It’s No Rock-N-Roll Show

It was 1963, the city of Boston, Massachusetts and someone was creeping around in the middle of the night raping and murdering women. It would take fifty years before a DNA match could conclusively prove that Albert DeSalvo, a former military police sergeant from Chelsea, Massachusetts was indeed the Boston Strangler.

---

Six years later in 1969, at Olympic Sound Studios in London, England – a song is born.

“Did you hear about the midnight rambler

Well, honey, it’s no rock ‘n’ roll show

Well, I’m a-talkin’ about the midnight gambler

Yeah, the one you never seen before”

– Mick Jagger

So, the song that is based loosely on the story of Albert DeSalvo, The Boston Strangler, was for me a kind of early intro to the Stones.

Ka-chunka-chunka-chun-ka

The first time I heard “Midnight Rambler“, I had no idea it was the Rolling Stones. As a matter of fact, I really had no real interest in the Stones until I heard this song. At that time, I was a full blown Led Head to the bone so, this quintessential blues jam could be called the first catalyst for me to investigate the raunchy ol’ boys from across the pond just a little bit deeper.

Now, what really set me on fire was the live version from Madison Square Garden, 1969 that is on side four of the double compilation album Hot Rocks. That version, originally released on “Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out” in 1970, was played on WSHE-Miami all the time and all the time, I just totally rocked out to it. So naturally I had to run down to the closest Peaches record store and buy it.

That record exposed me to a lot of Stones stuff including two of the tracks featured on this album which I had heard before, but never really heard before, if you know what I mean. Anyway, Hot Rocks can be for another time…

---

So, side two of “Let It Bleed”, track one – “Midnight Rambler“. Right.

Called a “Blues Opera” by Keith Richards, it’s really quite a dark tune about a serial killer, but let’s face it, it’s really all in the presentation isn’t it?

With Mick Jagger on vocals and harmonica, Keith Richards on all the guitars including slide, Bill Wyman on bass, Charlie Watts on drums and I guess Brian Jones is in there somewhere on congas (probably from a previous session), you really just hear an edgy blues jam about some guy who “shut the kitchen door”.

“A lot of people still complain they can’t hear the voice properly. If the words come through it’s fine, if they don’t, that’s all right too, because anyway that can mean a thousand different things to anybody.”

– Keith Richards, 1971

I remember major air drums and guitars going on and everybody just singing whatever they thought the lyrics were, but at the end you could hear everyone coming together to basically yell “I’ll stick my knife right down your throat, baby – and it hurts!” Ah, the memories.

I’m called the hit-and -run raper in anger

The knife-sharpened , tippie toe…

Or just the shoot ’em dead, brainbell jangler

– The Midnight Rambler

In the words of the immortal Keith Richards – “Nobody else could have written that song”.

---

Track two on the second side is one of those songs that just sticks in your head. I mean the hook is ridiculous. Anytime I listen to it, I’m singing “You got the silver, you got the gold” for the next day and a half.

“You Got The Silver” is the last track released with Brian Jones in the mix and the first track to feature Keith Richards on lead vocal through the whole song. There is a bootleg Jagger version out there that has stirred up much controversy as to which is better but, I really love Keith on this, it’s his song. Now, the one really cool thing going on in the Jagger bootleg is Brian’s autoharp is much higher up in the mix and sounds crystal although sometimes Mick’s vocal seems to be competing with it.

Here’s Keith without a guitar in his hands.

---

“You got my heart, you got my soul

You got the silver, you got the gold”

– Keith Richards

---

Rolling in at the number three spot on this most excellent B-Side is “Monkey Man“!

“I’m a fleabit peanut monkey

All my friends are junkies

That’s not really true”

– Mick Jagger

Well, maybe just a little bit.

The opening of this track with Nicky Hopkins’ crisp piano notes mixed with Bill Wyman’s vibraphone and bass guitar always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand to attention.

Martin Scorsese with his exquisite taste in music, used this track to score a scene in the 1990 movie “Goodfellas”.

I have noticed there isn’t a lot of detailed history behind the making of this song, which to me is quite odd considering it contains one of the greatest guitar riffs in music history and the song itself is considered by many Stones fans to be one of their best efforts.

Maybe one day, I’ll get an interview with Mick or Keith and we’ll sit down for some tea and chat a little about it. Until then, we do know that the song was recorded in April of ’69 and was written as a tribute to a friend of theirs, Mario Schifano.

Mario was a prolific Postmodern painter, film maker and musician.

---

And now ladies and gentlemen, the pièce de résistance.

“But if you try sometimes

You just might find

You get what you need”

– Mick Jagger

The last song of the album was actually the first track to be recorded. Committed to tape in November of ’68, the song Mick Jagger called a “bedroom song” was originally released as a single, the B-side of “Honky Tonk Women”. Crazy right?

The 7″ version settled in at about five minutes while the 7:28 cut became the crescendo of the “Let It Bleed” album.

---

The line up for this track is quite interesting. Brian Jones is gone and Mick Taylor is not there yet. Mick is playing acoustic guitar because well, that’s how he wrote it. Keith also plays acoustic guitar and electric along with singing background vocals. Bill is laying down the bottom line on bass and if you’re expecting me to say Charlie is on drums, that’s not going to happen.

Another very cool addition to the line up is legend Al Kooper. Al plays piano, organ and the iconic French horn that comes in after the acoustic guitar and before the vocal.

“I saw her today at the reception

A glass of wine in her hand

I knew she was gonna meet her connection

At her feet was a foot-loose man”

Opening Verse – You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Obviously, the biggest addition to the line up was the London Bach Choir. Arranged by Jack Nitzsche, the tracks were doubled to make them sound even bigger.

---

The lyrics of the song are often considered to be about the end of the peace, love and party that was the 60’s but, the cool thing is that the overall tone of the song is very optimistic. Sort of a one door closes and another one opens kind of thing, which I think adds to the overall popularity of the piece.

---

Wow, what an incredible album – my legitimate favorite of all time! I feel as though I’ve been on a journey sitting here writing about it. If you don’t have this record (although I can’t understand why you wouldn’t), get it. If you have it and just haven’t spun it for awhile, give it a whirl. From beginning to end, this vinyl is a historical record of some of the most amazing moments in time when everything just came together to blow your mind.

It seems like a lifetime since I first laid down this vinyl and dropped the needle on it for the very first time, and maybe it has been.

I still have my original pressing of “Let It Bleed”. It has stood the test of time, still in near mint condition because I care for it greatly. It encompasses a great deal of memories for me and sits like a big pot of gumbo on the stove that contains all the musical flavors that I have come to enjoy throughout my life.

A great many thanks go out to The Rolling Stones for creating such a work of art that I can truly call my favorite of all time.

---

Now, to any of you that may be reading this, get out there and find your favorite of all time and embrace it, share it, play it or just sit back and savor it while sipping a little whiskey.

If you listen very carefully, it will tell you a little something about yourself.