Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Sister Morphine
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards / Marianne Faithfull)

Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, March 22 - 31, 1969

Mick Jagger - vocals
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Ry Cooder - electric slide guitar
Jack Nitzsche - piano

Here I lie in my hospital bed
Tell me, Sister Morphine, when are you coming round again?
Oh, and I don't think I can wait that long
Oh, you see, that I'm not that strong

The scream of the ambulance is sounding in my ears
Tell me, Sister Morphine, how long have I been lying here?
What am I doing in this place?
Why does the doctor have no face?
Oh, I can't crawl across the floor
Oh, can't you see, Sister Morphine, I'm trying to score

Well, it just goes to show
Things are not what they seem
Please, Sister Morphine, turn my nightmares into dreams
Oh, can't you see I'm fading fast?
And that this shot will be my last

Sweet Cousin Cocaine, lay your cool, cool hands on my head
Oh, come on, Sister Morphine, you better make up my bed
'Cause you know and I know in the morning I'll be dead
Yeah, and you can sit around, yeah, and you can watch
All the clean white sheets stained red

Produced by Jimmy Miller

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Sticky Fingers” LP
(Rolling Stones Records COC 59100) UK, April 23, 1971

10+

Brilliant 'Junkie-Track' from Mrs Faithful and The Glimmers...Nowadays my No 1 on Sticky Fingers...

2 1 2 0

I've never heard a piano being played so deliciously threatening as here on this song.

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

ry cooder, man.

Heavy stuff. A song about some dude lying in a hospital bed, hungering for morphine to take the pain away, is not exactly going to get people on the dance floor, to say the least. Keith’s acoustic and Ry Cooder’s slide guitar are suitably bleak, and Jack Nitzsche’s piano has a nice eerie reverb to it. But for me, this track, as superb as it is, is just a bit too much of a downer to be enjoyable. It’s only when Charlie comes in, and Mick drawls “Well it … just goes to show...”, that the Stones magic plunges deep into my veins.

Drew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-06-30 12:53 by drewmaster.

Nice analytic sound, it seems to be played live in front of you, great drums by Charlie,you can identify what everyone is just doing on his instrument. A simple melody line with a heavy message, goose bumps by the intro of the reverbing piano ... One of my all time favorites ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-06-30 13:10 by RobertJohnson.

Pure genius

Brilliant and timeless.

A song that screams nightmare all the way from the first A Minor 7th chord to the ambulance-like slide guitar and finally the 'clean white sheets stained red' fade out.

Sticky Fingers was the first proper Stones album I bought - I'd got Through The Past Darkly a few months before but that was a compilation - and this track made a huge impression.

The whole album has a darkness but this track stuck out like a beacon and vindicated everything my parents warned me about the Stones that they were a dangerous, drug-taking band that could steal the minds of the young.

I immediately wanted to find out more and here it was right in front of me coming out of my loud speakers, a junky's harrowing death trip with music that perfectly matched the bleakness of the lyrics.

The steely sound of Ry Cooder's slide guitar solo sure scared the hell out of me. To me, it was the sound of a syringe entering the skin and giving the junkie his or her fix.

And then Charlie's thunderous drums towards the end, like a defibrillator pounding on the patient's heart as he lapses into a coma.

And finally that slight Jagger 'erh' mumble, whatever it is, before the fade out like the junky going into the final descent.

Truly harrowing stuff. And quite, quite brilliant.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-06-30 14:07 by Silver Dagger.

Never before and never since has the SOUND of the song so purely matched the lyric. It's a junkie's highs and withdrawals set perfectly, hypnotically and menacingly to music. I always think to myself 'what WERE they THINKING when they were laying this one down?"

Chilling track

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bitusa2012
I always think to myself 'what WERE they THINKING when they were laying this one down?"

They were probably thinking of fields of poppies and total oblivion! ><

Rolling Stones 100%. On of the best moments in R&R music. Everyting is perfect here

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KeithNacho
Rolling Stones 100%. On of the best moments in R&R music. Everyting is perfect here

Indeed! And it's interesting that a 1968 track minus Jones and Taylor could fit so nicely into Sticky Fingers as it did. Great track!

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DandelionPowderman

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KeithNacho
Rolling Stones 100%. On of the best moments in R&R music. Everyting is perfect here

Indeed! And it's interesting that a 1968 track minus Jones and Taylor could fit so nicely into Sticky Fingers as it did. Great track!

Are there any recordings of it from 68?

I have a version of this song played with Mick Taylor............. and it is very nice too (a bootleg called "acoustic @#$%&")

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Silver Dagger

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DandelionPowderman

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KeithNacho
Rolling Stones 100%. On of the best moments in R&R music. Everyting is perfect here

Indeed! And it's interesting that a 1968 track minus Jones and Taylor could fit so nicely into Sticky Fingers as it did. Great track!

Are there any recordings of it from 68?

No, according to Keith it was written in 68, and recorded in March 69.

This track released today would receive some heat. Songs such as this glamorized hard drugs for my generation. People turn a blind eye to The Stones when it comes to lyrics and I glad for it as they captured a dark side to Flower Power and beyond. So many great songs from the 70's are about drugs. Layla pretends to be about Patti but the lyrics tell the story. "Darling won't you ease my worried mind."

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DoomandGloom
This track released today would receive some heat. Songs such as this glamorized hard drugs for my generation. People turn a blind eye to The Stones when it comes to lyrics and I glad for it as they captured a dark side to Flower Power and beyond. So many great songs from the 70's are about drugs. Layla pretends to be about Patti but the lyrics tell the story. "Darling won't you ease my worried mind."

It's about a man needing morphine after a car crash. Not really that controversial?

Here is the original from 1969. It was the B side to "Something Better," which is the song she sang at the "Rock and Roll Circus.":

video: [www.youtube.com]

The live versions from BTB or NS are great. They surpass the original IMO.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-06-30 23:10 by ryanpow.

I work as a nurse at the PICU. This song shows what it is, including delier. Beautiful! Searched youtube a long time for a live version but did only find one.[youtu.be] Gives me shivers all the time.

(Always took candy from strangers)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-06-30 23:44 by Niek.

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Jayce
Here is the original from 1969. It was the B side to "Something Better," which is the song she sang at the "Rock and Roll Circus.":

video: [www.youtube.com]

Anyone know the personnel on this track with Marianne Faithful. No Ry Cooder it seems.

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DandelionPowderman

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DoomandGloom
This track released today would receive some heat. Songs such as this glamorized hard drugs for my generation. People turn a blind eye to The Stones when it comes to lyrics and I glad for it as they captured a dark side to Flower Power and beyond. So many great songs from the 70's are about drugs. Layla pretends to be about Patti but the lyrics tell the story. "Darling won't you ease my worried mind."

It's about a man needing morphine after a car crash. Not really that controversial?

No one knows this. I don't. It's a drug tune and a downer. Brilliant but too dark to listen to a lot.
In the vein of "Tonight's The Night" by Neil Young

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triceratops

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Jayce
Here is the original from 1969. It was the B side to "Something Better," which is the song she sang at the "Rock and Roll Circus.":

video: [www.youtube.com]

Anyone know the personnel on this track with Marianne Faithful. No Ry Cooder it seems.

RCA Studios, July 1968 (Vocals probably overdubbed at Olympic, January 1969)
Mick Jagger - acoustic guitar
Ry Cooder - slide guitar
Jack Nitsche - organ, piano
Bill Wyman - bass
Charlie Watts - drums

Could almost be called the original Stones version!

Great though it is, the Sticky Fingers track beats it by miles...><

Thinking of it gives me the chills. One gets the feeling that the drumbeat of heroin was getting louder and louder around the band and Mr. Jagger was anticipating its devastation.

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triceratops

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DandelionPowderman

Quote
DoomandGloom
This track released today would receive some heat. Songs such as this glamorized hard drugs for my generation. People turn a blind eye to The Stones when it comes to lyrics and I glad for it as they captured a dark side to Flower Power and beyond. So many great songs from the 70's are about drugs. Layla pretends to be about Patti but the lyrics tell the story. "Darling won't you ease my worried mind."

It's about a man needing morphine after a car crash. Not really that controversial?

No one knows this. I don't. It's a drug tune and a downer. Brilliant but too dark to listen to a lot.
In the vein of "Tonight's The Night" by Neil Young

Mick Jagger who wrote it has stated it numerous times.

What was Marianne Faithful's contribution to that track?

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vincentwhirlwind
What was Marianne Faithful's contribution to that track?

According to Mick, only the words "Cousin Cocaine"

This is a great example of a fantastic track made from a not-necessarily great tune. Ry Cooder injects brilliance into what could have been a rather maudlin so-so song. Kudos to Charlie as well for some brilliant playing, kicking the tune into higher gear. I think without the playing, the song is somewhere near the quality of "Family".