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Talented and hard living, the Rolling Stones are a rock band's rock'n'roll band. Local musicians talk to Chris Hollow about their favourite Stones songs.
For three generations of Melbourne rockers, there is only one topic of conversation this week: the Rolling Stones. Tonight's the night, the first of three concerts of inevitable gyrating, prancing and grooving at Rod Laver Arena. To mark the event, some of Australia's finest musicians from the past four decades - those who have grown up with the band, been inspired by them and studied the mythology - cite their favourite Stones songs.
Dave Graney (The Moodists, Dave Graney)
Under My Thumb: I like the marimba and the rhythm. The lyrics? Great in their way but not anything for anyone to live their lives by.
Rocks Off: It's what everybody thought their lives were like at the time. Great lyrics, production and vocals.
She's a Rainbow: I like the Brian Jones, London dandy period when they'd stopped touring and were into tasting and experimenting.
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Clare Moore (The Moodists, Dave Graney)
Brown Sugar: The Stones were great at producing songs that leapt out of the speakers. They launch into this at full throttle with pumping drums and guitars, but there is a rickety quality to it all, like the wheels are about to fall off.
Happy: I love Keith's voice. He sounds like he's uncomfortable singing lead vocals and that's cute. I saw them doing this live in 1974. They played it twice as fast just to get it over with.
Monkey Man: There's a killer key change half-way through.
Ashley Naylor (Even)
Child Of the Moon: Heard this B-side and fell for it immediately. It directly inspired Even's Sunshine Comes.
Waiting On A Friend: The video is awesome in a Sesame Street kind of way. I can relate to the sentiment, too; waiting on friends is what being in a band is all about.
Brett Myers (Died Pretty)
Satisfaction: Never a big fan as a kid; it wasn't very "punk" to like them. Then, a few years later, I saw a video of them performing Satisfaction live on Ready Steady Go. The song was dynamic, the kids were going crazy and the band was pumping with so much energy that Jagger started free-forming at the end - and then I understood.
Ross Wilson (Daddy Cool, Ross Wilson)
Not Fade Away: A wild arrangement of what was originally a pretty tame Buddy Holly song. What sold me was two harps used (in different keys) to navigate the modulations.
Honky Tonk Women: I was in a London studio in 1969 recording with Procession when Mick came in to see our engineer and told us about a song they were cutting about sailors in Paris (Country Honk). Later we played a transatlantic student cruise, heard their new single, Honky Tonk Women, and played it from Southhampton to New York and back. Undeniably their peak.
Lisa Miller
Under My Thumb: While it seemingly has the most reprehensibly misogynist lyrics, the instrumentation and arrangement give it a really cool feel. It's all the more menacing for its sophistication, revealing itself to be the ultimate revenge song, which gives some justification to its nastiness.
Kim Salmon (Beasts of Bourbon, Scientists)
Moonlight Mile: I assume it's the result of debauchery on the road, but it still manages to be one of the most beautiful pieces of rock music ever.
You Can't Always Get What You Want: It represents the Stones when they were the musical imperialists of the world. If they had a whim to have the London Bach choir, who was going to tell them it wasn't appropriate.
Memo From Turner: Two words: fuzz bass.
Marty Willson-Piper (The Church)
Jumpin' Jack Flash: A riff everybody wanted to play and wished they'd written, relentless, hurtling towards you like a meteorite. It still jumps out of the radio and bounces around the room knocking over vases and searing the pelmet.
Sympathy For The Devil: They sound wonderfully immoral, blasphemous and outside of the law. Jagger strutted his insubordinate ass while Richards's drug-addled persona slid down the wall into everybody else's hearts.
Mike Rudd (Spectrum)
Movin' On: A live version of a Hank Snow classic. I loved the entire first album, and this proved they could effortlessly extend the formula to country music.
Little Red Rooster: Still remarkable for its devotion to blues principles, and was so different from any song that visited the top of the charts before or after on that account alone.
Nic Dalton (The Lemonheads, Smudge)
Get Off My Cloud: The clincher is Charlie's snare roll at the end of every bar. In fact, his drumming throughout is the ultimate in killer-Watts.
Fool To Cry: One of the best soul ballads ever. Mick's vocal is incredibly heartfelt.
Miss You: The Stones have a lot of humour in their songs and here Mick was having a field day, telling it like it really was in his world. The line, "we're gonna come around at 12 with some Puerto Rican girls, they're just dying to meet you", says it all.
Phil Kakulas (Blackeyed Susans)
19th Nervous Breakdown: Released early '66 when Mick still fancied himself as a social commentator, this tale of a socialite's downfall thunders along all urgent and uptight.
2000 Light Years From Home: Scratchy riff, repetitive groove, heaps of phasing - a prototype for Stoner rock for years to come.
Sister Morphine: Moody, narcotic, with lyrics provided by Marianne Faithfull. Ry Cooder's slide guitar, heavily drenched in reverb, helps make this the scariest of Stones songs. The hard stuff.
Richard Clapton
Gimme Shelter: The most evocative and interesting Stones track. I love the production and the way the structure is so natural and soulful.
You've Got The Silver: There is so much pathos in Keith's vocal delivery. This always takes me back to my youth living in London bedsits when I revelled in the melancholy atmosphere of this wonderful song.
Rob Lovett (The Loved Ones)
Miss You: For its controlled menace. They're one of the few groups that understand dynamics.
Emotional Rescue: It's so arch, so self-focused, so distinctively Jagger/Richards in personality.
Stephen Cummings
The Singles Collection 1963-1969: With the insight of hindsight, you really need to own this one compilation. Songs include the early Andrew Oldham-produced Come On (engineered by Melbourne film sound guru Roger Savage), Not Fade Away, and Get off My Cloud.
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| Child of the Moon |
I wuld love to have seen or heard Keith do Happy in '74... espcially since they didn't tour in '74... |
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| Scottfree |
It seems as though most of these people have heard the Stones many times, they just haven't listened to them. |
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| gypsymofo60 |
Dave Graney may have an exceptional voice,(although, it's a bit forced for my taste), but where does he get off critiquing the lyrics to Under My Thumb? A John Lennon disciple it would appear. Listen man, or woman; to the victor , the spoils. For fuck's sake! it aint the blood eagle. |
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