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Salt Of The Earth
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, May 9 - 21, 1968 and
Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, June 30 - July 25, 1968

Mick Jagger - lead vocals
Keith Richards - lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric slide guitar
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Nicky Hopkins - piano
Watts Street Gospel Choir - backing vocals

Let’s drink to the hard working people, let’s drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil, let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier, spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children who burn the fires and who still till the earth

And when I search a faceless crowd, a swirling mass of gray and black and white
They don't look real to me, in fact, they look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the uncounted heads
Let’s think of the wavering millions
Who need leading but get gamblers instead
Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And when I look into that faceless crowd, a swirling mass of gray and black and white
They don't look real to me, oh, don’t they look so strange, yeah

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth
Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth
Let’s drink to the two thousand million
Let’s think of the humble of birth

Let’s take a drink to the salt of the earth, let’s take a drink to the salt of the earth…

Produced by Jimmy Miller

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Beggars Banquet” LP
(Decca SKL 4955) UK, December 6, 1968

Love it.......great song from a great record

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exellent and they don´t respect this album enough,fantastic songs to play live.

An immense tune. From singing about girls and sexual frustration to this Dylanesque, quasi-Socialist anthem in just a few years was the Stones biggest forward step in their career and laid the path for their resultant golden period.

I always think Marianne should get more recognition for igniting Jagger's mind to a higher state of universal consciousness as her literary knowledge and books she was reading at the time began to inform Mick's writing - the Master and Margarita, on Beggars Banquet, and ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, on Their Satanic Majesties Request, being just two.

Just go over these lyrics:

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

This was the first time Jagger had ever waxed lyrical about his political feelings and they are down right left wing. But let's not forget, he was hanging out with Barking (east London) Labour MP Tom Driberg at the time and had expressed an interest in politics.

Of course, many students and young people became politicised at this time because of Vietnam and Jagger famously marched on the US embassy in London in an anti-war demonstration.

With that in mind the next few lines are almost a call to arms for people to abandon apathy and vote if they want change.

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let's drink to the uncounted heads
Let's think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And just a year before Jagger was singing Let's Spend The Night Together and Yesterday's Papers - it's a staggering jump those lyrics to Salt Of The Earth and one that chimed perfectly with the changing times. Their old friends The Beatles were also doing it on the song Revolution, but that's another story!

Over the years I often wondered why they never play such a heartfelt song live and always hoped there would be an occasion were it would make sense to unearth it. And of course that occasion came in October 2001.







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-10 12:34 by Silver Dagger.

Great Song! easy on my Top 10 list of Rolling Stones songs...

2 1 2 0

...it's a song about all of us ...



ROCKMAN

A towering, majestic, breathtaking conclusion to one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

Salt of the Earth starts out almost meekly, with Keith’s gentle acoustic strums, the glorious twang of his slide guitar, and his quavering toast to the hardworking people, and then Mick joins in, along with the great Nicky Hopkins, infusing light and heat into what eventually becomes a blazing gospel fire.

Jimmy Miller deserves an award for the stellar production he brings to this banquet of sonic delight. Check out, for example, the range of sounds he gets from Charlie’s drums … restrained when they should be, thunderous at other times, particularly as he kicks off the coda.

And that gospel coda … it leaves the Beggars Banquet listener dazzled, in awe of what he/she has just experienced. For the album is truly an experience, and a mind-blowing one at that.

Drew

Quote
marko
exellent and they don´t respect this album enough,fantastic songs to play live.

They played it at one of the twickenham concerts, really took me by surprise and had tears in my eyes whilst being played.

The Mrs thought i was mad.

One of the big album-enders (along with YCAGWYW, MM) - a perfect closer of one of the Stones's best albums.

A brilliant track. Great dynamics, eventually a big sound and a fantastic performance altogether, imo!

I always liked the version on the 9/11 concert with just the glimmer twins

Gets a little repetative as the song proceeds, but a heartfelt and likable song with good vocals fromn Mick and Keith.

I don't know how completely appropriate the song is to end an album entitled 'Beggars Banquet' but I suppose they wanted to end on an upbeat feel good note.

"The song is total cynicism. I'm saying those people haven't any power and they never will have." -- Mick Jagger, 1970

Never really liked this song or the arrangement.

Who's the cynic, Mick Jagger in 1968, or Mick Jagger anno 1970?

Aren't all Stones songs cynical to a degree? Just sayin...

don't forget this version... requested by axl rose at atlantic city 1989

I don´t like mr. rose - but if this was really his request we have to thank him

It's difficult to read the lyrics without the music, they're not that great, on the level with TWFNO when it comes to chiches. Therefore not a great song imo.

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"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"

I like the song, but I've never liked the arrangement.

I love the gospel arrangement that's evolving throughout the track! In a way, it was the forerunner to YCAGWYW.

Two words: beautiful song.

From my first listening to the song almost 40 years ago this has always been my favourite Rolling Stones song, and I never get tired listening to it.

Johnny Adams did a great Soul cover:

The most telling part of the song are the lyrics, "And when I search a faceless crowd, a swirling mass of gray and black and white
They don't look real to me, in fact, they look so strange."

One of Keith first distinctive vocals and it really adds to the song. Other one being Something Happened To Me Yesterday before that. Connection as well. Always loved Salt of the Earth. Musically and lyrically it soars.

This outstanding track stands its time easily!

The stones were leaving their comfort zone with this one. I don't feel they're quite playing to their strengths, but it goes to an interesting place. It comes from the era when they could do no wrong.

I hope after 5 edits I caught all my typos.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-10 21:31 by ryanpow.

Quote
24FPS
The most telling part of the song are the lyrics, "And when I search a faceless crowd, a swirling mass of gray and black and white
They don't look real to me, in fact, they look so strange."

But when Mick sings it live—at the Concert for New York City for instance—he changes it so he's not insulting the audience: "They look so real to me, they don't look so strange."

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

the version with axl rose and izzy is very good.

I love it, and was amazed to hear it live at Twickenham a few years back. A great stadium gig that one!

With song like this one, you just can't say Nicky Hopkins was the guy available in the studio to play the piano part. He was a member, official or not, doesn't matter. He was in the core of the band.
This song is the perfect example of the Richards-Hopkins combo. TSMR, BB and LIB were grounden from Keith and Nicky. Salt of the Earth is a masterpiece, a true gospel, not for the chorus, but for the message, the point of view. It's something you just have to sing to realize how deep it is.
Love Keith's vocals too! So intimate, coming from the bottom of his soul.

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"I'm gonna walk... before they make me run"

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