We Love You Archives

Album: The Singles Collection – The London Years
Year: 1967

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From the start, the Rolling Stones cultivated an outlaw image that truthfully, they kinda had to grow into. Yeah, there were riots at their shows, and yeah there was “we piss anywhere, man” (which might be an apocryphal quote), but it wasn’t until they started singing and talking about taking drugs that the authorities started coming after them hard.

And so, in early 1967, the shit-ass rag The News of The World ran a series with the breathless title “Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You” of which one of the shocking facts was that they saw Mick Jagger taking speed and smoking hash. Except that it wasn’t Mick Jagger, it was Brian Jones. Whoops! So Jagger sued The News of The World for libel. As you do.

Album: The Psychedelic Furs
Year: 1980

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Not to be confused with the Rolling Stones song of the same name (you know, their post-incarceration single that featured John Lennon & Paul McCartney), the utterly masterful “We Love You” has at least one thing in common with its namesake: you’re never sure how seriously to take the sentiment.

It’s possible that Mick Jagger — who’d narrowly avoided a long prison sentence, after all — was feeling vulnerable enough to believe that he truly loved his audience, but then again, he also needed Lennon & McCartney (and that piano riff from Nicky Hopkins) to actually get it across. That said: “We Love You” remains one of the peaks of The Stones psychedelic period, which we’ll hopefully get to next year.

We Love You

Certain Songs #2036: The Rolling Stones – “We Love You”

Certain Songs #1660: The Psychedelic Furs – “We Love You”