who wrote them, Mick, Keith or Mick and Keith?

Keith or I might have had the initial idea (for a song), but after a while you can't separate who wrote it. We just sit down and do them, sometimes in the studio, sometimes at home. Like here, this song, Memory Motel, I wrote the first part, the piano part, which I played. Course I had to take time off from the Stones... that takes a lot of my time, let me TELL you... but I don't mind, it's my own time - to do my own solo stuff on the LP, but more of that later. So anyway... I play the bloody piano, right? Okay, so I'm going, mmmmm-mmmmm, a-mmmmmm, and Keith goes, hmmmmmgghh... uhhh... that sounds all right..., and I say, Well, I only just started it, I ain't finished yet, 'cause I like to get everything finished, done, written on paper, typed up, all written out. But he doesn't like that so he says, I've got a middle bit here, and he sits down at the other piano, the electric piano, and he plays the middle bit. Then I learn that and he learns my part, and THEN we make the track, and I sing what I've got. And then I go and finish the words. They're all done in a day. And in fact, when Keith wrote the middle bit, he did those words... he goes... mmmm... she's got a mind... of her own... Anyway, that's how, for instance, we wrote that song. Boring, isn't it?
- Mick Jagger, 1976

My favorite Stones song - I love every bit of it, especially Keith's vocal.

Takes me back to 1976.

After 18 years of seeing the band, I finally got to see it live in Charlotte 1999. Worth all the money and time!

from a fellow southerner in Charlotte
a great show, Charlotte '99
am I wrong in placing it with the great ones, like Charlotte '72, acknowledged as one of the major great documents in Stones performances?

what is it about Charlotte that seems to draw out the fight in them?

...yeah I was there too that night in Charlotte. That song may very well have been my highlight of the night.....that and "You Got The Silver."

I always thought it was Mick's farewell to Bianca and remembering times she came on tour with the Stones - 'we been in 15 states' - etc.

(thanks to Keno)

MEMORY MOTEL
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Hannah honey was a peachy kind of girl
Her eyes were hazel
And her nose was slightly curved
We spent a lonely night at the Memory Motel
It's on the ocean, I guess you know it well
It took a starry night to steal my breath away
Down on the water front
Her hair all drenched in spray

Hannah baby was a honey of a girl
Her eyes were hazel
And her teeth were slightly curved
She took my guitar and she began to play
She sang a song to me
Stuck right in my brain

You're just a memory of a love
That used to be
You're just a memory of a love
That used to mean so much to me

She got a mind of her own
And she use it well (yeah)
Well she's one of a kind
She's got a mind
She got a mind of her own (yeah)
And she use it mighty fine

She drove a pick-up truck
Painted green and blue
The tires were wearing thin
She turned a mile or two
When I asked her where she headed for
"Back up to Boston I'm singing in a bar"
I got to fly today on down to Baton Rouge
My nerves are shot already
The road ain't all that smooth
Across in Texas is the rose of San Antone
I keep on a feeling that's gnawing in my bones

You're just a memory of a love
That used to mean so much to me
You're just a memory girl
You're just a sweet memory
And it used to mean so much to me
Sha la la la la

She got a mind of her own
And she use it well (yeah)
Mighty fine, she's one of a kind

On the seventh day my eyes were all a glaze
We've been ten thousand miles
Been in fifteen states
Every woman seemed to fade out of my mind
I hit the bottle and I hit the sack and cried
What's all this laughter on the 22nd floor
It's just some friends of mine
And they're busting down the door
Been a lonely night at the Memory Motel


IORR............but I like it!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-08-04 17:02 by sweet neo con.

Great tune. I like the NS version with great exception to that Matthews guy.

Quote
Silver Dagger
I always thought it was Mick's farewell to Bianca and remembering times she came on tour with the Stones - 'we been in 15 states' - etc.

.......it's more about Carly Simon and an epic story of being on the road in general...........

I love those lyrics.

I assume they were finishing up this song about the time the opening dates of the 75 tour were finalized, since the lyrics mention Baton Rouge, then San Antonio.
Sadly, Mick cuts that verse short in most of the recent concert versions I've heard.

Quote
Elmo Lewis
My favorite Stones song - I love every bit of it, especially Keith's vocal.

Takes me back to 1976.

After 18 years of seeing the band, I finally got to see it live in Charlotte 1999. Worth all the money and time!

One of my faves as well Elmo. But sadly. 19 shows and NO MM. If they dod tour again I hope they play this one and sing ALL the lyrics.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

I think it's one of their best vocal performances and best production. How did they get Keith's vocal to sound so cool and in perfect tune? I love "Exile" but talk about a contrast in vocal clarity! I'm one of those who think "B&B" was underated from the get go.

Quote
mckalk
I'm one of those who think "B&B" was underated from the get go.

I'm witcha.

great album in all its brevity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-08-05 09:11 by camper88.

Also one of my favourites.

I reckon this will be my 'funeral song' has the curtains are slowly closing.

Apologies for being so morbid, on a gloomy day in the uk.

Now see I'm of the impression that Boston always brings out the best in them! I've seen em 3x there and they all rank among my favorite shows! LOL Ironically though, I heard this tune in Hartford '99. I love this tune as well, and B&B is highly underrated, even more so because it's the album the boys released the year I was born!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-08-05 18:36 by VoodooLounge13.

It's a great track off an album that has continued to deepen for me over the years.

I walked into the bar at the MM one night and, being utterly boneheaded, decided I would pick the song "MM" from the many, many Stones discs on the jukebox.

The bartender had daggers in his eyes. Shot me right down...

Mick, Keith and Woody did their drinking with Peter Beard, Andy Warhol and the local Montauk fishermen at the Shagwong Inn just up Main Street.

Great tune with top lyrics. One of those you can play to Stones basher with pride.