Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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I’m A King Bee
(Slim Harpo)

Regent Sound Studios, London, UK, January 10, 1964

Mick Jagger - vocals, harmonica
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - electric slide guitar

Well, I'm a king bee
Buzzing around your hive
Well, I'm a king bee, baby
Buzzing around your hive
Yeah, I can make honey, baby
Let me come inside

Well, I'm a king bee
Want you to be my queen
Well, I'm a king bee, baby
Want you to be my queen
Together we can make honey
The world has never seen

Well, buzz a while

Sting you bad

Well, I'm a king bee
Can buzz all night long
Well, I'm a king bee, baby
Can buzz all night long
Yeah, I can buzz better, baby
When your man is gone

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “The Rolling Stones” LP
(Decca LK 4605) UK, April 16, 1964

When people say Aftermath is Brian's finest moment I say yes but no, this is it. Anything with Brian and the band from 1964 is not only Brians finest moment but also some of Keiths (Route 66) and Micks (Can I get a witness).
This is one of the underrated gems, it's a cover but one of their best covers, one that inspires and I guess inspired other bands at the time. Showcasing the blues to a teen aged audience.

A classic. Great playing (especially choice of sound) from both Brian and Keith.

My fave track on the 1st album (along with 'Walking The Dog').

This is classic Stones and a early fav from the debutalbum...Brian Jones at his top...

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Slim Harpo

Original cut by Slim Harpo at Jay Miller's studio - Crowley Louisiana 1957 - Excello 2113

Jimmy Anderson recorded a version at Miller's Crowley studio in 1962 - Excello 2227




Jimmy Anderson & The Joy Jumpers
LR Eugene Dozier - Oscar Hogan Jnr - Jimmy Anderson - Andrew "Guitar" Taylor



ROCKMAN

Great song from a great album love it from the first time I heard it

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René: I don't think Keith plays an acoustic on this one. Listen to his lead break, as well as all the licks in there.

This was the glimpse into the greatness of what The Rolling Stones would become. Raw, ominous, and perfectly executed British blues. One of their finest early cuts that highlights all that is great of The Rolling Stones. Superb!

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Rockman

Slim Harpo

Original cut by Slim Harpo at Jay Miller's studio - Crowley Louisiana 1957 - Excello 2113

Jimmy Anderson recorded a version at Miller's Crowley studio in 1962 - Excello 2227




Jimmy Anderson & The Joy Jumpers
LR Eugene Dozier - Oscar Hogan Jnr - Jimmy Anderson - Andrew "Guitar" Taylor

Muddy Waters also cut a great version (in the late 70s with Johnny Winter) which owed a lot to the RS version.

Together we can make honey.. All the ancient blues lyrics are full of daring eufemisms.

Great song indeed.

About 'Walking the Dog' the line 'She broke a needle and she can't saw'; I always assumed that line was a reference to shooting heroin, but none of them were into that until years later.

Mick showed a nice modest side of himself in an interview when he said "what's the point
in listening to us doing I'm a King Bee when you can listen to Slim Harpo doing it?"

The point was, of course, that many people wouldn't have known Slim Harpo and his songs
if it wasn't for our boys to cover him. But, hell yeah, that Slim Harpo could play:

ohh man - this is the track that really really got me when i was 9 and the album had just come out.
i'd borrowed it from a classmate whose parents allowed them to have dirty records :E
and i listened to this track over and over and over - those guitars just freakin fascinated me

i remember my guardian towering over me sternly asking if i knew what the song was about -
"it's ... it's about a bee! isn't it?!"

i love the Rolling Stones

my fave version of this song is by the oft-forgotten Siegel-Schwall Band

i have to go w/ Stones version over any other i've ever heard ... just so mesmerizing!

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LeonidP
i have to go w/ Stones version over any other i've ever heard ... just so mesmerizing!

I often prefer blues / soul originals, but I agree here!

So, let's hear it! When I first heard it in the early 70s I thought they'd recorded it badly. It had this odd warble to it. But man, Brian Jones stingin' is harrowing.

Great one!

I love the Stones rendition.

Pink Floyd had a decent stab at it in '65, too.

I love the Stones' version, but no one can touch Slim Harpo.

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DandelionPowderman
René: I don't think Keith plays an acoustic on this one. Listen to his lead break, as well as all the licks in there.

The lead break is Brian on electric slide. The licks are mainly Brian's electric slide (the call) and Bill's bass (the response), with Brian being much more prominent. Keith just plays acoustic. Rene's got it right.

One of Brian's finer efforts on slide. Bill wasn't so shabby on bass here either.

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neptune

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DandelionPowderman
René: I don't think Keith plays an acoustic on this one. Listen to his lead break, as well as all the licks in there.

The lead break is Brian on electric slide. The licks are mainly Brian's electric slide (the call) and Bill's bass (the response), with Brian being much more prominent. Keith just plays acoustic. Rene's got it right.

Err, there are two lead breaks. The first one is Keith playing sixteens on the D-string. The other ones ("sting it...") is Brian on slide. I can´t hear an acoustic on this one at all.

MA Numminen, master of everything, recorded a proper cover version of King Bee on MA goes techno (1995) but this is better. It's a cover but with different lyrics.

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DandelionPowderman
Err, there are two lead breaks. The first one is Keith playing sixteens on the D-string. The other ones ("sting it...") is Brian on slide. I can´t hear an acoustic on this one at all.

Yeah, you're right about the two breaks. But it sounds like Brian on both on the same guitar, which might be an acoustic as well. Keith's acoustic twangs away in the background, similar to what he does on Little Red Rooster. On the ABKCO remasters, Keith's acoustic can clearly be heard. So my final take on this is Brian and Keith both playing acoustic guitars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-22 03:04 by neptune.

2 minutes and 44 seconds of sheer bliss that capture the Stones at the very peak of their their ability to cover the blues, which was ironically at the very start of their career. This one is just so mesmerizing and perfect in every way. Mick's leering drawl, the sinewy guitar work, and of course that harp. Baby, it doesn't get any better than this.

Drew

P.S. Here's another version which just blows me away, and the only time I can recall that the Toxic Twins were as good as the Glimmers.

This kind of stuff is what made the Rolling Stones a unique, differrent and bigger band among the other english pop groups.

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neptune

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DandelionPowderman
Err, there are two lead breaks. The first one is Keith playing sixteens on the D-string. The other ones ("sting it...") is Brian on slide. I can´t hear an acoustic on this one at all.

Yeah, you're right about the two breaks. But it sounds like Brian on both on the same guitar, which might be an acoustic as well. Keith's acoustic twangs away in the background, similar to what he does on Little Red Rooster. On the ABKCO remasters, Keith's acoustic can clearly be heard. So my final take on this is Brian and Keith both playing acoustic guitars.

I'm pretty sure those two guitar breaks are played by respectively Keith and Brian. I have never heard Brian play sixteens before with that technique - that's one thing - but the sound is different, too.

And the guitar that does the Little Red Rooster-ish licks is so distorted that I'm still very much in doubt on that being an acoustic.

I don't hear three guitars either.

I hear two guitars -Keith doing the acoustic rythm work, and Brian on electric guitar. All lead breaks are Brian. The call and response is Brian and Bill.

Mathijs