It always rubbed me kind of wrong, when I saw Jagger tell about writing lyrics. He says you do it after breakfast, and you just write, write; anything and everything that comes to your head. Don't worry about rhyme or meter. You fix all that later.

At first I liked this notion: stream of consciousness; open the gates etc.
But say you do this over a period of a couple weeks. Say, the time you allot for "lyric writing" towards end of sessions. What are you really going to come up with after breakfast on Thursday? After you've already sat there on Monday and Tuesday?

Nobody wants to go through it, but divorce, and heartbreak, and loss and grief; 3 day benders - this makes for good lyrics.

Well between "Old Habits Die Hard," "The Blind Leading the Blind," and "Biggest Mistake;" Mick tackled these very subjects with a degree of honesty and introspection. There wasn't exactly overwhelming support from Stones fans, sadly.

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HonkeyTonkFlash
Without bothering to think too hard, Fool To Cry may be the blandest sappiest lyrics in the Stones canon.

Yes, but it still has something -- an irresistible melodic hook, even a memorable supporting bass riff... ultimately a reminder of why the Stones are always more of a singles band than an album band. An album band is one of concepts and jams, but a singles band provides a collection of songs you remember for one reason or another, each one a complete story, idea, riff, all encapsulated in 3 or 4 minutes, which the rest of the album has nothing to do with.

Yep, Fool To Cry -- one reason why Black and Blue was a great half an album. Hand Of Fate and Memory Motel were the other two... now if I could just think what that other, fourth song on the album was...

Well... the Stones are not an album band -- unless you think of album titles as albums. I mean, what is Aftermath? That's not a concept. It's an umbrella, under which you refer to a collection of songs, where one song has nothing to do with the other. The sum being greater than the parts, if all the songs work together. Or Fool To Cry, being a standout... in a collection of tracks that don't necessarily complement one another.

I mean, Black and Blue, what the hell is that? What does that signify? Just an album title we all remember. But Fool To Cry? Great song. Top 10, or something, wasn't it? The public loved it at the time. But Black and Blue? Blah and Blah. Just a couple of singles, and a couple more standout tracks.

Now what was that fourth song I was thinking of? I know that album had four songs...

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Elmo Lewis
Chuck Berry's only Number 1 song:

I want to play with my ding-a-ling.

I think this says a lot more about the fans, than about the musicians.

"Take all the pain...It's yours anyway"

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stonehearted
... ultimately a reminder of why the Stones are always more of a singles band than an album band. An album band is one of concepts and jams, but a singles band provides a collection of songs you remember for one reason or another, each one a complete story, idea, riff, all encapsulated in 3 or 4 minutes, which the rest of the album has nothing to do with.

...

Well... the Stones are not an album band -- unless you think of album titles as albums. I mean, what is Aftermath? That's not a concept. It's an umbrella, under which you refer to a collection of songs, where one song has nothing to do with the other. The sum being greater than the parts, if all the songs work together.

Don't agree, SH. There are different ways a collection of songs can be called an "album," I think, in your sense of the word. (if I understand you correctly.)

There's the classic "concept" album, i.e., Tommy or Village Green, which is thematically coherent. But there are also records that hang together sonically that could be considered albums. I would submit that Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, and Some Girls could all lay claim to being albums in that sense, produced (therefore) by an album band.

The Stones are very definitely *NOT* a jam band of course ... but I think they have on occasion produced groups of songs that have hung together nicely as albums in a "musical vibe" sense, if you will.

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VoodooLounge13
I was listening to Bridges last week, and it occurred to me that that might have been the last album where the lyrics were somewhat well thought out, IMO. I genuinely like ABB and played it for months straight when it came out. Musically I thought it was a solid album with some really good tunes on there, but overall, lyrically, I felt it to be somewhat lacking. Same to be said about several other songs written since then. Mick's rhyming scheme is almost cringe-worthy to me, such as in Doom and Gloom. They just seem to be easy, cliché lyrics as opposed to what would be conjured up back in the day.

Then, I stumbled across the below article today in searching out the Super Deluxe of SF, and it made me wonder if Mick isn't maybe more concerned with his overall image these days than really laying down some controversial, thought-provoking lyrics. Even Sweet NeoCon could have been better than it was.

PopMatters Article

Thoughts? I am talking about the section of the article where it talks about Mick not having the nerve to write the same lyrics for Brown Sugar today. I found that interesting.

My thoughts: couldn't get past first 2 paragraphs of your linked article, because the uninformed doofus who wrote it asks:
Do 'we' really need the 'Sticky Fingers Super Deluxe' release?
Uh, YEAH, if you had a clue it contains some of the BEST LIVE IN ONE PLACE
Roundhouse Leeds Mick Taylor early 70's blow your head off
'CYHMK' alternative never before release
and more I'm not explaining nor should I on a RS fan site!
I loathe 'writers' who don't research, want to be oppositional just to have a subject they can hear themselves bitche about and call it thought provoking.
Lyrics? Song writing?
Worst on the subject is the 'we wrote down random words on paper, mixed them up in a hat, then randomly pulled them out'. Yes, famous author said it once,
still the laziest, demeaning to the reader/listeners intelligence act ever.

Thoughts on lyrics surviving the passage of time-
'Some Girls' more than 'Brown Sugar'
Howlin’ Wolf’s 'Commit a Crime'
poison in my coffee
did not make the era transfer for me (evil bill Cosby maybe)
but did make me stop and reflect on the impoverished black woman
perhaps her abusive husband crossed the line to her children
no divorce no one cares or believes her
could be driven
that's all I got.

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stonehearted

Quote
HonkeyTonkFlash
Without bothering to think too hard, Fool To Cry may be the blandest sappiest lyrics in the Stones canon.

Yes, but it still has something -- an irresistible melodic hook, even a memorable supporting bass riff... ultimately a reminder of why the Stones are always more of a singles band than an album band. An album band is one of concepts and jams, but a singles band provides a collection of songs you remember for one reason or another, each one a complete story, idea, riff, all encapsulated in 3 or 4 minutes, which the rest of the album has nothing to do with.

Yep, Fool To Cry -- one reason why Black and Blue was a great half an album. Hand Of Fate and Memory Motel were the other two... now if I could just think what that other, fourth song on the album was...

Well... the Stones are not an album band -- unless you think of album titles as albums. I mean, what is Aftermath? That's not a concept. It's an umbrella, under which you refer to a collection of songs, where one song has nothing to do with the other. The sum being greater than the parts, if all the songs work together. Or Fool To Cry, being a standout... in a collection of tracks that don't necessarily complement one another.

I mean, Black and Blue, what the hell is that? What does that signify? Just an album title we all remember. But Fool To Cry? Great song. Top 10, or something, wasn't it? The public loved it at the time. But Black and Blue? Blah and Blah. Just a couple of singles, and a couple more standout tracks.

Now what was that fourth song I was thinking of? I know that album had four songs...

OK, I'll fess up to liking FTC musically. But Lyrically? From the same people who brought you nasty in your face rockers like Live With Me, Gimme Shelter and Street Fighting Man? My accusations of sap remain... I could say the same for Angie. I know the Stones encompass multiple genres but the FTC and Angie type stuff is not what drew me to them in the first place by any means. I think the Ya Yas version of Sympathy was my introduction to them. To go from that to Fool To Cry?

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

Never really cared for "Fool to Cry," but the album has "Memory Motel." That along with "Worried About You" were the perfect ballads from the BLACK AND BLUE sessions.

Another thought:
It's the ultimate catch 22, isn't it?
We plead for details of our favorite pieces
'tell us how you did it, tell us how this writing came to be, tell us tell us'
oh. like that?

And galdarnit now 'Fool to Cry' from Sucking in the 70's
yes I had that vinyl
I'm hearing Jagger's vocal and the piano
oh too young to look at in the official RS promo
maybe this

[m.youtube.com]

Wait, wait 'Fool to Cry' was the soundtrack for that hideous awful show
'Girls' on HBO? Just read that, not cool cup of tea association.

edited for insensitivity



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-04-23 00:32 by 35love.