Album: Sticky Fingers
Year: 1971
. . .
So you know how a couple of days ago I said that “Sway” was my all-time favorite Rolling Stones song? Well, technically the first part of “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is my all-time favorite Rolling Stones song, because it’s a fucking firestorm of guitars and vocals that is the dirtiest, funkiest, nastiest thing they ever cut.
Right? That opening lick, Keith’s open G tuning sleazily winding from the right channel, joined almost instantly by Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman — prompting a spontaneous “yeah” from (I’m gonna say) Keith — musta had them looking at each other in disbelief the insane groove they’ve created.
And so as Keith’s guitar sings “can’t you hear me knocking,” Micks Taylor and Jagger join in on the fun, Taylor adding smoothness and Jagger screaming whatever came to his mind, just as long as it stayed with the groove.
Yeah, you got satin shoes
Yeah, you got nasty boots
Y’all got cocaine eyes
Yeah, you got speed-freak jive, now
And so yeah, the lyrics of “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” are no great shakes — sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, ho-hum — Mick sounds fucked-up and desperate and horny like he’s been in quarantine for a year and puts them right over, especially when he’s joined by Keith who is harmonizing with both his guitar and vocals on the pre-chorus (unless it’s the chorus).
Can’t you hear me knockin’ on your window?
Can’t you hear me knockin’ on your door?
Can’t you hear me knockin’ down your dirty street?
Yeah
And then on the chorus (or is it the bridge?), they somehow up the horniness and desperation as Charlie pops out of his funky groove — he’d even been adding “knocking” sound effects with his snare each time they sang it — into a slow double-time on this snare as Mick and Keith sing.
Help me baby, ain’t no stranger
Help me baby, ain’t no stranger
Help me baby, ain’t no stranger
They were having so much fun, they decided to do it all over again: Mick is knocking and knocking — maybe he shoulda just sent a “you up?” text — before, out in the street asking her to throw down the keys, and then disappears totally from the next chorus (or was it the bridge) as an army of Keiths Richards sings the bridge again, now joined by Billy Preston on organ.
Hear me ringing big bell tolls
Hear me singing soft and low
I’ve been begging on my knees
I’ve been kickin’, help me please
And then they continue it, turning it into a call-and-response between the army of Keiths and just Mick, ratcheting up the tension to unbearable levels, as high as the Stones could possibly go.
Hear me prowlin’
(I’m gonna take you down)
Hear me growlin’
(Yeah, I’ve got flat-ten feet now, now, now, now)
Hear me howlin’
(And all, all around your street now)
Hear me knockin’
(And all, all around your town)
Mick is utterly killing it here: his primal scream of “I’mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm gonna take youuuuuuu dowwwwwwn” is as great as he ever got on any recording, just soaring above the voodoo chaos all around his street, and then after his last “all around your town” the song just ends.
But of course, it doesn’t, does it? Apparently after the song ended, they all went into a spontaneous jam, led by Mick and Rocky Dijon on percussion, followed by Keith, who turns off his distortion and starts playing clean chords. Bobby Keys, who had just been hanging around, picked up his sax and just started blowing and blowing as Charlie Watts eschewed the backbeat all together and started playing his beloved jazz on his ride cymbal while keeping a latinx time clacking on his rims.
It’s incredibly spontaneous and free-sounding, because they all assumed that the tapes weren’t still rolling, which is why there’s not a clear “tag, you’re it” between Bobby Keys and Mick Taylor, who uncorks a soaring, iconic solo.
It’s all pretty great, no doubt, and it’s probably what normal people love about this song: nothing like it had ever been put on a Rolling Stones record before, but to me, it’s always been the tiniest bit of a letdown after the song proper. But I know that I’m in the minority here, the rest of the world loves the jam more than the craziness that preceded it.
That said, they didn’t put it into their setlists on any regular basis until the early 2000s, long after Mick Taylor had left.
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” live in Madison Square Garden 2002
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” live (with Mick Taylor) in Glastonbury, 2013
“Can You Hear Me Knocking” live in Los Angeles, 2015
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