Certain Songs

Certain Songs #2042: The Rolling Stones – “Jigsaw Puzzle”

February 24, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Beggars Banquet
Year: 1968

. . .

Cognitive dissonance defined: “Jigsaw Puzzle” is simultaneously the greatest song the Rolling Stones ever recorded and the fourth-best song on Beggars Banquet.

Maybe, but one thing is absolutely certain: the drum sound that Glyn Johns & Eddie Kramer get for Charlie Watts is complete and utter dynamite, maybe the greatest drum sound I’ve ever heard in my life. The snare is primal and visceral, and the toms sound like fireworks trailing off into the night.

Certain Songs #2041: The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For The Devil”

February 23, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Beggars Banquet
Year: 1968

. . .

Delayed for a few months due to record company nervousness over the original cover art — that graffiti-covered bathroom wall — Beggars Banquet came out a full year after Their Satanic Majesties Request, the first time people had waited that long for a new Rolling Stones album.

Needless to say, it was well worth the wait: Beggars Banquet was a quantum leap in record-making, both a retrenchment in their R&B and country roots as well as a departure from what they’d previously done with those roots.

Certain Songs #2040: The Rolling Stones – “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

February 22, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1968

. . .

“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” isn’t just on the shortlist of my all-time favorite Rolling Stone songs; as far as I’m concerned, it’s on the shortlist of the greatest songs in rock ‘n’ roll history. If aliens came down and asked me to provide an example of this “rock and roll” that I’ve been on about for my entire life, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” immediately jumps to the head of the line.

I’ve listened to it hundreds — maybe even thousands — of times in my life, and it never not once fails to thrill me with its primeval visceral power and utterly relentless drive.

Certain Songs #2039: The Rolling Stones – “Child of The Moon”

February 20, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Singles Collection – The London Years
Year: 1968

. . .

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Normally, when I write about both sides of a single, I write about the A side first, but I’m switching it up here, because “Child of The Moon” was really the last song from the Rolling Stones experimental period to get recorded, while the song it’s the b-side of — motherfucking “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” y’all – is really the kickoff of that period where they well and truly became the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world.

Certain Songs #2038: The Rolling Stones – “She’s A Rainbow”

February 19, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Year: 1967

. . .

Somehow, 50 years later, Their Satanic Majesties Request — the culmination / death of the Rolling Stones experimental period — remains the most controversial album in their entire canon.

Made while the Stones were going through an incredibly tumultuous period in their personal lives — Mick, Keith and Brian all were dealing with drug busts, Anita Pallenberg dumped Brian for Keith, Andrew Loog Oldham up and quit — it’s not so much terrible, but disjointed, full of extraneous sound effects (excusable) and extraneous jamming (inexcusable).

Certain Songs #2037: The Rolling Stones – “2000 Light Years From Home”

February 18, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Year: 1967

. . .

As you know, here at Certain Songs, we have a weakness for songs about OUTER SPACE! And “2000 Light Years From Home” is a good one, describing a lonely astronaut who is traveling further and further away–what? Oh, right. Turns out that it’s a metaphor, he really didn’t get the jump on David Bowie and Elton John after all. BOOO!

Certain Songs #2036: The Rolling Stones – “We Love You”

February 17, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Singles Collection – The London Years
Year: 1967

. . .

From the start, the Rolling Stones cultivated an outlaw image that truthfully, they kinda had to grow into. Yeah, there were riots at their shows, and yeah there was “we piss anywhere, man” (which might be an apocryphal quote), but it wasn’t until they started singing and talking about taking drugs that the authorities started coming after them hard.

And so, in early 1967, the shit-ass rag The News of The World ran a series with the breathless title “Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You” of which one of the shocking facts was that they saw Mick Jagger taking speed and smoking hash. Except that it wasn’t Mick Jagger, it was Brian Jones. Whoops! So Jagger sued The News of The World for libel. As you do.

Certain Songs #2035: The Rolling Stones – “Sittin’ on a Fence”

February 16, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Flowers
Year: 1967

. . .

Flowers was a weird beast. Not quite a greatest hits album — even though it had “Ruby Tuesday,” “Let’s Spend The Night Together” and “Mother’s Little Helper” — but not quiet an odds and sods album, because it contained those songs, it’s one of the few Rolling Stones 1960s albums I’ve never purchased, even though track by track, it’s pretty fucking awesome.

And one of those awesome tracks was the all acoustic “Sittin’ on a Fence,” which combines an absolutely gorgeous melody with some of their most “fuck everything” lyrics.

Certain Songs #2034: The Rolling Stones – “Something Happened To Me Yesterday”

February 14, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Between The Buttons
Year: 1967

. . .

The final track on all versions of Between The Buttons is the jaunty “Something Happened To Me Yesterday,” which combines totally retro music — horn-driven music hall — with lyrics that were about an incredibly contemporary experience: Mick taking acid.

Naturally, nowhere in the lyrics is that ever specified, as we are talking about Mick Jagger here, but “Something Happened to Me Yesterday” is more about reflecting on the acid trip than what actually happened during it.

Certain Songs #2033: The Rolling Stones – “My Obsession”

February 13, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Between The Buttons
Year: 1967

. . .

Between The Buttons was a fucking weird album. Equally under the influence of Bob Dylan, The Kinks and whichever hallucinogens they could get their hands upon, it’s full of songs with dark lyrics, weird rhythms and strange mixes.

I can see why people might hate it — outside of the singles “Let’s Spend The Night Together” and “Ruby Tuesday“, which were stuck on the U.S. version by London Records — but I think its the peak of their experimental period. It’s more fun than Aftermath, more coherent than Their Satanic Majesties Request, and more unconventional than either.