They already had a country ballad on the album (TTNG). IMO, none of them are great.

It's interesting to listen to once in a while, though.

Bill is listed as playing bass, but it doesn't sound like him, as others noted

Always loved this song, ever since the day the single came out. Maybe not a classic in everybody's book, but a favourite of mine. Would have loved to have heard them tackle this live, but we all have our pipe dreams.

Great, one of my fave, beautiful tune. Love it.

I remembered it as the B Side to IORR and recall being disappointed when it wasn't on the album.
Was quite pleased when it turned up on Rarities because it jumped on my 7" single.
It's not a great song but it does have certain warm charm .

Damn, I love this song too. As someone stated, it does kind of remind me of Winter.

It's a great B-side. Odd that it wasn't included on GOATS HEAD SOUP. It would have made a good LP track. Well it is now, on my playlist version of GHS. It's always been one of my favorite tracks.

I love this song. Also, TTNG and IYRWTBMF. I'm a proud Rolling Stones fan.

also one of my favorites.
Great song.
Jeroen

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Mathijs

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Loudei

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Mathijs
An outtake, nothing more, nothing less.

Mathijs

Come on Mathijs , it is a great 70's Stones track , better than a lot of material that is on Goats Head Soup or It's only Rock n Roll albums... Love Keith's wah wah (that's Keith right?) guitar and has a great outtro ... very underrated.

Nope, I find it all very cliche -the music, the lyrics, the wah, the solo. It's just not very original in any way, it sounds a bit too much like a joke. With a track like Faraway Eyes the joke worked, but not here. It's also produced badly, overprocessed and distorted.

Several tracks of IORR just are on the border of being cliche (If You Really Want To Be My Friend for example), and Through TLN crosses that border.

Mathijs

Dont agree with you at all Mathijs, sorry.
Jeroen

A Glimmering song!

2 1 2 0

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stonehearted

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treaclefingers
I think it's a fine song, but I think people way oversell it. It is in no way their best ballad, I'm sure wouldn't crack the top ten.

It's a B-side--that's all.

I think that's b-sides the point.

I really like it. Could easily have been on an album. Calling it an 'outtake' is just plain wrong. It's an officially released song, clearly considered a finished product by the band.

There is something about that song I always liked. But its still a B-side and far from their great ballads like Wild Horses,etc.

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Mathijs
An outtake, nothing more, nothing less.

Mathijs

Lots more. A minor masterpiece, in my opinion. The sense of melancholy and longing is carried over from GHS tracks like Coming Down Again and 100 Years Ago. They haven't gone to that emotional place since. I love the way Mick and Keith harmonize on this track.

They didn't put out a whole lot of b-sides and non-album stuff after the 60s, but what they did put out was pretty good, IMO. Love this song, Turns to Gold and Dance off of Sucking in the 70s, Think I'm Going Mad, Jump on Top of Me, The Storm, etc. Anyway You Look At It brought everything to a grinding halt, but even that song has defenders on here.

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71Tele

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Mathijs
An outtake, nothing more, nothing less.

Mathijs

Lots more. A minor masterpiece, in my opinion. The sense of melancholy and longing is carried over from GHS tracks like Coming Down Again and 100 Years Ago. They haven't gone to that emotional place since. I love the way Mick and Keith harmonize on this track.

Couldn't agree more. An absolute gem that got under my skin and stayed there. For me, this one of the most evocative tracks they've ever released which displays a sensitivity that they carry off with aplomb. Archetypal Stones ballad, IMHO.

Ps I do think it is Bill Wyman on bass.

Mathijs

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71Tele

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Mathijs
An outtake, nothing more, nothing less.

Mathijs

Lots more. A minor masterpiece, in my opinion. The sense of melancholy and longing is carried over from GHS tracks like Coming Down Again and 100 Years Ago. They haven't gone to that emotional place since. I love the way Mick and Keith harmonize on this track.

They are back there on Anyway You Look At It, imo. Not to mention Slipping Away or How Can I Stop.

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runaway
It was the B-side of IORR at the time,and I do like it

Great track, what album is it on ?

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Mathijs
Ps I do think it is Bill Wyman on bass.

Mathijs

Not one of his better efforts. In fact there's something unfinished about this song. Mick's vocals sound like they were done, but that the rest of the band didn't quite have the time to work on this track. You can certainly tell it's from the GHS era. To me Bill's bass part sounds like he's just figuring out where he should put things, feeling out what's going to work and what doesn't click.

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24FPS
[ In fact there's something unfinished about this song. Mick's vocals sound like they were done, but that the rest of the band didn't quite have the time to work on this track. You can certainly tell it's from the GHS era. To me Bill's bass part sounds like he's just figuring out where he should put things, feeling out what's going to work and what doesn't click.

It sounds to me like it's one of those Exile-style instrumental tracks, that was rehearsed out and recorded as a rough unfinished instrumental, by Keith and whoever else was there in the room... and then Mick wrote the lyrics on top of the recording much later, using the song structure that was already there on tape. It's very unfinished sounding. Nicky Hopkins is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and it seems like they are sort of groping their way through it, trying to find parts. Very straightforward songwriting strategy.

It actually reminds me a bit of that unfinished slow tune that surfaced from the Nicky Hopkins tapes. It's a slow ballad Stones instrumental that's well played, but sorta musically goes nowhere.

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bestfour

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runaway
It was the B-side of IORR at the time,and I do like it

Great track, what album is it on ?

The B-side was the ballad "Through the Lonely Nights", which was not featured on any album until the 2005 compilation Rarities 1971-2003.

25 November-December 1972 or March 1973: Dynamic Sounds, Kingston, Jamaica.
Mt lead Guitar...Back Up vocals

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steini
I love it and always thought it was on of the Stones best ballads, a mistake not put it on LP and on the other side of a single (A side) The mix is perfect for the song.

Two forgettable ballads on IORR was enough IMO.

But for anyone buying the single at the time, it was undoubtedly nice to get a 'rare' song on the b-side. Something that they did all too infrequently in the 70s and 80s.

I echo the feelings of it being somehow unfinished - even don't know how - 24FPS and Turning to Gold seem to be in a right track about that.

But then again, I think it makes a rather coherent single with its A-side, namely also "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" is also a kind of rough sounding deal, which makes one wonder did they intentionally tried to achieve a certain type of impression there? The rest of IT'S ONLY ROCK'N'ROLL sounds much more polished and forced too (and GOATS HEAD SOAP way much sophisticated and nuance-rich). There is a nice loose, almost demo-like feeling in both "Only Rock'n'Roll" and "Lonely Nights", almost like the structures of the songs could fell apart any second, and like the different parts of the songs are brought together rather oddly. (Funnily, I would put Ronnie's "Can You Feel The Fire" to the same 'loose' package as those two).

Yeah, there is a certain charm in the track, even though I wouldn't rate it anywhere near their best ballads. The best thing in it is the vocals, especially the chorus ones. B-side material, and a nice flip side to "It's Only Rock'n'Roll".

I wonder if the reason to add a non-album taster as a B-side, after many years, has something to do trying to push the single sales as strong as possible, like their old times huge singles. But the truth is that "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" never turned out to be that big hit as they seemingly hoped. But they seemingly decided that playing the song anthem-like as much as possible in their gigs, will finally make it a classic. As it did.

- Doxa

It's got a nice feel to it, but imo a ballad needs more than that and a chorus...

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DandelionPowderman

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71Tele

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Mathijs
An outtake, nothing more, nothing less.

Mathijs

Lots more. A minor masterpiece, in my opinion. The sense of melancholy and longing is carried over from GHS tracks like Coming Down Again and 100 Years Ago. They haven't gone to that emotional place since. I love the way Mick and Keith harmonize on this track.

They are back there on Anyway You Look At It, imo. Not to mention Slipping Away or How Can I Stop.

Taking how weak and unconvincing Jagger's vocals in "Anyway You Look At It" are, it seems to be that the task of expressing those kind of feelings was up to Keith ever since. Jagger seemingly couldn't relate to those kind of emotions since the mid-70's (decided not to grow up and turn old and boring???). Even such a try as "Out of Tears" sounds somehow phony and thin.

- Doxa

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DandelionPowderman
It's got a nice feel to it, but imo a ballad needs more than that and a chorus...

Not a ballad, but a good ballad...

-Doxa

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Doxa

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DandelionPowderman

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71Tele

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Mathijs
An outtake, nothing more, nothing less.

Mathijs

Lots more. A minor masterpiece, in my opinion. The sense of melancholy and longing is carried over from GHS tracks like Coming Down Again and 100 Years Ago. They haven't gone to that emotional place since. I love the way Mick and Keith harmonize on this track.

They are back there on Anyway You Look At It, imo. Not to mention Slipping Away or How Can I Stop.

Taking how weak and unconvincing Jagger's vocals in "Anyway You Look At It" are, it seems to be that the task of expressing those kind of feelings was up to Keith ever since. Jagger seemingly couldn't relate to those kind of emotions since the mid-70's (decided not to grow up and turn old and boring???). Even such a try as "Out of Tears" sounds somehow phony and thin.

- Doxa

It's in the playing, surely. And some of Mick's phrasing is fabulous, imo.

Other parts are cringeworthy, unfortunately.

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Doxa

But the truth is that "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" never turned out to be that big hit as they seemingly hoped. But they seemingly decided that playing the song anthem-like as much as possible in their gigs, will finally make it a classic. As it did.

- Doxa

But it never became good, however often it was played. The IORR-song is the weakest (or weekst) song on the IORR-album, musically as well as lyrically.

??

Short And Curlies, anyone...