This course will survey the music of the Rolling Stones, beginning with the roots and first formation of the band in the early 1960s, and following the group through the release of It's Only Rock 'n' Roll in late 1974.
SCU: “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll,” “Time Waits for No One,” “Dance Little Sister,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”
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From the course by University of Rochester
The Music of the Rolling Stones, 1962-1974
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From the lesson
The End of an Era
Continuing at the height of their musical powers, the group releases Goat's Head Soup and It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, 1973-74.
Meet the Instructors
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
Well, now have a closer look at some of the songs from the It's Only Rock 'n Roll
album.
Beginning with the title track, It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It),
as we mentioned it a number of times.
It was released on the summer of 1974 as a single going to 16 in the US,
number 10 in the UK.
It's a song with a story and it's a story that maybe forecast the future of
the band in a way that's was entirely unintentional, in other words.
When they began recording this song,
it was in Ronnie Wood's studio in December of 1973, and
it wasn't intended really that it was going to be a Rolling Stones song at all.
As it turned out, Ron Wood was recording a solo album.
Ronnie Wood, famous for having worked with the Faces, and Rod Stewart and
the Faces during this time period, the was in 1970s.
And he was working on a solo album, and Keith Richards,
Mick Taylor, and Mick Jagger were contributing to the solo album.
And so this kind of began as a session for that, or just a session.
They really weren't quite sure what was going to end up happening with the tune,
but it just started to happen.
It features Ron Wood, I think he's strumming acoustic guitar on this.
Kenny Jones is on the drums, Willie Weeks is on the Bass, and
apparently David Bowie [LAUGH] is singing back-up vocals on the tune.
But then it was finished, the Stones took the tune and it was finished at Stargroves
and Olympic as many of the other songs were that appeared on the album.
The deal was that Jagger and
Ronnie Wood had kind of worked on this song together and there was another song
that they had worked on together called, I Can Feel the Fire so the deal they made
was that Jagger would take the song It's Only Rock n' Roll for the Stones and
Ronnie Wood take on I Can Feel the Fire for his solo album.
But of course, the fact that Keith Richards and Ron Wood got along so well.
And there was this trouble brewing with Mick Taylor that was going to
manifest itself a full year later in December of 1974.
Ron Wood, when he came into the group as somebody that was already well-known
with group and had already worked with him,
interestingly Mick Taylor does not appear on, It's Only Rock 'n Roll.
So, in some ways, neither does Bill Weinman or
Charlie Watts, but in some ways it's kind of a forecast of what's going to
happen to the group after the departure of Mick Taylor.
Another interesting point about the single release is that the B-side,
Through the Lonely Nights, that song is
rumored to include Jimmy Page on guitar but
it did not make the album and was released only as a B side.
So, you can decide to see for
yourself whether you hear Jimmy Page playing guitar on this track or not.
"It's Only Rock 'n Roll", is a kind of a compound AABA form.
But each of those A sections contains a verse, a verse, a chorus.
And we've seen that before, these compound AABA sections where the A sections
contain both a verse and a chorus.
That's kind of what makes it compound.
But here, this song's got an element in it, that we don't see a lot in tracks,
and that's something that I'm calling here, an after-chorus.
That's a section that recurs each time.
It's clearly after the chorus, but it's not the next verse.
So we've got an intro that comes up, and then we've got verse,
verse, chorus, after-chorus.
That four part thing of two verses, a chorus, and
an after-chorus make up the first A section.
That's then repeated.
Verse, verse, chorus, after-chorus, that's the second A section.
Then you get a bridge.
And then you get a kind of shortened version of the A section.
It has just a verse where the guitar plays over top of and
then a chorus that's extended a bit.
And then a coda that's based on that after-chorus that kind of breaks down,
and then built up again.
That's where you get that idea I was talking about trying to get maybe
some of the dimensions of a live performance into a studio album.
And we've seen this before with Midnight Ramblin'.
And again this maybe ties into the idea of what this album was originally to be.
Half live Half cover versions.
As far as the lyrics go, the singer is asking his audience or perhaps
a particular audience member, how much he has to do to win approval.
If he pours out his heart or performs a kind of emotional suicide
On the stage, would that be enough, in other words, there's a certain sense,
maybe it's a little bit cynical of what do I have to do to please you people?
You know?
If I give you everything I've got, and sacrifice myself Would that be enough, or
would you want a little bit more?
But then of course, the chorus comes back with, "It's Only Rock 'n Roll", right?
So the idea being that maybe that music makes it worth it,
and why would I go through all this?
The reason why I go through all this is because
the music is what makes it special.
So I suppose it probably is overall a kind of positive,
feel good kind of message with maybe a little bit of a kind of cynical nod and
a wink at the audience about maybe certain other audience members that aren't them,
who are maybe just a little bit unreasonably demanding,
this kind of thing.
Well, anyway, a track that is really another one of these
sort of Stones' classic tracks that everybody knows.
We move on now to the song, "Time Waits for No One".
Now, this song is a modified compound AABA, but you can also view it,
and sorry for getting into some sort of a music form geeky kind of explanation.
So for people who do what I do,
this is some of the stuff that's the most interesting.
It's not only kid of a modified compound AABA form, but
it's also a kind of large-scale two part form.
We call two part forms Binary.
So let me just take a minute to briefly explain how you might see it this way.
Song starts out with an intro.
Then there's a verse chorus, that's the A section.
Verse chorus, that's the A section.
A bridge section that features a guitar solo, that's the B section.
Then an interlude, okay, that doesn't fit as much into the a a b format.
But then the return of the verse chorus does.
So you get a verse chorus, verse chorus, bridge, verse chorus, so far so good.
But then you get a repeat of the verse chorus.
That's what would make it a modified AABA form.
And then you get a Coda with an extended guitar solo,
more talk about that in just a second.
You could also view the song as having an intro, and then a verse chorus,
a verse chorus, and a bridge, and then starting again.
So that's where the binary idea comes in.
It starts again with the interlude which really could be seen as a new
introduction, and then a verse, chorus, a verse, chorus.
And the coda, really a stretched out portion of the bridge.
So you've really worked your way through verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge,
verse, chorus, verse, chorus,bridge, twice.
That's what make it binary.
So it's interesting that this song could be read in both ways.
The lyrics recall, "As Time Goes By", they basically say enjoy
things as they happen, since time pushes forward and stops for no one.
So it's one of those kinds of philosophical reflections on the nature of
time and experience, and how we should enjoy each moment as it presents itself
because these moments probably won't return because time awaits for no person.
The Instrumentation is, I think what we can say about this most importantly,
is that the ending of the song is a true Mick Taylor Showcase,
featuring what he referred to as his best guitar solo with the band.
And it is a significant solo here,
the kind of stretching out he does recalls, Can't You Hear Me Knocking.
Remember that whole second half of that song from Sticky Fingers, and
it's one of those moments with the Stones just let, Mick Taylor,
just kind of do his thing as a guitar player.
Interestingly, the band used a guitar effect
on this track to create synthesizer like sounds.
And the guitar effect is something that was marketed mostly in England.
It's kind of a rare effect now if you go on Ebay or one of those kinds of online,
would pay a lot of money for it because they were so rare.
But anyway, it's called a Synthi Hi-Fli.
It really was not really a synthesizer at all,
it was just a bunch of effects modules sort of put together.
But, it was used to create synthesizer like sounds.
And David Gilmour, apparently used one on Dark Side of the Moon, and
Steve Hackett, apparently used one on Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,
so there were a couple of other British guitar players who were using one.
I think it's Bill Wyman that's actually got this hooked up maybe through his bass
to get some of the sounds down here, but nobody's really quite sure of that.
This song, Time Waits for
No One, considering that Mick Taylor was so involved in this tune,
is one of the ones that he was upset that he did not receive writing credit for.
And so it probably, in spite of the fact that it's a song that is maybe his
strongest contribution as a guitar player, maybe is the one that really fed some of
this growing to satisfaction with the group.
And not really getting enough credit for
some of the work that he thought that he did.
Dance Little Sister is the B-side to Ain't Too Proud to Beg.
And in many ways, Dance Little Sister is a song that's got a lot of air play, so
it's almost like it's not even a B-side, like that was a double A-sided record.
This track, Dance Little Sister, a modified compound AABA form.
The A sections are just a kind of a simple verse-chorus, you get an intro and
then verse, verse, verse, chorus, chorus.
Verse, verse, chorus, chorus, then there's a bridge, that's the B-section and
then verse, verse, chorus, chorus.
That chorus there, that second one there, has got a kind of a breakdown,
and then there's another chorus.
And then a verse, chorus, chorus.
So it's a modified compound AABA.
And that it has an A, an A, a B, an A, and then an extra A,
and then a coda that repeats the verse to fade.
Now this is very much in the style of Chuck Berry.
As the lyrics refer to a Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights and
successive verses the way Chuck Berry song might do.
Some might say, that it's a little bit more suggestive than a Chuck Berry tune.
In other words, if there's some sort of double entendres there that maybe
are a little bit more suggestive, but if you check out Chuck Berry's Maybelline,
that, his first big rock and roll hit, is full of double entendres as well.
So it's maybe, no more racy than at least that first big Chuck Berry hit, and
certainly nothing like Star Star, which we referred to in the previous video.
Now, if we look at something like Time Waits for
No One, and think of that as really being influenced by contemporary Jazz Rock,
soloing and things that were going on with a lot of groups that were doing Jazz Rock.
I don't know, Steely Dan, Carlos Santana, people with the kind of extended sort of
Jazz Rock soloing kinds of things going on.
This song, Dance Little Sister, really follows a 50s rock style,
and the instrumentation with driving guitars and pounding piano is in many ways
sort of similar to the 50s kind of thing they were doing with Star Star.
Although, if you listen to the guitar part,
you can sort of hear a hint of brown sugar in the way the guitar parts are done here.
A few lines in the lyrics reportedly refer to a trip that Mick and Bianca took
to Trinidad, where they washed cricket during the day, and partied at night.
And so there are a couple of words there that actually can be
traced back to Trinidad usage and that kind of thing.
So, an interesting song that very much looks back to their roots in the 50s and
Chuck Berry.
Well, to finish off our last song close-up, there's probably
no more appropriate song to talk about than Ain't Too Proud to Beg, because it
really takes us back to where we began at the very beginning of the course.
The Rolling Stones covering the music that they love, admired, and respected, and
this Temptations song from 1966, certainly one of those kinds of tunes.
Now, just for the fun of it.
Behind me, you will see the form of this tune go by, and let's just quickly
compare what the Temptations version does and the Rolling Stones version.
What I'm going to give you is the Rolling Stone's version of the form.
And the point of doing that, is to show that the stones hardly changed
the Temptations' version, they changed the key.
It's a half step different, but nevertheless,
they hardly changed the form of the tune.
It's a contrasting verse chorus, so
we get a verse a chorus, a verse a chorus, a verse a chorus.
Now the fourth time through, in the Stones' version,
there's a guitar solo over the verse, and then they come back in singing the chorus.
The only difference is that, in The Temptations' version,
they jump right to the chorus there, and there's a sax solo.
Otherwise, that section is really one
of the only sort of real departure from the Temptations' version.
The Temptations, likewise, come back with a verse, a chorus.
And then, where the Stones do a second chorus, the Temptation song fades out.
But the Stones, add a big coda to it, that's based on the chorus.
And so they jammed the tune out a little bit more at the end, again,
the way one might do in a live situation.
The song itself, the lyrics are by Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland Jr,
Norman Whitfield, a very important producer in Motown,
especially in the second half of the 60s, even into the 70s.
Somebody whose production of things that involved the kind of urban realism we were
talking about with Heartbreaker are very, very important.
Papa Was a Rolling Stone, for example, for The Temptations.
But this song, 1966, comes a little bit earlier than that.
Eddie Holland Jr, one of the triumvirate of songwriters and producers at Motown.
Holland Dozier Holland, who produced the Supremes, and Martha and
the Vandellas and the Four Tops, and
had tremendous success in the mid 60s that really rivals the Stones and the Beatles.
Anyway, the lyrics by these two feature singer who will do
anything to keep his woman from leaving him.
He will not let his personal pride stand in the way of
the kinds of things he will do to save this relationship.
He Ain't Too Proud to Beg, beg for her to come back to him.
The instrumentation, again, features Billy Preston on the Clavinet.
Billy Preston featuring in some of these tracks in an interesting kind of
way to kind of capture that kind of 70s sound,
the early 70s, late 60s sort of soul sound they're going to.
An interesting trivia point,
you get percussion here by the guy name of Ray Cooper,
who was actually part of Elton John's band during the first half of the 1970s.
Of course, Motown playing a role, Ain't Too Proud to Beg,
looking back, will argue, this is a song that really sort of looks back really
to the early days of the Rolling Stones for the cover version.
But of course, the Motown choice is something we've seen before,
the Rolling Stones have done tracks like Hitch Hike, My Girl, Can I Get a Witness,
those are earlier Stones covers of Motown tunes Not to mention the importance of
Martha and the Vandellas in inspiring the song that really
broke the Stones in this country and that's (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.
Dancing in the Streets, Nowhere to Run being very important tracks from Motown.
Martha and the Vandellas, that really kind of launched the group's career.
So perhaps it's fitting that as we end these song closeups,
that we turn to a song that really brings us full circle, back to the very beginning
of what we talked about in week one of this course.
Let's just take a few minutes for
some concluding remarks about The Rolling Stones and what we can maybe
say about the progression of the band from 1962 through 1974.
Here's a kind of a thumbnail sketch.
Should be very familiar to you by now.
The Rolling Stones emerged as a cover band out of London's blues revival scene.
They enjoyed their first commercial success with cover versions.
Their success in the US lags behind their success in the UK by about a year.
Mick and Keith begin to write songs very early in the group's career,
but not so much for The Stones at first.
So they become songwriters first and songwriters for
The Stones kind of second to that.
Aftermath marks the band's move toward a focus on
original material as opposed to cover versions.
Their Satanic Majesties Request marks a peak of psychedelic experimentation.
Beggars Banquet marks the beginning of a synthesis of ambition,
the kind of ambition that comes out of all the psychedelic experimentation, and
a return to stylistic roots as they find a blend of bringing those two
things together in their sound.
The addition of Mick Taylor to the group
brings an increased level of virtuosity to the band.
Although it should be acknowledged that the group had some very,
very talented players working with them as well, Jack Nitzsche,
Nickey Hopkins, Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Billy Preston, along way.
Exile on Main St. is often considered to be the band's best album.
That's just a word we don't use so much in musicology in terms of
deciding what the best is, favorite, that kind of thing.
But you decide whether you think that is sort of the Stones record.
But by late 1973 we see Ron Wood entering the picture with It's Only Rock 'n Roll.
And this already hints at new influences and stylistic shifts to come.
I suppose it's natural that the story of the band
is often told in terms of what happens with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,
because they really are the focus of so much of what happens in the group,
not only in terms of the way the group is imaged, but in terms of the songwriting.
And really kind of calling the shots about what's going to happen in the band.
We really have to be sure that we remind ourselves of some of the other names
that have come up over the course of the past seven weeks.
Of course, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart,
being important sort of figures, members of the group.
Brian Jones, his influence and
his importance can really not be stressed enough.
Andrew Loog Oldham, if it had not been for Andrew Loog Oldham,
I do not believe in my own personal opinion, that the Stones would have
broken out the way that they did, and had the kind of success that they did.
Andrew Loog Oldham is key.
But also, we should also acknowledge that people like Allen Klein and
Prince Rupert Loewenstein really played an important role in managing the success
of the group after Andrew Loog Oldham stepped aside.
And some of the important musicians who made big contributions to
The Rolling Stones' sound over the course of the time that we're talking about,
especially in the late 60s and the early 70s, Mick Taylor, Jack Nitzsche and
Bobby Keys.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed the course.
But as you know, even though the course may be ending,
we're kind of deciding to end in 1974, and there's still
plenty of great Rolling Stones music to listen to and to think about.
But I hope what I've been able to give you is a kind of a guide through
an important chunk of the Stones' career.
It's up to you now to spend more time listening to that music, and
to follow their careers into the future, really, right up to the present day.
Thank you very much.
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