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Topic: Shine a Light- Brian tribute? Return to archive
25th January 2007 07:38 PM
Jethrostone Was "Shine A Light" a tribute song to Brian? I read that somewhere. If it isn't, it's still a great song!
25th January 2007 07:42 PM
gypsy I read that somewhere as well. I've also read that it was written by Mick about Keith.
25th January 2007 11:26 PM
Brian Jones Girl Well according to Keno's...

First recorded as "Get A Line On You" in March of 1968. Lyrics were re-written by Mick Jagger in early 1970 after Brian Jones died, as both the old and new lyrics were supposedly about him.

I believe it was about Brian too, my favorite song from Exile!


SHINE A LIGHT

Saw you stretched out in Room Ten O Nine
With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye.
Oh, couldn't see to get a line on you, my sweet honey love.
Berber jewelry jangling down the street,
Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet.
Could not seem to get a high on you, my sweet honey love.

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.

When you're drunk in the alley, baby, with your clothes all torn
And your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn.
Just seemed too many flies on you, I just can't brush them off.
Angels beating all their wings in time,
With smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyes.
Whoa, thought I heard one sigh for you,
Come on up, come on up, now, come on up now.

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song you sing your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.
25th January 2007 11:30 PM
gypsy IMO, the lyrics fit Brian more than they do Keith. Brian had a vulnerability that Keith did not have.
26th January 2007 05:23 AM
Mathijs The lyrics read like they're directed at a woman, and Jagger stated that he wrote the lyrics together with Brown Sugar in Australia, so then it's about Marianne.

Mathijs
26th January 2007 06:49 AM
speedfreakjive just given it a spin - i think it could equally be about someone who is deceased as a woman
26th January 2007 06:50 AM
killerbitch Sorta sounds like it is about Anita, or maybe Brian. More like Anita?
26th January 2007 07:05 AM
Gazza Doubt Mick would write such a poignant lyric about Anita - besides Anita by 1970 was hardly the tragic wreck that Marianne was becoming.

Maybe its a composite of people as many Stones lyrics are. However, if was about Brian, then the line about 'your late night friends leave ya in the cold grey dawn' could read like an admission of guilt on Mick's part for Brian's sad end - not really Mick's style IMO.

If it's about any one person specifically, then Marianne fits the bill closer than anyone from what I can see. The lyrics seem to refer to someone (a female) in a hotel room who has overdosed. Which Marianne certainly did when they were in Australia in July 1969 - which, as Mathijs points out, was when the song was written.


[Edited by Gazza]
26th January 2007 07:27 AM
FotiniD
quote:
gypsy wrote:
IMO, the lyrics fit Brian more than they do Keith. Brian had a vulnerability that Keith did not have.



Very interesting thought... But I'm not that certain about Keith. Yep, a harder exterior maybe, but perhaps that was just his way of coping.
26th January 2007 07:52 AM
PartyDoll MEG I've gotta agree with Gazza and Mathijs. I've always thought it was more about Marianne. His lyrics are so generic you could substitute almost any of his friends/lovers of that time in his life.
26th January 2007 09:28 AM
dkmonroe
quote:
Berber jewelry jangling down the street,
Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet.



This most definitely sounds like Brian.
26th January 2007 09:40 AM
Gazza It does - although I'm sure the 'berber jewellery' line could apply to a lot of people in the writer's life around that time as it was somewhat 'chic'...and yet the 'baby' and 'honey love' references would suggest that the subject of the song is female.

Again, it could be a hybrid of people or Mick being contrary by switching the gender of the song's subject for effect to make it sound more conventional. Jagger is rarely a confessional, openly autobiographical writer and it wouldnt be unique for him to do that - supposedly 'Worried about You' is as much about Keith as anyone else, for example.
26th January 2007 10:13 AM
speedfreakjive
quote:
Gazza wrote:
It does - although I'm sure the 'berber jewellery' line could apply to a lot of people in the writer's life around that time as it was somewhat 'chic'...and yet the 'baby' and 'honey love' references would suggest that the subject of the song is female.

Again, it could be a hybrid of people or Mick being contrary by switching the gender of the song's subject for effect to make it sound more conventional. Jagger is rarely a confessional, openly autobiographical writer and it wouldnt be unique for him to do that - supposedly 'Worried about You' is as much about Keith as anyone else, for example.



maybe, but in reference to Worried About You - 'i guess you know by now, that you ain't the only one' - can this be translated to a male relationship??
26th January 2007 10:22 AM
Gazza Considering Keith's obsessive/possessiveness regarding Mick and the Stones in general, I would say it can.
26th January 2007 10:23 AM
dkmonroe
quote:
Gazza wrote:
It does - although I'm sure the 'berber jewellery' line could apply to a lot of people in the writer's life around that time as it was somewhat 'chic'...and yet the 'baby' and 'honey love' references would suggest that the subject of the song is female.

Again, it could be a hybrid of people or Mick being contrary by switching the gender of the song's subject for effect to make it sound more conventional. Jagger is rarely a confessional, openly autobiographical writer and it wouldnt be unique for him to do that - supposedly 'Worried about You' is as much about Keith as anyone else, for example.



I think you're probably right. Jagger's writing often seems to me to be a pastiche of experience and impressions crafted together in a manner somewhat like historical fiction - the details are genuine, but the big picture is imaginative. He's after a good lyric, not accurate reporting, so it's probably a mistake to try to make his lyrics line up with reality 100%.

26th January 2007 10:50 AM
speedfreakjive
quote:
Gazza wrote:
Considering Keith's obsessive/possessiveness regarding Mick and the Stones in general, I would say it can.




good point
27th January 2007 09:00 AM
new faces
quote:
Brian Jones Girl wrote:
Well according to Keno's...

First recorded as "Get A Line On You" in March of 1968. Lyrics were re-written by Mick Jagger in early 1970 after Brian Jones died, as both the old and new lyrics were supposedly about him.

I believe it was about Brian too, my favorite song from Exile!


SHINE A LIGHT

Saw you stretched out in Room Ten O Nine
With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye.
Oh, couldn't see to get a line on you, my sweet honey love.
Berber jewelry jangling down the street,
Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet.
Could not seem to get a high on you, my sweet honey love.

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.

When you're drunk in the alley, baby, with your clothes all torn
And your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn.
Just seemed too many flies on you, I just can't brush them off.
Angels beating all their wings in time,
With smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyes.
Whoa, thought I heard one sigh for you,
Come on up, come on up, now, come on up now.

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song you sing your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.




This is the link to the original lyrics:

http://www.keno.org/stones_lyrics/get_a_line_on_you.htm

Does anyone know if this is on a bootleg? Where did this info come from?

27th January 2007 09:29 PM
texile shine a light always sounded like marianne to me....
someone broken and falling apart.

gazza: of course anything is possible as jagger can be so ambiguous and cryptic - but i disagree about worried about you.... his relationship with bianca seems to fit the theme here.

like shine, the lyrics are too tender and vulnerable.


mick and keith are like brothers and have an intense and possesive relationship but i think kieth is the more needy one and tends to read too much into thier relationship.

as for jagger -
i think the women in his life are at the core of his more intimate and painful lyrics.
27th January 2007 09:31 PM
Gazza
quote:
texile wrote:

gazza: of course anything is possible as jagger can be so ambiguous and cryptic - but i disagree about worried about you.... his relationship with bianca seems to fit the theme here.



maybe - but the Keith story was told to me from someone who heard it first hand.
28th January 2007 05:18 AM
Mathijs I believe "room 10-0-9" refers to the hospital room Marianne was in in Australia after she took an overdose sleeping pills, not a hotel room.

Mathijs
28th January 2007 09:01 AM
new faces So I take it there is no copy of this version out anywhere?

28th January 2007 10:13 PM
Jethrostone
quote:
Mathijs wrote:
I believe "room 10-0-9" refers to the hospital room Marianne was in in Australia after she took an overdose sleeping pills, not a hotel room.

Mathijs




Interesting. I think the song can be for both Brian and Marianne. But the title of the song makes it sounds like a song for Brian.

I love the chours: Make every song you sing your favorite tune.
28th January 2007 10:47 PM
Carol Sigmaringa
quote:
texile wrote:

gazza: of course anything is possible as jagger can be so ambiguous and cryptic - but i disagree about worried about you.... his relationship with bianca seems to fit the theme here.



Why Bianca? I don't know too much about their relationship...
[Edited by Carol Sigmaringa]
29th January 2007 02:54 AM
chrisloc "get a line on you" fits more Brian.
For instance,
it's "sweet honey lover" instead of "my sweet honey love"
and it's "Smile on your face for every high school girl that you meet"
then it was rewritten and it could be Marianne or Brian
or both
29th January 2007 02:50 PM
texile
quote:
Carol Sigmaringa wrote:

Why Bianca? I don't know too much about their relationship...
[Edited by Carol Sigmaringa]





it just seems to fit the volatile and love/hate nature of thier relationship.

and gazza, who knows?
part of the fun of jagger's lyrics is that we never really know for sure.....
but you should hear me and my resident stones friend and our heated debates about what song is about who.

and shine still seems like marianne to me -
i just can't imagine jagger feeling that much affection toward brian.
29th January 2007 03:23 PM
SheRat Honestly, I always thought this song was about a boy, but oddly, I never put it to Brian---more of a eulogy to any 60s casualty.

But with the idea that it's about Brian in mind, I agree.

I don't think it's about Marianne, and I don't think that the "honey"s et al. make it about a woman.

Look at Worried about You. We all know that song's basically about Keith and we all know they disguise writing about one another by pretending it's about a chick.

The idea that "Shine A Light" is about Anita is hilarious. Regardless of the fact that Anita didn't need a song like this until about '80, Mick has never had tender feelings like that about her.

If anything, they were in competition for the alpha female slot.



[Edited by SheRat]
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