Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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She’s A Rainbow
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, May 18, 1967 and
De Lane Lea Studios, London, UK, October 2 - 5, 1967

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, backing vocals, percussion
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals
Charlie Watts - drums, percussion
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - mellotron, percussion
Nicky Hopkins - piano
Paul McCartney - percussion
John Paul Jones - strings

She comes in colors ev'rywhere, she combs her hair, she's like a rainbow
Coming, colors in the air, everywhere, she comes in colors

She comes in colors ev'rywhere, she combs her hair, she's like a rainbow
Coming, colors in the air, oh, everywhere, she comes in colors

Have you seen her dressed in blue
See the sky in front of you
And her face is like a sail
Speck of white so fair and pale
Have you seen a lady fairer

She comes in colors ev'rywhere, she combs her hair, she's like a rainbow
Coming, colors in the air, everywhere, she comes in colors

Have you seen her all in gold
Like a queen in days of old
She shoots colors all around
Like a sunset going down
Have you seen a lady fairer

She comes in colors ev'rywhere, she combs her hair, she's like a rainbow
Coming, colors in the air, oh, everywhere, she comes in colors

She's like a rainbow
Coming, colors in the air, oh, everywhere, she comes in colors

Produced by The Rolling Stones

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Their Satanic Majesties Request” LP
(Decca TXS 103) UK, December 8, 1967

Mc Cartney on percussion? I didn't know that...

Perhaps some of the most beautiful piano playing I've heard ever on this track. Love it!

I didn't know that either, nor did I know about John Paul Jones on the strings--because I didn't think they would need to order out for help in that department, as the strings aren't really "played" on this track and represent the musical equivalent of art by finger painting.

JPJ's involvement was the first thing I learned about this track. Come to think of it, that's strange...

And Macca's involvement--I wonder if that was just the random tapping on, say, a bongo drum or some other hand-held percussive drum during that string break, toward the end. Just a few taps as random as the rain.

Come to think of it, there have been several studio pics dating from 1967 posted here on IORR showing Macca sitting in the studio with Mick and Keith--perhaps one or more of those were taken during those sessions.

Yeah, Dandelion and We Love You are well-known, but maybe there are even more tracks?

Stones best effort on Psychedelia...

2 1 2 0

After 2000 Light Years From Home?

Nicky Hopkins at top of his game both on She’s A Rainbow and We Love You............
Great song was one of the first I discovered back then......

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Simply one of their most beautiful songs.

She's A Rainbow is so overwhelmingly breath-taking and uplifting that by the end of the song you can't help but join in on that triumphant chorus of "she comes in colours everywhere, she combs her hair...she's like a rainbow".

The song has that very peculiar English nursery rhyme toy town charm that was inherent in so many of the great UK psychedelic pop singles of the time like "See Emily Play", "Flowers In The Rain", and "Rain".

Legend has it that it was inspired by Love's equally wondrous "She Comes In Colors" off the Da Capo album released earlier in 1967 (Their Satanic Majesties Request wasn't released until December that year). There's also a story I've heard that it was written after Mick and Marianne dropped acid and went on to have psychedelic sex but you make your own mind up about that.

Another rumour is that both John Lennon and Paul McCartney helped out on the speeded up 'ohh la la la' repeats towards the end of the song.

She's A Rainbow is also one of the greatest showcases for Nicky Hopkin's incredible fluid piano playing. Nicky and his Mozart-like trills added such vivid colour, no pun intended, to the song that it takes it right out of the realm of just pop and turns it into a neo-classical anthem for the psychedelic age.

If The Beatles were leading the way in ushering the world into a new era of cosmic consciousness, here were The Stones beating them at their own game. She's A Rainbow easily stands up to anything on Sgt Pepper, and then some. It's one of their finest works.

Silver Dagger, wow!

- Doxa

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Doxa
Silver Dagger, wow!

- Doxa

Come on. Can't wait for your appraisal Doxa. Take it to the skies my friend.

Such a lovely, sad, sweet song, and one of the reasons I love TSMR.

I must say I could do without the carnival-barker intro, but once that’s past, the gentle tinkling of Nicky Hopkins’ piano, meshing perfectly with that elegant string arrangement from John Paul Jones, comes as a relief. A tambourine picks up on the beat, and then suddenly the song erupts into an explosion of joy and color.

The lyrics are simple, yet somehow gloriously trippy and psychedelic. And the soaring choruses and harmonies, man … just beautiful.

A gem.

Drew

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Doxa
Silver Dagger, wow!

- Doxa

Yes, cheers to a great post, Silver Dagger!

Drew

A masterpiece. Recently knocked "Child of the moon" off top of the pops in my seven year old daughter's charts too.

Nicky you were sublime. And this song proves it.

It amazes me that a band that made this track also made Their Satanic Majesties Request - and that this brilliant track is on that awful album. Their most bizarre album ever. 4 great tracks, 6 horrible ones.

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GasLightStreet
It amazes me that a band that made this track also made Their Satanic Majesties Request - and that this brilliant track is on that awful album. Their most bizarre album ever. 4 great tracks, 6 horrible ones.

An "awful" album with She's A Rainbow, 2000 Light Years From Home, Citadel and 2000 Man?

When four of the tracks are of that caliber, it's a good album already

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stonehearted
I didn't know that either, nor did I know about John Paul Jones on the strings--because I didn't think they would need to order out for help in that department, as the strings aren't really "played" on this track and represent the musical equivalent of art by finger painting.

He arranged the strings. He didn't play.

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More Hot Rocks

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stonehearted
I didn't know that either, nor did I know about John Paul Jones on the strings--because I didn't think they would need to order out for help in that department, as the strings aren't really "played" on this track and represent the musical equivalent of art by finger painting.

He arranged the strings. He didn't play.

I think Stonehearted means that the "strings" we hear playing beautifully is the mellotrone, while the strings we hear fall apart is arranged by JPJ..

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet
It amazes me that a band that made this track also made Their Satanic Majesties Request - and that this brilliant track is on that awful album. Their most bizarre album ever. 4 great tracks, 6 horrible ones.

An "awful" album with She's A Rainbow, 2000 Light Years From Home, Citadel and 2000 Man?

When four of the tracks are of that caliber, it's a good album already

It really should have been an EP - of the 4 great tracks.

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GasLightStreet
It amazes me that a band that made this track also made Their Satanic Majesties Request - and that this brilliant track is on that awful album. Their most bizarre album ever. 4 great tracks, 6 horrible ones.

Just love those 6 horrible ones and those 4 great tracks are pretty good too...

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GasLightStreet

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet
It amazes me that a band that made this track also made Their Satanic Majesties Request - and that this brilliant track is on that awful album. Their most bizarre album ever. 4 great tracks, 6 horrible ones.

An "awful" album with She's A Rainbow, 2000 Light Years From Home, Citadel and 2000 Man?

When four of the tracks are of that caliber, it's a good album already

It really should have been an EP - of the 4 great tracks.

+ The Lantern, Gomper and In Another Land, imo.

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet
It amazes me that a band that made this track also made Their Satanic Majesties Request - and that this brilliant track is on that awful album. Their most bizarre album ever. 4 great tracks, 6 horrible ones.

An "awful" album with She's A Rainbow, 2000 Light Years From Home, Citadel and 2000 Man?

When four of the tracks are of that caliber, it's a good album already

It really should have been an EP - of the 4 great tracks.

+ The Lantern, Gomper and In Another Land, imo.

That wouldn't make it an EP now would it. You can have those three on another EP - the one no one would buy except you!

The year '67 - not the best one in the career of the band ... The boys used to curry favor with the pop and psychedelic market producing nothing more than strange things, which they were actually not committed to ... the result is not authentic music. "She's A Rainbow" is such a ridiculous effort.

Found this instrumental version on youtube with slightly different credits (no mention of Macca):

Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow (take 2) 1967
Mick Jagger - percussion
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar
Brian Jones - electric guitar, mellotron (trumpet)
Bill Wyman - bass guitar, electric organ
Charlie Watts - drums
Nicky Hopkins - piano
String arrangement by John Paul Jones






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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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drewmaster
Such a lovely, sad, sweet song, and one of the reasons I love TSMR.

I must say I could do without the carnival-barker intro, but once that’s past, the gentle tinkling of Nicky Hopkins’ piano, meshing perfectly with that elegant string arrangement from John Paul Jones, comes as a relief. A tambourine picks up on the beat, and then suddenly the song erupts into an explosion of joy and color.

The lyrics are simple, yet somehow gloriously trippy and psychedelic. And the soaring choruses and harmonies, man … just beautiful.

A gem.

Drew

Spot on!....... Fabulous song!

What a drag it is gettin' old

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GasLightStreet

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet
It amazes me that a band that made this track also made Their Satanic Majesties Request - and that this brilliant track is on that awful album. Their most bizarre album ever. 4 great tracks, 6 horrible ones.

An "awful" album with She's A Rainbow, 2000 Light Years From Home, Citadel and 2000 Man?

When four of the tracks are of that caliber, it's a good album already

It really should have been an EP - of the 4 great tracks.

+ The Lantern, Gomper and In Another Land, imo.

That wouldn't make it an EP now would it. You can have those three on another EP - the one no one would buy except you!

The only bad tracks are Sing This Song All Together (See What Happens) and Gomper. The rest fits together nicely and creates the right vibe for Citadel, She's A Rainbow, and 2000 Light Years From Home to hang like sparkling jewels in the twilight zone.

The first half of Gomper is great, imo.

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Hairball
Found this instrumental version on youtube with slightly different credits (no mention of Macca):

Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow (take 2) 1967
Mick Jagger - percussion
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar
Brian Jones - electric guitar, mellotron (trumpet)
Bill Wyman - bass guitar, electric organ
Charlie Watts - drums
Nicky Hopkins - piano
String arrangement by John Paul Jones

Bold credits are wrong and Macca is for sure part of the percussion.

There was no trumpet sound on MKII Mellotron, the sound Brian selected is the trombone sound.

There are no strings on the work in progress takes thus no need for JPJ's credit. There is no electric guitar either, but Keith played it on the released version.





Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2014-05-12 19:25 by His Majesty.

Thanks for clearing that up His Majesty.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......