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

Musicland Studios, Munich, West-Germany, March 31 & December 3 - 16, 1975 and
Mountain Recording Studios, Montreux, Switserland, October 19 - 30, 1975

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, harmony vocals, backing vocals, concert piano
Keith Richards - lead vocals, harmony vocals, backing vocals, electric piano
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Ron Wood - backing vocals
Harvey Mandel - electric guitar
Wayne Perkins - acoustic guitar
Billy Preston - string synthesizer, backing vocals

Hannah honey was a peachy kind of girl, her eyes were hazel and her nose was slightly curved, we spent a lonely night at the Memory Motel, it's on the ocean, I guess you know it well, it took a starry night to steal my breath away, down on the waterfront her hair all drenched in spray
Hannah baby was a honey of a girl, her eyes were hazel, her teeth were slightly curved, she took my guitar and she began to play, she sang a song to me, stuck right in my brain, you're just a memory of a love that used to be, you're just a memory of a love that used to mean so much to me
She got a mind of her own and she use it well, yeah, well, she's one of a kind, got a mind, she got a mind of her own, yeah, and she use it mighty fine
She drove a pick-up truck painted green and blue, the tires were wearing thin she done a mile or two, when I asked her where she headed for, back up to Boston, I'm singing in a bar, I got to fly today on down to Baton Rouge, my nerves are shot already, the road ain't all that smooth, across in Texas is the rose of San Antone, I keep on a feeling that gnawing in my bones, you're just a memory of a love that used to mean so much to me, you're just a memory of a love that used to mean so much to me, yeah, you're just a memory girl, you're just a sweet old memory and it used to mean so much to me, yeah, you're just a memory of a love that used to mean so much to me
She got a mind of her own and she use it well, yeah, mighty fine, well, she's one of a kind, she got a mind of her own, she's one of a kind and she use it well
On the seventh day my eyes were all a glaze, we been ten thousand miles and been in fifteen states, every woman seemed to fade out of my mind, I hit the bottle and I hit the sack and cried, what's all this laughter on the twenty-second floor, it's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the doors, it's been a lonely night at the Memory Motel, you're just a memory girl, just a memory, and it used to mean so much to me, you're just a memory girl, you’re just a memory, and it used to mean so much to me, you're just a memory girl, you're just a sweet old memory and it used to mean so much to me, you're just a memory of a love that used to mean so much to me
She's got a mind of her own and she use it well, yeah, well, she's one of a kind

Produced by The Glimmer Twins

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Black And Blue” LP
(Rolling Stones Records COC 79104) US, April 15, 1976

My No 1 on 'Black and Blue'....

2 1 2 0

One of the loveliest songs the Stones ever wrote. A heartbreaking ode to a love lost - who is it about though. Bianca? His supposed affair with Carly Simon? It's one of the most haunting songs in the Stones canon too, especially with Billy's string synthesizer playing those mournful notes.

Charlie's drumming deserves a mention too - his cymble washes and splashes perfectly create an image of standing on a deserted beach..."it's on the ocean, I guesss you know it well". In fact I always thought the Stones were creating that line in their cover photoshoot, especially the inner gatefold photo.

Wonderful solo by Keith too. And when he comes in with the "she got a mind of her own and she use it well" line...wow. Butterfly time in my stomach.

This is one of those songs I reach for in the early hours along with Coming Down Again, Winter, Time Waits For No One and Can You Hear The Music. They sure wrote some good ballads around this time.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-24 17:33 by Silver Dagger.

Hmm, I guess I just don't get it. This track does absolutely nothing for me, and never did. Unlike so many of the great 70's Stones ballads that I love -- Fool to Cry, Winter, Coming Down Again, Angie, Till the Next Goodbye, etc -- I consider this one to be a leaden, dispiriting mess. For me, Memory Motel represents the nadir of their mid-70's creative slump. Sorry!!

Drew

Look forward to reading BV's thoughts on the song as I believe it's one of his favourites.

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Silver Dagger
Look forward to reading BV's thoughts on the song as I believe it's one of his favourites.

Has BV ever shared his thoughts on Track Talk? Would love to get his perspective but I don't think it's something he's done.

Drew

I have always loved this track, and the full 'Black and Blue' album; that run of albums from 1976 - 1983 (yes, including 'Emotional Rescue') and including the multitude of bootlegs represents an astonishingly creative time in thier history.

I love the late 70s/early 80s period as much as I do the late 60s/early 70s

'Memory Motel' is simply a gem; one of my favourite Stones songs from first hearing; gorgeous melody, beautiful guitars; Mick, Keith and Billy Preston all seated at keyboards.

Wonderful track, fantastic seeing it Live on the 'Bridges to Bremen 1998' DVD.

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drewmaster

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Silver Dagger
Look forward to reading BV's thoughts on the song as I believe it's one of his favourites.

Has BV ever shared his thoughts on Track Talk? Would love to get his perspective but I don't think it's something he's done.

Drew

Not to my knowledge. Saw him at the Pilot yesterday. If he's there on Thursday I'll ask him.

wonderful song...touching.

Great song, reminds me of my first girlfriend.

A fantastic song from one disjointed album. They start off going in a wild dance and ballad mood and then get scared or something and throw in the inappropriate (for this album) Hand of Fate and Crazy Mama, which sounded like throwbacks. Cherry Oh Baby really doesn't work. It's one of the rare times Charlie seemed lost. Even Fool To Cry fails to impress. But the other 4, Hot Stuff, Melody, Hey Negrita, and especially Memory Hotel, are killer.

This is the standout track on the LP as far as I'm concerned.

Reminds me of Moonlight Mile - they are both slow wistful ballads about the road and both have the initials MM.

Sorry, I just heard this song on the radio and it sounded so good, the emotion on this track is fantastic.

I happened to catch the Boston 2 (Friday Night) concert last tour. They nailed it!!

Great song

Keith's heartfelt vocal part saves what would have meen a mediocre and rather maudlin ballad.

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71Tele
Keith's heartfelt vocal part saves what would have been a mediocre and rather maudlin ballad.

I love the Stones' road songs, so MM will never sound near-mediocre to me, but yeah:
Keith's part is refreshingly abstract and spacious - like a Calder mobile hanging in a warm dense Romantic landscape,
and somehow fitting perfectly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-22 20:06 by with sssoul.

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with sssoul

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71Tele
Keith's heartfelt vocal part saves what would have been a mediocre and rather maudlin ballad.

I love the Stones' road songs, so MM will never sound near-mediocre to me, but yeah:
Keith's part is refreshingly abstract and spacious - like a Calder mobile hanging in a warm dense Romantic landscape,
and somehow fitting perfectly.

I never thought this was the great song some people think it is. Mick's vocal delivery was already descending into parody by this point, and the sythnthesizer bit dates it. But you're right about Keith's part. I used to listen to MM just hear "whe's got a mind of her own, and she uses it well...".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-22 22:31 by 71Tele.

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71Tele
... I used to listen to MM just hear "she's got a mind of a fool, and she uses it well...".

She's got a mind of her own
(I do hope that was a multi-typo and not a decades-old misheard lyric
the correction of which will cause large portions of your mental furniture to cave in!)

I like the song -- nostalgic, reminiscent of old girlfriends long gone. Makes you wistful to hear it. I knew the girl in the green and blue pickup truck. We drove it to New Mexico. She was a shitty guitar player. Her front tooth was chipped. All her clothes were secondhand from thrift stores, but arfully selected. The past swallowed her whole. Of all my old girlfriends she's the one I most want to run into by accident.

I like the story of the song's origin. The title comes from a real motel in Montauk, Long Island, New York called "Memory Motel."

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with sssoul

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71Tele
... I used to listen to MM just hear "she's got a mind of a fool, and she uses it well...".

She's got a mind of her own
(I do hope that was a multi-typo and not a decades-old misheard lyric
the correction of which will cause large portions of your mental furniture to cave in!)

You are correct...It was a decades-old person misremembering.

I love this song, the lyrics and mood are perfect. Keith's backing vocal, too. I'll always associate it with my first trip to the States, flying from London to DC - as we headed down the east coast, I spotted Montauk on the moving map and proceeded to listen to Memory Motel on repeat. That trip lasted the best part of four months and I listened to the Stones virtually every day throughout (it's wonderful music for getting to know America) but none of their songs evokes that part of the world to me in the way Memory Motel does.

This will be my funeral song, enough said.

One of my favourite tracks.

The ultimate duet by The Glimmer Twins, both playing keyboards as well. Brings memories of "Something Happened to Me Yesterday" and "Salt of the Earth".

My first recollection of the song, when I was a kid, was something to the effect: "shit, this is old people's boring ballad, damn way too long as well..." But I grew up...

It is a beautiful piece as hell, and constructed extremily nicely and carefully for the the Stones. I mean, from the song-writer's point of view, there is so much going on, carefully written verses, beautifully carrying a coherent story, a simple but catchy chorus (varied nicely to keep the interest), and incredibly beautiful middle eight. All working perfectly together, and there is not one second too much. It feels like they could go on forever, and tell us more. One of their best ballads ever, maybe the most mature one ever.

Keith's vocal part is one of his most heartfelt, warm ones ever. There is no need to over-interpret and act like some kind a crooner like in many of his latter efforts. It is just a natural feeling married with experience and a bit-broken voice. Irrestible.

But Jagger then... I have always had mixed feelings about that one. He seemingly was going through some strange times back then, and had some seconds thoughts what to do with his voice. How to express himself... Some of that also had occurred in some IT'S ONLY ROCK'N'ROLL tracks already, but throughout BLACK&BLUE he sounds like trying different 'tricks' by which to give his voice different color, sometimes darker (like in "Hand of Fate"), sometimes more nasal, etc. Sometimes it feels like he tries to hide his natural voice. That could be his natural habit, but I think in BLACK&BLUE he doesn't sound like he is not in control of it. (The same problem continued in the following American Tour). In "Memory Motel" he just over-does whatever he does. Still it isn't bad, but... how can I say.. a bit odd. To me it sounds like he thinks the song is too sugarish, too balladish, too middle-aged or something, and he just wants destroy the impression by 'look, I am not that serious doing this kind of thing. I am not that yet'. He ends up sounding almsot like a caricature of himself.

But he was writing that kind of 'soft' material quite a lot during the mid-70's, but was some part of him rebelling against that tendency? 'I am not that old and boring yet?' The crisis after having turned thirty in young man's game... In SOME GIRLS he sounded like getting over it, and discovering a new Jagger persona and voice to go along the times. And it is good that he left some of the stuff on the vaults. I think he was much better mentally prepared to do justice to that kind of ballad material by the times of TATTOO YOU. For example, I don't think "Worried About You" could have been so perfect in every nuance-wisee as it is in TATTOO YOU. Especially if "Memory Motel" is any indication.

Nothing wrong with the falsetto, but it is that damn middle-range... Sometimes it sounds irrestible, even fitting, but sometimes I can't stand it at all...

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-24 11:52 by Doxa.

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VT22
Great song, reminds me of my first girlfriend.

+1

Can't believe that I haven't posted anything about this song!

I've always loved it. Yeah, Mick continues where he left with the self parodic vocals on TWFNO, but imo in a cool way. Keith more than balances the campiness with his hearfelt harmony AND backing vocals.

Love both glimmers's piano playing as well. I really can't hear Ronnie in the choir there. Sure about that one, Rene?

Shortened down a bit in concert it's proved to be a lovely live number

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LuxuryStones

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VT22
Great song, reminds me of my first girlfriend.

+1

- Doxa

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LuxuryStones

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VT22
Great song, reminds me of my first girlfriend.

+1

><

I think this track talk deserves Jagger's description of its creation, since it nicely gives us ideas how the Twins co-work and 'click', and Mick is not usually so specific (from timeisonourside.com):


Keith or I might have had the initial idea (for a song), but after a while you can't separate who wrote it. We just sit down and do them, sometimes in the studio, sometimes at home. Like here, this song, Memory Motel, I wrote the first part, the piano part, which I played. Course I had to take time off from the Stones... that takes a lot of my time, let me TELL you... but I don't mind, it's my own time - to do my own solo stuff on the LP, but more of that later. So anyway... I play the bloody piano, right? Okay, so I'm going, mmmmm-mmmmm, a-mmmmmm, and Keith goes, hmmmmmgghh... uhhh... that sounds all right..., and I say, Well, I only just started it, I ain't finished yet, 'cause I like to get everything finished, done, written on paper, typed up, all written out. But he doesn't like that so he says, I've got a middle bit here, and he sits down at the other piano, the electric piano, and he plays the middle bit. Then I learn that and he learns my part, and THEN we make the track, and I sing what I've got. And then I go and finish the words. They're all done in a day. And in fact, when Keith wrote the middle bit, he did those words... he goes... mmmm... she's got a mind... of her own... Anyway, that's how, for instance, we wrote that song. Boring, isn't it?
- Mick Jagger, 1976

No, Mick, not boring at all!

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-24 12:10 by Doxa.