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2000 LYFH

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DandelionPowderman

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with sssoul
I recall reading an interview where Bill said that Moonlight Mile started off as "Keith's Japanese Thing" ...

Thanks!!! THAT was the quote I was looking for. You have made my day, dear with sssoul

Here is Keith's quote again from 71: I thought I wasn't on Moonlight Mile but the last riff everybody gets into playing is a riff I'd been playing on earlier tapes before I dropped out.

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kleermaker
I'm still asking Dandie to point out the exact time for that so called Japanese thing, but he only describes it and I'm too unmusical to understand him. So gimme the beginning time and the ending time of this Japanese specialty. Maybe then MM turns out to be a real Keith song.

Anyway: SF is the Stones' Abbey Road: finest album they ever made, MM among the finest songs they ever put on record. It would be great to hear it live with Taylor on electric guitar.

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runaway

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kleermaker
I'm still asking Dandie to point out the exact time for that so called Japanese thing, but he only describes it and I'm too unmusical to understand him. So gimme the beginning time and the ending time of this Japanese specialty. Maybe then MM turns out to be a real Keith song.

Anyway: SF is the Stones' Abbey Road: finest album they ever made, MM among the finest songs they ever put on record. It would be great to hear it live with Taylor on electric guitar.

it is impossible to measure artistic creativity

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treaclefingers

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runaway

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kleermaker
I'm still asking Dandie to point out the exact time for that so called Japanese thing, but he only describes it and I'm too unmusical to understand him. So gimme the beginning time and the ending time of this Japanese specialty. Maybe then MM turns out to be a real Keith song.

Anyway: SF is the Stones' Abbey Road: finest album they ever made, MM among the finest songs they ever put on record. It would be great to hear it live with Taylor on electric guitar.

it is impossible to measure artistic creativity

you're just not trying hard enough. quit being an underachiever!

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runaway


Can you measure creativity processes?

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His Majesty

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runaway


Can you measure creativity processes?[/quote

Yes.

I think you can when you are there and musically capably , but if you not around at the time it may be a problem...

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DandelionPowderman
Thank you for your confidence in me, kleerie, but I didn't write the song, neither did I (mis)name its working title.

My guess, which probably is as good as yours, is that Keith had the riff to the ending of the song ("da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-da. Da-da" ), the one that Taylor says he suggested needed strings.

In no way is it japanese, but probably it was named that way, for Keith to remember it for picking it up later, who knows - ask Bill...

I don't have it here, and can't give you the exact timing for where it starts. I reckon you know where it is by now, you rascal

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runaway

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His Majesty

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runaway


Can you measure creativity processes?[/quote

Yes.

I think you can when you are there and musically capably , but if you not around at the time it may be a problem...

they were pretty high but it sounds as if Taylor stored ideas in his head and hands for KR and Mick... Harrison did the same for Lennon.

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runaway

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His Majesty

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runaway


Can you measure creativity processes?[/quote

Yes.

I think you can when you are there and musically capably , but if you not around at the time it may be a problem...

You folded like a cheap tent runaway...stand your ground man!

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treaclefingers

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runaway

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His Majesty

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runaway


Can you measure creativity processes?[/quote

Yes.

I think you can when you are there and musically capably , but if you not around at the time it may be a problem...

You folded like a cheap tent runaway...stand your ground man!

Is that possible? It's like demanding a firm handshake from guys with nicknames like mine...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-11-21 02:03 by DandelionPowderman.

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DoomandGloom

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runaway

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His Majesty

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runaway


Can you measure creativity processes?[/quote

Yes.

I think you can when you are there and musically capably , but if you not around at the time it may be a problem...

they were pretty high but it sounds as if Taylor stored ideas in his head and hands for KR and Mick... Harrison did the same for Lennon.

Examples of Harrison doing this for Lennon?

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DandelionPowderman
I give up the MM-song writing debate.

If so many of you are convinced that Mick Taylor WROTE this song, so be it.

I suggest you go through his catalogue of the songs that he has written, and form your own opinion, though - instead of stating he wrote this one, just because Keith wasn't present in the studio

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SweetThing
we could speculate on whether you would determine Denny Laine co wrote Mull of Kintyre had McCartney not given him credit, based upon all his other commercially poorly received material featuring his writing credits.

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DandelionPowderman
Maybe they tried something similar with Time Waits For No One, but imo without succeeding.

<and realized that there is nothing to add what is already said here>



Great post, Doxa

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Witness

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DandelionPowderman
Maybe they tried something similar with Time Waits For No One, but imo without succeeding.

<and realized that there is nothing to add what is already said here>



Great post, Doxa

Reading this and Doxa's great preceding post (on page 4 of this thread), one thought (or rather a question) that I never have had before, comes to me: In all its deliberate difference from "Moonlight Mile", is there a commmon denominator for " Moonlight Mile" and, in case, taken into another "direction", "Can You Hear the Music"?

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DandelionPowderman

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Witness

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DandelionPowderman
Maybe they tried something similar with Time Waits For No One, but imo without succeeding.

<and realized that there is nothing to add what is already said here>



Great post, Doxa

Reading this and Doxa's great preceding post (on page 4 of this thread), one thought (or rather a question) that I never have had before, comes to me: In all its deliberate difference from "Moonlight Mile", is there a commmon denominator for " Moonlight Mile" and, in case, taken into another "direction", "Can You Hear the Music"?

Atmospherically, I agree with you. Creatively, I'm not sure if CYHTM is up to par with what they achieved with MM, even though I love the song.

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DandelionPowderman
<which I take to be mean some "oriental" or, if we like, "world music" influences>

Hush! Don't say it out loud...

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Doxa

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DandelionPowderman
<which I take to be mean some "oriental" or, if we like, "world music" influences>

Hush! Don't say it out loud...

Jagger says "Eastern" - is that better/more politically correct?

- Doxa

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Doxa
I listened the 'definitive collection' I made of 'most profilic Stones' (there is a thread of it somewhere) the other day and realized that this gem is missing there, and also that I haven't contributed to this track-talk thread either. What unforgettable idiocy from my side!

Anyways, I read the wonderful descriptions here (especially in the first page until the thread is reduced to the endless crediting battles), and realized that there is nothing to add what is already said here, and much better than what I can. What a relief, since what the hell to say for such a masterpiece? One of those very rare songs that go absolutely beyond the realm of words. So instead of saying anything of it, I try to praise it by locating it to the great universe of memorable Rolling Stones songs.

Firstly, I need to confess that I have neglected and ignored "Moonlight Mile" seriously during my life as a Rolling Stones fan. Yes, I have liked its etheric, delicated atmosphere very much, but it was not until very recently I finally realized what a unique, transcendental masterpiece it is. I think in that sense it belongs to the very privileged class in which probably the only other song is "Gimme Shelter". Or to put it other way: I have always tried to figure out if there is any equal to “Gimme Shelter” in Stones catalogue. The question with both of these songs is: where the hell that came from? A real touch of muse in action. If “Gimme Shelter” is Keith’s biggest creative hour, “Moonlight Mile” is Mick’s. Probably “Sympathy for The Devil” is a ‘better’ song, taking the composition and lyrics, but here Jagger steps into deeper musical landscapes, the world of feelings - such as “Gimme Shelter” does in expressing different kind of feelings - in the way the BEGGARS BANQUET masterpiece do not. Here Jagger drifts us to the emotions reflected in music only he and no one else in the world is able to do. And with such honesty and conviction that is extraordinary even for him. I liked the analogy someone mentioned to “A Day In The Life”, but I add another one: if “Sympathy For The Devil” is “Desolation Row”, “Moonlight Mile” is “Like A Rolling Stone”.

To me “Moonlight Mile”, like “Gimme Shelter”, is a mystery. What chemicals Jagger used to come up with this one? And just a few years earlier he just added lyrics to Keith’s songs and finished up melody lines. Trying to compose a pop song by his own, coming up with “Yesterday’s Papers”, then heading to “Sympathy For The Devil” just a year later. Then someone showing him an open guitar tuning, and all of sudden, he comes up with “Brown Sugar”. And then this. No matter how much Mick Taylor had a helping hand here, the guy simply is a genius.

“Moonlight Mile” is the most perfect and most professional sounding piece in their most perfect and most professional sounding album ever. The ‘perfect’ in the traditional sense of the word that does not require any Rolling Stones idiosyncrasy trained ears (such as EXILE, BEGGARS or SOME GIRLS need). It is just great songs and awesome – perfect and tight – delivery of them. Their stylistic touch is as close to perfection that is almost odd to think it is The Rolling Stones we talk here, be the genre they want to master country, soul ballad, hard rock, you name it… and then “Moonlight Mile” whatever it is, would most likely charm even the most trained Pink Floyd/Mike Oldfield spoiled ‘progressive rock’ ears. To my ears STICKY FINGERS is the album in which the claim “greatest rock and roll band in the world” is stated in vinyl, using the highest criteria available in the peak age of ‘classic rock’. If GET YER YA-YA’S OUT! had shown their live credibility to the claim, this makes it in studio output.

So one way is to see “Moonlight Mile” as one kind of career highlight, the very top they reached in their career by then. Think the route from ”Tell Me” and “As Tears Go By” to “Satisfaction” and “Paint It Black” , from “Ruby Tuesday” and “2000 Light Years From Home” to “Gimme Shelter” and, yes, “Moonlight Mile”… Album like EXILE ON MAIN STREET was a kind of reaction to the ambitious, forward-looking drive that had kicked their asses up until then, and don’t even trying to touch such high creative mountains any longer – but just “let it go” with a free spirit. Even though EXILE might be their biggest artistic statement ever – the Rolling Stones in their most essential non-compromised, relaxed, down to earth, chaotic nature – it lacks not just distinguished big radio hits a’la “Jumpin Jack Flash”, “Honky Tonk Women” or “Brown Sugar”, but also the striking, ambitious space-needing album highlights such as “Moonlight Mile”, “Gimme Shelter”, “Sympathy For The Devil”, “Midnight Rambler”, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” the other ‘golden era’ albums were famous for. The era of making epic songs was over. “Moonlight Mile”, with “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?”, is the Last of the Mohicans. They would later occasionally still try to over-come the three/four minute song barrier with bigger musical statements – say “Fingerprint File”, “Memory Motel” and even “Miss You” – but more or less they have followed the route of EXILE ON MAIN STREET relying on their natural groove and instinct ability to create a short coherent musical piece out of simple elements.

Let the last word go to Mick Taylor. No matter how much he was involved in writing the song, what we can hear in the final version could be his greatest contribution in any Stones studio song. Here Taylor, if ever, is stepping to Brian Jones's shoes, by adding a dimension by his own unique touch, which lifts up the song higher, as Jones would do in his best days. So, to my ears "Moonlight Mile" is regards to Taylor, the same as "Ruby Tuesday" is regards to Jones.

That will do.

- Doxa

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DandelionPowderman
Here you go, kleerie.

The riff Keith said he had been playing, before MM was developed, starts at 3:32





Taylor's guitar from 4:30 and on is just hauntingly beautiful!

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DandelionPowderman
Here you go, kleerie.

The riff Keith said he had been playing, before MM was developed, starts at 3:32

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kleermaker

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DandelionPowderman
Here you go, kleerie.

The riff Keith said he had been playing, before MM was developed, starts at 3:32

O well, and he thinks he rightly deserves songwriting credit for that. He's a funny guy indeed. The Japanese thing ....