Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Continental Drift
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Air Studios, Montserrat, West Indies, March 29 - May 5, 1989,
Open Courtyard of Palace Ben Abbou, Tangier, Morocco, June 16 & 17, 1989 and
Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, May 15 - June 29, 1989

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, keyboards
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bicycle wheel
Charlie Watts - drums
Ron Wood - acoustic bass
Matt Clifford - programming
Bernard Fowler - backing vocals
Lisa Fisher - backing vocals
Sarah Dash - backing vocals
Tessa Niles - backing vocals
Sonia Morgan - backing vocals
The Master Musicians Of Joujouka - Moroccan instruments
(with Bachir Attar Farafina)

Love comes at the speed of light
Love comes at the speed of light
Love comes in a strange disguise, love comes

Open the door and let the light pour over
Open the door and don't you keep me out
Open the door and let the light pour over, hear me shout
Open the door and let the light pour over
Open the door and don't you keep me out
Open the door and let the light pour over, hear me shout

Love comes at the speed of light, love comes

It's as pure as silver, it's as pure as gold, it's a rushing river
Let it run all over me
It's as pure as silver, it's as pure as gold
Let it run all over me

It's as pure as silver, it's as pure as gold

Love comes
Love comes at the speed of light
Love comes at the speed of light

Produced by Chris Kimsey & The Glimmer Twins

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Steel Wheels” LP
(CBS 465752-1) UK, August 28, 1989



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-11-25 15:40 by René.

The Continental Drift intro on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour was the best intro on any Stones show ever.

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Bimmelzerbott
The Continental Drift intro on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour was the best intro on any Stones show ever.

My thoughts exactly.

Great track and really held out the promise of Steel Wheels being a more adventuresome disc...which sadly did not pan out. But Continental Drift is an exhilirating and exciting track with some great vibes and cool lyrics. Love it!

Mixed emotions.

The sound is not good. I would have left Clifford and all keyboards in general out of the project (and not only from this track): a more acoustic production would have suited the Masters better. Also the vocals are too prominent, esp. Jagger's. A "I just want to see his face" style would have been way better.

The melody and rhythm are absolutely great, though. I wonder who actually composed this track, where did it start from.

C

I Love that track!!

One of the best ever.!!

Fabulous song. A nod to the past and Brian's interest in the Moroccan trance music of Joujouka and a gaze into the future with chill out just around the corner. I so wish the Stones would experiment more like this instead of playing that really boring four to the floor lowest common denominator stadium rock that they churn out now without thinking.

A smiling nod to their past (see above ;-) - and very moving at the time, as a clear sign of their resurrection as a band. And a nice intro too. Munich '90 was my first Stones show. Still gives me the chills sometimes.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-27 13:58 by Greenblues.

In my opinion, one of the best things theyve ever done, and by some distance the best song theyve put out since 1981.

I wish it was a lot longer...

Have to agree Continental Drift is a great track and probably the best thing from Steel wheels and since.



John Nicholls

One of their most boring songs and ranks down at the bottom. The instrumental part, however, was genius as far as using it for the band-to-the-stage music. Take away the instrumental part of the tune and what's left? A very bland song.

i remember shea stadium october 1989 . the drummers from brunei(i believe)were playing on stage and then out into the audience they went playing continental drift and the lights go dark and then keith hits the opening chord to start me up and then massive fireworks and the begining of concert .very cool opener at shea stadium!!!

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Gazza
In my opinion, one of the best things theyve ever done, and by some distance the best song theyve put out since 1981.

Fcuk Gazza, steady on old boy. But great to hear your enthusiasm. Makes me think about how The Stones used to change their styles every few albums until hmm, the end of the 80s. Since then its been four to floor stuff.

Rolling Stones 1st to Out Of Our Heads - R'n'B
Aftermath - American styled pop
Between The Buttons - English styled pop
Their Satanic Majesty's - Psychedelia
Beggars Banquet - The Band/Bob Dylan inspired country rock'n'roll with a few notable exceptions
Let It Bleed to Exile - Best rock the world has ever heard
Goats Head Soup abd It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Glam inspired rock
Black And Blue - Er, black, blues and reggae
Some Girls to Emotional Rescue - Punk inspired rock
Tattoo You - Inspired mish mash of leftovers and decent rock songs
Undercover to present - four to the floor stadium rock

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ROLLINGSTONE

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Bimmelzerbott
The Continental Drift intro on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour was the best intro on any Stones show ever.

My thoughts exactly.

I agree too. My first Stones show was Wembley, July 1990 (I was 16). After arriving there at 9 AM to ensure a space at the front (these were the good old days when there were no seats on the pitch!) - my younger brother and I spent 6 or 7 hours sitting on the steps leading up to the turnstiles and then several more hours squashed like sweating sardines in front of the stage watching roadies running back and forth and getting increasingly tired and restless.

When showtime finally arrived and Continental Drift came blaring out, it was possibly one of the most exciting (non-sexual!) anticipatory 2 or 3 minutes of my life. And it was so worth the wait!

Whenever I hear that climactic section of the song now, a little bit of that feeling of excitement always returns...

Lotus stage opening was also great. But the build up of anticipation during continental drift (with complete darkness on the stage) to the huge thump and blinding light with the Stones out there to the opening chords of SMU was truly exciting. The crowd at Shea went nuts. This was back in the stone age and many of us had no advance knowledge of the opening sequence.A great memory.

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Silver Dagger

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Gazza
In my opinion, one of the best things theyve ever done, and by some distance the best song theyve put out since 1981.

Fcuk Gazza, steady on old boy. But great to hear your enthusiasm. Makes me think about how The Stones used to change their styles every few albums until hmm, the end of the 80s. Since then its been four to floor stuff.

Rolling Stones 1st to Out Of Our Heads - R'n'B
Aftermath - American styled pop
Between The Buttons - English styled pop
Their Satanic Majesty's - Psychedelia
Beggars Banquet - The Band/Bob Dylan inspired country rock'n'roll with a few notable exceptions
Let It Bleed to Exile - Best rock the world has ever heard
Goats Head Soup abd It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Glam inspired rock
Black And Blue - Er, black, blues and reggae
Some Girls to Emotional Rescue - Punk inspired rock
Tattoo You - Inspired mish mash of leftovers and decent rock songs
Undercover to present - four to the floor stadium rock

Stadium rock?

Feel On Baby, Too Rude, Harlem Shuffle, Sleep Tonight, Continental Drift, Almost Hear You Sigh, Fancy Man Blues, Thru & thru, New Faces, Out of Tears, Thief In The Night, How Can I Stop, You dont have to mean it, Always Suffering, Anybody Seen My Baby, Laugh I Nearly Died, Rain Fall Down et al.

The Stones still are an incredibly diverse band when they feel like it, and one whose excursions away from 'stadium-rock' often yields excellent results. Nothing's changed in that regard. They do it as often as they've always done.

They just choose not to play those songs when it comes to concert performances and sell themselves short by giving the impression they're little more than a band who perform rock anthems.

Re the bicycle wheel...

[www.iorr.org]

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liddas
Mixed emotions.

The sound is not good. I would have left Clifford and all keyboards in general out of the project (and not only from this track): a more acoustic production would have suited the Masters better. Also the vocals are too prominent, esp. Jagger's. A "I just want to see his face" style would have been way better.

The melody and rhythm are absolutely great, though. I wonder who actually composed this track, where did it start from.

C

Started, most likely, with Mick playing a riff on a synthesizer ... Hard to get rid of keyboards after that!

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whitem8
Great track and really held out the promise of Steel Wheels being a more adventuresome disc...which sadly did not pan out. But Continental Drift is an exhilirating and exciting track with some great vibes and cool lyrics. Love it!

Agreed

Absolutely the best intro!!

A wonderful song, it really hits me everytime I listen to it.

It was cool as an overture on the SW tour but on its own the song doesn't do anything for me.

One of the best, interesting, surprising songs of the "modern" era!!

I was just at the place they recorded with those Moroccans. Pretty good feeling. Not one of my fave songs even from that CD but good enough.

Worth checking the BBC doco Rolling Stones - In Morocco

Can be found on Youtube - split inta 5 parts ........

Here's part 1 ..........





ROCKMAN

I love this song and wish they would venture outside the norm more often like they did on this track.

One of my top 20 Stones songs for sure.

i think the track is pretty cool, and good on them for being experimental. What other times have they tried to push the envelope since then?

I guess Moon Is Up, although that's really just in terms of sound and production, because the structure of the song in pretty straightforward. I love MIU though, one of their best songs (certainly of the last 30 years) in my opinion.

Some (including the Stones themselves) talk about the experimental nature of stuff on BtoB, like that 'Juiced' one, but again, it's structure is simple (3 chord blues) with a few modish effects over the top.

Continental Drift is way more experimental than anything else in the the last 2 decades

Brilliant track. One of Jagger's best. Greatest intro also to a show ever.

By far the most interesting track of the last 20 years. They took a chance and it paid off.