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Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: René ()
Date: February 18, 2013 09:41

Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
________________________________________________________________________________

Mother’s Little Helper
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

RCA Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, December 3 - 8, 1965

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

What a drag it is getting old

Kids are different today, I hear ev'ry mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day

Things are different today, I hear ev'ry mother say
Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag
So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak
And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And two helps her on her way, get her through her busy day

Doctor please, some more of these, outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old

Men just aren't the same today, I hear ev'ry mother say
They just don't appreciate that you get tired
They're so hard to satisfy, you can tranquilize your mind
So go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And four help you through the night, help to minimize your plight

Doctor please, some more of these, outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old

Life's just much too hard today, I hear ev'ry mother say
The pursuit of happiness just seems a bore
And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
They just helped you on your way through your busy dying day, hey

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Aftermath” LP
(Decca SKL 4786) UK, April 15, 1966

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: stonehearted ()
Date: February 18, 2013 10:26

One of the greatest and most memorable [and quotable] opening lines of any song in The Stones catalog. An endlessly catchy ditty, this track finds them exploring new sounds and song styles. It has hooks and upbeat danceable rhythms like a pop song, but also has a folky atmosphere, folky also in the way it tackles social issues such as closeted middle class drug addiction. Not another song quite like it before or since in their catalog, the uniqueness of this track makes it always a pleasure to listen to. They should revive this one for the concert stage, next to Paint It, Black.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: Silver Dagger ()
Date: February 18, 2013 12:33

An incredible song that was the first flash of psychedelia from the Stones. This tune with its fabulous eastern droning riff, presumably played by Brian on slide, was a precursor to Paint It Black.

What really hit hardest about the song was its nasty subject matter - mums taking drugs. How could this possibly be true? Mums didn't take drugs - surely not, they were there to provide and protect their children.

What the Stones did with this song was to allign themselves with society's seamier underbelly and confirm their knowledge of the drug world. Society and the press had already been whispering that these long haired boys were up to no good but here it was in black and white - everthing apart from screaming 'we know mums take them because we take them ourselves!'

The song really set the Stones apart from the lovable Beatles and even other cult groups such as The Pretty Things, The Who and The Yardbirds. Sure the hip knew that The Who were singing about the pilled up purple hearts experience in I Can't Explain and Anyway Anyhow Anywhere but the references were still veiled. Mother's Little Helper lifted the lid on drug culture for the first time in British pop music.

As such it is an important first statement of intent in setting the band's druggy late 60s image in motion and in such, also waving a red rag in the face of the establishment.

And so to the tune itself - you can definiteley hear the Dylan influence in there, especially Subterranean Homesick Blues. It's basically a jaunty folk song, very Greenwich Village, very Phil Ochs.

It's also important to note that the song was the opener on the album. That's a pretty brave move - not only for its subject matter but also because it is not a conventional Stones sounding tune or even a pop song. The Stones definitely took a real risk with this one and set the tone for their most abrasive album to date.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-18 13:12 by Silver Dagger.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Date: February 18, 2013 12:35

They were "out-kinksing" the Kinks for a while there... thumbs up

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: drewmaster ()
Date: February 18, 2013 13:04

I'll probably get slammed for saying this, but I've always found MLH to be an uninteresting pop ditty, dressed up with an annoying guitar sound and depressing lyrics. Never enjoyed it. eye popping smiley

Drew

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Date: February 18, 2013 13:07

Quote
drewmaster
I'll probably get slammed for saying this, but I've always found MLH to be an uninteresting pop ditty, dressed up with an annoying guitar sound and depressing lyrics. Never enjoyed it. eye popping smiley

Drew

Wow! grinning smiley Just out of curiousity, do you feel the same way about the album, Aftermath?

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: liddas ()
Date: February 18, 2013 13:35

Truly great lyrics, could have been written today! But I agree with Drew: too "poppish". Can't say I don't like it, but it is the main reason why I prefer the US Aftermath over the UK version.

C

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: with sssoul ()
Date: February 18, 2013 13:50

See you at the bottom, after some quotes from [www.timeisonourside.com] :

In those days, Mick and I were into a solid word-music bag unless I thought of something outstanding
which could be used in the title or something. I would spend the first two weeks of the tour,
because it was done on the road, all of it was worked out ... An American tour meant you started writing another album.
After three, four weeks you had enough and then you went to LA and recorded it.
We worked very fast that way and when you came off a tour you were sh1t hot playing, as hot as the band is gonna be.
- Keith Richards, 1971


I think I had that song pretty well set up, arrangement-wise, when I brought it into the studio.
I had the main riff. It might have been Bill Wyman who came with (the) ending ...
Mother's Little Helper and Paint It Black are these semigypsy melodies.
I don't know where they came from. Must be in the blood somewhere.
- Keith Richards, 2002


Mother's Little Helper is a very strange record, like a music hall number,
with an electric twelve-string on it, which made it very distinctive.
- Mick Jagger, 2003


(The strange guitar sound is) a 12-string with a slide on it. It's played slightly Oriental-ish.
The track just needed something to make it twang. Otherwise, the song was quite vaudeville in a way.
I wanted to add some nice bite to it. And it was just one of those things where someone walked in and,
Look, it's an electric 12-string. It was some gashed-up job. No name on it. God knows where it came from. Or where it went.
But I put it together with a bottleneck. Then we had a riff that tied the whole thing together.
And I think we overdubbed onto that. Because I played an acoustic guitar as well.
- Keith Richards, 2002


(I get inspiration from t)hings that are happening around me - everyday life as I see it.
People say I'm always singing about pills and breakdowns, therefore I must be an addict - this is ridiculous.
Some people are so narrow-minded they won't admit to themselves that this really does happen to other people beside pop stars.
- Mick Jagger, 1996


We've often tried to perform Mother's Little Helper and it's never been any good, never gelled for some reason -
it's either me not playing it right or Keith not wanting to do it like that. It's never worked.
It's just one of those songs. We used to try it live but it's a bloody hard record to play,
although we did perform it live on Ed Sullivan.
- Charlie Watts, 2003



No you didn't, Charlie honey! :E

That music-hall quality never appealed to me much, but in UK music at the time
it somehow conveyed that psychedelic substances were in the house - I don't know why.

I remember being really baffled by this track when it came out - zero clue what the lyrics were referring to.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-18 16:27 by with sssoul.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: stonesrule ()
Date: February 18, 2013 13:57

I love your post, Miss SOUL!

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: NoCode0680 ()
Date: February 18, 2013 13:58

Quote
drewmaster
I'll probably get slammed for saying this, but I've always found MLH to be an uninteresting pop ditty, dressed up with an annoying guitar sound and depressing lyrics. Never enjoyed it. eye popping smiley

Drew

I find it a little uninteresting as well...musically. Except the ending, I find that pretty cool, and it was apparently Bill's idea. I like the lyrics though. I find it a pretty interesting subject for them to be singing about. 20-something year old drug using boys singing a song warning housewives about barbiturates. Kind of strange/funny I always thought.

Being an American I'm more used to it as a track on Hot Rocks, and can't get used to it as the opening number on Aftermath. Not to get into a US/UK Aftermath debate, but having grown up on Paint It, Black (one of my Top 5 Stones tracks) as the opening track I can't get used to a track that I kind of like as the opening track. It works much better for me sandwiched between Get Off Of My Cloud and 19th Nervous Breakdown than as an opening track.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: with sssoul ()
Date: February 18, 2013 13:58

Quote
stonesrule
I love your post, Miss SOUL!

Thank you thank you, Miss RULE! :E
(I know I should've saved the technique for She's a Rainbow, but ... but I didn't)

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: Come On ()
Date: February 18, 2013 14:15

Pure Stones. Followed by eminent 'Stupid Girl'...what an great album (UK)...

2 1 2 0

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: minorbyrd ()
Date: February 18, 2013 15:47

I like it, I whistle the riff to myself when I take a Valium at work on a bad day. Can't think of any other track from that time that addressed that issue, but feel free to correct me.

But don't rate it as 'US single' material or as one of their best. For me, it's the lyrics more than the music for this track. Would be interesting to hear what it sounded like without Brian's contribution, which improves it for me.

But perfect Aftermath opener!

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Date: February 18, 2013 16:18

Would be interesting to hear what it sounded like without Brian's contribution, which improves it for me.

"The strange guitar sound is a 12-string with a slide on it. It's played slightly Oriental-ish.
The track just needed something to make it twang. Otherwise, the song was quite vaudeville in a way.
I wanted to add some nice bite to it. And it was just one of those things where someone walked in and,
Look, it's an electric 12-string. It was some gashed-up job. No name on it. God
knows where it came from. Or where it went.
But I put it together with a bottleneck. Then we had a riff that tied the whole thing together.
And I think we overdubbed onto that. Because I played an acoustic guitar as well".
- Keith Richards, 2002

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: guitarbastard ()
Date: February 18, 2013 16:24

very dramatic beginning. one of my very early stones expeirences.
still love it except for the part: "outside the door, she took four more".

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: GRNRBITW ()
Date: February 18, 2013 16:32

Quote
guitarbastard
very dramatic beginning. one of my very early stones expeirences.
still love it except for the part: "outside the door, she took four more".

True. Why would she go outside for that? Stay in where it's warm, I say.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: VT22 ()
Date: February 18, 2013 16:33

Quote
guitarbastard
very dramatic beginning. one of my very early stones expeirences.
still love it except for the part: "outside the door, she took four more".

One of my early Stones experiences too. Funny, after 45+ years the "outside the door, she took four more" phrase to me is the most amusing part of this beautiful track. Valium wasn't considered to be very addictive in 1965..

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: NoCode0680 ()
Date: February 18, 2013 16:34

Quote
guitarbastard
still love it except for the part: "outside the door, she took four more".

Not sure what that part means, but hey, it rhymes. Apparently that's something not all songwriters are capable of doing. Went to lunch with a co-worker who listens to rap last week, and he was listening to a series of songs where the rapper rhymed "motherf%^ker" with "motherf%^ker" in every verse and every song. I was dying for this motherf%^ker to toss in any other 4 syllable word(s) ending with ER just for some variety.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: Send It To me ()
Date: February 18, 2013 16:38

the posters on iorr are so hard to satisfy, you could tranquilize your mind

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: 2000 LYFH ()
Date: February 18, 2013 16:38

Great song!

"What a drag it is getting old"

Wonder what Mick's definition of old was in 1965?

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Date: February 18, 2013 16:42

"Outside the door, she took four more" - probably she needed more pills to cope with life outside of home?

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: RoughJusticeOnYa ()
Date: February 18, 2013 17:17

Quote
DandelionPowderman
"Outside the door, she took four more" - probably she needed more pills to cope with life outside of home?


...or "outside the door" as in: behind everybody's back...

But I guess the use of that phrase was mainly dictated by the lack of suitable rhymings to go with 'more'...
I mean: imagine... "flat out on the floor / she took four more" - what kind of record would THAT 've been?!tongue sticking out smiley

P.S.: more alternative suggestions, anyone?

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: 24FPS ()
Date: February 18, 2013 17:21

So, Keith played slide on this, and not Brian? That's what Keith appears to be saying. That little feedback hum at the beginning reminds me of the Beatles 'I Feel Fine'. But of course the Stones gave it a dark edge, like George doing the sitar on 'Norwegian Wood' and the Stones doing the sitar on 'Paint It Black', darkly.

There seems to be a small contingent of Stones fans who don't like the Stones being pop. Let's see, they were pop from 1963 to 1968. Then they were pretty much pop again from from 1973-1994, afterwhich they fumbled around, trying to reclaim their rock sound, gave up by 1997, and then just threw it all against the wall to see what sticks in 2005. Followed by a pop single in 2012, with a crappy rock b-side.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: with sssoul ()
Date: February 18, 2013 17:48

Quote
RoughJusticeOnYa
Quote
DandelionPowderman
"Outside the door, she took four more" - probably she needed more pills to cope with life outside of home?


...or "outside the door" as in: behind everybody's back...

But I guess the use of that phrase was mainly dictated by the lack of suitable rhymings to go with 'more'...
I mean: imagine... "flat out on the floor / she took four more" - what kind of record would THAT 've been?!tongue sticking out smiley

P.S.: more alternative suggestions, anyone?

I always understood that to mean that as outside the doctor's door,
immediately after wheedling some more pills from him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-18 22:17 by with sssoul.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Date: February 18, 2013 18:04

Quote
24FPS
So, Keith played slide on this, and not Brian? That's what Keith appears to be saying. That little feedback hum at the beginning reminds me of the Beatles 'I Feel Fine'. But of course the Stones gave it a dark edge, like George doing the sitar on 'Norwegian Wood' and the Stones doing the sitar on 'Paint It Black', darkly.

There seems to be a small contingent of Stones fans who don't like the Stones being pop. Let's see, they were pop from 1963 to 1968. Then they were pretty much pop again from from 1973-1994, afterwhich they fumbled around, trying to reclaim their rock sound, gave up by 1997, and then just threw it all against the wall to see what sticks in 2005. Followed by a pop single in 2012, with a crappy rock b-side.

They've always been pop. Shine A light is pop, Angie is pop and so is If You Really Want To Be My Friend. Not to forget Salt Of The Earth.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: Silver Dagger ()
Date: February 18, 2013 18:09

Quote
RoughJusticeOnYa
Quote
DandelionPowderman
"Outside the door, she took four more" - probably she needed more pills to cope with life outside of home?


...or "outside the door" as in: behind everybody's back...

But I guess the use of that phrase was mainly dictated by the lack of suitable rhymings to go with 'more'...
I mean: imagine... "flat out on the floor / she took four more" - what kind of record would THAT 've been?!tongue sticking out smiley

P.S.: more alternative suggestions, anyone?

I always thought it meant 'on the sly' like she was in the kitchen and went outside into the garden of her semi-detached and swallowed some more pills to cope with the drudgery of her life.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: Silver Dagger ()
Date: February 18, 2013 18:18

Quote
VT22
Quote
guitarbastard
one of my very early stones expeirences".


It was also mine. Although I knew their singles I didn't know any of their albums until Through The Past Darkly came out in 1970. I always felt it added to their druggy image and fitted well on the album alongside other spaced out anthems such as 2000 Light Years From Home, She's A Rainbow, We Love You, and Dandelion.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-18 18:21 by Silver Dagger.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: tonterapi ()
Date: February 18, 2013 19:09

Quote
24FPS
So, Keith played slide on this, and not Brian?
I think they both did as I'm pretty sure that there are two guitars playing that riff. One detuned with slide and one straight.

To me that part has Brian written all over it. It sounds way more like something he would come up with and play than something Keith would add to a song. But who knows? Keith may actually remember it right. smiling smiley

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Posted by: His Majesty ()
Date: February 18, 2013 19:31

I think Keith was at the very least partly mis-remembering about who played the slide part in that 2002 quote. Brian played the part live on electric 12 string, his phrasing etc sounds pretty much like the studio release.

I think one guitar is with slide, one possibly without, but played intentionally wonky.

Re: Track Talk: Mother’s Little Helper
Date: February 18, 2013 20:03

It was my belief that Brian played a twangish sitar on this song? I'd read that long ago.

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