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Take It Or Leave It
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

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

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, backing vocals, tambourine
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - acoustic guitar, harpsichord, percussion
Jack Nitzsche - organ

You can turn off and on more times than a flashin' neon sign
When you want, you're bad, but you can be so kind

Just take it or leave it
Don't tell your friend just what you're gonna do now
You take it or leave it, it's just my life

There've been times when you tried makin' eyes at all my so called friends
Then you go, now you're back, but you can be so kind

Just take it or leave it
Don't tell your friend just what you're gonna do now
You take it or leave it, it's just my life

I'm sick and tired of the smile that you give when you don't come home at night
You said you'd call, that's a lie, but you could be so kind

Just take it or leave it
Don't tell your friend just what you're gonna do now
You take it or leave it, it's just my life

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Aftermath” LP
(Decca SKL 4786) UK, April 15, 1966

This strikes me as Stones best pop song. 5/5

2 1 2 0

...for me, maybe the worst by our Stones....it should have been replaced by "Sittin on a fence"..

The album Aftermath was and still is their best go at a pop-album. I like all songs on it (maybe that Going Home is going on for a bit too long), and it's even hard to judge the songs separately. There's something very special about that album, probably because they were changing and learning so much at that time, and still hadn't gone too far into "Beatles territory", as they would in their next two albums.
"Take It Or Leave It" is just a very nice pop-song, nothing brilliant, but perfect on that album. The word "cute" comes to mind, which is not a word normally used for anything related to the Rolling Stones.

These are all great songs from the '66 period. Lots of acoustic guitars; melodies. the guitar in the intro alone is worth the price of admission. Keith working on his BU vocal stylings where he throws out a word here and there.

Take It Or Leave It is a deceptively fabulous piece of pop music writing with a nursery rhyme simplicity that belies the greatness of its melody.

Mick and Keith clearly had Spector and perhaps more obviously Gene Pitney in their sights when they set about creating this magical folk rock ode to teenage love.

At first the song sounds like one of those early throwaway hits the pair were churning out in order to accrue song writing royalties like We Were Falling In Love and Goodbye Girl but listen carefully and you’ll hear a really considered, masterful piece of pop music.

The song reminds me of something The Drifters might have recorded, all Spanish Harlem angst with that dramatic, semi bolero guitar strumming and drum beat that accentuates the passage to the chorus. This is studied song writing and shows just how far Mick and Keith had come in little over a year since they started writing together.

There is also a camp-fire charm to the song, a sing along quality missing from much of their material written in the last 35 or so years that comes especially from writing together in a partnership. You can hear the warmth come through in Mick’s vocals and the strum of those acoustic guitars.

That charm, openness, honest and even naïvety reverberates right through Aftermath which for me is the standout Stones’ album of the pre-rock years.

I'll leave it.

Drew

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Silver Dagger

That charm, openness, honest and even naïvety reverberates right through Aftermath which for me is the standout Stones’ album of the pre-rock years.

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drewmaster
I'll leave it.

Drew

Love it. Reminds me of a review by revered UK rock journalist Nick Kent in NME when the album 'Yes' by Yes came out. His one word review - No.

Melancholic, always liked it.

This one shows the diversity of the Stones from RB to POP and Rock to Country and Reggae

__________________________

"You can turn off and on more times than a flashin' neon sign" is such a great line!
It's quite a quirky little track, isn't it, and it sounds very Brian-esque to me, somehow.
The barely veiled invitation to murder (either take my life, or leave it) is a bit awkward, but ...
I'll take it. The track, that is - not the lyricist's life.

Beyond me that they included this song and left off the fantastic Sittin' On A Fence and Ride On, Baby.

Love it! What a wonderful period it must have been for the Stones, penning all those great pop songs round this time.

A lovely song on a lovely album. It's a shame that they keep on neglecting them. More of those songs are worth a shot in concert.

Horrible. Are they trying to copy something on Rubber Soul/Help? "Youve got a hide your love away"/something Rubber Soulish?

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Blueranger
Beyond me that they included this song and left off the fantastic Sittin' On A Fence and Ride On, Baby.

Surely the overlong Goin' Home instead of Take It Or Leave It should get the blame for the omission of Sittin' On A Fence and Ride On, Baby. Some editing could have got all three on though.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-30 18:39 by Silver Dagger.

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DandelionPowderman
Love it! What a wonderful period it must have been for the Stones, penning all those great pop songs round this time.

A lovely song on a lovely album. It's a shame that they keep on neglecting them. More of those songs are worth a shot in concert.

Yep totally agree Dandy - it just exudes mid-60s, pre-psychedelic London and great clubs like the Bag O Nails, The Cromwellian, Blaises and the WAG. Can you imagine what it was like in those days to go out clubbing, running into Mick, Brian or Keith, Pete Townshend, the Beatles or The Yardbirds and heading back for a jam at someone's pad in the early hours. I'm sure there must have been a few Stones' songs created in the early hours like that.

One of the reasons why Aftermath US is way better than the UK version


C

Don't we all have moment in our lifes, when singing along with this song makes the whole
world look better?

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

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with sssoul
"You can turn off and on more times than a flashin' neon sign" is such a great line!

And ain't that diction wonderful. With the exception of 'flashin' and 'neon' it's all single syllable words sung in a delivery that imitates that very strobular flashing. And he even those two words are neatly broken in half to fit in with the rest of the delivery.

This is high musical art - up there with Dylan's masterful word play.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-30 17:02 by Silver Dagger.

I'll take it!

Charming filler, nothing more.

Here's a version by Serbian pop group Siluete. They were pioneers of the rock scene in the former Yugoslavia.

Maybe it's filler, but I prefer 1966 filler to 1996 filler.

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71Tele
Maybe it's filler, but I prefer 1966 filler to 1996 filler.

That's an easy one, as there isn't any 1996 filler

I guess that minor chord scared Stu off of this one. It's an interesting tune for the Stones, imo, taking a shot at Beatle-esque harmonic pop. This one doesn't ring my bell, and although the guitar is pretty good, I just don't think Keith and Mick could compete with John and Paul in this department, the melody and vocals anyway.

peace

Regarding the filler debate, Take It Or Leave It is one of those songs that, rather than stand on its own as a potential hit, serve as one of the lesser/smaller pieces that make the overall picture of Aftermath so well-rounded and complete. It is one of the last examples of the catchy light pop songs they would ever write and record. Even on Between The Buttons the heavy rock and experimentation are starting to seep in, so Take It Or Leave It and Aftermath as a whole sort of represents the end of an era, that is, the end of their beginning, as they mature toward the signature sound and style they would become known for to later generations.

I'm also of the opinion, as stated by posters above, that Aftermath would have been stronger if the more similar companion tracks like Sittin' On A Fence and Ride On Baby had been included instead. Going Home isn't really a song per se, but just a half-developed idea that gets stretched into an extended vocal mantra and repetitive instrumental jam, and was likely included for the novelty of its length. It doesn't really have much flavor, and the inclusion of Fence and Ride On would have added a couple extra layers to Aftermath, and being companion (that is, similar) songs would have strengthened the effect of Take It Or Leave It as an album cut, in that the three songs together would have complimented one another as a mini-pop set and strengthened the effect of the album overall.

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DandelionPowderman

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71Tele
Maybe it's filler, but I prefer 1966 filler to 1996 filler.

That's an easy one, as there isn't any 1996 filler

Don't get technical with me.

It's interesting how it does seem to be a love it vs hate it kind of tune.

I love it.

I can't add much to the already spot-on eloquence of above posters re: its charms and attributes, other than I've always appreciated the stacattoed halting vocal delivery. Does it telegraph sadness/hurt, or anger, or fatigue, or some combo therein? Same as the lyrics. And the steadfast anthemic Phil Spectoresque drums. And the noodly organ (Jack Nitzsche?). If I had to guess, I'd think Keith wrote this about Linda Keith.

To me, something isn't filler if I find myself singing the song or playing it in my head, which I do sometimes with this song.

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stonehearted
Regarding the filler debate, Take It Or Leave It is one of those songs that, rather than stand on its own as a potential hit, serve as one of the lesser/smaller pieces that make the overall picture of Aftermath so well-rounded and complete. It is one of the last examples of the catchy light pop songs they would ever write and record. Even on Between The Buttons the heavy rock and experimentation are starting to seep in, so Take It Or Leave It and Aftermath as a whole sort of represents the end of an era, that is, the end of their beginning, as they mature toward the signature sound and style they would become known for to later generations.

I'm also of the opinion, as stated by posters above, that Aftermath would have been stronger if the more similar companion tracks like Sittin' On A Fence and Ride On Baby had been included instead. Going Home isn't really a song per se, but just a half-developed idea that gets stretched into an extended vocal mantra and repetitive instrumental jam, and was likely included for the novelty of its length. It doesn't really have much flavor, and the inclusion of Fence and Ride On would have added a couple extra layers to Aftermath, and being companion (that is, similar) songs would have strengthened the effect of Take It Or Leave It as an album cut, in that the three songs together would have complimented one another as a mini-pop set and strengthened the effect of the album overall.

Well said!

But imagine a double album with ROB, SOAF and possibly others included - what a statement it would have been! Love GH, btw. Couldn't have been omitted, imo. Too important for the album.