This course will survey the music of the Rolling Stones, beginning with the roots and first formation of the band in the early 1960s, and following the group through the release of It's Only Rock 'n' Roll in late 1974.
SCU: “Honky Tonk Women”, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, “Gimme Shelter”, “Let It Bleed”, “Midnight Rambler”
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From the course by University of Rochester
The Music of the Rolling Stones, 1962-1974
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From the lesson
Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers
The Stones leave peace and love behind, jumping and fighting with some sympathy for the Devil, 1968-69.
Meet the Instructors
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
Let's take some time to look at a couple of songs now in
more detail from the Let It Bleed period from 1969.
The songs we're going to talk about are going to be Honky Tonk Women,
You Can't Always Get What You Want,
Gimme Shelter, Let It Bleed and Midnight Rambler.
Let's start out with the“Honky Tonk Women”.
I mentioned before that this was released as a single,
both in the U.S. and in the U.K.,
going to the top of the charts in both countries.
You Can't Always Get What You Want as the B-side recorded
at Olympic studios in May through June of 1969.
In case you are interested,
the Cowbell on this one,
the characteristic Cowbell that really kind of makes this tune
happen is none other than producer Jimmy Miller,
the percussionist drummer playing the Cowbell on that.
It started out, as I mentioned in the previous video as a country tune
and that's the version we get Country Honk which
as I also mentioned is not the original version of it.
It's the one they recorded in the country style after they had done Honky Tonk Women as
Mick Taylor was coming in on these sessions in June of
69 and sort of sitting in place of Brian and that kind of
thing as a kind of a studio extra not unlike Nicky Hopkins Maybe.
He said, no, no we should do,
we should rock this tune up a little bit more.
I hear it more like this. And so they did the kind of rocked out version.
And that's what became Honky Tonk Women.
So right from the very beginning Mick Taylor having a certain amount of
influence on the group- we hear Ian Stewart on piano on this particular one.
Keith Richards is actually playing bass on this track as well as guitars.
Now there is a little bit of a controversy around Ry Cooder the guitarist who
claims that he takes credit for the sort of guitar licks part of this,
but Keith Richards says, "Nah.
Now that's not true," which you may hear something about that people talking about
Honky Tonk Woman and some of the the derivation of material.
The form is a contrasting verse-chorus,
so after that characteristic intro you get a verse,
a chorus, a verse,
a chorus, and instrumental verse,
a chorus and then of chorus,
that takes us out.
The lyrics portray the singer as a victim of
women- who these women almost take him by force.
And this whole situation of sort of being sort
of taken by these women that he doesn't really have much respect or regard for.
It kind of gives him the blues.
So he has the honky tonk blues here.
This is obviously somewhat tongue in
cheek and it fits with many Jagger and Richards lyrics that
portray the narrator as being reluctantly seduced by women often on the road.
If you look through some of the songs that came before this,
some of the ones we didn't get a chance to
much talk about the lyrics and some of the ones that came after that,
there is this theme they'll come back to again and again about you
know woe is me poor rock star
on the road and all of these women just want to have me in a sexual way.
Well, what's a boy to do this kind of thing you know.
And so this is another one of those kinds of songs.
They know that they're kind of putting you on when they say it that way,
but there is a kind of a theme that come back to and
this is one of those kinds of songs you'd never think from
the upbeat character of this tune that it's really about a guy who's depressed by
the fact that he's being carried up the stairs by- over
the shoulder of various women and this kind of thing.
The original lyrics by the way,
didn't have to do with Memphis and New York.
I think there was that a verse,
they had them in Paris and words like that,
but they decided to kind of turn it into kind of
a southern boy kind of thing here with this version of Honky Tonk Women.
So again, a classic Rolling Stones track,
one of those ones that if you know five
Rolling Stones song this is likely to be one of them.
The flipside is a very different kind of song.
If Honky Tonk Woman started out as a country song and turned into kind of
a country rocker with a kind of tongue in cheek lyrics, a little bit,
you can always get what you want is really a return to the kind of ambition of
the psychedelic period and a continuation
of that ambition which recorded first at Morgan studios,
then Olympic studios starting going all the way back to November of 1968.
So this goes back to the period closer to Beggars Banquet,
but then they pick it up again in March of 69,
and April through May of 69.
It features Al Kooper.
Kooper spelled with a K, AL Kooper,
not Alice Cooper of sort of I'm 18,
I like it fame.
Al Kooper plays keys on this tune- both piano and organ and also plays French horn.
The French horn interestingly enough was overdubbed later at CBS studios in New York.
Kooper also played other horns on this tune,
but then they didn't use the other horns that he
played and Kooper says he thought that was a good idea,
because he didn't think he did the tune very well.
The story Kooper tells is that he was in London visiting with a friend of his.
He was kind of on vacation.
He didn't want to know anything about sessions,
he had been doing tons of sessions, you know,
AL Kooper had been not only a active session musician during the 60s,
but he'd been sort of a go to keyboard player for Dylan sets about 1965.
He and Dylan spending a lot of time together
being very close and doing all the touring and sessions of stuff.
Al Kooper was very hot,
a very hot call for sessions and so we went to London to get away
from all that in New York to kind of visit
with friends and just kind of relax and what happens?
But he gets a call to do this session for
the Rolling Stones and ends up on this on this session.
They also use the London Bach Choir in a choir arrangement done by Jack Nitzsche.
So Jack Nitzsche just sort of still in the picture here
in London and then playing drums on this tune.
Talked about Jimmy Miller playing cowbell on Honky Tonk Woman.
Well, Jimmy Miller is actually playing
the drums on this instead of Charlie Watts because there was
something that Jimmy Miller suggested in
the drum part that Charlie Watts didn't feel comfortable doing.
And so Charlie just said well why don't you play it.
And so that's Jimmy Miller playing drums all the way through this,
and it tells you something about Charlie Watts and
the sort of lack of ego involved with that guy.
The more you sort of hear the stories about Charlie,
the more you realize how sort of undamaged by fame he was in certain kinds of ways.
Well, there are two versions of this song.
So if you go to listen to it,
there's a version that starts with
the choir and that's the version you hear on the album,
and there's the version that starts just with the French horn and
the acoustic guitar and that's the version you hear on a single.
So try to hear the original version or the album version,
but also the mix is slightly different between the two versions.
Same parts with different mix.
Now, of course, the use the choir and the French horn makes a classical reference.
We've been seeing these classical references
the last couple of times we've seen them come up, we say,
is this a cue that the song could have something to do with
Marianne Faithfull in Mick Jagger's idea
that lot times when these classical references come in,
there and in songs that really seem to be about him talking about a woman and
his relationship and of course his relationship at
that time was sort of crumbling with Marianne Faithfull.
So we'll talk about that in just a minute.
Let's take a look at the form of the song,
a contrasting verse chorus song.
The long version starts with a verse of the song sung by the choir,
acapella just all by themselves.
And then we get the intro which features the French horn,
as I said played by Al Kooper and then the kind of
mellow verse chorus things start to pick up as the band comes in another verse,
chorus, and expanded verse, a chorus,
and then an interlude,
which has the choir coming back in.
Another verse, another chorus, another chorus,
and so the tune really sort of takes off at
the end and there's a kind of a big ending there,
there's just kind of almost kind of a rock in classical.
I mean classical choir rocks with rock band kind of a deal there.
It's also important to point out that in addition to the choir- the classical choir,
there are a group of background singers who are singing more sort of in the Gospels sort
of soul kind of style on this tunes.
You've got two kinds of backup vocals,
one a big classical choir,
and then one a kind of R&B singers.
The lyrics once again address dissatisfaction.
Remember, I can't get no satisfaction.
We've talked about that dissatisfaction theme going back.
But this time they strike a more ominous note that links wine,
blood, political demonstrations, and deception all together into a kind of toxic stew.
Is this song about people allowing themselves to get the life
sucked out of them by drugs and abusive relationships,
and if they let it happen,
perhaps they get what they deserve?
Well, he doesn't say you get what you deserve.
He says you get what you need.
Right. But nevertheless, the idea is that these kinds of activities
people engage in thinking they're going to get one result, they get a different result.
The result they get maybe is not so good.
This fits into the "let it bleed" idea right.
Sort of having the life or
the ambition or something sort
of drawn out of you like having the blood drained out of you.
All right let's move on to Gimme Shelter.
This one probably most notable in the performance of
Merry Clayton as the second singer in the group- I would say background singer,
but she gets a fair amount of her own time on this track as well.
Merry Clayton was recommended by
Jack Nitzsche to the group and had worked with Ray Charles.
Her vocals were added at Electra when they were
actually doing the mix down in the finishing off,
somebodies just, Jack Nitzsche says,
"Hey, we should get Merry Clayton in here."
"Who is she?" "Well, she's great.
She's worked with Ray Charles." So They bring her in.
She's a very schooled, a professional person.
The story is that she got through one or two verses,
and they said that's great.
And she said "Yeah, before I continue,
let's talk about how much you're going to pay me for this," right.
So she understood that she did what she could exploit it in this situation, of course,
there's a long history of
African American musicians being exploited in the recording studio.
Anyway, recorded initially in February, March,
and then at Olympic Studios and Sunset Studios in
L.A. and Electra Studios later in the year in 1969.
There's a story that the particular guitar tone that you hear on that as a result of
these amps that they were using called Triumph amps that
provide a distinctive guitar tone just as they were overheating,
they would get this great sound and that's the key to the guitar sound there.
I don't know about that. Could be true,
I just don't know about that.
Note the percussion parts here which really help
establish the groove and the great use of the harmonica in the tune,
not really in a kind of blues way,
but in a interesting kind of way,
maybe more reminiscent of what will later hear in some Led Zeppelin music.
The form is a contrasting verse chorus with this intro that uses the tremolo guitar,
the backup vocals, the percussion,
the piano- that little thing somebody
can let us know in the forum what that little thing is called,
which you play with a stick that goes- Plenty of that at the beginning there.
The form then goes verse, chorus,
verse, chorus, instrumental, verse, instrumental, chorus,
and then go through the chorus with Merry Clayton taking the solo,
and that's really sort of her moment in the sun here.
The verse and the chorus, and then the longish coda.
The lyrics deal with revolution and blood in the streets.
Remember the idea of Let It Bleed,
hooks up with the blood theme similar to
Street Fighting Man which was another kind of revolution song,
except this one doesn't advocate for revolution,
it merely observes it and appeals for peace and understanding,
whereas Street Fighting Man was a member-
That one got got banned from radio in the United States
because they didn't need somebody talking about fighting in the streets during
the summer of 1968 when there was fighting in the streets.
But here this is looking at that kind of thing happening and saying you know,
what we really need is love and understanding and not this kind of blood in the streets.
But again, the thinking of the idea of
Let It Bleed that fits
in with some of what we've been talking about the concept of the two.
Well, we now come to the song Let It Bleed,
the title tuned to the record recorded in the summer of 1969
June and July at Olympic features Ian Stewart again on piano.
Listen at the very beginning especially if you listen
with headphones you can hear Bill Wyman playing
some very spooky sounds on the autoharp in the distance.
Another thing I would point out is note how many of these rockers-
these Rolling Stones rockers- are driven by strummed acoustic guitar.
You don't- you should think of acoustic guitar as driving a hard rocking tune,
but a lot of these Stones tunes- you've got Keith Richards back there really sort of
strumming away on acoustic guitar in addition to the electric guitar that's going on,
it becomes a kind of production kind
of trademark for a lot of these Rolling Stones tunes,
and Let It Bleed is one of those kinds of tunes.
Layers of Keith guitars on this on one of those where he would drive the engineers
crazy putting one guitar- trying
different guitar parts until he got it just the way he wanted,
a real stickler for that kind of thing not unlike Jimmy Page who would come
along later and be that kind of layering guitars kind of producer.
The form here: a contrasting verse, chorus,
you get an intro,
then a chorus and a verse,
a chorus and a verse,
a very chorus, another chorus,
and then a coda which is in a kind of
extended jam on the chorus material at the very end.
The the lyrics once again address how we can depend on one another.
Though this can often turn to abuse and exploitation,
may be bleeding somebody dry.
It ties in with the victim lyrics- that we were
talking about before sort of tongue in cheek Honky Tonk Women,
but this one much more serious and it fits in with the blood theme.
Marianne Faithfull has said that she suspected that she was
the subject of at least part of these lyrics and
many people believe that the lyrics are filled with
double entendres that describe various female body parts.
I'll just say that much about her.
I'll let you read it and use your imagination.
Nevertheless, the song, Let It Bleed really kind of fitting
in with a lot of things that we've seen up to this point.
And then we turn finally to the last song in this series of close ups and that's
Midnight Rambler recorded again- recording again started originally in February of 69.
Then again record work done on May,
March and May in 69,
and October November of 69 and starting out at
Olympic and then ending up at Sunset Studios and Electra.
Again, we hear layers of Keith guitars plus some Mick Jagger harmonica on this one.
The form is a simple verse after an intro,
you get a verse, a verse, a shortened verse,
and then you get this interlude- in
the middle of the interlude there's an extended verse that's very dramatic,
and they come back into a verse at the end,
the way they had done it at the beginning.
The lyrics deal with a serial killer.
So again we could think about things like the idea that there's blood involved,
but here it's not the blood in the streets or the way in which we
bleed each other dry- relationships or abuse or various kinds of things like that.
But here it's literally a serial killer who creates blood by going around killing people.
In fact, they even seem to be mentioning
the Boston Strangler at various points in the lyrics.
It's a kind of a- it's very dark,
it's kind of a cross between The Doors and Maxwell's Silver Hammer,
Although Maxwell Silver Hammer I don't think had been
released when this one was recorded.
The interlude section is the interesting part.
It's very loose and designed for live performances with changes in mood and
tempo that incorporate this dramatic vocal section
and a buildup to return to the last verse.
The kind of thing you would do live which is kind of- after you've done the tune,
kind of break it down and then kind of do this dramatic thing which, you know,
in person can be extremely effective and then kind of build that up,
you know, get a little bit faster and eventually
getting back to the original tempo again right.
So this is the inspiration.
I think this comes from from the soul and
the R&B tradition of doing these kinds of things live.
But what's interesting is that while that was inspired by live performance,
the track ended up being very difficult for them to play live.
They sort of did this live version in the studio and then struggled
to sort of get it the way they wanted it when they played it live.
It's a kind of tune that- if you're in a band that plays every night,
like in a club somewhere,
after a few weeks maybe a couple of months you really have it
down because the guys have done it enough times that they know,
you know, how to sort of pace it.
But if you're just playing
these big concerts and you haven't had a lot of chance to work on it live,
very very difficult kind of thing to get right,
but I think that's where it come from.
But again fitting in with our Let It Bleed theme for the record,
so, that takes us through many of the songs from 1969.
We need now to turn to the year 1979 or 1970.
So let's do an overview of 1970 and
the first live album that the Rolling Stones
would actually take credit for- Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out.
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