Today I was on a slow plodding bus homeward, with no iPod/phone to distract me. So I closed my eyes and ran through Let It Bleed in my head. It's an album I know and love perhaps even a splash better than Exile. When I got to Monkey Man I was surprised "hearing" the musical interlude--how long it is, and how beautiful. When I got home I listened to the actual song. The instrumental piece starts around minute 1:50 and is mostly guitar---but then at 2:35 to around 3:15 is changes key, tempo, and mood and is flavored, led even, by Nicky Hopkin's piano---and it turns into this melodic jam whose sheer lyricism, to me, is evocative of...either Brian or Mick Taylor.

The opening bit is also gorgeous (the hesitant piano part slaaaaaays me) and of the same ilk. Who arranged this song? I don't associate Keith thinking this way, musically. He's brilliant and I love him musically, but his attention span seems too short to go into something melodically meandering like this.

otoh Jimmy Miller said "The important thing about Let It Bleed is the amount of work Keith did. He literally was a WORKHOUSE. He was in a great cycle during that period, at a great point in his playing....There were times where I'd think, What could Keith possibly do to help this track better itself? I was afraid he'd overdo it. Then he'd suddenly just play something that would knock me out. It would always be some guitar figure I'd never imagined which made the whole thing work. THAT was the magic of the Stones."

Mick Taylor is supposed to have played on Country Honk and Live With Me - but I don't know whether he came in an jammed with them, or added parts to the final recording. Is is possible, if the former, that it's Mick Taylor's influence we hear on Monkey Man?

Also, Bill on vibes...really? Any possibility it was Brian?

Also also -- as I've often said I'm not a collector of outtakes and know little about them (tho I LOVE them and the stories around them), but Monkey Man fades to a conclusion, and clearly they're all still going strong, playing and Mick singing. I know there are some recordings of instrumental jamming without Keith (I think) from 1969 from Let It Bleed. But are there any uncut versions of Monkey Man, where they go on playing? or alt takes? recordings of all of them jamming at this session?

Thoughts, opinions, reactions, facts - can't wait to hear 'em - pls don't fight tho, ok? This is a beautiful slice of Stones!

thanks
swiss





Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-26 10:18 by swiss.

Brilliant track, Swiss. One of the trickier Stones songs to play, too. Musically, possibly the best track on LIB apart from Gimme Shelter. I don't think Mick Taylor or Brian had any influence. It was just the juju in the room at the time. When it was flowing, it really flowed. Keith is all over it, of course, on guitars, but the rest of the arrangement seems more like a Jimmy Miller/Nicky Hopkins thing to me.

... i think your assessment of Keith's "attention span" needs adjusting, swiss.
sure, Nicky Hopkins and Jimmy Miller left their fine marks on this,
but the album - including this track - is a glorious avalanche of evidence of what Keith is capable of.

Monkey Man is one of the best Stones songs, lots of styles are melting together in this track.

Brian on vibes in the intro..

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duke richardson
Brian on vibes in the intro..

Evidence? Bill gets the credit on the sleeve.

According to Nico Zentgraf an earlier version of the song was recorded during the sessions that took place between 17th and 22nd of april 1969, under the title
Positano Grande.
This suggest that the (inspiration for) the song has a link to Midnight Rambler,
that was written by Mick and Keith in the Italian town Positano.

The version on the Let it bleed album (man, what a great album that is!) was recorded
between 10th of june and 2nd of july.

BTW, does anyone else hear the echo of Monkey Man in the intro of Shirley by the First Barbarians?

dang it! my bad...Bill not Brian. I love those vibes...
thanks

There´s a really funny/interesting story about Monkey delivered by George Chkiantz in the book"...and the making of Let it Bleed" (by Sean Egan page.110 -> ) Its regarding the size of the room Monkey Man was recorded in and that George had to give up the engineer chair for that session. I LOVE the way it came out, but to George, EVERYTHING is wrong about that track, hehe.

Btw, went to Positano a couple of years ago and posted a question here about details to Keiths/Micks trip down there. It seems there´s not much known about that inspirational journey. In Positano itself nobody (to my knowledge) had heard about it, not even rock pubs et al.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-27 10:12 by RobberBride.

It's a brilliant piece of music, whenever I hear the second part of the Dominos' Layla it reminds me of this.

MM is one of my absolute favorite songs. Love the minor key intro, and what a great riff. The bridge is indeed majestic...Nicky Hopkins & Jimmy Miller at their finest (and Keef too, of course).

I'm an Exile desciple, but that's like saying you like you're right arm better than you're left...they're both necessary.

I go nuts for that funky guitar interlude in Monkey Man - this is when Keith was really defining and finding his originality as a musician, that impossible-to-copy, completely organic, rhythmic monster of a guitar style. That's why no one else can do the Stones.

Thanks for the responses and reflections!

I too have thought of Layla when I hear this interlude.

That's interesting it's hard to play - I love hearing details like that!

Did Bill play vibes on anything else, other than, ostensibly, Monkey Man?

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with sssoul
but the album - including this track - is a glorious avalanche of evidence of what Keith is capable of.

Said nothing that would imply otherwise darlin that--and the way they all collaborate and meld vibes so cohesively--is why it's my favorite album.

I would say on "attention span" that Keith's writing doesn't bear out a tendency toward long amorphous jammy interludes. or long amorphous anything. Even his thinking, as demonstrated verbally in interview over the years, is elegant and precise (tho his delivery frequently isn't--which throws people off).

You can hear Keith's what I'm calling "attention span" in his "attack," in his playing style, as well. He doesn't tend to be a noodling fluid meandering guitarist. Thass all I meant.
- swiss

It's a great one. Lyrically it's sort of a "sequel" to JUMPIN' JACK FLASH. A guy singing about enduring a lot of adversity to come out fine. "But it's all right now." "But I pulled on through."

my favorite as well - this along with GS left my initial imprint of the mature stones style. The arrangement is much more 'lush' than what came before or after. I attribute that to Keith having time to layer multiple parts down to give it the thick flavor it has. I also have heard the comparisons to Layla's segue - but the difference is that the Layla Coda dissipates the energy of the song - while the interlude to MM continues to build the energy

...and here it is; the acetate of that brilliant song!





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-27 16:58 by steffiestones.

It's a tricky one, but at the same time, one of the songs that the Stones never fail to deliver in concert. The same goes for Midnight Rambler as well. Keep on playing it!

Truly one of their best and until the Voodoo Lounge tour one that had fallen between the tracks, live wise. In fact I don't think they'd ever played it live till then.

Reminds me of the Wembley shows in 1995. I'd heard that they'd played Monkey Man live in America and was so looking forward to hearing it at Wembley. Well, I went to the first two nights and they didn't play it. So i went along to the third night but for some unknown reason there were no tickets at reasonable prices to be had outside.

So I went home - about five miles up the road to Swiss Cottage where I lived. As I got in I opened the windows and there breezing in over the cool summer wind was the faint strains of....Monkey Man. I was nearly in tears at having missed out on hearing it live but at least I heard it.

>>That's interesting it's hard to play - I love hearing details like that<<

technically it's not that hard and certainly not impossible to copy, unless one talks about Keith's uniqueness.

beautiful and mind-boggling song ever since.

LIB was my first Stones album, getting it for X-mas 1969. After being a complete Beatles fan I found the music unfathomable. Midnight Rambler was disturbing (duh), and the bass on Live With Me distorted the speakers on my ancient hi-fi. But it was Monkey Man that turned me on. Listening to the cut on headphones with Nicky's jazzy piano opening and Bill's tickling bass seemed very uptown and sophisticated.

Thank you ,Jeep !

They said it was a highlight ,right ? Although Jagger screwed up the intro

What about that one ?




But nothing is closed to this intro






I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

Just read in the second chapter of Life that young Keith's nick name was "monkey".

Is this the origin of the title of the song?


C