipedia:

Following the long sessions for the previous album in 1967, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards decided that the band needed more direction in the studio and in early 1968 hired Jimmy Miller, who had produced the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The partnership would prove to be a success and Miller would work with the band until 1973.

In March, the band began recording their new album, aiming for a July release. One of the first tracks cut, "Jumpin' Jack Flash", was released as a single-only that May, becoming a major hit.

Beggars Banquet was Brian Jones' last full effort with The Rolling Stones. In addition to his slide work on "No Expectations", he played harmonica on "Dear Doctor", "Parachute Woman" and "Prodigal Son", sitar and tambura on "Street Fighting Man", mellotron on "Jigsaw Puzzle" and "Stray Cat Blues". On "Stray Cat Blues", Richards for the first time used the "open G" chord style that became a staple of numerous Stones classics for the rest of their tenure, including "Monkey Man", "Brown Sugar", "Start Me Up", and "I Go Wild".

By June, the sessions were nearly completed in England, with some final overdubbing and mixing to be done in Los Angeles during July. However, both Decca Records in England and London Records rejected the planned cover design - a graffiti-covered lavatory, and the band held back the album. By November, however, The Rolling Stones gave in, allowing the album to be released in December with a simple imitation invitation card cover. The idea for a plain album cover was also implemented by The Beatles for their eponymous white-sleeved double-album, which was released one month prior to Beggars Banquet. This similarity, coupled with Beggars Banquet's later release, garnered the Rolling Stones accusations of imitating the Beatles. In 1984, the original cover art was released with the initial CD remastering of Beggars Banquet.

Critics considered the LP as a return to form.^[1] It was also a clear commercial success, reaching #3 in the UK and #5 in the US (on the way to eventual platinum status).

The original LP pressing did not credit Rev. Wilkins as the writer of "Prodigal Son". His performance of "Prodigal Son" at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was included on the Vanguard LP Blues at Newport, Volume 2; that performance is similar to the Stones' cover, and this may have been where the band first heard the song, although this is not certain.

On 10 December 1968 and 11 December 1968, the band aimed to promote Beggars Banquet by recording a television extravaganza entitled The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton, The Who and Jethro Tull among the musical guests. However, the project did not air and would not receive an official release until 1996.

Salt of the Earth

Beggars Banquet
Track 10
"Salt of the Earth" – 4:51



A kick ass album that goes out on a whimper. I liked this song a lot more when the Stones recorded it as "You Can't Always Get What You Want" – but even then, I didn't like it all that much.

The problem is Mick. He is a man who cannot get away with singing lines like,

Let's drink to the hard working people,
Let's drink to the lowly of birth.

It's impossible to take Mick seriously when he sings those words, knowing what we know about him and his cocaine and jet-set entourage. Gives me the same angry feeling I get when I hear Bono talk about the starving people in Africa – don't you just want to punch him in the taint? How's about you just shut the fuck up and count your money, okay? Jesus, you just finished songs about riots in the streets and sex with underage girls – don't give me this salt of the earth bullshit, please? God fucking dammit.

Factory Girl

Beggars Banquet
Track 9
"Factory Girl" – 2:12



A terrific melody that must have sounded classic the moment it came off Keith's guitar. A neat, old timey arrangement with minimal percussion (including the return of Rocky Dijon!), some mandolin courtesy of Dave Mason, and viola care of Rick Grech.

So the question that keeps popping up in my head: why do these tunes sound so good, while the band's previous attempts at blues sound so bad? Part of the answer must be that I am partial to the more traditional arrangements they used on this album over the Chicago style the Stones used on their first few albums. Another part of the answer is surely Mick, who sounded so tentative on those early tracks and so self-assured on these. Compare his slurring delivery on "Factory Girl" with his earlier "Little Red Rooster":



The band also sounds more confident. But I think it's Mick that really gives authority to these songs on this album.

Stray Cat Blues

Beggars Banquet
Track 8
"Stray Cat Blues" – 4:40



Mick's really got that lazy slur working. I thought he perfected it around the time of Exile, but he sounds great here.

Not a great song, but a good enough rocker to maintain the energy level of the album (except for that interlude – what is that all about?). It's songs like this where you can really hear what Mick Taylor brought to the table: Keith is a great guitar player, but his leads are not particularly distinctive, and too many songs in this era of the Stones history simply omit the guitar solo. Strong tracks like "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Street Fighting Man" don't really miss anything, but weaker songs like "Stray Cat Blues" suffer a little.

Prodigal Son

Beggars Banquet
Track 7
"Prodigal Son" (Rev. Robert Wilkins) – 2:55




A weird track – it sounds like the type of album filler that was common on the Stones early albums, an old blues track with a neat little melody. It's a nice performance, but the track isn't especially strong itself – it is the placement of "Prodigal Son" on this album that gives it a credibility their earlier blues recording largely lacked. At the beginning, when the Stones were a band who had no ambitions beyond paying homage to their blues heroes, a track like this would just be another tribute. But this time, the Stones clearly have greater goals, and surrounded by tracks as strong memorable as "Street Fighting Man" and "Sympathy for the Devil", "Prodigal Son" serves as kind of a rest stop, a quick look back to the past for a band who is clearly going in another direction.

Street Fighting Man

Beggars Banquet
Track 6
"Street Fighting Man" – 3:18



TimeIsOnOurSide.com has a lot of great quotes about this song. A compilation:

It was a very strange time in France. But not only in France but also in America, because of the Vietnam War and these endless disruptions.... I wrote a lot of the melody and all the words, and Keith and I sat around and made this wonderful track, with Dave Mason playing the shehani on it live. It's a kind of Indian reed instrument a bit like a primitive clarinet. It comes in at the end of the tune. It has a very wailing, strange sound.
- Mick Jagger, 1995

Street Fighting Man was recorded on Keith's cassette with a 1930s toy drum kit called a London Jazz Kit Set, which I bought in an antiques shop, and which I've still got at home. It came in a little suitcase, and there were wire brackets you put the drums in; they were like small tambourines with no jangles. The whole kit packs away, the drums go inside each other, the little drum goes inside the snare drum into a box with the cymbal. The snare drum was fantastic because it had a really thin skin with a snare right underneath, but only two strands of gut... Keith would be sitting on a cushion playing a guitar and the tiny kit was a way of getting close to him. The drums were really loud compared to the acoustic guitar and the pitch of them would go right through the sound. You'd always have a great backbeat.
- Charlie Watts, 2003

(O)n Street Fighting Man there's one 6-string open and one 5-string open. They're both open tunings, but then there's a lot of capo work. There are lots of layers of guitars on Street Fighting Man. There's lots of guitars you don't even hear. They're just shadowing. So it's difficult to say what you're hearing on there. Cause I tried 8 different guitars. And which ones were used in the final version, I couldn't say... (A) the same time the guitar was going on, I had Nicky Hopkins playing a bit of piano, and Charlie just shuffling in the background. Then we put drums on it and added another guitar while he was doing that. And we just kept layering it.
- Keith Richards, 2002

Jimmy Miller was one of the most simpatico producers I have ever worked with. He could handle a band - especially this band - and give everybody the same level of support. He was a great drummer in his own right, so he could talk to Charlie on equal terms, and he had a very good rapport with Mick. He didn't mind any idea that came up. He loved improvisation. I don't think I could have done Street Fighting Man without him. Mick would get impatient with my experiments sometimes, but Jimmy gave me a lot of encouragement saying, let's take this down the line and let's see where it goes.
- Keith Richards, 2003

"Street Fighting Man" is the musical companion piece to "Jumpin' Jack Flash": they both achieved incredibly high energy levels through Keith's method of recording the guitars (mostly acoustics) through a crappy cassette mic; both tracks featured a simplified but pounding rhythm section, with Charlie laying off the cymbals entirely and Bill Wyman sticking mostly to the chord roots; both songs rounded out the sound later by overdubbing all kinds of exotic instruments later.

It's almost astounding to hear how quickly the Stones found their sound after struggling through their various blues and psychedelic fads, and the way it came together almost all at once.


Also, one of the best mashups I've heard, from Go Home Productions:

Jigsaw Puzzle

Beggars Banquet
Track 5
"Jigsaw Puzzle" – 6:17



Here's another song I never paid much attention to before. The highlight is Mick's vocal attack – similar phrasing that he used in "Sympathy for the Devil", but with a lot more bite. I get the feeling that Mick was the driving force behind the composing and recording of "Jigsaw Puzzle" – in addition to the distinctive vocals, the lyrics are rambling and impressionistic in a way that I've never heard before on any Stones tune. At AllMusic, Richie Unterberger notes

... the similarity to some of Dylan's long, wordy surreal songs of the mid-'60s is close enough that it's a little surprising "Jigsaw Puzzle" hasn't been singled out by more listeners as being a Dylan imitation, particularly since it frankly sounds a little hackneyed in its approximation of Dylanesque weirdness.

The lyrics and vocal are pretty much all there is to the song. The band never develops the country/funk groove they use for the first verse, instead add in some acoustic guitar and piano to the rhythm section, and layer on Brian Jones' rudimentary slide guitar on top, turning the song into what sounds like an extended jam.

"Jigsaw" clocks in at over 6 minutes, almost the same as "Sympathy" – both songs lack a chorus or bridge and use the same chord pattern throughout, but while the latter has a clear direction, using changes in instrumentation and dynamics to build to a crescendo, "Jigsaw" simply repeats those four chords over and over without leading anywhere in particular. It's not a bad song, but I feel like it would pack more power if it had been edited and rewritten into something a little more focused.

Parachute Woman

Beggars Banquet
Track 4
"Parachute Woman" – 2:23



Excuse the video.

The Stones go back to the traditional blues for this one, something they haven't done for a while. The instrumentation is stripped down: an acoustic, standup bass, some harp. The Stones recorded the track directly onto a two-track cassette deck, which resulted in the murky mix. (They later added some overdubs in the studio – there appears to be another bass that drops in and out, along with another harp.) I read that the murkiness was more or less a conscious decision, part of their new "getting back to their roots" philosophy, and while it produced great music on the rest of the album, the results are a little less exciting here.

I guess it's the "parachute woman" theme that's bothering me. The Stones were setting out to deliberately re-create the atmosphere of those old depression-era blues recordings they loved, and to my ears they mostly succeeded. But "parachute woman" rings false to me – I just can't imagine Charlie Patton or John Hurt singing those words.

However, that is a minor complaint. Like I said, the song was a mostly successful recreation of a traditional blues, and there's no shame in that.

Dear Doctor

Beggars Banquet
Track 3
"Dear Doctor" – 3:26



This is the blueprint for "Sweet Virginia" and "Far Away Eyes" and other songs that I guess we'd classify as "country-rock". Doing this type of stuff was a real breakthrough for the band: unlike their attempts at blues, which were almost farcical in their slavish attempts at authenticity, the Stones achieved a level of credibility on the country songs precisely because they paid no mind to the traditional values of the genre – they brought their rock and roll sensibility to these songs, and produced music that was vital and exciting.

"Dear Doctor" doesn't quite have the formula down yet – the vocals are mannered and unsure, and the band doesn't quite seem committed to the idea of mixing a country waltz ballad with their rock and roll instrumentation. But this is an important recording for the Stones in that it pointed in a direction that would, in time, produce some of their best music.

No Expectations

Beggars Banquet
Track 2
"No Expectations" – 4:02



Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to like it: its self-consciousness is unseemly – Mick's arch vocal is especially irritating. But dammit, the melody is memorable, the first time the Stones have managed to compose something like this. The deliberate and unhurried tempo adds credibility to the fake gravity of the lyrics. Nicky Hopkins' languorous piano part adds class to what should have been a throwaway ballad. So I end up loving it in spite of myself.

Bo Diddley

I'm sure you've all heard by now that Bo Diddley has died at age 79. He was a huge influence on not just the Stones (who covered "Mona", and used his beat on many other songs), but a whole generation of early rock and roll musicians, particularly those in England during the sixties.





The "Bo Diddley Beat" gets all the headlines, but I think his most lasting influence is his guitar – the impact of his rhythmic, distorted playing was visceral. Rest in peace, Mr. McDaniel.

Sympathy for the Devil

Beggars Banquet
Track 1
"Sympathy for the Devil" – 6:27



I wrote this blog entry four times, and erased it four times. If you're counting, that means I'm writing it for the fifth time. The problem is that I cannot summon any modicum of objectivity or distance. The song exists in that wasteland of overplayed classic rock songs – I've listen to "Sympathy for the Devil" maybe hundreds of times, and I just can't hear it anymore. I listen to it, but I'm not hearing anything. It's like that scar I have on my finger, where I had to get a mess of stitches after cutting myself trying to slice a carrot. I know it's there, but I just don't pay it any attention.

I know, in some abstract sense, that it is an important recording in an historical sense, helping to establish Mick's lasting image as... well, something. It also showed a musical progression, from the dippy psychedelia of the Summer of Love to... something else. Dammit, I told you I can't say anything interesting about the song.

Reading the Wikipedia article, there appears to have been quite a bit of public distress upon the release of "Sympathy", something about satanism and such. From our perspective in these enlightened times, that's all faintly ridiculous, but I can't put myself in the position of someone hearing the song for the first time. Was it really all that dark? Was there a discernibly evil vibe? Or were listeners in on the joke? Like I said, I'm too close to the song – it just won't come into focus.

Wait – I thought of one piece of trivia worth passing along: this is the second time the wonderfully named Rocky Dijon makes his appearance on this blog, playing percussion – but the first time, chronologically, he played with the Stones. It won't be the last.

UPDATE: Via friend of the blog Mondo comes this clip of the Stones in the studio playing Sympathy. Pretty cool. The hilarity starts at 1:20.



Also, see



I miss John Lennon.

Jumpin' Jack Flash

"Jumpin' Jack Flash" – 3:43





Despite my stated intention to blog the songs on every album in order, I am sneaking "Jumpin' Jack Flash" in here before Beggars Banquet because it does not appear on a Stones album until the 1969 greatest hits comp Through the Past, Darkly, and I didn't want to wait that long. Besides, it was recorded during the Beggars Banquet sessions, and it pretty clearly fits in with what they were doing on that album.

What were they doing? Why, creating the purest distillation of raw rock and roll ever heard, that's what. Everything I read says that the Stones, after dallying with psychedelic exoticism on their previous two albums (Between the Buttons and especially Their Satanic Majesties Request), "returned to their blues roots" for the Beggars Banquet sessions. To me, that undersells their achievement, especially on this track. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was about much more than returning to their blues roots.

The song opens with one of the greatest intros in history. When Keith's guitar comes in, you know you're in for something special. An acoustic guitar, played through the mic of a crappy cassette recorder to get that tinny distortion, with a capo high on the neck adding to the "thinness" of the sound. An electric doubles the opening riff, along with a bass. Charlie Watts's drums come in – you're hooked now. (Notice how he doesn't hit the cymbals here. In fact, apart from the high hat he doesn't hit the cymbals at all during the song.)

That guitar sound, more than the riff itself, drives the song. Because Keith couldn't duplicate that sound on stage, "Jumpin' Jack Flash" never sounds as good live as it did in the studio. Here, check out the version from Rock and Roll Circus:



Of course, that is a famously bad Stones performance, but the most striking bit, for me anyway, is that missing guitar part. Check out this one, from the recent Shine a Light:



Meh.

Anyway, I could take for hours about this song – I didn't even get to the lyrics or the weird instrumentation or anything. But I'll stop here, and get back to this song at some point in the future.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this. We don't need to talk about it.

Rheostatics & Bourbon Tabernacle Choir - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (nonstones)

Rheostatics & Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
Borrowed Tunes: A Tribute to Neil Young
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" (Neil Young) – 3:52



1994 saw the release of Borrowed Tunes: A Tribute to Neil Young, a 2 CD set featuring several dozen mostly alternative Canadian acts of the era. Most of the artists were probably unknown to anyone but fans of the Canadian college circuit (some you may have heard of: Jeff Healey, Blue Rodeo, Cowboy Junkies). But the best performance came from a collaboration between two of the bigger Canadian club acts of the day, the Rheostatics and the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, performing "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", that weird little tune with the great title from Neil Young's second album.

These two bands made up a big part of my musical life during the 90s, particularly the Bourbons (who will probably get their own post at some point), and a chance mention of this track by a friend today unleashed a flood of nostalgia for the days when I dressed exclusively in jeans and white t-shirts and went to clubs three times a week to check out new bands. I cannot count how many times I saw the Rheostatics at Lee's Palace or the Horseshoe, or checked out the Bourbons at the El Macombo or Clinton's. Good times.

I am not a fan of nostalgia, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this recording doesn't need the crutch of making you remember the good old days – it stands up very nicely on its own. I am also not a fan of Neil Young, and am not afraid to say that this recording leaves his in the dust. I am particularly fond of the banjo interlude, which leads to Kate Fenner's husky contralto.

Flowers Roundup

Flowers Roundup

Wikipedia:

Flowers is the eighth U.S. studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1967. The album is a mishmash of previously recorded tracks. The songs either appeared as singles, had been omitted from the American versions of Aftermath and Between the Buttons, were collected from studio sessions dating back several years, or are simply reissues of songs recently released on other albums.

Three tracks had never been released. "My Girl" from the Out of Our Heads and Between the Buttons sessions, and "Ride On, Baby" and "Sittin' On A Fence" from the Aftermath sessions.

1. "Ruby Tuesday" – 3:17
A January 1967 single release also featured on the US edition of Between the Buttons. See my post for the Between the Buttons version.
2. "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" – 2:34
A September 1966 single release.
3. "Let's Spend the Night Together" – 3:36
A January 1967 single release also featured on the US edition of Between the Buttons. See my post for the Between the Buttons version.
4. "Lady Jane" – 3:08
Originally released on Aftermath in 1966. See my post for the Aftermath version.
5. "Out of Time" – 3:41
An abridged edit of the version originally released on the UK edition of Aftermath in 1966.
6. "My Girl" (Smokey Robinson/Ronald White) – 2:38
Previously unreleased. Recorded in 1965
7. "Back Street Girl" – 3:26
Originally released on the UK edition of Between the Buttons.
8. "Please Go Home" – 3:17
Originally released on the UK edition of Between the Buttons.
9. "Mother's Little Helper" – 2:46
Originally released on the UK edition of Aftermath.
10. "Take It or Leave It" – 2:46
Originally released on the UK edition of Aftermath.
11. "Ride On, Baby" – 2:52
Previously unreleased. Recorded in 1965.
12. "Sittin' On A Fence" – 3:03
Previously unreleased. Recorded in 1965.

Sittin' On A Fence

Flowers
Track 12
"Sittin' On A Fence" – 3:03





This is what God GammelDags has to say about this track:

Sittin' On A Fence sounds like Mick Jagger accompanied by studio musicians. It could have been a demo for one of their songs for other artist to record with Mick Jagger on vocal backed by Studio Musicians and later mistakenly reckoned as a Rolling Stones recording by Allen B. Klein and London Records. Most fans liked it, so why bother?

However, there's a reason why these 'new' tracks were kept hidden in the vaults for years. Keith Richards has not ever since come close to playing his acoustics in such a leading manner as this. Jimmy Page in the right channel on acoustic lead guitar?

But compared to the rest of the songs recorded at that time it then sounds very odd. It is rumored that The Glimmer Twins wrote the song during the Scandinavian tour, June 24th - 29th 1965, while in Sweden. You can actually pin point the recording date to the same as Ride On, Baby. Both has a verse arranged for Vocal and Harpsichord. Very typical Aftermath.

He's got a point about the musicianship on this track – it is very definitely not a typical Stones track. I am not sure how things worked back then, so I don't know how likely the theory about studio musicians is.

The critical consensus seems to be that this is a charming trifle, a sweet little piece of throwaway pop music. I am not sure what I think of it, although I know I don't hate it. That sounds kinda shitty written like that, but to be perfectly honest, I have now blogged ten Stones albums, and I have probably lost all perspective when it comes to the band. Luckily, the next album on my plate is a surefire winner.

Ride On, Baby

Flowers
Track 11
"Ride On, Baby" – 2:52




Wow. This is another one of those songs that sat in the can for almost two years, recorded during the Aftermath sessions, released in 1967 on the USA-only Flowers album. If you take out all the wacky instruments (marimba, harpsichord, dulcimer), this is a song one could easily imagine Them releasing – there is certainly a Van Morrisonesque quality to Mick's phrasing, and a pop sensibility to the melody that is unfortunately out of character for the Stones during this era. I wish I knew about this song before, it's a winner.