Album: Out of Our Heads (U.S.)
Year: 1965
. . .
One of ways you could tell that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were getting their songwriting shit together was that they were beginning to kill it with the songs that weren’t on any of the singles.
And so the U.S. edition of Out of Our Heads ended with “One More Try,” which in a weird way, could be a bit of an answer song to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which might be why they never put it on a single, which I think it was nearly good enough to be.
An up-tempo countryish shuffle opening with a dual between Keith’s guitar and Brian’s harmonica, “One More Try” isn’t sung in the first person, but rather in the second person; Mick addressing someone else who also isn’t all that satisfied:
You need some money in a hurry
But things isn’t right
You try to beg and borrow maybe start a fight
Your friends don’t want to know you they just pass you by
So they couldn’t be your friends because they wouldn’t lie
And without even stopping for breath, Mick steams into the chorus.
Sit down shut up don’t dare to cry
Things will get better if you really try
So don’t you panic don’t you panic
Give it one more try
Don’t you panic don’t you panic
Give it one more try
It’s an incredibly catchy chorus, punctuated by Keith’s falsetto harmonies on “one more try,” which he also punctuates with his rhythm guitar. After the second time around, Brian takes off with an absolutely fantastic harmonica solo that take the song into its final verse. It’s one of he early great moments.
The things that don’t matter easy come and go
And the things that satisfy only come real slow
You got to know and watch it all in your mind
Cause it’s better when you get it if you really try
As the song fades, Mick continues to implore “keep on tryin’” over and over again, and back in 1982, getting to “One More Try” was one of the reasons I played Out of Our Heads so much, as I kind loved the message of the song almost as much as I loved the music. Weirdly enough, “One More Try” wasn’t just left off of the U.K. version of Out of Our Heads it didn’t get released in the U.K. until 1971’s controversial Stone Age compilation that Decca released after the Stones went to Atlantic and formed their own label.
While Stone Age was kind of a fuck you to the Stones — Decca did a take on the original Beggars Banquet graffiti cover that they refused to release in 1968 — to the point where the Stones took out a full-page ad in NME asking people not to buy it, it did provide a service by featuring songs hitherto unreleased on U.K. albums, like “One More Try,” which I’m guessing is still pretty rare in the U.K. (to the extent that any Rolling Stones song can be rare these days.)
“One More Try”
Did you miss a Certain Song? Follow me on Twitter: @barefootjim
The Certain Songs Database
A filterable, searchable & sortable somewhat up to date database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page