Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Thief In The Night
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards / Pierre De Beauport)

Ocean Way Recording Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US,
March 13 - July 1997

Keith Richards - lead vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano
Charlie Watts - drums
Ron Wood - electric guitar
Waddy Wachtel - electric guitar
Darryl Jones - bass
Pierre De Beauport - Fender Rhodes piano, Wurlitzer electric piano
Jim Keltner - percussion
Joe Sublett - saxophone
Darrell Leonard - trumpet
Blondie Chaplin - tambourine, backing vocals
Bernard Fowler - backing vocals

All the way, all the way, I miss your touch, baby, yeah
Like a thief in the night, it can't be right, like a thief
I know where your place is and it is not with him
I'm the one who is out here baby, out here, just looking in
He ain't gonna like it at all, no, no, that's good, I know the feeling
Just you wait there in the dark, in the dark, baby, yeah, how his dog can bark
Like a thief in the night, like a thief in the night
Like a thief in the night, I'm gonna steal what's mine
Oh, I'm gonna break the laws, oh, but I'll get through your door
But you wait and see, yeah, I'm gonna get ya, get you free, like a thief
I found out where he keeps you, I've even been inside
You check under your pillow, baby, you'll get the message
If I see you at your window, well, then I'll know no one can separate us
Like a thief in the night, like a thief in the night, like a thief in the night
Yeah, you can set me up, you can turn me in or burn me, baby
Well, but you are in my skin, the only reason I'm breaking in
I'm coming baby, yeah, I'm breaking in
Like a thief in the night, come on, yeah, oh yeah
Like a thief in the night, oh baby, you know what I'm talking, come on
You can call the police on me baby, set me up and then bust me
Come on, I dare you baby, come on, come on, I'll take the drop for you
Soften the blow, yeah, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, you know what I mean
Nothing I can do about it, it's the power of it, come on, like a thief

Produced by Don Was & The Glimmer Twins

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Bridges To Babylon” CD
(Virgin Records VJCP 25333) Japan, September 26, 1997

That's a BIG Keith-Favorite of Mine!

2 1 2 0

What an astonishing piece of music

^^^^^ I couldn't agree more . The song is gorgeous, both musically and lyrically. The studio version is sublime. I also love the live version recorded in San Jose, CA, on 4/20/1999, in which Keith deviates from the studio version by changing the cadence of the lyrics a bit and it works beautifully.

Is this a song about burglary or babies?

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Stoneage
Is this a song about burglary or babies?

it's a song about winning a woman back who has left the singer for another man.

burglary of a babe .....



ROCKMAN

I usually love the songs with Keith on lead vocals, but this is one tedious piece of work. The best bathroom break song ever!

Best song of B2B!

It's hard to believe this gem had to share CD space with tripe like "Anybody Seen..."

And the intro with backwards tape à la Hendrix is fantastic!

Fantastic song. The best of B2B.
It's part of that particular athmospheric not-going-anywhere-gently style that he developed on Talk is Cheap and Main Offender. It sounds very ad-lib and loose but it falls into place, like an impressionist painting.

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matxil
...It sounds very ad-lib and loose but it falls into place, like an impressionist painting.

Perfect & poetic description

"Not-going-anywhere", you said it Matxil. I'm not at all a fan of Keith's ballads. I don't think they have anything to do with geniality...

A hazy, gauzy, dreamlike, ethereal masterpiece. Thief in the Night casts a hypnotic spell from the outset, with the hushed guitar and jazzy brushstroke percussion creating an atmosphere shrouded in unfathomable mystery. Through the haze, Keith’s vocals are as warm, gentle and reassuring as a lover’s caress, and yet the lyrics convey a ruthless determination to steal what’s his, by any means necessary. It's one of the most romantic songs I’ve ever heard, yet without a trace of sentimentality. And those backing vocals and horns add soul and depth beyond words.

Mesmerizing, transcendent, and haunting … a work of genius, all the way.

Drew



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2015-06-20 12:31 by drewmaster.

Yeah, sure Drewmaster. He is Keith Richards. Everything he touches becomes a stroke of geniality. Not?

Yeah I love this song - ethereal masterpiece is a good description. I remember at the time this was the one song off that album that really stood out to all my casual stones fan mates..

Dang, Drewmaster - what a beautifully well-written description!

I've always assumed the song was about liberating Anita from Brian.

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Stoneage
Yeah, sure Drewmaster. He is Keith Richards. Everything he touches becomes a stroke of geniality. Not?

Not. Stuff like "Losing My Touch" and "Infamy" is quite disposable, unfortunately.

Drew

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Plink
Dang, Drewmaster - what a beautifully well-written description!

I've always assumed the song was about liberating Anita from Brian.

Thanks Plink! It's a safe bet that Anita played a role in this one, as she has in so much of his work.

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Plink

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matxil
...It sounds very ad-lib and loose but it falls into place, like an impressionist painting.

Perfect & poetic description

+1

Drew

This one I truly love!

Would like to give some credit to the great Rob Fraboni. Be it his experience with Jimmy Miller, be it his links with Jamaica, but whenever he crosses his path with Keith, a masterpiece comes up!

C

An intriguing song with fabulous, other-worldly atmospherics that like some shapeshifting science fiction creature of the imagination refuses to be tied down to a single form.

Every time I listen to it something new jumps out of the mix at me.

Thief In The Night rolls in like a fog moving slowly across the waterfront of a major city - dimming, obscuring and then revealing again tones and textures of this late night/early morning peon to unrest from a fevered mind.

For me this is very much like part 2 of the song Thru & Thru from Voodoo Lounge and sounds like part of the soundtrack to some Keith Richards film noire fantasy, yet to see the light of day.

Was it ever used in The Sopranos or a Marty Scorcese film? If not then it's ripe for picking.

I'd be interested to hear the genesis of this tune. Was is it really meant for the Stones or was it more a Keith solo venture, despite Mick's co-writing credit.

great track, such a hypnotic groove to this track. Keith and the glimmers at there peak !!!

Beautiful song, and paired perfectly with How Can I Stop. The flip sides of Keith's personality.

Keith is at his best on his ballads, IMO.

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drewmaster
Thanks Plink! It's a safe bet that Anita played a role in this one ...

Hm well ... Great lyrics aren't usually about just one person/situation, but this one
was widely said to refer to a particular situation with Patti; and then in Life
Keith said it was about a very early girlfriend, way before any Stones crossed paths with Anita.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-06-08 15:37 by with sssoul.

i don't think I've ever managed to get all the way through this track. Long, meandering, but with no hooks to keep you. Isn't there yet another long keith mumble-ballad right after this on BtB?

Give me All About You or Thru and Thru any day

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with sssoul

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drewmaster
Thanks Plink! It's a safe bet that Anita played a role in this one ...

Hm well ... Great lyrics aren't usually about just one person/situation, but this one
was widely said to refer to a particular situation with Patti; and then in Life
Keith said it was about a very early girlfriend, way before any Stones crossed paths with Anita.

Could be the south London Indian girl he refers to from around 62 who used to come see the Stones with some friends.

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peoplewitheyes
i don't think I've ever managed to get all the way through this track. Long, meandering, but with no hooks to keep you. Isn't there yet another long keith mumble-ballad right after this on BtB?

Give me All About You or Thru and Thru any day

So you never heard How Can I Stop? I love both Thief and HCIS, 12 minutes of Keith blissness...

a latter day classic and rare Keith song where I don't wonder whether it might have sounded better with Mick at the vocal helm.

B2B is Keith's best album with the Stones as a vocalist, and this track is partly responsible for that. One of his best Stones vocal songs after the 1989 reunion.

Agree with most of the above;
A wonderful track and great vox,
Almost as good as Thru & Thru.
Fantastic live, wish he'd bring some of his 90s songs back for an occasional live outing...