Nice work. Nice group effort!

WIKI:

Memo from Turner
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"Memo from Turner"



Single by Mick Jagger
from the album Performance
B-side "Natural Magic"
Released 23 October 1970
Format 7", 45rpm
Recorded September 1968, Olympic Studios, London
Genre Rock
Length 4:09
Label Decca Records
Writer(s) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
Producer(s) Jack Nitzsche
Mick Jagger singles chronology
"Memo from Turner"
(1970) "State of Shock"
(1984)
"Memo from Turner"
Song by The Rolling Stones from the album Metamorphosis
Released 6 June 1975
Recorded August 1968, Olympic Studios, London
Length 2:45
Writer(s) Jagger/Richards
Producer(s) Jimmy Miller

"Memo from Turner" is a solo record by Mick Jagger, featuring the slide guitar by Ry Cooder, from the soundtrack of Performance, in which Jagger played the leading role of Turner, a reclusive rock star. It was re-released in October 2007 on a seventeen-song retrospective compilation album The Very Best of Mick Jagger, making a re-appearance as a Jagger solo effort. After its original release in 1970, it had been included on Rolling Stones compilations, such as Singles Collection: The London Years as a track credited to the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership. "Memo from Turner" was ranked #92 in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs list of Rolling Stone.[1]
Versions[edit]

Two different versions of "Memo from Turner" have been released, and another version is available on bootleg recordings.

The first version, which is not officially released, is a slow, brooding version recorded by members of the band Traffic. It features Steve Winwood on all instruments except drums, which are played by Jim Capaldi. The second version, released on Metamorphosis in 1975 on the Allen Klein Decca/London pre-existing legacy contracts of the Stones 1960s recordings, was a different version recorded by The Rolling Stones in November 1968, and has a looser feel than the released version. This version supposedly features Al Kooper on guitar, and perhaps Keith Richards as well. Either Charlie Watts or Jim Capaldi plays drums on this recording. Credited to "Jagger/Richards", it is not clear how many of the Rolling Stones besides Jagger actually played on it.

The third version of the song, typified by its slide guitar, was the one recorded for the soundtrack to the movie Performance, starring Mick Jagger as the song title's "Turner". It is featured prominently in the movie, with Mick Jagger, as Turner, lip-synching it. This is the more well-known version of the song, as it was released as a solo single by Jagger in England in 1970 and is featured on the later Singles Collection: The London Years. This track was recorded in Los Angeles in early 1970, and uses the vocal track of the first, slow version. The tape of Jagger's vocals was sent to Jack Nitzsche, where all music parts were recorded by Ry Cooder on slide guitar, Russ Titelman (guitar), Randy Newman (piano), Jerry Scheff (bass) and Gene Parsons (drums).[2]

Besides the differing lineup between the two released versions, there are also slight changes to the lyrics. The track was reviewed as Jagger:
...puts on his best drawling speak-sing voice for the lyrics, spinning bizarre mini-snapshots of decadent, cruel gangster behavior... The music isn't grim, though; it's more in a sly, ironic happy-go-lucky vein, as if to illustrate the callous, carefree glee gangsters take in such antics. It's not a celebration of the gangster mentality, though, so much as a subtle, mocking look at its decadence, with hints of repressed homosexuality and almost gruesome imagery of dog-eat-dog behavior." [3]

The lyric about "the man who works the soft machine" may be a reference to the William S. Burroughs novel The Soft Machine. Burroughs and writer Robert Palmer assume this connection in a 1972 Rolling Stone magazine interview, and strong Burroughsian themes are contained in the film the song was written for.
Ronnie Wood performed "Memo from Turner" live at various club gigs in 1987-88, including some of his shows with Bo Diddley.

Martin Scorsese used the track -- the solo version by Mick Jagger, incorrectly credited as the Rolling Stones version -- in a scene from Goodfellas where Ray Liotta's character Henry Hill is driving to the hospital to pick up his brother after unsuccessfully trying to sell some pistol silencers to Jimmy Conway.

[en.wikipedia.org]


+++++++++++

Released as a single in 1970 only in England. This version was credited only to Jagger. It can be found on The Singles Collection.

[www.songfacts.com]


+++++++++++

MEMO FROM TURNER

Recorded on November 17, 1968. Released in 1975 on the Metamorphosis album.

The first lineup below is the one heard on the Stones Metamorphosis album. The second lineup is from the Performance movie soundtrack, and also on the Stones album The London Years, although this second version is not a Stones song at all, but was recorded earlier as a solo Mick Jagger song and only features Mick, and has slightly different lyrics. Why it ended up on a Stones album is not known. There is a question about who is playing drums on the Metamorphosis cut. One thing for sure is that Keith Richards didn't play guitar on any of the session's tracks.


[www.keno.org]

++++++++






++++++++++++

Some copies had "Natural Magic" erroneously credited to Mick Jagger.



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

Quote
exilestones
Released as a single in 1970 only in England.

UK (not just England) also Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Japan.
Probably others too.

[www.45cat.com]
Scroll to the bottom of the page for linked releases.


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



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2016-08-14 23:37 by Deltics.

Quote
triceratops

This is a completed and whole version. Just alternative and different. Sounds a bit like Traffic's Mr Fantasy. The amusing part is that the youtube video of this has all these Prince Jones stills and he did not participate in the least.

I should have said "officially released soundtrack version coming later."

Yeah, it's a cool version, more normal than the soundtrack version though.

Indeed, zero Jones involvement in any of these.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-08-14 22:01 by His Majesty.

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-08-14 22:04 by His Majesty.

Quote
1963luca0
DECCA Records - yes! It's been used a contract filler - had no interest in the song and shortened it to a lenght suitable for a 7".

The single and the soundtrack album version are the same length. Approx 4:05.


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

the Uncertain History of ‘Memo from Turner’
LONDON - September 1968

The very first take of ‘Memo from Turner’ was recorded in London, in September 1968 by the complete Rolling Stones line-up (minus Brian Jones?).
Being he the new producer of the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Miller produced this session that was
meant to record a rough version tape to be used as backing-track during the shooting of the
movie ‘Performance’. At the same session, it seems probable that Mick Jagger alone recorded
‘Come On In My Kitchen’ for the same purposes.
Mick Jagger - vocals, maracas (both later removed)
Keith Richards – guitar
Brian Jones - ? (unconfirmed)
Bill Wyman – bass
Charlie Watts - drums

LONDON, Inner Sessions, Marleybone Street, 26 September 1968
• from Bill Wyman and Ray Coleman’s “Stone Alone”
Then there were the court appearances. Brian truly poured his heart out when he appeared at the Inner Sessions at Marleybone Street magistrates’ court on 26 September. And it worked.

IRELAND, October 1968
• from Bill Wyman and Ray Coleman’s “Stone Alone”
While Mick was busy filming, Marianne was in Ireland, holidaying with her mother in Tuam, County Galway. (...) After Marianne had been in Ireland for nearly a month, Mick went to see her, flying to Shannon with a Harley Street specialist, Dr. Victor Bloom. Marianne was obviously going through problems. (...) At one point, she had treatment at Protiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe.

LONDON, October/ November 1968
•from Bill Wyman and Ray Coleman’s “Stone Alone”
On the ‘Performance’ set, meanwhile, according to Donald Cammell: “Keith was trying to sabotage my movie because he was jealous of Mick with Anita. “

LONDON, 11 November 1968
According to the most of sources, today Mick Jagger ends shooting his parts.

• Philip Norman’s book ‘The Stones’ quoted director Donald Cammell as saying:
“I kept asking Mick, “Where’s the goddamn song?”.
• According to Norman:
“Memo from Turner” – though credited to Jagger/Richards – was actually a collaboration between
Jagger and Cammell, an unlikely compositional pairing born out of necessity. It was the Stones who
originally attempted to record it but Cammell claimed that Richards tried to sabotage the track
again.”

LONDON – Morgan Studios, 16 November 1968
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Producer: Jimmy Miller.
Sound engineer: Andy Johns

LONDON - Olympic Sound Studios, 17 November 1968
• Sean Eagan “The Making Of ‘Let It Bleed’”
“Though ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ would ultimately become a lush, multi-layered
extravaganza, Kooper says that in no way did it initially come across as something destined to be
an epic. (omissis). Kooper says, “We did an overdub (to the early version recorded the day before)
where Keith put an electric guitar and I played the organ at the same time... We were (improvising)
and we both had a good little turn... Thaw was a lot of fun and that kind of changed it a lot when
those two things went on the track. And I said to Mick that night, ‘If you ever decide that you want to
put horns on this, that would just be the icing on the cake in terms of where I got the piano part
from”.

LONDON – Olympic Sound Studios, 18 November 1968
•Sean Egan
“Eventually – and belatedly – Jagger would take Kooper up on his offer but at the time the assumption by the Stones seems to have that the track was just about done, for on Kooper’s second (18 November 1968) day of recording there was no attention paid to ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ at all. Instead, energies were focused on overdubs of ‘Memo From Turner’, a track earmarked for soundtrack of the Performance movie. As only overdubs were required, Watts and Wyman were not present. Not, to Kooper’s recollection, was Miller, with only Andy Johns accompanying himself, Jagger and Richards in the studio.”
”(omissis)” Kooper himsels says of the already recorded track on which he overdubbed, “I assumed that it was the Stones and nobody said anything different to me.” To the best of his recollection, there was already a Jagger vocal on the track when he began overdubbing with Richards.”
“It’s difficult to asses what stage in this fraught process Jagger and Richards had reached the evening Kooper worked on the track. (omissis) Despite the claims against Richards of non-cooperation, a lot of work seems to have been done on this song, for the two officially released versions do not - according to Kooper himself – feature Al Kooper’s handiwork. Kooper played not keyboards but guitar at the session he attended.”
“(Due to) the affair between Jagger and Pallenberg, “Keith just refused to get down with it”.


•Philip Norman:
“With Keith against in the studio, the song sounded just awful – still and lifeless.”
Mick Jagger - vocals, maracas (both later removed)
Al Kooper - guitar (overdubbed at a second session and later removed by Jack Nitzche)
Keith Richards - guitar (overdubbed at a second session and most probably later removed by Jack Nitzche)
Andy Johns – engineer

This ‘awful’ version could be the one that ended up in the ‘Metamorphosis’ album, in 1975.

LONDON, 19 November 1968
Marianne Faithfull is admitted to a nursing home, somewhere in North London.

LONDON, 20 November 1968
Today, Marianne Faithfull loses her baby, at five and months.
Although lyric variations for ‘Memo From Turner’ are well documentated, the rumors about a
"the baby's dead, my lady said" line have never been confirmed.

LONDON, 21-26 November 1968
•Philip Norman
“Jagger recruited a stellar line-up of musician friends to try for a better version, including Ry Cooder and Traffic’s Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi, and it was this version that ended up on the Performance soundtrack, also released as a Mick Jagger solo single.”

Phil Norman, at this point, gets less precise than usual. No doubts that Mick Jagger requested the help of Winwood and Capaldi, but Ry Cooder was introduced by Jack Nitzsche, in Los Angeles, at a later stage. On top of that, it’s not true that this version was featured in the soundtrack of ‘Performance’; it just became the guiding-track used in Los Angeles, few weeks later.

Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi recorded the rhythm section of the song (bass, drums and maracas). Once the pace was set, Steve Winwood constructed the song by overdubbing keyboards (piano and organ) and guitar. Most probably, the last overdub were Jagger’s lyrics.
Mick Jagger - vocals
Steve winwood - bass, guitar, piano and organ (except for Winwood’s bass parts, rest was later removed by Jack
Nitzsche)
Jim Capaldi - drums
Jimmy Miller - producer
Andy Johns - engineer


LONDON, London Disc-Cutting Centre Ltd., 27 November 1968.
363 Oxford Street, LONDON, W1

Making of a two-side 7” acetate featuring two littly different versions, both lasting 4:00.
Being a Warner Brothers production, Mick Jagger didn’t use the facilities of DECCA Records, even
if the ‘Memo From Turner’ will be used by DECCA Records a contract filler, after DECCA Records rejected ‘@#$%& Blues’ as the group’s last single.



LOS ANGELES, Western Studios, March/April 1969

Jack Nitzche was leading the whole ‘Performance’ soundtrack project and was recording in Los Angeles, togheter with Randy Newman and Ry Cooder. He received a tape from the still non-satisfied Mick Jagger. Under Nitzsche’s direction, Winwood’s guitar part was removed to let room for Ry Cooder’s slide guitar and for the rhythm guitar of Russ Titelman. Again, they removed the piano and organ tracks to let Randy Newman play new piano parts.

The ‘Nitzsche’ version recorded in Los Angeles will be used for all the ‘Performance’ movie soundtrack, on Warner Brothers Records. The definitive line-up of this version seems to be:
Mick Jagger - vocals, maracas
Ry Cooder - slide guitars
Russ Titelman - guitar
Randy Newman - piano
Steve Winwood - bass
Jim Capaldi - drums
Jack Nitzsche - arranger and producer


Being them credited as players on the movie sound-track released by Warner Brothers, some sources claim that Jerry Scheff played bass and that Gene Parsons was on drums. Actually,
there’s no evidence at all that they are part of the line-up.
LONDON, Olympic Sound Studios, 23 April 1969
• Glyn Johns “Sound Man”
“Later in 1969, on Stones session for ‘Let It Bleed’, Keith didn’t show (and Brian, too). So while we were waiting, Nicky started jamming on the piano with Charlie and Bill. Pretty soon Mick got a harmonica and was soon joined by Ry Cooder, who was sitting in with the band that night. Jack Nitzsche had brought him over fdrom California to play on the soundtrack to the movie ‘Performance’ that we had finished a couple of days before.”
In my opion, Glyn John’s words do not affect the whole picture. John talks about the whole soundtrack and he’s not referring to ‘Memo From Turner’, indeed. On the album cover of ‘Performance’, Glyn Johns does not get any credit and the record in not in the Selected Discography of his “Sound Man”.

• Russ Titelman interview by Timothy White (as published on www.spectropop.com)
In 1969, you found yourself playing guitar on 'Memo From Turner', for Jack Nitzsche's soundtrack to the Mick Jagger film, Performance.

Actually, the core of the studio band on that record was Randy Newman, Ry Cooder and myself, and it was recorded in Los Angeles at Western Studios. But Jagger wasn't there during our sessions. The band Traffic had done a recording of 'Memo From Turner', but Jagger and Nitzsche didn't like it. So we replaced their track, playing along to Jagger's existing vocal and a click track. I played the Keith Richards-sounding "jing-a-jing" on rhythm guitar, and Ry Cooder did the slide guitar parts. And then Jack and I wrote 'Gone Dead Train', and Randy Newman sang it, and we cut it live. They needed a song for the credits and Jack said he wanted to lyrically use all this voodoo and blues terminology for this story of this faded rock star, a burnt-out character who can't get it up anymore. I saw the track part as Chuck Berry-like in feel but more raucous.
The Performance soundtrack marked your first recording for Warner Brothers Records, but what were the exact circumstances that led directly to your 25-year association with the label?
Well, in the early '60s I used to go over to Reprise Records on Melrose and hang out with Steve Venet, who was the head of A&R there; Steve was the brother of Nick, who produced the Lettermen for Capitol. Anyhow, this was before Reprise, Sinatra's label, was sold to Warners, and I used to see Mo Ostin there. Everything was completely informal then.
DECCA Records had to release one last single by the Rolling Stones, but had no interest in what promised to be a commercial flop. As a compromise, the record was distributed abroad only. In England - and in some other selected Countries - , Warner Brothers Records issued a “Performance” sound-track album, but never lifted singles off of it.

There is nothing «awful» with the Metamorphosis version, imo. Both electric guitars sound great. Is there really an acoustic in there?

There is a version 3, which is very different from offcial and from the 'Metamorphosis' version. I had heard it in the past, but my boot colection is big and very unorganized, so often I just stab at random. I know Mathijs has always said there were 3 obvious versions. Two days ago I heard Mach III, and I was going to post about it here.
IMO 1 and 3 sound like Traffic versions, and '2 (Metamorphosis') I always thought was a stones version. But now judging by this thread, seems like Keith never played this song.
Great song btw

Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
There is a version 3, which is very different from offcial and from the 'Metamorphosis' version. I had heard it in the past, but my boot colection is big and very unorganized, so often I just stab at random. I know Mathijs has always said there were 3 obvious versions. Two days ago I heard Mach III, and I was going to post about it here.
IMO 1 and 3 sound like Traffic versions, and '2 (Metamorphosis') I always thought was a stones version. But now judging by this thread, seems like Keith never played this song.
Great song btw

I'm pretty sure Keith plays the guitar in the left channel on the Metamorphosis version. I recognise his phrasing.

1963luca0...

No acoustic on any of takes of MFT.

Mick is actually playing Come on in my kitchen in the film, ie what you hear is what he actually did at that moment. He's not miming/it's not an earlier studio recording.

The bass was replaced for the official soundtrack version.

Could never understand how the DECCA contract was such that they seemed 'to owe them one track'.
Might have been less hassle to just have had an additional track on the LIB album.

Quote
jlowe
Could never understand how the DECCA contract was such that they seemed 'to owe them one track'.
Might have been less hassle to just have had an additional track on the LIB album.

They didn't owe them "one track", they owed Decca one more single as per their contract.


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

Htw is partly based on ry cooders guitar on this one. The licks were copied by Keith.

This is such a magnificent track. I love this song.

From Keno's site: (is it accurate?)

Recorded on November 17, 1968. Released in 1975 on the Metamorphosis album.

The first lineup below is the one heard on the Stones Metamorphosis album. The second lineup is from the Performance movie soundtrack, and also on the Stones album The London Years, although this second version is not a Stones song at all, but was recorded earlier as a solo Mick Jagger song and only features Mick, and has slightly different lyrics. Why it ended up on a Stones album is not known. There is a question about who is playing drums on the Metamorphosis cut. One thing for sure is that Keith Richards didn't play guitar on any of the session's tracks.

MEMO FROM TURNER (Metamorphosis version)
(Jagger/Richards)

Lead Vocal: Mick Jagger Guitars: Brian Jones, Steve Winwood & Al Kooper Bass: Bill Wyman Drums: Charlie Watts (?) or Jim Capali (?) Keyboards: Al Kooper

Didn't I see you down in San Antone on a hot and dusty night
Weren't you eating eggs in Sammy's there when the black man drew the knife
Didn't you drown the Jew in Rampton when he washed his sleeveless shirt
With a Spanish speaking gentleman, the one that we call Kirk

Come now, gentlemen, there must be some mistake
How forgetful I'm becoming now, you fixed your business straight

Weren't you at the Convacoby back in 1956
You're a faggot, little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick
You're a lashing, smashing hunk of man, your sweat shines sweet and strong
Your organ's working perfectly but there's a part that's screwed on wrong

Ah weren't you at the Coke convention back in 1965
You're the misbred, gray executive that I've seen heavily advertised
You're the man that's a careful baby man and can only be so clean
You're the man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine

Come now, gentlemen, your love is all I crave
You'll still be in the circus when I'm laughing, laughing in my grave

Yeah when the old men do the fighting and the young men all look on
And the young girls eat their mommy's' meat from tubes of plasticon
So be wary, please, my gentle friend of all the skins you breed
They have a nasty habit, that is they bite the hand that feeds

So remember who you say you are and keep your trousers clean
Boys will be boys and play with toys so be strong with your beast
So Rosie dear, don't you think it's queer, so stop me if you please
The baby's dead, my lady said "You schmucks all work for me"

MEMO FROM TURNER (London Years/Performance version)
(Jagger/Richards)

Lead Vocal: Mick Jagger Guitars: Ry Cooder (Slide), Russ Titelman Bass: Jerry Scheff Drums: Gene Parsons Keyboards: Randy Newman

Didn't I see you down in San Antone on a hot and dusty night?
We were eating eggs in Sammy's when the black man there drew his knife.
Aw, you drowned that Jew in Rampton as he washed his sleeveless shirt,
You know, that Spanish-speaking gentlemen, the one we all called "Kurt."

Come now, gentleman, I know there's some mistake.
How forgetful I'm becoming, now you fixed your bus'ness straight.

I remember you in Hemlock Road in nineteen fifty-six.
You're a faggy little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick.
You're a lashing, smashing hunk of man;
Your sweat shines sweet and strong.
Your organs working perfectly, but there's a part that's not screwed on.

Weren't you at the Coke convention back in nineteen sixty-five
You're the misbred, grey executive I've seen heavily advertised.
You're the great, gray man whose daughter licks policemen's buttons clean.
You're the man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine.

Come now, gentleman, your love is all I crave.
You'll still be in the circus when I'm laughing, laughing on my grave.

When the old men do the fighting and the young men all look on.
And the young girls eat their mothers meat from tubes of plasticon.
Be wary of these my gentle friends of all the skins you breed.
They have a tasty habit - they eat the hands that bleed.

So remember who you say you are and keep your noses clean.
Boys will be boys and play with toys so be strong with your beast.
Oh Rosie dear, doncha think it's queer, so stop me if you please.
The baby is dead, my lady said, "You gentlemen, why you all work for me?"

In all the facts about the sessions and the players, it is never really adressed who wrote the song. I have read too that Cammell was involved with Jagger in writing, but surely this pertains to the lyrics. Who wrote the changes?

Jack Nitzsche would be my guess. I don't believe Donald Cammell had any contribution short of the screenplay playing into the lyrics a bit.