MIKE PERCIACCANTE
Ah, The Rolling Stones. 2012 is the band’s fiftieth anniversary. They played their first ever gig in London on July 12, 1962. Fifty years is a long time for anything. For a Rock band, it’s an ETERNITY. In 1962 they were the poster boys of the anti-establishment movement. Now in their sixth decade of existence…yes, you read right six decades…count ‘em with me—‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and ‘10s—they ARE the establishment. Along the way they evolved from the “dangerous” alternative to The Beatles into the group that came to basically define Rock ‘N’ Roll. It was after The Beatles had broken up that The Stones began billing themselves as “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” That boast may not be all that far off as their worldwide sales are estimated at more than 200 million albums.
Now, sadly it has been announced that the band will not be touring in 2012 (though there have been some rumors that they have done some rehearsing and will probably hit the road in 2012). As a result the fans will have to wait for the 51st Anniversary to see Mick Jagger shimmy across the stage and do his demented chicken on acid impersonation when the band performs (hey, Maroon 5 didn’t call the song “Moves Like Jagger” because he just stands there like a statue when he sings).
Until the tour, we’re going to have to settle for our iPods and the Stones songs we can’t live without. There are a lot of them. Far more than one column could do justice to. Far more than can fit into two columns. At any rate, I’m going to try to list some of the group’s best songs and why you need to own them. So, here we go:
56. Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones
Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man’s soul and faith
And I was ’round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain
I rode a tank
Held a general’s rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made
I shouted out,
Who killed the Kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me
Man, that’s deep. It’s also lyrically brilliant. It’s not a protest song but it is a “social commentary” song. Jagger and Richards’ song details some of the most atrocious historic events: the Crucifixion, the Inquisition, The Communist Revolution in Russia, World War II, the assassinations of JFK and Bobby Kennedy. Behind these lyrics the band percolates with African rhythms, Jagger and company’s alto “Hoo-Hoo” backing vocals, a searing and soaring guitar and a rumbling bluesy piano. “Sympathy For The Devil” even has its own mythology. Many people think it was being played at Altamont at the time of the stabbing. It wasn’t. The band was playing “Under My Thumb” but the legend makes for quite a story.
Recommended versions can be found on: Beggars Banquet (ABKCO, 1968), the live albums Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out (ABKCO, 1970) and Shine A Light: The Original Movie Soundtrack (Universal, 2008), as well as the “Best Of” and box set compilations: Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (London Records/ABCKO, 1972), Forty Licks (Virgin, 2002), Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (Universal, 2007) and The Singles Collection: The London Years (London Records/ABKCO, 1989).
57. Shattered – The Rolling Stones
Because, at the height of Punk and at the very genesis of the New Wave movement, by sounding harder and nastier and more decadent than they had since the early ‘60s, The Stones embraced the “new” generation’s Rock ‘N’ Roll aesthetic. It’s brilliant, powerful and amazing. The lyrics say it all.
Shattered, shattered
Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I’m in tatters!
I’m a shattered
Shattered
Friends are so alarming
My lover’s never charming
Life’s just a cocktail party on the street
Big Apple
People dressed in plastic bags
Directing traffic
Some kind of fashion
Shattered
Laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex
Look at me, I’m in tatters
I’m a shattered
Shattered
All this chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter ’bout
schmatte, schmatte, schmatte — I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue
This town’s been wearing tatters (shattered, shattered)
Work and work for love and sex
Ain’t you hungry for success, success, success, success
Does it matter? (Shattered) Does it matter?
I’m shattered.
Shattered
Ahhh, look at me, I’m a shattered
I’m a shattered
Look at me- I’m a shattered, yeah
Pride and joy and greed and sex
That’s what makes our town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street
And look at me, I’m in tatters, yeah
I’ve been battered, what does it matter
Does it matter, uh-huh
Does it matter, uh-huh, I’m a shattered
Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the west side
Bed bugs uptown
What a mess this town’s in tatters I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan
Uh-huh, this town’s full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don’t mind the maggots, huh
Shadoobie, my brain’s been battered
My friends they come around they
Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
Pile it up, pile it high on the platter
Oh, yeah and Mick’s affected asides of “Shadoobee, Shadoobee” make the song irresistable.
Recommended versions can be found on: Some Girls (Rolling Stone Records, 1978), the live albums Still Life (Rolling Stone Records, 1982) the Some Girls: Live in Texas ’78 DVD/CD (Eagle Vision, 2011) and Shine A Light: The Original Movie Soundtrack (Universal, 2008), as well as the “Best Of” and box set compilations: Sucking In The Seventies (Rolling Stone Records, 1981) and Forty Licks (Virgin, 2002).
58. Let It Bleed – The Rolling Stones
The song has everything that made the ‘60s legendary. The madness. The violence. The disconnect from the establishment. The drugs. The parties. Each element can be heard within the song. But it isn’t a trippy, violent druggy song. Upon a closer listen, surprise, surprise the song is about love.
Well, we all need someone we can lean on
And if you want it, you can lean on me
Yeah, we all need someone we can lean on
And if you want it, you can lean on me
Recommended version can be found on: Let It Bleed (London Records/ABKCO, 1969), and the import only greatest hits collection Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (Universal, 2007)
59. Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones
First off, the opening lines are actually:
Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields,
Sold in a market down in New Orleans.
Scarred old slaver know he’s doin’ alright.
Hear him whip the women just around midnight.
Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should
A-huh.
…and they’re awesome! The song has so much going on. Debauchery, the slave trade, interracial sex, lost virginity, and sex and sex and sex. Did I mention sex? It also has social commentary. Many have speculated that Jagger was writing about his (at the time African American lover) Marsha Hunt (who gave birth to their daughter Karis) and wondering about her ancestors and personal history. In many ways, “Brown Sugar” was Mick and Keith providing the world with a bit of a history lesson and simply telling it without and candy coating.
Recommended versions can be found on: Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stone Records, 1971). The versions of the live albums feature a slight change. Jagger alters the line, “Hear him whip the women just around midnight”, to the less offensive, “You shoulda heard him just around midnight.” This lyrical change can be heard on Love You Live (Rolling Stones Records, 1977), Flashpoint, (Rolling Stones Records, 1991), Live Licks (Virgin Records, 2004), and Shine A Light: The Original Movie Soundtrack (Universal, 2008). The song can also be found on the following “Best Of” and box sets: Hot Rocks 1964–1971 (London Records/ABKCO, 1972), Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones 1971-1993 (Virgin, 1993), the import only collection Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (Universal, 2007) and Forty Licks (Virgin, 2002).
60. Midnight Rambler – The Rolling Stones
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
The one that shut the kitchen door
He don’t give a hoot of warning
Wrapped up in a black cat cloak
He don’t go in the light of the morning
He split the time the cock’rel crows
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Did you see him jump the garden wall
Sighin’ down the wind so sadly
Listen and you’ll hear him moan
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Well, honey, it’s no rock ‘n’ roll show
Well, I’m talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Yeah, everybody got to go
Well did ya hear about the midnight gambler?
Well honey it’s no rock-in’ roll show
Well I’m talking about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that
Don’t you do that, don’t you do that (repeat)
Oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that
Well you heard about the Boston…
It’s not one of those
Well, talkin’ ’bout the midnight…sh…
The one that closed the bedroom door
I’m called the hit-and-run raper in anger
The knife-sharpened tippie-toe…
Or just the shoot ’em dead, brainbell jangler
You know, the one you never seen before
So if you ever meet the midnight rambler
Coming down your marble hall
Well he’s pouncing like proud black panther
Well, you can say I, I told you so
Well, don’t you listen for the midnight rambler
Play it easy, as you go
I’m gonna smash down all your plate glass windows
Put a fist, put a fist through your steel-plated door
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
He’ll leave his footprints up and down your hall
And did you hear about the midnight gambler
And did you see me make my midnight call
And if you ever catch the midnight rambler
I’ll steal your mistress from under your nose
I’ll go easy with your cold fanged anger
I’ll stick my knife right down your throat, baby
And it hurts!
What the hell does it mean? Who cares; it sounds great. Get it for the harmonica alone. The lyrics are truly dark. It has been said that the lyrics were written from the point of view of a roaming rapist and murderer. If you look closely it could very well be true. Its dark, dank, evil and absolutely intoxicating.
Recommended versions can be found on: Let It Bleed (London Records/ABKCO, 1969), the “Best Of” Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (London Records/ABCKO, 1972) and the import only collection Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (Universal, 2007). The song can also be found on the live Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! album (London/ABKCO, 1970), The Brussels Affair ’73 (Promotone, 2011) and in the Stones’ 2003 concert film Four Flicks (Warner Music Vision, 2003).
See, I told you that there were a lot of songs that wouldn’t make this article—there’s just way, way too many for one column. So, in the next column I plan to list even more Stones classics. I still won’t be able to do the band justice (more songs will be featured in later columns this year, next year and in the future), but there will be a lot of songs that you’ll need to add to your collection (if you don’t already own them).
Now as always, I’m going to end this column with a call to action. This time I’m going to add a little twist. What are the Rolling Stones songs you cannot live without? What Stones songs do you HAVE to have on your mp3 player? Like I said there are a lot of Stones songs that are worthy. There will be another column featuring Stones songs on July 5th and more songs that will find their way into future columns. C’mon! This is your chance to shine, to show off your musical knowledge. Send me an e-mail letting me know what you like and why. I’ll give you credit for the suggestion and feature your song selection in a future column. E-mail me at: mikep@thewestfieldnewsgroup.com. Type Can’t Live Without in the Topic. Til Next time!
