Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Back Street Girl
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

RCA Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, August 3 - 11, 1966 and
Pye Studios & Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, November 8 - 26, 1966

Mick Jagger - vocals
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar
Charlie Watts - percussion
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - vibraphone
Nick De Caro - accordion

I don't want you to be high
I don't want you to be down
Don't want to tell you no lie
Just want you to be around

Please come right up to my ears, you will be able to hear what I say

Don't want you out in my world
Just you be my back street girl

Please don't be part of my life
Please keep yourself to yourself
Please don't you bother my wife
That way you won't get no help

Don't try to ride on my horse, you're rather common and coarse anyway

Don't want you out in my world
Just you be my back street girl

Please don't you call me at home
Please don't come knocking at night
Please never ring on the phone
Your manners are never quite right

Please take the favors I grant, curtsy and look nonchalant, just for me

Don't want you part of my world
Just you be my back street girl

Just you be my back street girl

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Between The Buttons” LP
(Decca SKL 4852) UK, January 20, 1967



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012-07-11 17:38 by René.

love the Golden Smog cover version.

Mick Jagger at his best!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-03 11:01 by 1962.

"Making it rhyme? We don't have to worry about making it rhyme." - Mick Jagger

Well, actually, they did, at least with "Back Street Girl"...

(But it bothers me why the key line "just you be my back street girl" is not rhiming, while the others do).

But anyway, such a nice little song from the time they were most experimental with all kind of new ideas and musical styles. It just sounds so.. early 1967.

- Doxa

I lovely tune, and Mick on his best.
But what is a "French accordion" ?
I miss Brian ....

Great song with a truly magnificent vocal!

The unusual production has enabled it to maintain that timeless feel.

one of the best ballads ever. The accordion is perfect, so is Mick.

That's the 'Track Talk' from a great timeisonourside.com:


"I wrote this in some weird place which I can't remember. It's got the feeling of a French café about it. I just thought about this chick... it was an easy number to write. Nice ballad."

- Mick Jagger, 1967

"That's the only decent song [on Between The Buttons]."

- Mick Jagger, 1975

Taking the US version of BETWEEN THE BUTTONS that must have been a really weak album because the track wasn't even included in it! Anyway, that's one of those songs that are associated with different context if the listener is American or European. Most likely "Ruby Tuesday" took its place from the US BUTTONS.

- Doxa

Beautifully haunting song. So much angst in Mick's voice, one of his best vocals. Seems like he is sining to Marianne. Feels like a fall day with leaves changing, smell of winter in the air...

Lambchop do an interesting cover of this one

Love the song. A schmaltzy-waltzy tune combined with vitriolic lyrics makes for a great mix. I see it as a seigneurial version of Under My Thumb. "Don't try to ride on my horse, you're rather common and coarse anyway".

Wonderful perfromances by Mick and Brian on accordeon.

----------------------------
"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"

A favourite song from a favourite album. So sweet and gentle - until you listen to the lyrics! Also one that I love to try to work out the production - the more you listen to this apparently simple track the more little details you hear, with Keith's guitar winding through it all to tie the whole thing together. And yes, Mick's vocal and Brian's accordion really shine.

Comments - I don't hear a harpsichord! The instrument that comes in about ten seconds into the track and plays gentle bell-like notes thereafter is something else - I can't put a name to it, possibly a thing called a celeste? Listen to Lady Jane or Play With Fire, which ARE harpsichord - very different. We know there were all sorts of odd instruments around in the studio at that time, and Jack Nitzsche is playing one of them.

great early ballad from the lads. one of mick's faves, i've read. nashville's lambchop did a sublime cover of it, too....

"Dont want you out in/part of my world

Just you be my backstreet girl" What doesnt rhym about that?

at some point, I misread the title as "Black Street Girl," and have since tended to hear it that way... adds another dimension to a great cut.

I think I mentioned this before the first time I heard Between The Buttons I found it a strange record, back then the only song I liked was Back Street Girl now I love the whole album although it is the most non Stones record (UK version)

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There is a harpsichord in there, it comes in during the first chorus and then does some subtle notes during the end of verses etc.

As far as I am aware the accordian player has never been named by any of the band or Oldham.

We assume it's Brian, but apparently someone contacted ABKCO and they were told the session log mentions someone else. It's always possible that the player was actually Jack Nitzsche or perhaps he scored the part for a session musician as Jack was present at both the US and UK sessions... hmmm!?

I think that if it was Brian, that one of the band would have mentioned it by now as it is very well played?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-03 19:50 by His Majesty.

Quote
vudicus
Lambchop do an interesting cover of this one

Yeah, I think it's a great version! As so often with cover versions, it also brings you back to the original... so tender and cruel at the same time. Classic Stones fare, mixed with a nice French flavour.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-03 19:10 by Greenblues.

In the states of course this came out on Flowers and I thought it made the whole album(never understood the reasoning behind leaving it off the US Buttons in favor of other songs). That and My Girl! Didnt the Stones do another Smokey penned song on these sessions? Tears Of A Clown maybe? Now THAT would be a treat!!

Quote
His Majesty
There is a harpsichord in there, it comes in during the first chorus and then does some subtle notes during the end of verses etc.

As far as I am aware the accordian player has never been named by any of the band or Oldham.

We assume it's Brian, but apparently someone contacted ABKCO and they were told the session log mentions someone else. It's always possible that the player was actually Jack Nitzsche or perhaps he scored the part for a session musician as Jack was present at both the US and UK sessions... hmmm!?

I think that if it was Brian, that one of the band would have mentioned it by now as it is very well played?

Yes, I can just about make out the harpsichord now I've stopped listening for it in the wrong place.

There's a review of "Flowers" on various Amazon sites that says the bell-like instrument is a glockenspiel, that Brian is playing it - and that Stu is playing the accordion. Hmmm...

Try googling for glockenspiel and Backstreet Girl and you'll see what I mean.

I don't need googling for glockenspiel, I know there's nothing wrong with my glockenspiel

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A gloriously beautiful melody and instrumentation (this is an example of how great Brian was), paired with a quintessentially 60s lyric (and vocal performance) from Mick.

My favorite song from Buttons, right there with My Obsession and Please Go Home.

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His Majesty
As far as I am aware the accordian player has never been named by any of the band or Oldham.

We assume it's Brian, but apparently someone contacted ABKCO and they were told the session log mentions someone else.

Perhaps the accordion player has never been named because BSG was not a popular hit. Mick Jagger's two comments about the song are all the info we have. There are a lot of Stones songs that have a similar lack of info about who played what, so just because Brian wasn't 'named' the accordion player, doesn't mean he didn't play it. In many songs from that era, people are unfortunately left to guess who contributed what and that's a real shame. I think its about time Mick and Keith and Charie begin talking more about the songs from that era, detailing the contributions made from each of the Stones. All it would take is a couple bold journalists to ask these questions rather than the same old tired ones. Stones fans deserve to know more about the band's recording history! Lastly, HM, can you please verify/elaborate on your latter comment about ABKCO? Thanks.

Lastly, I will 'assume' that Brian played the accordion on because quite frankly it is so 'Brianesque'. Charlie once mentioned how Brian picked up the accordion and learned to play it in a couple hours (1999 MOJO).

Great ballad - and it features a mood that could never be done after 1967 - as the band changed



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-04 13:49 by Erik_Snow.

Real interesting choice. When I first heard this on Flowers, it was like I was the only one who knew of it, since it was never on the radio, not like any of the rockers - a real sleeper. Even at the time, not very Stones-like (versus their singles).

So I looked on ITunes tonight, and imagine my surprise ... there are 16 different cover versions of this - all kinds of artists. Amazing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I swear I've seen a picture
of Brian with a accordian taken late '66 or early '67.
That bell-like instrument could be a celeste,
or it could be a Hammond.

I love the song. The golden smog version is awesome. Gary Louris is great.

Quote
neptune

Perhaps the accordion player has never been named because BSG was not a popular hit. Mick Jagger's two comments about the song are all the info we have. There are a lot of Stones songs that have a similar lack of info about who played what, so just because Brian wasn't 'named' the accordion player, doesn't mean he didn't play it. In many songs from that era, people are unfortunately left to guess who contributed what and that's a real shame. I think its about time Mick and Keith and Charie begin talking more about the songs from that era, detailing the contributions made from each of the Stones. All it would take is a couple bold journalists to ask these questions rather than the same old tired ones. Stones fans deserve to know more about the band's recording history! Lastly, HM, can you please verify/elaborate on your latter comment about ABKCO? Thanks.

Yeah, it's not a well known track as such, but it is certainly a good one. I'm keeping an open mind about who played the great accordion part, I personally think it was Brian, but I'd like to see some evidence that suggests it's him.

Is the Charlie comment in the Brian special - Mojo July 1999? That's a good hint that he did play on that song, as is the post above mentioning a photo of Brian playing one.

Someone on the censored from our minds forum says he contacted ABKCO and asked about the musician credits to this song, he was supposedly told a name in relation to the accordion part and it wasn't Brian.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-04 12:30 by His Majesty.

<Gary Louris is great.>

Yes, he is!