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René
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 - French accordion
Jack Nitzsche - harpsichord

There's also an organ here. I used to think it was actually a marimba. It's played from begining to end, accompanying Keith's acoustic elegantly. This simple organ part sounds like Brian to me, so maybe he played two instruments on BSG.

This song clearly illustrates the magic of the early Stones, as an already good song written by Mick and Keith is transformed by the musicianship of Brian Jones, makinjg it all the more unique, special, and timeless. What great chemistry they had back then! And the songs were just so incredibly sophisticated. After 1970, the Stones were a totally changed band, certainly less British and more Americana-Macho Man . . .

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neptune

There's also an organ here. I used to think it was actually a marimba. It's played from begining to end, accompanying Keith's acoustic elegantly. This simple organ part sounds like Brian to me, so maybe he played two instruments on BSG.

Are you meaning the percussive melodic part that plays throughout? If so that ain't no organ.

Love, love, love this song - one of my faves.

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His Majesty

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neptune

There's also an organ here. I used to think it was actually a marimba. It's played from begining to end, accompanying Keith's acoustic elegantly. This simple organ part sounds like Brian to me, so maybe he played two instruments on BSG.

Are you meaning the percussive melodic part that plays throughout? If so that ain't no organ.

Yes, I think that's the one. I used to think it was a marimba. It's listed as an organ on the TIOMS site. Someone told me a couple years ago (LARS??) that it was an organ because of the airy sound it made at the tail end of each note struck (or something to that effect). What instrument do you think it is? Thanks.

It sounds like a vibraphone(or something similar) played higher up it's register with echo/reverb, hence the airy sound after the initial percussive strike to each note.

Played like this(slower of course), but with a bit more sustain and gentle touch:





As it is quite a melodic part, I'd assume it's more likely to be Brian or someone else rather than Charlie.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-07 17:53 by His Majesty.

Vibraphone it is! HM, you da man. Who needs Mathijs anyway? Thanks.

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neptune
Vibraphone it is! HM, you da man. Thanks.

Vibraphone seems to have been a bit of a flavour of the month for Brian during those Between the Buttons sessions. It's just what I think is most likely.

It could be an organ as some of them have a feature which makes the note have no sustain, but to my ears it is too natural and dynamic sounding to be an organ.

Again, great info His Majesty, thanks!

René

Thanks His Majesty. Listening again to my copy of BtB (SACD version) the accordion is on the left channel and the vibraphone/marimba/whatever on the right - could well be Brian playing both and it does sound like him. Maybe the percussion instrument (no question that it's not an organ) was the first "Brian extra" added to the track and the accordion was an inspired afterthought?

[www.brianjonesfanclub.com]

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Christian
[www.brianjonesfanclub.com]

Interesting interview, with very abrupt answers.

So Bill says Brian made up the riff for The Last Time, but didn't play accordion on BSG nor piano on Ruby Tuesday.

I guess the writer, not bill, must have put that Brian did play piano on RT in stone alone/rolling with the stones. Those books do have other errors regarding crediting.

Note how he makes it clear that Brian didn't help write any of Mick and Keith's songs, but helped with arrangements.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-17 15:48 by His Majesty.

listening to social distortion's totally irreverant cover of this now...nice.

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His Majesty

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Christian
[www.brianjonesfanclub.com]

Interesting interview, with very abrupt answers.

So Bill says Brian made up the riff for The Last Time, but didn't play accordion on BSG nor piano on Ruby Tuesday.

I guess the writer, not bill, must have put that Brian did play piano on RT in stone alone/rolling with the stones. Those books do have other errors regarding crediting.

Note how he makes it clear that Brian didn't help write any of Mick and Keith's songs, but helped with arrangements.

Well, this sheds some light on Brian's musical contributions with the Stones, mainly that he wasn't (as I've always believed) a mere puppet of Mick and Keith's. According to Bill, it was Brian's IDEA to lay down a sitar on Paint It, Black, recorder on RT, etc., and it was Brian who created the outstanding riff to The Last Time. But this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, yet the overall consensus among Stones fans lately had been that Brian didn't create anything and that he was told what to do by Mick and Keith. Have people so quickly forgotten that it was Brian who led the band in the beginning and taught the twins a thing or two about how to play their respective instruments? Him playing the role of mere puppett is far-fetched and stupid.

TRUE THAT!

A positive way of seeing it and I agree that he was no puppet, it backs up what I've mostly felt, that he added great ideas to the arrangements, but didn't help with the actual song writing.

Adding sitar was a nice idea, but the melody he plays is simply the vocal melody, which we can assume was Mick and Keith's creation.

It does also back up a few negative aspects about Brian, being out of it more often from circa Between the Buttons etc.

Is there any info regarding the circumstances of this interview, its seems slightly at odds with what his books say and the answers seem to come across in a bit of an unfriendly way!?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-24 01:00 by His Majesty.

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His Majesty


Is there any info regarding the circumstances of this interview, its seems slightly at odds with what his books say and the answers seem to come across in a bit of an unfriendly way!?

That's not an interview, that's a letter sent to Bill.
That explains the abrupt answers.

A beautifuly executed, delicte ballad on the Stones great pop album. I always really liked this track. Betweeen The Buttons is better than Aftermath. Miss Amanda Jones has killer-guitar.

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His Majesty
A positive way of seeing it and I agree that he was no puppet, it backs up what I've mostly felt, that he added great ideas to the arrangements, but didn't help with the actual song writing.

Adding sitar was a nice idea, but the melody he plays is simply the vocal melody, which we can assume was Mick and Keith's creation.

It does also back up a few negative aspects about Brian, being out of it more often from circa Between the Buttons etc.

Is there any info regarding the circumstances of this interview, its seems slightly at odds with what his books say and the answers seem to come across in a bit of an unfriendly way!?

Well, I feel that songwriting credits can be a pretty subjective, nebulous affair, especially when it comes to the Stones. Why was Jagger credited for Ruby Tuesday when he admits he had nothing to do with it? Why was Keith credited for Moonlight Mile and Sway when Jagger has stated that it was just him and Mick Taylor 'feeding off each other' in the studio? Actually, Bill's comment about Brian creating the LT riff only confirms my belief that the creative process within the band was, at times, not limited to the Jagger/Richards paradigm, and should have included other members. For instance, if Brian indeed created the Last Time riff, should/could the credits have been Jagger/Richards/Jones? I do however agree that Brian was not really a songwriter with the Stones, but mainly an arranger. But he was such an fantastic, inventive arranger that he perhaps could have merited a songwriters' credit in some songs like RT or Lady Jane, where his contributions really make a difference. Lastly, I think there was a reason Brian belched in Frank Zappa's face when the latter declared his love for Between the Buttons.

Is the acoustic guitar in standard tuning?
Or is it drop D tuning (DADGBE) ?
Or maybe this tuning DGDGBE (I don't know how to call it)?

Somebody knows it?

I always thought it was standard tuning G but what do I know.

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neptune
I think there was a reason Brian belched in Frank Zappa's face when the latter declared his love for Between the Buttons.

That reason being Brian thought Btb's was a load of crap?

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His Majesty
That reason being Brian thought Btb's was a load of crap?

Yes . . . probably because BTB (supporting what Bill said) was really the 1st album where Brian wasn't featured on many of the songs. I don't hear Brian on My Obsession, Miss Amanda Jones, and Complicated (maybe the organ?) and he plays a minor role on some of the others, for instance the recorder on All Sold Out and harmonica on Who's Been Sleeping Here. He does shine, however, on Yesterday's Papers (xylophone), Backstreet Girl (xylophone), Cool, Calm, Collected (banjo, sitar, dulcimer?), and Something Happened (some of the brass?). I wonder if Brian was spending too much time with the Degree of Murder film score project during that time . . .

Yeah, interesting, his contribution to Yesterdays Papers is musically pretty stellar, his vibraphone part is way cool. I'm on the fence as to what that weird sounding instrument is on C,C,C, it ain't a sitar though, the banjo or dulcimer seems much more plausible.

There are days when I feel BtBs is a great album, other days the songs seem pretty weak and irritating. It seems to lack any emotion coming across more like a song writing - production experiment.

Hmmm.

for us teenagers at the time, it seem'd such a beautiful mature song with the bite of coy decadence that we wanted and the rolling stones delivered. and it was another song that we could say here, 'its as good or better as any beatle song', and perfect for jagger and his puffed up innocent lips.....

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His Majesty
Yeah, interesting, his contribution to Yesterdays Papers is musically pretty stellar, his vibraphone part is way cool. I'm on the fence as to what that weird sounding instrument is on C,C,C, it ain't a sitar though, the banjo or dulcimer seems much more plausible.

There are days when I feel BtBs is a great album, other days the songs seem pretty weak and irritating. It seems to lack any emotion coming across more like a song writing - production experiment.

Hmmm.

My Obsession is in my opinion the WORST song in rock history. Its bloody awful. That song alone ruins BTB for me. ALO supposedly was very involved with the production of this album, attempting to push the experimental envelope. It cost him his job. Mick was so displeased with the results that he began phasing out ALO, forcing the latter to leave the band shortly into the Satanic sessions.

I love Backstreet Girl and most of the other songs on Between the Buttons. It is a very different type of Stones album. My Obsession is a terriffic song in my opinion and Yesterday's Papers is one of my all-time favorite lost classics.

Never understood the appeal of this track, or for that matter, most of the others on Between the Buttons. Too me, they sound arty, stilted, and pretentious, without any of the soul and grit and bluesiness and salaciousness that I so dearly love about the Rolling Stones.

Drew

After listening very closely with headphones, Keith plays a low D, which means the 6th string is tuned to D, but that makes it really difficult to play...I saw a tab on the web that said that Keith's guitar was tuned D-G-C-G-B-E...weird tuning, but it works.