I Just Want to See His Face

Exile on Main St.
Side Three, Track Four
"I Just Want to See His Face" – 2:52



[Download link]

Jagger on the song in 1992:

"I Just Want to See His Face" was a jam with Charlie and Mick Taylor. I don't know who's playing keyboards, maybe I am. I don't even know what album it was on. That was on Exile? I think it was just a trio originally, though other people might have been added eventually. It was a complete jam. I just made the song up there and then over the riff that Charlie and Mick were playing. That's how I remember it, anyway. I'd forgotten about that one.
...
I'm just playing the Doubting Thomas. I don't think it's a particularly rare idea.

An obvious studio jam, repeating the V-IV-I chords changes endlessly. A straight up gospel number. "You don't want to walk and talk about Jesus, you just wanna see His face." Some wacky percussion buried in the mix, and a couple (at least!) of overdubbed basses. No guitars. A strange little number. Right up Tom Waits's alley:

...that song had a big impact on me, particularly learning how to sing in that high falsetto, the way Jagger does. When he sings like a girl, I go crazy. I said, 'I've got to learn how to do that.'

That's two Waits references in a row. Hmm... I got an idea for a new blog!