Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Sittin’ On A Fence
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

RCA Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, December 3 - 8, 1965

Mick Jagger - lead vocals
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, harmony vocals
Charlie Watts - cymbals
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - harpsichord

Since I was young I've been very hard to please
And I don't know wrong from right
But there is one thing I could never understand
Some of the sick things that a girl does to a man, so

I'm just sittin' on a fence, you can say I got no sense
Trying to make up my mind really is too hard, I find
So I'm sittin’ on a fence

All of my friends at school grew up and settled down
And they mortgaged up their lives
One things not said too much, but I think it's true
They just get married cause there's nothing else to do, so

I'm just sittin' on a fence, you can say I got no sense
Trying to make up my mind really is too hard, I find
So I'm sittin’ on a fence

I'm just sittin' on a fence, you can say I got no sense
Trying to make up my mind really is too hard, I find
So I'm sittin’ on a fence

The day can come when you get old and sick and tired of life
You just never realize
Maybe the choice you made wasn't really right
But you go out and you don't come back at night, so

I'm just sittin' on a fence, you can say I got no sense
Trying to make up my mind really is too hard, I find
So I'm sittin’ on a fence

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Flowers” LP
(London PS 509) US, June 1967



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-08-04 09:05 by René.

Outstanding tune! One of my 60s-favorites!!

Fantastic lyric-writing from Mick and guitar playing from Keith that further widen the musical canvass on which the Stones now write.

Let's not forget that this song was written back in 65 and the Stones are forging a new identity as first rate tunesmiths that can fit in with the new folk rock protest sound being driven by Dylan, The Beatles and The Byrds.

I never did understand how a song this good could be left off Aftermath, especially when they included the over long Goin' Home on that album. But it just shows how quickly Mick and Keith mastered songwriting and the wealth of material that they had in their hands.

I first heard it on Through The Past Darkly in 1970 and it was an odd admission on that album, considering the other songs were generally from the psychedelic era.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-07-28 13:31 by Silver Dagger.

Love it. Great picking by Keith. That harpsichord by Brian is a perfect example of the "x factor" he added to the tunes in theur pop phase.

Classic Stones pop song from the swinging sixties. One of my favourite, would be great to here it live.

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1962
One of my favourites, would be great to here it live.

+ 1
Same for me!

What a charming tune! I’m certainly no fan of the Stones “pop” phase, but this song is just so disarmingly pretty and sweet, I find myself falling in love despite myself. Those acoustic guitars, Brian’s harpsichord, and Keith’s backing vox … everything meshes perfectly here. Call it country-baroque, perhaps?

As a confirmed bachelor, I particularly enjoy the line, “They just get married ‘cause there's nothing else to do”. A modest yet brilliant track.

Drew

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drewmaster

As a confirmed bachelor, I particularly enjoy the line, “They just get married ‘cause there's nothing else to do”. A modest yet brilliant track.

Drew

I always loved that line too, in my batchelor years. And I always felt a chill when Mick sung the final verse:

The day can come when you get old and sick and tired of life
You just never realize
Maybe the choice you made wasn't really right
But you go out and you don't come back at night

To me it implied a possible suicide which was way out of the ballpark as far as pop lyric writing was concerned. In fact Mick touched on some really dark subject matter around this time with Mother's Little Helper and Paint It, Black. Perhaps he was even the first goth rocker.

Good fun to play too!

Love the sequence in Charlie is my darling, where they are working on it. Great tune!

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UnpurePurist
Good fun to play too!

Isn't it? Just bounces and rolls across the strings.

Great song!

Love it...Still do.

Its one of those songs I played
after I had a break up....haha.

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DandelionPowderman
Love the sequence in Charlie is my darling, where they are working on it. Great tune!

I love that too...and I was so surprised and delighted when I saw that clip because it truly is one of my favorites of their early tunes. It's such a pretty song and the lyrics are really true to what many young people must have felt in those days when everyone was expected to get married. Not so true anymore, as times have changed.

Silver Dagger, I never took the final lines to be possibly about suicide. I think it is more about straying from the marriage out of boredom...going out at night and not coming home because he's spending the night with someone else.

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DandelionPowderman
Love the sequence in Charlie is my darling, where they are working on it. Great tune!

"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Great stuff

magic...something the average 'non-stones' follower wouldn't even imagine was the stones.

play it million times. one of the best stones songs.

Ah, what a shining piece of forever! The three last tracks on Flowers are all wonderful,
and each is better than the one before it. This one is breathtaking.

And I believe that wonderful outtake from Charlie Is My Darling illustrates that it wasn't a case of "Mick words/Keith music" -
it was a collaboration. I love the Rolling Stones

One of the best songs of the Pop-era and one of the few I like from this period. It is a intelligent country-like ballad with a very nice melody line that I bear suddenly in my mind if the title of the song is mentioned, although I didn't listen to it for years.

"Flowers" never got an official UK release until the CD era and this song was only ever issued on the UK version of "Through The Past Darkly" in 1969.
It had been gifted to ALO's protégés "Twice As Much" for their Immediate Records debut single in 1966:



[www.45cat.com]






"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Magic. One of the best recordings the Stones ever did.

There are two acoustics on this track: The picking on what sounds like a classical guitar and a strummed acoustic. Did Keith play both parts?

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71Tele
There are two acoustics on this track: The picking on what sounds like a classical guitar and a strummed acoustic. Did Keith play both parts?

My guess is that a session guy played the classical, baroque-ish guitar, but I could be wrong.

Great song which whose lyrics are more meaningful as one nears middle age.

Always liked this..

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71Tele
There are two acoustics on this track: The picking on what sounds like a classical guitar and a strummed acoustic. Did Keith play both parts?

mmmh never thought about it and couldn`t find anything on Nico`s site. There is an interesting mention in Martin Elliott`s Book Complete Recording Sessions:

The britisn duo Twice As Much had a charts hit with Sittin On A Fence copying the same classical style. Produced by Andrew L. Oldham and guitar played by ...Jimmy Page.
Perhaps Jimmy played the on both versions? Just a thought.

Tom

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electricmud

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71Tele
There are two acoustics on this track: The picking on what sounds like a classical guitar and a strummed acoustic. Did Keith play both parts?

mmmh never thought about it and couldn`t find anything on Nico`s site. There is an interesting mention in Martin Elliott`s Book Complete Recording Sessions:

The britisn duo Twice As Much had a charts hit with Sittin On A Fence copying the same classical style. Produced by Andrew L. Oldham and guitar played by ...Jimmy Page.
Perhaps Jimmy played the on both versions? Just a thought.

Tom

Session guitarists on Stones tracks? Persish the thought!

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DandelionPowderman

Quote
71Tele
There are two acoustics on this track: The picking on what sounds like a classical guitar and a strummed acoustic. Did Keith play both parts?

My guess is that a session guy played the classical, baroque-ish guitar, but I could be wrong.

I have always wondered about this. It sounds like a mandolin, or even a zither. It's a very Eastern Europe sound.

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DandelionPowderman

Quote
71Tele
There are two acoustics on this track: The picking on what sounds like a classical guitar and a strummed acoustic. Did Keith play both parts?

My guess is that a session guy played the classical, baroque-ish guitar, but I could be wrong.

John McLaughlin was listed as helping out the Stones on the back of the Metamorphosis album. Not sure what he played on though.

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24FPS

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
71Tele
There are two acoustics on this track: The picking on what sounds like a classical guitar and a strummed acoustic. Did Keith play both parts?

My guess is that a session guy played the classical, baroque-ish guitar, but I could be wrong.

I have always wondered about this. It sounds like a mandolin, or even a zither. It's a very Eastern Europe sound.

It sounds baroque.