Out of Our Heads (USA version) Roundup

Out of Our Heads (USA version) Roundup


Side 1
1. "Mercy, Mercy" (Don Covay/Ronnie Miller) – 2:45
2. "Hitch Hike" (Marvin Gaye/William Stevenson/Clarence Paul) – 2:25
3. "The Last Time" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 3:41
4. "That's How Strong My Love Is" (Roosevelt Jamison) – 2:25
5. "Good Times" (Sam Cooke) – 1:58
6. "It's All Right" (Live) (Nanker Phelge) – 2:23

Side 2
1. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 3:43
2. "Cry to Me" (Bert Russell) – 3:09
3. "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" (Nanker Phelge) – 3:07
4. "Play With Fire" (Nanker Phelge) – 2:14
5. "The Spider and the Fly" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 3:38
6. "One More Try" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 1:58

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I made an error – I went straight to Out of Our Heads after The Rolling Stones No. 2, but it turns out there was another album semi-in between. See, during this period, there were two different versions of the same album released, one in the UK and one in the USA. The USA version of No. 2 (called The Rolling Stones, Now!) is different enough that I want to go back to that before I move on to the next album. Sorry about the confusion.

One More Try

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 2, Track 6
"One More Try" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 1:58



One of the most hilariously bad melodies of all time. I've listened to this song 8 times before writing this – that chorus kills me every time.

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The Spider and the Fly

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 2, Track 5
"The Spider and the Fly" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 3:38



Another dreary blues filler song, with lines like

She was common, flirty, she looked about thirty.
I would have run away but I was on my own.
She told me later she's a machine operator.
She said she liked the way I held the microphone.

This may be the most boring song the Stones have recorded to date.

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Play With Fire

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 2, Track 4
"Play With Fire" (Nanker Phelge) – 2:14



From TimeIsOnOurSide.com:

It was a classic example of the Stones' ability to absorb different types of sound even when the whole band was not playing on the track. Brian, Bill and Charlie didn't play on Play with Fire. They'd all dropped off to sleep. One could have got them up again but one didn't. So it was Phil Spector on tuned-down guitar and Jack Nitzsche on harpsichord in addition to Richards and Jagger. It was at the end of a session with some old guy sweeping up.

– Andrew Oldham

Play with Fire (was made) with Phil Spector on tuned-down electric guitar, me on acoustic, Jack Nitzsche on harpsichord, and Mick on tambourine with echo chamber. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning. Everybody fell asleep.

– Keith Richards, 1971

Play with Fire sounds amazing - when I heard it last. I mean, it's a very in-your-face kind of sound and very clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I'm playing the tambourine, the vocal line. You know, it's very pretty... Keith and me (wrote that). I mean, it just came out... (I)t was just kind of rich girls' families - society as you saw it. It's painted in this naive way in these songs... I don't know if it was daring. It just hadn't been done.

– Mick Jagger, 1995

Ah, the imagination of teenagers! Well, one always wants to have an affair with one's mother. I mean it's a turn-on.

– Mick Jagger, 1968, on the remark that the song suggests the protagonist is having an affair with the girl's mother

These guys wanted to be the Beatles so bad, to the point of making up wacky mythology behind the recording of B-sides. I guess there's worse aspirations, but I'm glad they went in a different direction.

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The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 2, Track 3
"The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" (Nanker Phelge) – 3:07




The last of these Nanker Phelge numbers, and I couldn't be more relieved. Another bit of support for the idea that inside jokes make for terrible song ideas.

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Image courtest out-take.co.uk.

Cry to Me

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 2, Track 2
"Cry to Me" (Bert Russell) – 3:09



There comes a point when commitment turns into caricature. That point comes in "Cry to Me" some time between the bridge and the outro, when the band starts playing with such earnestness that the whole thing turns into a parody of a soul ballad instead of the real thing.

This is the third time we've run across Solomon Burke, who had the first hit with "Cry to Me" in 1962. His version was straight 4/4 time, while the Stones performed the song in 12/8 – I'm not sure who's idea that was (Betty Harris had a minor hit with the song between the Burke and Stones recordings, but I've never heard how she did it) but it was a good one.

Bert Berns (AKA Bert Russell) wrote "Cry to Me" in 1962. If you've never heard of Berns, check out his wikipedia page – the guy had a writing or producing credit on some of the best songs of the era: "Twist and Shout", "Here Comes the Night", "Under The Boardwalk", "Baby I'm Yours", and dozens more. Check out the official Bert Berns website for more.

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(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 2, Track 1
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 3:43




Boring.

No, really, it's just hard to say something about this one that hasn't been said before. Great lyrics, Charlie Watts four on the floor, the tambourine, fuzz guitar lick, the bass line that duplicates it a fourth lower – the ingredients of a pretty good rock and roll single, no?

And as much as I love Exile-era Stones, there's a case to be made for 1965 as their creative peak. "Satisfaction" was released as a single in the middle of one of the greatest three-song runs in rock and roll history, preceded by "The Last Time" and followed by "Get Off My Cloud" – maybe Chuck Berry or Little Richard could top that, but I'm pretty sure no one else could. Of course, after "Get Off My Cloud" came "As Tears Go By", and it was all downhill from there.

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It's All Right

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 1, Track 6
"It's All Right" (Live) (Nanker Phelge) – 2:23
Recorded live in March 1965 in England





From godgammeldags.nu:

The song I'm All Right was not recorded live in London in 1965 but probably at CHESS Sound Studios, Chicago, May 1965. The same backing tracks appeared with re-recorded vocals by Mick and Keith on the 1966 live album Got Live If You Want It! By 1966 the song also had changed it's title from I'm All Right to It's Alright. And the song credit changed from Nanker Phelge to Jagger/Richards. Who was to blame?

How could these backing tracks be recorded at Royal Albert Hall 1966, when you clearly hear that they are the same as those recorded in 1965?

According to others sources, The Rolling Stones did only play 6 songs at Royal Albert Hall, due to riots and It's Alright wasn't one of them.

I'm not exactly sure why this song was released on this album – an undercomposed studio jam with a fake live audience superimposed doesn't really fit in with the rest of the tracks. As noted, however, it does rock hard.

The obvious antecedent is the Isley Brother's great 1959 hit "Shout", which shares not only the I-vi chord changes and bass line but the call-and-response vocal feel.

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Image courtest of Vertigo Magazine.

Good Times

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 1, Track 5
"Good Times" (Sam Cooke) – 1:58



One of the good things about this project is that for each post I do a little bit of research, and that sometimes leads me to discover cool things. I just ran across this Rolling Stones fan site, which has all kinds of technical information about all Stones recordings. Let me quote his entry for "Good Times":

GOOD TIMES

Sam Cooke

1:57

Recorded May 13th 1965 at RCA Sound Studios, Chicago, US
Engineered by Dave Hassinger

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

MICK JAGGER: Vocal
MICK JAGGER: Vocal Background (right)
KEITH RICHARDS: Vocal Background (left - right)
KEITH RICHARDS: Guitar Electric Lead (left)
BRIAN JONES: Guitar Acoustic (left)
BRIAN JONES: Marimba (right)
BILL WYMAN: Bass (left)
BILL WYMAN: Bass (o.d.)(center)
BILL WYMAN: Vocal Background (left)
CHARLIE WATTS: Drums (left)
CHARLIE WATTS: Percussion (o.d. tom-toms)(right)

JACK NITZSCHE: Organ (right)

[Snip lyircs]

This little gem can be found in stereo on certain bootlegs like Necrophilia. And to tell you the truth, it sounds so much better than the official mono version. Have you ever noticed that little blonde haired boy Brian Jones on Marimbas before? Just listen carefully and you'll hear him deep in the mono mix.
At the end of each chorus Charlie Watts plays a drum roll, and in case you didn't know, that's is really an overdub located in the right channel.
Listen for that high-pitched voice of Bill Wyman trying to imitate a negro woman.
The Rolling Stones indeed went to the lengths to get it right in the days back when they still were eager to prove they were equal to the Beatles.
They also recorded Cry To Me on the same session that very day, and Jack play organ on Cry To Me, so I guess he contributed his talents on Good Times too.

You know, I never noticed the marimba before, but that's now all I can hear – thanks God GammelDags! I'm tempted to call the whole Blogging the Stones thing off, this cat has all the bases covered.

One of the things I can do is offer some context. Sam Cooke wrote and recorded "Good Times" in 1963, released it as a single in July 1964, about a year before the Stones cut their version. This is one of those songs that must have sounded like an instant standard, a song that singers just wanted to sing – the song was destined to be covered by dozens of artists over the years.

Now, in addition to being a historic songwriter, Cooke was what CL Franklin would call a stone singer – he sang the shit out of his recording:




You can hear the Stones used Cooke's arrangement without changing much, and while Mick turns in a fairly good, restrained performance, the Stones did not have access to background singers as good as Cooke's – Wikipedia claims Cooke's old gospel group The Soul Stirrers sang on his recording, but I'm not so sure.

Anyway, like I said, the song inspired dozens of covers, some great



.... and some not so great

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Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

That's How Strong My Love Is

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 1, Track 4
"That's How Strong My Love Is" (Roosevelt Jamison) – 2:25




Roosevelt Jamison wrote "That's How Strong My Love Is" and gave it to journeyman soul singer OV Wrigtht, who recorded and released is as his debut single on Goldwax in 1964. Less than a year later, Otis Redding got hold of the song and released it on The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, an album that has the most obvious title ever – it would be like a James Brown album called There Might Be Some Funk In Here.

Anyway, I'm not sure where Otis got the song from, but the music on his version is totally different from Wright's original (although the lyrics are the same): the chord changes are all different (Wrigth's version goes to the IV for the chorus, Otis just uses the same changes as the verse), Wright spaces his verse lyrics out while Otis packs them into two bars, and while Wright puts up a game effort, doing his best Sam Cooke impression, there is simply no way he can hang with Otis Redding, who was to soul balladry what Bono is to self-promotion.

Two months after Otis released his version, the Stones stepped into the Chess Studios in Hollywood to try their hand at "That's How Strong My Love Is". Now, I am an unabashed Otis fan, and I was not looking forward to seeing how the Stones handled this song considering the weak attempt at a previous Otis number. And it's true that while they used Otis's arrangement, the band's performance is pretty sloppy (especially the guitars). Mick's vocal, however, makes up for a lot of sins, this time anyway – his first great ballad performance. I will never doubt them again!

The Last Time

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 1, Track 3
"The Last Time" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 3:41

When you start writing, the first batch of songs is almost always puerile ballads, for some reason - I think they're easier to write. To write a good rock and roll song is one of the hardest things because it has to be stripped down so simple, to that same basic format shared by rock & roll and rhythm & blues and Irish folk songs from thousands of years ago. It's a very simple form, and yet you have to find a certain element in there that still lives, that isn't just a rehash. It can REMIND you - and probably will - of something else, but it should still add something new, have a freshness and individuality about it. The rules on it are very strict, you see (laughs). I think The Last Time was the first one we actually managed to write with a BEAT, the first non-puerile song. It had a strong Staple Singers influence in that it came out of an old gospel song that we revamped and reworked. And I didn't actually realize until after we'd written it because we'd been listening to this Staple Singers album for 10 months or so. You don't go out of your way to LIFT songs, but what you play is eventually the product of what you've heard before.

So said Keith about "The Last Time" (thanks to TimeIsOnOurSide.com for that quote).

A lot of people say that the Stones "stole" the song from the Staple Singers – Keith alludes to those charges above, and even seems to agree with them to an extent. I'm not sure how much credit needs to go to the Staples Singers, though. The Rolling Stones version of the song is a rocker from beginning to end, with an insistent guitar riff driving it. The Staples version of the song is a contemplative gospel cry, with none of the anger that made Mick's vocal so interesting. Here, listen:



Additionally, it should be noted that "Maybe the Last Time" is a traditional gospel song, performed by countless artists. Here is the first version I heard, by the Five Blind Boys of Alabama some time in the late 50s:


So even if the Stones did rip the song off to a significant degree (and they admit to taking something), it's not obvious that the Staples Singers invented whatever it was the Stones stole.

Also potentially relevant is James Brown's "This May Be the Last Time" single , which dates to sometime in 1964. (The Stones followed James Brown on the famous 1964 T.A.M.I. Show, but I don't think he performed this song.)

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Recording for the Ed Sullivan Show, I think. Image courtesy of the Guitar101.com forums

Hitch Hike

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 1, Track 2
"Hitch Hike" (Marvin Gaye/William Stevenson/Clarence Paul) – 2:25




This is the second time the Stones have gone after a Marvin Gaye hit, but unlike their driving "Can I Get a Witness", "Hitch Hike" is something of a pedestrian affair, lacking the energy that made "Mercy, Mercy" so much fun. That probably has something to do with the material: "Hitch Hike", the song, is a perfectly passable slice of early 60s Motown pop, aspiring to nothing more than Top 40 hitdom, whereas "Mercy, Mercy" is a crushing soul song with an agenda.

Still, there's nothing the Stones have to be ashamed of here. After all the tepid blues workouts that littered their previous albums, it would be a relief to have to listen to nothing by bland R&B. However, I have a feeling that this album is really going to start to pick up....

Mercy, Mercy

Out of Our Heads (USA version)
Side 1, Track 1
"Mercy, Mercy" (Don Covay/Ronnie Miller) – 2:45



The Stones once again try their luck on a soul classic. This time they went after Don Covay's "Mercy, Mercy", and the band didn't just do a pretty good job reproducing Covay's garage-soul groove, but Mick also artfully knicked Covay's phrasing. Here's the original:



If you hadn't already heard of Don Covay, here's all you really need to know: he wrote "Chain of Fools".

Yeah.

There are dozens of guys like that, writers and performers with abilities and accomplishments that, in a fair world, would make them household names. Alas, we don't live in such a world – but you can do you part: you should learn more about Don Covay.

The Stones themselves sound great on this track. They don't make any changes to Covay's arrangment – they just rock up the beat a little, slap some distortion on that great guitar riff, and let her rip. This is what happens when the band gets ahold of an actual song instead of trying to prove their street cred with those repetitive blues tracks.