I always assumed that the name "Jumpin' Jack Flash" had its origins in the well-known nursery rhyme:

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over
The candlestick

However, debating this point with somebody, he pointed out that I probably got that idea from Don McLean, whose 1971 hit "American Pie" refers to Mick Jagger as follows:

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend

My question is: Is there a link between the song and the nursery rhyme? Young Mick Jagger no doubt heard the nursery rhyme as a child. Was he thinking of nimble jumping Jack when he wrote the lyrics to "Jumpin' Jack Flash"? Did the great man himself ever comment on this?

The song is named after a gardener Keith had at the time named Jack Dyer. According to Keith:

"The lyrics came from a gray dawn at Redlands. Mick and I had been up all night, it was raining outside, and there was the sound of these boots near the window, belonging to my gardener, Jack Dyer. It woke Mick up. He said, 'What's that?' I said, 'Oh, that's Jack. That's jumping Jack.' I started to work around the phrase on the guitar, which was in open tuning, singing the phrase 'Jumping Jack.' Mick said, 'Flash,' and suddenly we had this phrase with a great rhythm and ring to it."

Forget that ridiculous story about the gardener. A "jack" is one sixth of a gram of heroin in a tiny white pill. That's what it's about.

I never heard that JJF referred to heroin. I HAVE heard/read the story posted by stonehearted. In fact, I have heard it too many times to be easily counted.

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tatters
Forget that ridiculous story about the gardener. A "jack" is one sixth of a gram of heroin in a tiny white pill. That's what it's about.

Ahh the double entendre is what makes it so special. It's either about the gardener or Robert Fraser's stash, or both.

The fact that Keith never had a problem admitting to drug references leans to the gardener story but the lyrics seem to fit the drug reference a bit better. Possibly the title was gleaned from the gardener and then embellished with lyrics which referred to the drug.

peace

....I'm goin' with the gardener story ....



ROCKMAN

....and could this be Jack ????





ROCKMAN

LIFE 240-241



ROCKMAN

<BTW, where's Bill's credit, it's only been 47 years!>


We got to the studio early once and... in fact I think it was a rehearsal studio, I don't think it was a recording studio. And there was just myself, Brian and Charlie - the Stones NEVER arrive at the same time, you know - and Mick and Keith hadn't come. And I was just messing about and I just sat down at the piano and started doing this riff, da-daw, da-da-daw, da-da-daw... and then Brian played a bit of guitar and Charlie was doing a rhythm. We were just messing with it for 20 minutes, just filling in time, and Mick and Keith came in and we stopped and they said, Hey, that sounded really good, carry on, what is it?
- Oh, that was just something we were messing with.
- That sounds good.
And then the next day all I can really remember... we recorded it and Mick wrote great lyrics to it and it turned out to be a really good single.
- Bill Wyman, 1982

There are a great number of songs which are very commonly known for hints towards drug use in the lyrics. Some songs, such as "Blunt Blowin'" by Lil Wayne, "Because I Got High" by Afroman, and Cab Calloway’s "Reefer Man", plainly state, even by the title alone, that the song is referencing drugs (though some differ in whether they portray drug use in a positive or negative light; "Because I Got High", for example, includes lyrics focusing on the negatives of drug use. Although some have claimed that The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" refers to LSD. The Beatles themselves denied this. Also by The Beatles, the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" is rumored to be describing an experience of getting high by injection - the phrase "strawberry fields" referring to needle tracks. However, even though this rumor about the song's meaning is floating through the media, it is important to remember that it may simply be a song about fields of strawberries or the property on the outskirts of Liverpool called Strawberry Fields. The famous song "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones, said by the band to simply be a song about a friend ‘“Jumpin’” Jack Dyer’, is commonly said to be written about a method, called Jumpin’ Jack Flash, of injecting heroin through the tear ducts. This idea is reinforced by the lyrics; “a spike right through my head.” There are songs, such as "Colt 45" by Afroman that have lyrics that could not be mistaken for anything besides referencing drug use, with lyrics such as, “Smoke that tumbleweed. As the marijuana burn we can take our turn…so roll, roll, roll my joint, pick out the seeds and stems.” Some songs even show the subject of drug use in a negative manner. For example, Neil Young’s "The Needle and the Damage Done" suggests that drug use could take your life: “Every junkie’s like a settin’ sun.”



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-20 16:01 by tatters.

Truth be told, I'm not at all sure about that tear duct thing. I think what the song actually refers to is the use of heroin in pill form, possibly crushed up and sprinkled on some marijuana and smoked in an "A-Bomb" joint, which is what Billy Joel's song "Captain Jack" is supposedly about.

"I don't have fond memories of it at all. To find you have to do something just to feel normal is not a good road. I got involved in 1960 when people were getting more than they were using on prescription and selling it. It was called a 'jack', one sixth of a gram of heroin in one tiny white pill."

--Ginger Baker



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-20 16:25 by tatters.

never heard the drug reference before, just the gardener story.

it does fit the rest of the lyrics though.

Maybe "Jumping" Jack was high?

I just don't see how some genial old gardener could possibly have been the inspiration for such a dark and sinister-sounding song. Unless he was a .... devil worshipper!

I also remember David Crosby mentioning something in his autobiography about using these "jack" pills in the 1960s, and saying that's what the Rolling Stones song Jumpin Jack Flash was all about.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-20 17:10 by tatters.

A Jumping Jack was also a firework, now banned in the UK - that was very popular after the war right up until the 90s. You lit it and then it jumped in random directions - unfortunately sometimes under cars and into people's homes.

The drug reference was based on the lyrics, not the other way around.
And the "spike right through my head" has nothing to do with drugs either.

Sheesh

I always thought the spike in the lyrics was a loose reference to Jesus' crown of thorns.

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tatters
I just don't see how some genial old gardener could possibly have been the inspiration for such a dark and sinister-sounding song. Unless he was a .... devil worshipper!

He wasn't. It was the name that he inspired.

Keith wasn't into heroin at the time so that solves that.

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with sssoul
The drug reference was based on the lyrics, not the other way around.
And the "spike right through my head" has nothing to do with drugs either.

Sheesh

Maybe the professor will cover that when we get to 1968?

When they rehearsed JJF and Stray cat blues they had Heroin by Reed/Velvet in mind (SC. Lou sings about putting a spike into his vein so of course there could be the poem, the drugs, Velvet and dont forget Bill's fantastic riff.

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GasLightStreet

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tatters
I just don't see how some genial old gardener could possibly have been the inspiration for such a dark and sinister-sounding song. Unless he was a .... devil worshipper!

He wasn't. It was the name that he inspired.

Keith wasn't into heroin at the time so that solves that.

No it doest. He started using regulary in 1968, later that year I guess but who knows. Besides thats not the point.

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Redhotcarpet
When they rehearsed JJF and Stray cat blues they had Heroin by Reed/Velvet in mind (SC. Lou sings about putting a spike into his vein so of course there could be the poem, the drugs, Velvet and dont forget Bill's fantastic riff.

Never really considered that but of course it makes sense and probably was an influence.

The chords in the refrain might have been inspired by this

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Redhotcarpet

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GasLightStreet

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tatters
I just don't see how some genial old gardener could possibly have been the inspiration for such a dark and sinister-sounding song. Unless he was a .... devil worshipper!

He wasn't. It was the name that he inspired.

Keith wasn't into heroin at the time so that solves that.

No it doest. He started using regulary in 1968, later that year I guess but who knows. Besides thats not the point.

He did? I thought it wasn't until 1969 actually. No matter. JJF was started in February and recorded in March and April.

But yes, it's beside the point. I've never found JJF to be about or have to do with drugs.

I dont think so either, they must have known about the possible reference but I believe the "poem theory".

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Redhotcarpet

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GasLightStreet

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tatters
I just don't see how some genial old gardener could possibly have been the inspiration for such a dark and sinister-sounding song. Unless he was a .... devil worshipper!

He wasn't. It was the name that he inspired.

Keith wasn't into heroin at the time so that solves that.

No it doest. He started using regulary in 1968, later that year I guess but who knows. Besides thats not the point.

Wasn't it at 10.42 pm on August 24 1968?

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Silver Dagger

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Redhotcarpet

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GasLightStreet

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tatters
I just don't see how some genial old gardener could possibly have been the inspiration for such a dark and sinister-sounding song. Unless he was a .... devil worshipper!

He wasn't. It was the name that he inspired.

Keith wasn't into heroin at the time so that solves that.

No it doest. He started using regulary in 1968, later that year I guess but who knows. Besides thats not the point.

Wasn't it at 10.42 pm on August 24 1968?

You might be right, but when did Keith and Lennon drive around the country in the Rolls, maybe it was then!

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tatters
Forget that ridiculous story about the gardener. A "jack" is one sixth of a gram of heroin in a tiny white pill. That's what it's about.

Drug slang changes every other year. How can you say it was in use in 1968 and it referred to that pill?

Let's reach a compromise. In those bohemian times Jack the gardener was working under the influence of heroin, fact that is testified by some curious installments in Keith's garden at Redlands'.