Album: Some Girls
Year: 1978
. . .
So here’s a thing: Some Girls is the only album where I considered writing something about every single song. I wasn’t ever going to do that, of course, because that’s too much, even for me, but I pretty much could. I mean “Lies” is an energetic capper to perhaps the greatest single album side the Stones ever released, and over the years, I’ve come around to “Far Away Eyes” because the chorus is so gorgeous, counteracting my dislike of Mick’s faux-cornpone affect on the verses. (And should note that “thank you Lord, thank you Jesus” was a catchphrase for awhile, at least in my head.)
That said, please tell the affiliates that I’m skipping these songs “Respectable” is a weird song. Not the music — which is basically Punk Berry — or the satirical lyrics, but rather the structure of the song itself.
That said, “Respectable” starts out relatively normal for a Rolling Stone song: a Chuck Berry chord change in one channel from Keith almost instantly accompanied by a Charlie Watts snare roll, Bill Wyman’s bass, plus Ronnie Wood’s guitar in the other channel and Mick’s guitar straight up the middle. Nobody else is on “Respectable,” and the track sounds like it was cut live with no overdubs, which it may very have been.
Well, now, we’re respected in society
We don’t worry about the things that we used to be
We’re talking heroin with the president
Yes, there’s a problem, sir, but it can’t be bent
Ah, yes
Mick is very clearly taking the piss here: making fun of their bad boy image, which 15 years on, was still pretty intact. Not only were they still pushing boundaries deep into their decadent phase — even before the controversy about the lyrics of “Some Girls,” there was a to-do over the advertising campaign for Black and Blue — the future of the band itself was in doubt, given that Keith faced a trial in Canada after being busted with enough heroin to well, sustain Keith Richards.
That’s one of the reasons that the Stones recorded so much and so hard in 1977: this could be it, so they weren’t yet respected in society, despite Mick’s best efforts to be a jet-setter. And jokes about shooting up with Jimmy Carter weren’t going to help that happen, though there were stories about coke in Carter’s White House and Dan Ackroyd did an amazing bit on Saturday Night Live as a too-hip-by-half Carter talking down a guy who’d taken too much acid over the phone.
Meanwhile, both Keith and Ronnie are tossing smoking leads from the very beginning of the song, as Mick switches from the first to second person.
Well, now, you’re a pillar of society
You don’t worry ’bout the things that you used to be
You’re a rag-trade girl, you’re the queen of porn
You’re the easiest lay on the White House lawn
Get out of my life, don’t come back
Get out of my life, don’t come back
And that’s it with the verses, with Keith and Ronnie still playing shit-hot leads, the Stones roll right into the chorus.
She’s so respectable, she’s so respectable
She’s so delectable, she’s so respectable
Get out of my life, don’t take my wife, don’t come back
Get out of my life, don’t take my wife, don’t come back
What I say
After that “Respectable” alternates guitar solos with choruses, the solos being defined as the bits where Mick doesn’t sing since both Keith and Ronnie are soloing throughout, regardless of whatever Mick’s doing. It’s kinda crazed, which is what I like about “Respectable:” the Stones weren’t just reacting to punk rock bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash, but also punk precursors like the New York Dolls, and maybe their own mid-1960s incarnation.
“Respectable” wasn’t released as a single in the U.S., but it was in the U.K., making it all the way to #23.
“Respectable”
“Respectable” Official Video
“Respectable” Live in Texas, 1978
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