Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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No Expectations
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, May 13 - 21 & June 4 - 10, 1968 and
Sunset Sound Studios, Los Angeles, California, US, July 7 - 25, 1968

Mick Jagger - vocals
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar
Charlie Watts - claves
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - acoustic slide guitar
Nicky Hopkins - piano, organ

Take me to the station and put me on a train
I've got no expectations to pass through here again

Once I was a rich man, now I am so poor
But never in my sweet, short life have I felt like this before

Your heart is like a diamond, you throw your pearls at swine
And as I watch you leaving me, you pack my peace of mind

Our love was like the water that splashes on a stone
Our love is like our music, it's here and then it's gone

So take me to the airport and put me on a plane
I've got no expectations to pass through here again

Produced by Jimmy Miller

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Street Fighting Man / No Expectations” 7” single
(London 909) US, August 31, 1968

A wonderful change of direction for the Stones. We'd had the r'n'b, blues, quintessential English pop, and psychedelia and now with the release of Beggar's Banquest we got, first, a rock samba followed by this delicious piece of country blues.

No Expectations set a trend used on their next three albums of including at least one country tune and it worked so well in creating a dynamic of light and shade, loud and quiet to really make their songs stand out against one another.

These are great laconic lyrics from Mick, he doesn't use many words to convey a feeling of regret and abandonment but the ones he uses are sheer poetry.

Take the verse:

Our love was like the water
That splashes on a stone
Our love is like our music
Its here, and then its gone

Isn't that just amazingly descriptive...love being like water that splashes on a stone. That's worthy of Dylan or even Keats. And to then round it off by saying love is like music, it's here and then it's gone. Wow, that makes the hairs on my back stand up everytime I hear it.

And Brian's guitar just shimmers and glistens just like the splashes of water.

For me, one of the very best songs they ever wrote.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2013-06-17 12:15 by Silver Dagger.

Brian's last memorable contribution as a Rolling Stone, and after all the many exotic instrumental experiments over the years it was finally back to what he originally distinguished himself on when the band was starting out--slide guitar....

One of the best songs they ever recorded ...love it

__________________________

Words really cannot capture how beautiful this song is, but I will try.

No Expectations is a butterfly on a warm summer’s day, gently hovering over a limpid pool of tears. It is a breath of stillness that warms the heart and heals the soul. It is a spectral friend, reaching out from the darkness to guide and comfort the spirit. It is a rainbow that paints the sky in a thousand dazzling hues, each one more radiant and luminous than the next. It is a shimmering haiku, an ode to a pain and an emptiness that knows no limits. It is transcendental soul-drenched country-tinged Delta blues of the highest order, as forged by the Glimmer Twins at the peak of their creative powers.

From the first strums of Keith’s guitar, No Expectations transports the listener to another world, a world of unbearable sadness and unfathomable loss. Keith’s acoustic strumming is lovely, and Mick’s vocals are too, but it is Brian who of course owns No Expectations, which was, tragically, to become his swan-song. Brian’s mournful slide guitar, hypnotic and devastating, melds perfectly with the soft but haunting “sonic ripple” (Jimmy Miller’s idea, I imagine) that you hear in the background, evoking water splashing on a stone. The lyrics, brilliantly capturing loneliness and dissolution and death, eerily foreshadow Brian’s passing. And Nicky Hopkins’ gorgeous, incomparably delicate piano suffuses the song with heartbreak, and ultimately guides us home, floating on a cloud of reverie.

45 years after its composition, No Expectations is arguably the crowning jewel from one of the greatest albums in rock history.

Here are a few of my favorite cover versions.














Drew

Quote
Silver Dagger
Our love is like our music
It's here, and then it's gone

... Wow, that makes the hairs on my back stand up everytime I hear it.

Ohhh yeah - those 12 words resonate for me too: some deep deep truth in there

"Without music, life would be a mistake."
- Nietzsche

Quote
stonehearted
Brian's last memorable contribution as a Rolling Stone, and after all the many exotic instrumental experiments over the years it was finally back to what he originally distinguished himself on when the band was starting out--slide guitar....

The outtake is only available in incomplete form, it fades out on all known bootlegs, to cover this some have added on the officially released version(edit - an alternate mix of the official version) from around the point at which the outtake fades out, it's spliced in at 2:22 on the above youtube clip.

Here is the outtake with fade out and without the officially released version added on.





Taken from Time Trip - Volume 4





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-06-20 01:32 by His Majesty.

Quote
with sssoul

Quote
Silver Dagger
Our love is like our music
It's here, and then it's gone

... Wow, that makes the hairs on my back stand up everytime I hear it.

Ohhh yeah - those 12 words resonate for me too: some deep deep truth in there

"Without music, life would be a mistake."
- Nietzsche

And you know what with sssoul - I've always dreaded the day that those words will ring true...when the Stones actually stop rolling. That makes it even more poignant for me. Shudder the thought.

I recall reading a quote from Keith in which he said he wrote No Expectations.

ROCKMAN

So Brian could have written the melody on slide if you read what Keith and Mick say about Brians contribution. If Keith had the chords and mumbled something before Mick wrote the lyrics, Brian possibly wrote the melody when he added that slide. And Mick sang his lyrics to Brians slide. The meldoy sounds like it's written on slide, it fits the slide playing techinque.

It's impossible to tell what came second (after Keith's chords); Mick's melody line or Brian's slide guitar motif. Of course he could have written it, but then again that would never have happened without Keith's chords.

It's not very unlikely that Mick found a melody line, and Brian hooked that one up for his slide motif?

Who knows? All we know is this:

"That's Brian playing (slide guitar). We were sitting around in a circle on the floor, singing and playing, recording with open mikes. That was the last time I remember Brian really being totally involved in something that was really worth doing. He was there with everyone else. It's funny how you remember - but that was the last moment I remember him doing that, because he had just lost interest in everything".

- Mick Jagger

That's the quote, thanks Rockman!

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Redhotcarpet
So Brian could have written the melody on slide if you read what Keith and Mick say about Brians contribution. If Keith had the chords and mumbled something before Mick wrote the lyrics, Brian possibly wrote the melody when he added that slide. And Mick sang his lyrics to Brians slide. The meldoy sounds like it's written on slide, it fits the slide playing techinque.

The melody is just following the basics of the chords, but it is also different from the slide melody. The above quote implies Keith wrote the lyrics too.

Maybe Brian's phrasing on slide had some influence on the phrasing of the vocal melody or vice versa, but we just aren't privy to such information and I think it would be a shame if we were to make yet another thread turn in to a debate about song writing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-06-17 14:22 by His Majesty.

... When the only input we have is "Keith wrote this",
why do people assume it's not Keith who came up with the vocal melody and lyrics?

Just curious.

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with sssoul
... When the only input we have is "Keith wrote this",
why do people assume it's not Keith who came up with the vocal melody and lyrics?

Just curious.

Because Keith often says he wrote "the song", and then it often turned out he only came up with the riff. Or decades later he admits that "Mick wrote a lot of it" like he did recently with Beast of Burdon, of which he always said that he wrote it, for example.

If Richards states he took it to the studio he obviously means the chords with melody and probably some lyrics. As the song is just three chords and only forms the foundation, so no melody by itself, he must have had some melody ready. It would be kinda awkward to present a strummed E and A chord to the band as a song, wouldn't it. Brian's slide in the end is nothing more than open E, A and D chords, that loosely follow the vocal melody.

But a fantastic slide, and music it is.

Mathijs

One of their best ever, period!
So full of emotions...

Quote
His Majesty
...The outtake is only available in incomplete form, it fades out on all known bootlegs, to cover this some have added on the officially released version from around the point at which the outtake fades out, it's spliced in at 2:22 on the above youtube clip...

I think the "outtake" version is the basic track, to which percussion and a new bass was added - also remixed.
After the 2.22 point, there is no percussion and the bass (to my ears) is different - so not the official version spliced in...

<I think the "outtake" version is the basic track>

Both Keith's and Brian's guitars, as well as Bill's bass is not exactly the same as on the basic track for the album.

I knew the answers on my post when I posted it. And I knew who would react in what way.

My point is that this is a song where both Mick and Keith say that Brian added something important to a song, a real contribution. Since many of Keiths songs started out as chords with mumblings and since he says he brought the song to the studio and Brian added a slide who knows? The melody could be Mick of course or Keith but since it's very close to the slide and the slide follows certain patterns on the guitar it could be that Brian added a slide and Mick sand a melody based on that. Around that slide.

Its greatness is parallel to its simplicity. A great great song without overproduction and without technical skills, and withouth virtuoso things as well.
Simply marvellous.
They have never made a song this simple and this great since then

An example of a Rolling Stones song that does have cover versions, but no one can replicate, or evoke the emotions. You simply have to have Brian on haunting slide. The ghost returns and adds an ethereal emotional sadness, akin to his recorder on Ruby Tuesday. With such a delicate song you'd think the bass would need to be almost non-existent, and yet Bill manages to add some very tasteful notes. What a beautiful song.

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KeithNacho
Its greatness is parallel to its simplicity. A great great song without overproduction and without technical skills, and withouth virtuoso things as well.
Simply marvellous.
They have never made a song this simple and this great since then

streets of love was a contender, but ultimately fell just short...

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StonesTod

Quote
KeithNacho
Its greatness is parallel to its simplicity. A great great song without overproduction and without technical skills, and withouth virtuoso things as well.
Simply marvellous.
They have never made a song this simple and this great since then

streets of love was a contender, but ultimately fell just short...

it was missing the slide guitar.

Have been listening to so many times over the years and when I'm on the train I will hear it again...

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treaclefingers

Quote
StonesTod

Quote
KeithNacho
Its greatness is parallel to its simplicity. A great great song without overproduction and without technical skills, and withouth virtuoso things as well.
Simply marvellous.
They have never made a song this simple and this great since then

streets of love was a contender, but ultimately fell just short...

it was missing the slide guitar.

it was there one minute, but slid right off the record, apparently.

For my money BB is the band's masterpiece in no small measure because of this song. The album is a beautiful, inspired mature work. It is at once grand and simple. Not an easy thing to do. I remember when it came out. It's effect was startling.

Quote
rootsman


I think the "outtake" version is the basic track, to which percussion and a new bass was added - also remixed.
After the 2.22 point, there is no percussion and the bass (to my ears) is different - so not the official version spliced in...

Ah, your post has reminded me that we've been over this before.

Up to 2.22 is the same as the version I posted, a true outtake, but an alterante mix/take of the officially released version has been spliced on.

I assume it's the alternate mix fom R.S.V.P bootleg that has been added on?

Would love to see this song played in Philly