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Midnight Rambler
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, March 10 - 11, 1969

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

Did you hear about the Midnight Rambler, ev'rybody got to go
Did you heard about the Midnight Rambler, the one that shut the kitchen door
He don't give a hoot of warning, wrapped up in a black cat cloak
He don't go in the light of the morning, he's split, the time the cook'rel crows

Talkin' 'bout the Midnight Gambler, the one you never seen before
Yeah, I’m talkin' 'bout the Midnight Gambler, did you see him jump the garden wall
Sighin' down the wind so sadly, listen and you hear him moan
Yeah, well, I’m talkin' 'bout the Midnight Gambler, ev'rybody got to go, yes

Did you hear about the Midnight Rambler, well, honey, it's no rock 'n' roll show
Well, I’m a-talkin' 'bout the Midnight Gambler, yeah, the one you never seen before

Don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that…
Don’t you do that, don’t you do that, don’t you do that, don’t you do that…
Oh, don’t do that, oh, don’t do that, oh, don’t do that, oh, don’t do that…

Well, you heard about the Boston - Honey, it’s not one of those
Well, I’m talking ‘bout the Midnight - The one who closed the bedroom door
I’m called the hit-and-run, rape-her-in-anger - The-knife-sharpened, tip-a-toe
Or just that shoot-‘em-dead, brain-bell-jangler
You know, the one you’ve never seen before
So if you ever meet the Midnight Rambler, crawlin’ down your marble hall
Well, he’s pouncing like a proud black panther, yeah, you can say I, I told you so
Well, won’t you listen for the Midnight Rambler, yeah, yeah, play it easy as you go
I’m gonna smash down all your plate glass windows
Put a fist, put a fist through your steel plate door

Did you hear about the Midnight Rambler
He'll leave his footprints up and down your hall
Did you hear about the Midnight Gambler, did you see me make my midnight call
And if you catch the Midnight Rambler, I'll steal your mistress from under your nose
I’m going easy with your cold fandango
I'll stick my knife right down your throat, baby, and it hurts

Produced by Jimmy Miller

First released on: The Rolling Stones - “Let It Bleed” LP
(London NPS-4) US, November 29, 1969



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-12-17 18:12 by René.

The electric slide guitar is an electric 12-string slide guitar.

Mathijs

Some controversy about the lyrics, some sources say "cold fandango", others say "cloak and dagger". Live on several versions it does seem like he says "cloak and dagger".

This is an epic blues song. An opera of darkness and pain. The song has so many unique aspects, and is the perfect blues, barrel house boogie, and rock all rolled into an opera of raunch and roll. I love both the studio and live. The harmonica on the studio version is brilliant. Incredible riffing that holds a trance like grip. Mick is channeling Canned Heat the way he adds unique rhythms. Live the song morphs into something completely different. A new song from the old. Something so powerful that is seemed to stun audience and the band alike. One of my favorite Stones songs. A perfect blues opera. This is what The Rolling Stones are all about.

I am wondering what type of electric 12 string because it isn't jangly like Rickenbacker.

htttp://www.last.fm/user/rocknrollcola

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whitem8

This is an epic blues song. An opera of darkness and pain. The song has so many unique aspects, and is the perfect blues, barrel house boogie, and rock all rolled into an opera of raunch and roll. I love both the studio and live. The harmonica on the studio version is brilliant. Incredible riffing that holds a trance like grip. Mick is channeling Canned Heat the way he adds unique rhythms. Live the song morphs into something completely different. A new song from the old. Something so powerful that is seemed to stun audience and the band alike. One of my favorite Stones songs. A perfect blues opera. This is what The Rolling Stones are all about.

Hell, yeah. I didn't know where to start. But this is better than any thing I could
come up with.

video: [www.youtube.com]

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

What a Classic! I listened to it 10.000 times from LIB, and 20.000 from GYYYO...

2 1 2 0

On the studio version, that very first sound is like the bottom dropping out of everything
and dumping you into another world: the dark howling paranoid brainbell-jangler landscape

i know i know - it's "just" Keith just brushing a string of a guitar plugged into a cranked-up-hot amp,
but it's brilliant

This song is a Stones masterpiece and the one by which we now measure their live shows. It's also, when played live now, just about the last vestige of a bygone era, a spyglass peak into the great tours between 69 and 76 and a look at how their incredible rhythm section works.

It's the song that allows the band to open the throttle, shift up a few gears and take the Stones mobile out onto the open highway and give that amazing engine of their's a good work out.

It's the song that naturally follows up all the imagined wickedness of Sympathy For The Devil and the imminent threat of disaster in Gimme Shelter to create a blues odyssey into the heart of darkness and the mind of a serial killer.

This is the sound of Jagger giving notice of his acting ambitions and stepping into character of Albert DeSalvo, the notorious Boston Strangler.

And of course it's possibly Keith's finest moment, constructing a deranged symphony of crazed, wailing, undulating guitars that are every bit as unsettling as Mick's frenzied lyrics.

And what a shame that poor Brian didn't have much to do with it because this is in essence everything that he probably would have wanted to explore with a new band - a futuristic blues that looks back at the riff heavy stompers of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf but stretches them out into another dimension.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-12-10 16:56 by Silver Dagger.

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with sssoul
On the studio version, that very first sound is like the bottom dropping out of everything
and dumping you into another world: the dark howling paranoid brainbell-jangler landscape

i know i know - it's "just" Keith just brushing a string of a guitar plugged into a cranked-up-hot amp,
but it's brilliant

It's the sound of Albert DeSalvo and Charles Manson on the prowl, just turning the corner at the end of your street and you're home all alone. It's foggy outside and it's the middle of the night in winter. Good luck.

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whitem8
Some controversy about the lyrics, some sources say "cold fandango", others say "cloak and dagger". Live on several versions it does seem like he says "cloak and dagger".

I always hear 'cold fandango'. And 'green-bell-jangler' should be 'brain-bell jangler'.

Mathijs

Their finest hour. This is their masterpiece.

MR live showed the Stones as good they can get whenever the song was played. Even in weaker shows it always was a highlight.

The live versions are always good and above the rest but the 1972 versions and 1973 versions pulled the Stones to a much higher level and is possibly their only song/performance that is an artifact.

If Brian was an artifact then this song became one in 1972/1973. Though he's not really on it his darkness is.

Anybody know if there are isolated tracks floating around? I mean, that would be...awesome.

love midnight rambler,i can play harmonica to this

Feel The Fear
And Do It Anyway

To me it's just a standard Boogie with Mick once again using dark imagery for the lyrics.

Nothing really special about it compared to some other Sones songs IMO.

I think it's a good number to play live.

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howled
To me it's just a standard Boogie with Mick once again using dark imagery for the lyrics.

Nothing really special about it compared to some other Sones songs IMO.

I think it's a good number to play live.

Look beyond the standard boogie and listen to the great atmosphere they create.

The one and only Stones-tune that has been sounding great from the start, no matter what tempo or how long the guitar solos are. It still sounds awesome, btw!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-12-10 14:15 by DandelionPowderman.

If someone else wants to know what the Stones are about:
play him the studio version and after that any other live version.
It´s never the same. Pure RS magic.

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Mathijs

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whitem8
Some controversy about the lyrics, some sources say "cold fandango", others say "cloak and dagger". Live on several versions it does seem like he says "cloak and dagger".

I always hear 'cold fandango'. And 'green-bell-jangler' should be 'brain-bell jangler'.

Mathijs

For sure it is "brain Bell Jangler..." But also really check out some of the live versions, he definitely says "cloak and dagger..."

Ah, what to say about Midnight Rambler, still incandescent and terrifying more than 40 years after its release? Obviously one of the greatest songs in the Stones canon, but what makes it such a mesmerizing tour-de-force? Why, out of the 400+ songs that are in the Stones’ illustrious catalog, is Midnight Rambler the pinnacle and the highlight of their 50th anniversary shows?

I suppose it’s different for everyone, but for me it boils down to the stunning interplay, the call-and-response between Mick’s wailing harp, slicing through the air, and Keith’s relentlessly savage guitar licks, goading him on. There is a palpable danger to this song from the very start, with the guitar crawling out from a primeval bluesy swamp to wreak unimaginable horror on the world, and the harp yelping and howling in response. Adding to the tension are the shifts in tempo; the song slowly picks up steam, like some demented angel from hell, and then slows down as the two players in this underworld ballet circle and taunt each other.

And those diabolical lyrics, man … so brilliantly evoking a deranged psychopath who is on the loose and willing to stop at nothing. And Mick’s vocal performance, just bone-chilling, as he slowly shifts his persona from the impartial narrator to the gleeful rapist. Of course, it's all held down by Charlie’s incredibly funky drumming and Bill’s rock-solid bass-line. And, Jimmy Miller’s magnificent, slightly echoey production heightens the song's eeriness.

Midnight Rambler is truly frightening, almost like the listener is witnessing an act of unspeakable malevolence and brutality. As in the best Stones work, pain and pleasure, rage and joy, sex and violence, agony and ecstasy, all are fused and become one, resulting in a cathartic, deeply satisfying listening experience.

Drew



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2012-12-12 12:46 by drewmaster.

Somewhere I'd heard or read that part of the lyrics ("I'll stick my knife right down your throat baby, and it hurts") were taken from the confession of Albert de Salvo after his arrest. Anyone else hear this?

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howled
To me it's just a standard Boogie with Mick once again using dark imagery for the lyrics.

Nothing really special about it compared to some other Sones songs IMO.

I think it's a good number to play live.

precisely...a glorified blues shuffle, but as songs go, it's purty pedestrian...

somehow it's taken on mythic status over the years, while much better songs have been left in the dustbin....

Whitem8 your thoughts are brilliant. Also Silver Dagger.

There was a period of time when I saw..heard "Midnight Rambler" on an almost nightly basis and I always understood that I was fortunate enough to witness moments of true greatness. Chillingly beautiful.

When I was very young I saw Frank Sinatra at his best a number of times and he was magnificent. At a certain point much later I stopped listening and watching. He simply could not recreate his finest performances.

What amazes me about Jagger is that even now... all these years later... he continues to capture the terrifying guts of this overwhelming opera "Midnight Rambler."

Whatever one wants to think about Mick Jagger they cannot deny that he is a great artiste.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-12-10 19:10 by stonesrule.

Listened to Headin for an Overload this weekend and forgot how amazing live it was back then. The speed, build up all of it is awesome. My favorite version.

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StonesTod

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howled
To me it's just a standard Boogie with Mick once again using dark imagery for the lyrics.

Nothing really special about it compared to some other Sones songs IMO.

I think it's a good number to play live.

precisely...a glorified blues shuffle, but as songs go, it's purty pedestrian...

somehow it's taken on mythic status over the years, while much better songs have been left in the dustbin....

I was really feeling the same until now. I wouldn't have minded a setlist without MR in Brooklyn and get CYHMK instead (with or without MT) but this Saturday's show completely changed my mind - what an amazing song!

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ohotos

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StonesTod

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howled
To me it's just a standard Boogie with Mick once again using dark imagery for the lyrics.

Nothing really special about it compared to some other Sones songs IMO.

I think it's a good number to play live.

precisely...a glorified blues shuffle, but as songs go, it's purty pedestrian...

somehow it's taken on mythic status over the years, while much better songs have been left in the dustbin....

I was really feeling the same until now. I wouldn't have minded a setlist without MR in Brooklyn and get CYHMK instead (with or without MT) but this Saturday's show completely changed my mind - what an amazing song!

I give it about 5 more years and then CYHMK will be demoted as just an "Ok song" that really doesn't deserve its acclaim. Then in 10 years, people will then hate the song "Winter" and say it's "really nothing special." By the year 2030, IORR will turn into a Beatles board. You'll see.

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ohotos

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StonesTod

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howled
To me it's just a standard Boogie with Mick once again using dark imagery for the lyrics.

Nothing really special about it compared to some other Sones songs IMO.

I think it's a good number to play live.

precisely...a glorified blues shuffle, but as songs go, it's purty pedestrian...

somehow it's taken on mythic status over the years, while much better songs have been left in the dustbin....

I was really feeling the same until now. I wouldn't have minded a setlist without MR in Brooklyn and get CYHMK instead (with or without MT) but this Saturday's show completely changed my mind - what an amazing song!

after 42 years you changed your mind based on one performance??

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StonesTod

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ohotos

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StonesTod

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howled
To me it's just a standard Boogie with Mick once again using dark imagery for the lyrics.

Nothing really special about it compared to some other Sones songs IMO.

I think it's a good number to play live.

precisely...a glorified blues shuffle, but as songs go, it's purty pedestrian...

somehow it's taken on mythic status over the years, while much better songs have been left in the dustbin....

I was really feeling the same until now. I wouldn't have minded a setlist without MR in Brooklyn and get CYHMK instead (with or without MT) but this Saturday's show completely changed my mind - what an amazing song!

after 42 years you changed your mind based on one performance??

I haven't been listening to MR for 42 years, I'm younger than that. Before I saw MR as just another warhorse (there are other warhorses that I prefer) that I could have passed on. But the performance was really that good that it heightened my interest in the song again, what's wrong about that?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-12-10 22:01 by ohotos.

EPIC!

What a drag it is gettin' old