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

It;s not a sitar, but understandible why lots of people have thought it was. I was once one of them, but closer inspection prompted by Keith's comment shows it's not a sitar.

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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.

Drew

And in theory I agree, you are right but for some reason I like it. It's like Moon is up (see thread). I shouldnt like it but I do.

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DandelionPowderman

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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.

Drew

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

DandelionPowderman, I actually enjoy parts of Aftermath; it's Between the Buttons that leaves me cold (except for LSTNT and RT of course). I just don't dig the quirky/poppy stuff the Stones produced during the mid-Sixties. It's the stuff before and after that rocks my world!

Drew

I love MLH. It has that twangy 12 string which I have always loved! The lyrics are great. I have always thought they should play this live.

One of my favorite Stones songs, hard to believe it hasn't been played live since it first came out. But that seems to be the case with so many of their pre 1968 songs.

They did play it live at first, although according to the Charlie quote above they never found that it really worked on stage. However, like many of their Jones-era songs it got forgotten once Brian himself was off the scene. Mick Taylor had a lot of songs to learn in a hurry in 1969, and something like Mother's Little Helper, that wasn't an enormous recent hit, didn't match their new sound and wasn't easy to do live, fell by the wayside. And before very long, they had newer things to play and no longer needed their old songs. It wasn't until the so-called Vegas era that much of their mid-60s repertoire saw the light of day again.

I love this track. It's pop music only the Stones could make -pop, but with an oriental influence, and with that snicker and sneer tone. Love it.

Concerning the 12-string slide: it could be Keith, but as far as I know he wasn't into slide guitar until late '68, until he spent time with Taj Mahal, Jesse Ed Davies and Ry Cooder. So it seems strange to me that he would play the slide in '65, when Brian was still a creative and active force with the Stones, and really the slide guitarist of the Stones.

Mathijs

Could have been Keith, could have been Brian.

However, with all the weird things they were trying out in their songs in 66 and 67. I was listening to Satanic yesterday, and there are a few licks Keith is doing in there, that I he never has done again.

Stranger things have happened than Keith playing slide a couple of years prior to what we believed...

I reckon it's both of them playing at same time, there are definitely two guitars playing that motif and one of them also plays some brief notes during the song.

It's not that odd for Keith to add or to be part of adding something quirky as he too was branching out musically during this time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-20 19:34 by His Majesty.

Great cover................






__________________________

One of those songs that make Aftermath such a delicious album.

Here's another cover of the song, by Arno Hintjens, who takes it into a completely different
direction:





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

OK, I just was driving listening to "Flowers" and this track came on, at full volume; I have heard this a zillion times, and always liked it, but I realized just how dynamite this track is.
On older boots I used to hear the version w/o vocals, and it always made me notice how strong Bill's bass line is. ESPECIALLY! when he first comes back in again after "running for the shelter of a mother's little helper" and Boom - he comes walking in again. Love that part; that slide upwards into the low E. Then there are also these tension provoking swells. The lyrics are clever; maybe to clever. Wonder why they never liked to do it live. Maybe Keith was not wild about it.
Then as career moved on, they obviously would not want to do the line "What a drag it is getting old"; which at it's time was brilliant.

I really wish they would do the song live now.

The "What a drag it is, getting old" line would actually create a bond between them and the audience. Stating the obvious right at the start would be a great show opener.

By the end of the song, everyone in the audience would be singing along with that line. It wouldn't be resignation...more like proud defiance.

Then of course, they then follow MLH with another rocker that pretty much washes away all the years and makes the audience feel young again.

They should try it.

Outtake with Keith singing the opening line.
[www.youtube.com]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

i didnt really like this song, they had made a lot better by this time.

its a bit bland.

The lyrics are a prophesy.
A hint of underneath the facade.
The pharmacy has grown and addicted many, many more.

Instrumental..............




[www.youtube.com]

__________________________

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Deltics
Outtake with Keith singing the opening line.
[www.youtube.com]

I like the way Jagger sings this version.

I don't hear two 12 strings playing the motif at the same time. I think it's Keith on acoustic and Brian on 12 string electric. Keith's gashed up story of a guitar that appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared just as quickly is a bit of an exaggeration. This definitely sounds like a Brian riff. He was playing a 12 string Rickenbacker around this time. Cloud, Singer not the Song, Blues Turned to Grey. Brian played it live in concert on his Rick. The Honolulu bootleg is Brian playing the electric 12 string part.

This is a great tune. I admit when I first heard it I liked it because it was poppy. I was completely into the Beatles when I first heard this. I thought that this was how the Stones sounded until I bought Rolling Stones Now and heard a much different bluesier Rolling Stones.

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ovalvox
I don't hear two 12 strings playing the motif at the same time. I think it's Keith on acoustic and Brian on 12 string electric. Keith's gashed up story of a guitar that appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared just as quickly is a bit of an exaggeration. This definitely sounds like a Brian riff. He was playing a 12 string Rickenbacker around this time. Cloud, Singer not the Song, Blues Turned to Grey. Brian played it live in concert on his Rick. The Honolulu bootleg is Brian playing the electric 12 string part.

This is a great tune. I admit when I first heard it I liked it because it was poppy. I was completely into the Beatles when I first heard this. I thought that this was how the Stones sounded until I bought Rolling Stones Now and heard a much different bluesier Rolling Stones.

When we heard Brian play it live, that's when we knew it was Keith playing it on the album (Keith's story aside). Brian never got it together on stage like on the studio version.

Here's the lineup (from tioos):

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Acoustic guitars: Keith Richards & Brian Jones
12-string slide electric guitar: Keith Richards
Vocals: Mick Jagger
Nitzsche-phone: Jack Nitzsche



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-05-03 13:38 by DandelionPowderman.

I think Brian did a great job on it live, adding a little more nerve. Actually im thinking of GOOMC. Have to listen to a live version of MLH .

That slide line is one of the obvious hooks of this song, I can not get over what is happening downstairs in the basement. Bill Wyman just rules on this song, and Nitzsche too.

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Redhotcarpet
I think Brian did a great job on it live, adding a little more nerve. Actually im thinking of GOOMC. Have to listen to a live version of MLH .

Here you go:





[www.youtube.com]

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DandelionPowderman

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Redhotcarpet
I think Brian did a great job on it live, adding a little more nerve. Actually im thinking of GOOMC. Have to listen to a live version of MLH .

Here you go:





[www.youtube.com]

Brian does a fine job. Its live, and it is '65/'66.
I still wonder why they abandoned this song.
"Mother Little Helper"
"Have you seen your Mother Baby"
"We Love You" - three songs that deserve to be taken on tour. Not played once, where we all get excited, the Net lights up, and then it is three minutes of Jagger toneless ly mouthing a few lyrics from tele prompter.
Really worked up and played every night for a while.

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Palace Revolution 2000

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DandelionPowderman

Quote
Redhotcarpet
I think Brian did a great job on it live, adding a little more nerve. Actually im thinking of GOOMC. Have to listen to a live version of MLH .

Here you go:





[www.youtube.com]

Brian does a fine job. Its live, and it is '65/'66.
I still wonder why they abandoned this song.
"Mother Little Helper"
"Have you seen your Mother Baby"
"We Love You" - three songs that deserve to be taken on tour. Not played once, where we all get excited, the Net lights up, and then it is three minutes of Jagger toneless ly mouthing a few lyrics from tele prompter.
Really worked up and played every night for a while.

Fine job indeed. But it is different-sounding to the LP-version, imo. And I'm not talking about sour notes or out of tune here - merely the style. Brian and Keith had very different slide playing-styles

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loog droog
I really wish they would do the song live now.

The "What a drag it is, getting old" line would actually create a bond between them and the audience. Stating the obvious right at the start would be a great show opener.

By the end of the song, everyone in the audience would be singing along with that line. It wouldn't be resignation...more like proud defiance.

Then of course, they then follow MLH with another rocker that pretty much washes away all the years and makes the audience feel young again.

They should try it.

"No Anchovies, Please"

I was all of 13 when I bought Aftermath.

What a dissapointment, really - I had excpected something in the style of Get Off of My Cloud, 19th nervous Breakdwon, Paint it Black (yes it is on the London version - but it doesn´t fit or sit there very comfortably)... a some kind of modern RnB or something like that, I don´t know.

After the great Out of Our Heads (US & European version, not the British one), Aftermath was a collection of mediocrity AND over-trying. The streo mix was terrible, with both guitars on one side and the overall sound could have been better.

Some tracks were just embarrassig and stupid, eg High and Dry, It`s not easy, I am waiting, Take it or leave it (probably written for the Searchers in the first place) and What to Do - I mean, how low can you go?

I´ve often wondered, how this can be considered a masterpiece?

Between the Buttons was a huge improvement, but worse was to follow...

Stay tuned...

Whuttt...??

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kristian
I was all of 13 when I bought Aftermath.

What a dissapointment, really - I had excpected something in the style of Get Off of My Cloud, 19th nervous Breakdwon, Paint it Black (yes it is on the London version - but it doesn´t fit or sit there very comfortably)... a some kind of modern RnB or something like that, I don´t know.

After the great Out of Our Heads (US & European version, not the British one), Aftermath was a collection of mediocrity AND over-trying. The streo mix was terrible, with both guitars on one side and the overall sound could have been better.

Some tracks were just embarrassig and stupid, eg High and Dry, It`s not easy, I am waiting, Take it or leave it (probably written for the Searchers in the first place) and What to Do - I mean, how low can you go?

I´ve often wondered, how this can be considered a masterpiece?

Between the Buttons was a huge improvement, but worse was to follow...

Stay tuned...

Curious - were you 13 in '65/66, or is this all taking place at a much later date? Because any reply to your post has to be shaped very differently re. your answer.

Born in 1953, turned 13 March 5th 1966.

Got 19th nervous Breakdown as birthday present (actually got the money, went to the record-shop myself).