How great is this song? I'm going through a pretty bad breakup right now and this song is hitting right at home. Mick's greatest recorded vocal ever.

But what the hell does "hide the switch and shut the light" mean?

my guess is the person in the song wants to be in a darkend room. whenever something has had me down and hurting inside i've always prefered to be alone in the dark and listen to music to heal and exile on mainstreet was always my first album to put on. that album is perfect for basically any mood a human goes through

Really works as the breakup song, too. Lather, rinse, repeat.

My second favourite Stones song after Gimme Shelter.A sublime piece of music with probably Micks best vocal.

The backing track is wonderful by itself

I'm in EXACTLY the same situation and finding myself drawn to the same song for some reason. I've been listening to it over and over.

This song got SOUL! Still love it.

Also lovely to play it on the guitar.

One of their bestest songs. Love it to death.

Absolutely! Let's go ahead and post version with lyrics.







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-11-17 15:43 by Chris Fountain.

It's one of my absolute favorites - Mick's best vocals!

Have they ever played this live?

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71Tele
Have they ever played this live?

nope and it's a shame they havent

The whole song is genius!
From the writing to the production.
Not many Stones songs that has this great feel.

It's a, by many a forgotten song but should be remembered
by the rock and roll world, as one of the top rock songs ever.

I think you can feel the excitement all the musicians feel over this track!

Been Stoned since 1964 and still am!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-11-18 11:46 by Fan Since 1964.

The Stones should definitely be playing this live--such a great song. Thankfully, I did see this live a few weeks ago!! This was one of the highlights of Phish's Exile set on Halloween.

I swear this song is about Bianca.

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still ill
My second favourite Stones song after Gimme Shelter.A sublime piece of music with probably Micks best vocal.

The backing track is wonderful by itself

I agree 100%, what I wouldn't give to hear this beautiful song played live next tour! I really think they could pull it off with Lisa and Bernard singing background.

Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind...

D-position with Capo on 3rd fret through Leslie speaker.

Magic!

Sorry but that Phish version is terrible! This is one of my all time favorite songs, and my favorite Stones, well ok, tied with Can't You Hear Me Knockin':-) But boy Phish slaughters Let it Loose! The vocals are absolutely terrible, out of tune and souless. SOrry Phish fans, and I like some of their stuff, but that version doesn't hold a candle to the Stones!

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71Tele
D-position with Capo on 3rd fret through Leslie speaker.

Magic!

Exactly! Every time I play this song on guitar, it gives shivers and gets me a little bit emotional. DOn't know why... I'm just an emo bastard! lol

It's not just you, DiamondDog, that's the magic of Exile working through you...

On Exile they found alchemy. Whatever it was that went into the pot: The heroin, the humid basement, the strain between Mick & Keith, the LA sessions - all added up to something purely magical. You can't plan that kind of thing. They were truly channeling something...

It reminds me of the 6o Minutes interview with Dylan when he was asked about his early songs and he said "Those songs were written magically". He then goes on to quote the first lines of It's Allright Ma and says "you try to write something like that". When asked if he could write like that again, he said "No."

That's what we have here, folks, with Exile.

Sorry to wax so poetic - a topic dear to my heart.

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deuce
How great is this song? I'm going through a pretty bad breakup right now and this song is hitting right at home. Mick's greatest recorded vocal ever.

But what the hell does "hide the switch and shut the light" mean?

INDEED. But I thought it was "hide the switch, can't shut the light"

Anyways,these are the type of lyrics that don't really need clarification for me, at least. I enjoy lyrics that I have yet to understand fully. They are owned by the listener. The meaning is my own interpretation, which is to metaphorical to explain here. Which, if I did, the men in white suits would be knocking on my door.

Many combinations of life's mysteries can be conjured from these lyrics . . .





EDIT: update: Damn you Duece, i looked up the lyrics on a couple sites and they say "and" instead of "can't". Damn. That may or may not affect the meaning for me . . . i guess sometimes its better to be ignorant of certain things



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-11-20 06:33 by NorthShoreBlues2.

the backing vocal makes this track esp in the last minute

OLDKR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-11-20 08:04 by oldkr.

How were you able to do this, split this apart like this? This is great! I've been trying to figure out how to do this. I'm trying to learn the piano parts in "Loving Cup" and it would help if I could split the tracks up like this

<< But what the hell does "hide the switch and shut the light" mean? <<

It's poetry man! Don't worry about what it means. At one time Mick was capable of writing lyrics like this. A far cry from "I want to f..k your sweet ass".