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.
Something happened to me yesterday
Something I can’t speak of right away
Something happened to me
Something oh, so groovy
Something happened to me yesterday
That opening verse starts after a trumpet fanfare, with Charlie playing a straight beat, Keith strumming friendly chords and Brian helping the bottom with a tuba. I’m not gonna lie: it all verges on being incredibly annoying — this is really not normally not my kind of music — but then, on the chorus, something simple yet extraordinary happens: Keith sings it alone.
He don’t know if it’s right or wrong
Maybe he should tell someone
He’s not sure just what it was
Or if it’s against the law
Something
We’d already talked about how “Connection” is considered Keith’s first lead vocal, even though it’s really a co-sing with Mick throughout, but this is pure unadulterated Keith, and it’s a bit of a shock, making it that much more cool when they harmonize together on “some-thinnnnnnnnng” as the song stops and restarts.
Something very strange I hear you say
You’re talking in a most peculiar way
But something really threw me
Something oh, so groovy
Something happened to me yesterday (yesterday…)
There’s also a contract between their vocals: Mick is singing in a clipped, affected manner, and in the second verse, he (I assume) starts whistling in between each line. Both of which, of course, you notice, and tend to distract you from the words. Not so with Keith’s vocals, which are totally unaffected, and even kind of worried about his mate.
He don’t know just where it’s gone
He don’t really care at all
No one’s sure just what it was
Or the meaning and the cause
Something
In the middle of the song, there’s a woozy stumbling horn section solo, and after that they continue to trade off verses for awhile until the ending, in which Mick inexplicably (but hilariously) goes into a spoken word monolog as the horns go full New Orleans, pinching his voice exactly like a radio presenter.
Well, thank you very much
And now I think it’s time for us all to go
So from all of us to all of you
Not forgetting the boys in the band
And our producer, Reg Thorpe
We’d like to say, God Bless
So, if you’re out tonight, don’t forget
If you’re on your bike, wear white
Evening, all
As it turned out, “Something Happened To Me Yesterday” was probably the most fun that the Rolling Stones ever had with drugs, as right around the time Between The Buttons came out in early 1967, the authorities and tabloids started targeting them, leading to an infamous bust at Keith’s home in the country, which we’ll talk about pretty soon.
“Something Happened to Me Yesterday”
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