When I was a youngster, I really didn't like "Salt of the Earth." I love "Hot Rocks" and "Get Yer YaYas Out!"
A great thing about being a Rolling Stones fan is that there is some much to the rolling Stones on many levels and aspects.
"Beggars Banquet" use to be hailed by many as 'the best Rolling Stones album' even though Exile was out there, but like a vintage wine, Exile hadn't become vintage yet.
"Salt Of The Earth" grew on me as I matured. I remember first loving Keith's vocals. "Salt Of The Earth" grew on me after I really started to love "jig Saw Puzzle." "Jig Saw Puzzle" has a great build as does "Salt Of The Earth."
I didn't care for Alex Rose on the Atlantic City 1989 concert at first but I now love that whole performance and think it's a great Stones live performance/rendition.
When I was at "Concert for the City of New York", it was like a big funeral. I saw the police, fire fighters and their families holding pictures of their dead loved ones. I saw their children cry and then then laugh and smile when the Back Street Boys sang to them. So sad, so uplifting at time funny ('Bin Laden shits in a cave' and the 'white powder'). It was an emotional roller coaster which had many very low downs and many high ups! "Salt of the Earth" was the song of the night. Maybe I understood that better than anybody there since I knew the song well and had grown to love it. That night I shed many tears for the 'common foot soldier' and 'hard working people.'
If you care about people you can really love that song and it will stir your emotions. I like getting growing-up with the Stones. It gets more in depth as time slips on by.
I agree with some of the quotes I found that the grays and black and whites are the establishment, perhaps greedy selfish people who are often in power and don't help the 'rag-taggy' people in their torn clothes.
I think the line 'stay at home voter' means someone who doesn't vote. People who don't help themselves and have some power to do so.
The Gospel singing by The Watts Street Choir add the right touch to this song at the end.
Say a prayer for the Salt of the earth. That's all they have sometimes.
I think the best release of this song on Beggars Banquet is the 2002 DSD remaster (Beggars Banquet SHM-SACD UIGY-9038 Japan 12/152010 - Features ABKCO's 2002 DSD mastering in high-fidelity SHM-SACD format).
ExileStones
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The title refers to the working class - they're "The salt of the Earth." In 1970, Jagger said: "The song is total cynicism. I'm saying those people haven't any power and they never will have."
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The Salt of the Earth uses a quote that refers to a passage in the Bible where Jesus is trying to encourage people to give the best of themselves (« You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned ? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men » - Matthew 5:13)
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I'm convinced this song, while genuinely ambivalent, leans more towards mocking the "salt of the earth" rather than praising them. You don't refer to someone you want to praise with words like "lowly at birth", "rag-taggy people", "stay-at-home voter", etc. It's just thinly disguised ruling class mockery of the masses, some of it well deserved, but one can take solace in the fact that very few true working-class heroes have spent much time listening to Rolling Stones music. If this comment seems confusing it's because I share Mick's ambivalence towards the working class. - Lou, Los Angeles, CA
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When I hear, "a swirling mass of grey, blue, black and white" I think of (white) old men (grey) in suits (blue and black), the establishment - or the people keeping the "Salt of the Earth" down...
- Madeline, Grass Valley, CA
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"Raise a glass to the good AND evil." The thought is that there has to be an evil in order to have good. They are drinking to all that makes the world go 'round. I don't hear them drink to the kings and presidents because humanity would survive without them, but the common folk are what keeps our human race alive. - Clayton, Blount County, AL
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Although the Rolling Stones, in their early years at any rate, were thought of as something of a band for the proletariat, they really didn't put much concrete advocacy for the common man in their songs. The most notable instance of a nod in that direction was "Salt of the Earth," one of the better tracks on Beggars Banquet. Like most of that album, "Salt of the Earth" drew from acoustic country blues for its musical bed, adding a good amount of gospel, particularly in the backing vocals by the Watts Street Gospel Choir. Its tender, contemplative mood was apt for the lyrics, which quite directly champion and drink a toast to the working class. While it's movingly and convincingly sung, it goes into more abstract and uncertain territory on the bridge, when Mick Jagger sings of looking into a faceless crowd . Musically, "Salt of the Earth" benefits enormously from electric slide guitar by Keith Richards, who also sings the first verse that works precisely because his singing actually does seem like that of a common nonprofessional man suddenly thrust into the spotlight.
Also worthy of note is Nicky Hopkins' gently loping piano, some of the finest session work he gave the Stones, and the rousing finale, where the tempo of the ballad doubles and the gospel choir goes to the forefront.
A weary Rolling Stones can be seen singing the song as the closing number to their late-'60s television special Rock and Roll Circus.
A much gentler song than the Rolling Stones were usually known for, "Salt of the Earth" was covered by two folk-based stars whom few people would associate with Rolling Stones material, Joan Baez and Judy Collins. Another version of note was the grandiose orchestrated one in the late '60s by the Rotary Connection, the soul-psychedelic group that included Minnie Riperton as a vocalist. - Richie Unterberger