Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972
. . .
“Shine a Light” is another older song that ended up finding its final form on Exile on Main St. Other than that, all of my various sources are wildly at odds about it. It’s usually seen as a love song from Mick to his guitarist, but whether that guitarist is Brian Jones (that’s how old it is) or Keith Richards is in dispute.
It also seems like it might have been one of the songs that actually skipped Keith’s basement: an early version — called “Get a Line on You” — was recorded (but not released) in 1969 for a Leon Russell album and featured Mick singing backed by Russell, and Ringo Starr on the drums, and was basically a Mick solo track, though it wasn’t officially released until 1994.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #2074: The Rolling Stones – “Shine A Light”