Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
________________________________________________________________________________

Connection
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

RCA Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, August 3 - 11, 1966 and
Pye Studios & Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, November 8 - 26, 1966

Mick Jagger - vocals, drums
Keith Richards - vocals, electric guitar
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - tambourine
Ian Stewart - piano, organ

All I want to do is to get back to you
Connection, I just can't make no connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you

Everything is going in the wrong direction
The doctor wants to give me more injection
Giving me shots for a thousand rare infections
And I don't know if he'll let me go

Connection, I just can't make no connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you
Connection, I just can't make it, connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you

My bags they get a very close inspection
I wonder why it is that they suspect 'em
They're dying to add me to their collection
And I don't know if they'll let me go

Connection, I just can't make no connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you
Connection, I just can't make no connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you
Connection, I just can't make no connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Between The Buttons” LP
(Decca SKL 4852) UK, January 20, 1967

i have a theory that ALO locked the Glimmer Twins in *separate* rooms this time
and gave each of them a word to make up a lyric around.
Mick got "obsession", Keith got "connection"
and the rest is history

i love this track - it's so muscular and wild,
and that crazy snakey guitar is so insidious and hyponotic
and the lyrics - the boy saw it alllll coming, didn't he

the Winos renditions are mighty fine too - oh and that Seville almost-Winos version

very funny, charming tune... SAL rehearsal version seemed like totally rocking stuff.

This is the Seville version (the Winos are in the Tracking Cookie thread):





Keith has quite a limited set of "Jagger/Richard" songs that he considers "his" and feels free to perform on his own or with the Winos - Connection is one of the earliest and one of the best. So many things I love about Connection, and it works so well with the Winos - somebody in one of the biographies described it as a "punk anthem from hell". Not sure I'd go that far, but it was certainly way ahead of its time. However, the original band make a wonderful job of it - one of those Stones tracks where everybody seems to be doing their own thing, but it all fits together perfectly. Thanks with sssoul for thinking of the perfect word to describe that guitar - sssnaky!

btw: "Mick Jagger - vocals, drums"?

Why did Keith consider it his own when Jagger is just as audiable throughout the studio-take.

Don't get me wrong, its part of Keiths set now, but never understood the - pardon the pun - original Keith connection.

but ... Mick singing on it doesn't mean Keith wasn't the main songwriter

(i started to say "especially in the early days", but it's true all down the line, really:
Keith has always written stuff for Mick to sing, as well as stuff to sing himself.)


(for the sake of Equal Time, it can be fun to ponder whether Mick's written any numbers for Keith to sing -
Party Doll, for example :E - ahem, but i digress something fierce, sorry! :E )



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-21 16:42 by with sssoul.

Among other things - I agree with the people here assuming that it is maybe the 'first' pure Keith Richards 'solo' song, and I think that with sssoul's marvellous theory of ALO putting the Twins on the separate rooms is metaphorically true (Mick at least confirms that "Yesterday's Papers" was the first song he made by his own) - I'd like to add that "Connection" is an early indication of the EXILE ON MAIN STREET swing and magic. The band rocks like hell, and Mick and Keith share equally the vocals - their voices suiting together with such a superb, free-rolling way - like in so many EXILE tracks. They would have few years to master their skills as song writers and making more ambitious rock anthems and masterpieces, but by EXILE they will go back to the simple forms of basic rock tracks, a'la "Connection".

- Doxa

No me gusta la canción "Conexión". Es absolutamente terrible!

Green Lady:

According to Mick in 1967: "That's me beating the bass drums with my hands".

You can hear it at the end of the song where they repeat:
"Connection, I just can't make no connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you"

René

Quote
with sssoul
i have a theory that ALO locked the Glimmer Twins in *separate* rooms this time
and gave each of them a word to make up a lyric around.
Mick got "obsession", Keith got "connection"

Maybe Andrew just gave them a page of a dictionary while preparing for Between the Buttons:
Complicated
Connection
Cool Calm Collected


Great song. Am I the only one here who would love to see Mick and Keith doing the vocals
together (sharing the mic) on stage?

>> Am I the only one here who would love to see Mick and Keith doing the vocals together <<

smile: nope, you're not alone :E

just in case anyone missed it: there's a snippet of them rehearsing it together
in the "bonus featurette" on the Shine a Light dvd - not sharing a mic, but still sweet!

I've always liked that number. Still remember Keith performing it in Mannheim in '95, complete train wreck, but charming as hell. "Yeah that's Rock'nRoll, man!" was his comment. And with sssoul: Nice theory, feels just right ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-21 15:51 by Greenblues.

speaking of the BUTTONS album, doesnt it sound like Keith singing the "chorus" on "Something Happened To Me Yesterday"??

>> doesnt it sound like Keith singing the "chorus" on "Something Happened To Me Yesterday"? <<

smile: it doesn't just "sound like Keith" - it is Keith :E

Great tune!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-21 17:54 by His Majesty.

Great tune. Too bad they slaughtered it for SAL.

Quote
René
Green Lady:

According to Mick in 1967: "That's me beating the bass drums with my hands".

You can hear it at the end of the song where they repeat:
"Connection, I just can't make no connection
But all I want to do is to get back to you"

René

Never knew that before. Sounds good, anyway.

GREAT GREAT song....Keith sounds great on this one...And the Winos hit a home run when they played it live.. Wow you got to love it...
Sad thing is what the heck did they do with this song on SAL? Not the same song...ha..

I love this song verry verry much.........

A nice little ditty, but they sort of tried to outsmart the Small Faces with these songs, didn't they?

Mathijs

Quote
Mathijs
A nice little ditty, but they sort of tried to outsmart the Small Faces with these songs, didn't they?

Mathijs

I don’t entirely agree, yet you cannot deny the sense of pure Englishness that resonates from Between the Buttons.

You have to wonder if it would have been a hit stateside if it were by anyone other than The Rolling Stones – Beatles aside.

Quote
skipstone
Great tune. Too bad they slaughtered it for SAL.

Yeap, that is shame indeed. It is a great version. Keith is putting so much effort into it, I like ti much more than the Winos version.

a top song...great singing by both....was this one of the first Jagger/richards singing at the same time?

I always thought it was Brian playing those guitar riffs..... ?

Quote
WeLoveYou
I always thought it was Brian playing those guitar riffs..... ?

Doubt it.

Quote
skipstone
Great tune. Too bad they slaughtered it for SAL.

The version on sal is absolutely great!

Ron Wood in Faces form.

C

Liddas - you've GOT to be kidding! It's horrendous!

Quote
skipstone
Liddas - you've GOT to be kidding! It's horrendous!

I'm not kidding. Its superb. Forget its on sal. Forget its the rolling stones. Forget that the average age of the guys playing is over 60.

Just put the disc in the player, turn the volume up loud, and then tell me again it stinks.

No way: it rocks and swings. It blows away any other version I've heard of the same (winos and original included).

C

I enjoyed the SAL version to an extent - when I saw it at the cinema that is. There was something soulful about Keith's singing.

However, on subsequent listens of the SAL cd, this song does sound pretty bad...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-24 18:57 by WeLoveYou.

Quote
with sssoul
but ... Mick singing on it doesn't mean Keith wasn't the main songwriter

(i started to say "especially in the early days", but it's true all down the line, really:
Keith has always written stuff for Mick to sing, as well as stuff to sing himself.)


(for the sake of Equal Time, it can be fun to ponder whether Mick's written any numbers for Keith to sing -
Party Doll, for example :E - ahem, but i digress something fierce, sorry! :E )

But weren´t the early songs, that keith sings, all written by Keith AND Mick? So i think it is not so difficult to assume, that Mick wrote something for Keith to sing. Like "You got the silver" - did Keith write the lyrics?