Music Tuesday: Shame Shame Shame by The Rolling Stones

I haven’t had a “Music Tuesday’ post in quite a while.  If you have followed my blog you might remember that one of my guilty pleasures is my love of the music by The Rolling Stones.  Of course The Rolling Stones are not going to get an imprimatur from any Catholic bishop, and perhaps one could make an argument that some of their themes contributed to the decadence of our contemporary culture.  Nonetheless as artists of rock and popular music, they are among the greatest.

On November 14^th, the Stones will be releasing a remastered and expanded version of their 1976 album, Black and Blue.  Remastering is an enhancement of the audio sound using more modern technology so that the track on the medium sounds closer to the studio recording.  You can read about remastering here.  But this new release is also an expanded version of the original album which will include six tracks that did not make the final album.  The Stones like to say they have a vault full of gems that never made the final cut, and so, as with other new remastered albums, they have provided outtakes from the original recording sessions as additional material.  These outtakes aren’t necessarily finished, and so sometimes they will go into the studio and “finish” the song or even add to it.  But the finished song still should retain the aesthetics of that original session.

The remastered release will have six outtakes as new songs and depending on which version of the album (two disk studio songs, four disk includes live show, and five disk includes a Blu-ray video of the show) will have a recording of a live show from the 1976 tour, “Live at Earl’s Court.”  Of the six new songs, the Stones have released a single, “Shame Shame Shame.”  This is the song I want to share in this Music Tuesday.  First the song, and then I’ll talk about it.

 

It’s too bad this song did not make the original album because this song is fantastic!  Black and Blue was not one of the Stones’ great albums.  It probably would come in low on my ranking of Stones’ albums.  This is just a great cover of a song and would have most certainly improved the album.  The original song was written Sylvia Robinson and originally released by Shirley & Company in 1974.  The lead singer of Shirley & Company was the Shirley Goodman of the 1950s group Shirley and Lee, and who had a big hit in 1956, “Let the Good Times Roll.” Her “Shame Shame Shame” also hit number one on the charts. 

Shirley Goodman’s work is mostly in the Rhythm and Blues and Soul vein, but “Shame Shame Shame” has more of a disco dance feel of the 1970s.  It also uses a Bo Diddley beat that has been widely used in R&B and rock and is perfect for dance music.  Shirley has a naturally high pitched voice and in her original she does it as a duet between her falsetto female voice complimented with the male tenor voice of Jason Alvarez.  The original version uses a saxophone for the solo interlude played by Seldon Powel.  Here is the original “Shame Shame Shame.”

 

It’s a dance song with the first person narrator expressing her need to go out dancing and it’s a shame if her interlocutor, who I take is a male friend, can’t dance or doesn’t want to go.

 

Shame shame shame on you

If you can't dance too

 

Can't stop me now hear what I say

My feet wanna move so get out my way

I'm gonna have my say

I'm going to every discotheque

I'm gonna dance dance dance dance ooh

Till the break of day I say

 

CHORUS

Shame shame shame hey shame on you

If you can't dance too

I say shame shame shame

Shame shame shame

Shame shame on you

If you can't dance too

 

Don't stop the motion

If you get the notion

You can't stop the groove

'Cos you just won't move

Got my sun-roof down

Got my diamonds in the back

So put on your shaky wig baby

If you don't I ain't comin' back

 

REPEAT CHORUS

 

If you don't want to go

Remember one monkey don't stop no show

My body needs action ain't gonna blow

Yes I'm going out I'm going to find a dancin' man

If you really think you're fast

Try to catch me if you can

I say shame shame shame yeah (aah) shame on you

If you can't dance too

 

It's a shame shame shame

Shame shame shame

Shame shame on you

If you can't dance too

If you can't dance

 

This is an incredibly catchy song.  There is something that coordinates so well between the predominant lyric “Shame shame shame/Shame on you” with the Bo Diddley beat.  If you don’t know what is referred to as a Bo Diddley beat, listen to Matt Dwyer who provides blues guitar lessons on YouTube.

 

The catchy lyric has the meter of four stressed accents followed by two unstressed: / / / / u u.  The four stress words (“Shame Shame Shame/Shame”) mirror the first part of the Bo Diddley beat and the two unstressed words (“on you”) mirror the last two beats.   Now that you have seen the Matt Dwyer explanation and my metrical insight, go back to the Shirely version and listen to it again.  I think I’m correct there.

Now go back to the Stones version.  They just don’t copy the music, they enhance it.  First off, the Stones version weaves multiple guitars that overlay over the Bo Diddley beat.  It’s a much more complex sound.  The original song is joyous but the interplay by the guitars in the Stones version make it so much more joyous.  It’s as if the guitars are in a state of ecstasy.

Another difference is that the Stones version eliminates the sax and uses an electric guitar for the solo.  It fits so much better with the interweaving guitars.  It’s as if one of the weaving guitars stepped up and provided the solo and then steps back into the interweaving web of sound. 

Another difference between the two versions is in the vocals.  On the original version, Shirley is mostly the lead matched with a duet of Jason Alvarez, but they do alternate stanzas.  Her high pitched voice is near falsetto and Alvarez is clearly tenor.  The image is clearly of two separate people interacting.  In the Stones version, Mick Jagger is singing in two voices, roughly a falsetto voice for the Shirley parts and in his natural tenor in the Alvarez parts.  While the voices are two separate vocal ranges, they still have the timber of the same natural voice, and it comes across much more naturally as one person.  Jagger has used the falsetto voice in quite a few songs, so this isn’t new for him.  On that very Black and Blue album, arguably the best song on the album is “Fool to Cry,” which alternates between falsetto and tenor.  The Shirley duet is not truly a duet.  The two voices aren’t replying to each other.  They are saying the same message.  The lyrics of the song don’t call for two separate statements.  Jagger’s one voice in two ranges makes it true to the lyrics.

Another difference is in the backup vocals.  When Shirley and Alvarez come together they come to a harmony where the two voices are blended into one.  In the Stones version, the backup vocals are descant (“a voice (cantus) above or removed from others”) from the lead to give it a sense of separation.  Just like there is a weave of guitars there is also a weave of voices.  As one listens deeper into the song there seems to be an ever so slight difference in timing (a 32^nd of a note perhaps?) between the lead singer and the backup vocals.  This gives the feel that the lead voice is running away, emphasizing the opening lines, “Can't stop me now hear what I say/My feet wanna move so get out my way.” 

The Rolling Stones released a clip of the song being overdubbed to the recording.  It features Mick, backup singer Chanel, and Ronnie Wood on electric guitar.

 

Mick is 82 years old, and he still delivers!  Amazing.

I love the Shirley & Company version of the song, but the Stones cover is an aesthetic masterpiece.  On the surface it appears they are just copying the original, but, when you look closer, they have put their stamp on the song and taken it to a higher level.  Too bad it didn’t make the Black and Blue album, but I can see how with the original being out just two years before it would not have given the original artist their due respect.

Finally I should mention that Shirley & Company put out a “Disco” version of the song that doubles the length to just over seven and half minutes.  The length is extended partly by repeating the verses but more importantly by giving Seldon Powell a second tenor sax solo.  That second solo is exquisite.  I can see that Powell was a jazz saxophonist.  I’m not going to embed that longer version, but you can easily find it on YouTube.

Music Tuesday: Emotional Rescue by The Rolling Stones

The big news from the new Rolling Stones tour is that they have included the song “Emotional Rescue” into their set list.  You may wonder why that is such big news, especially since the song reached number three on the US charts when it came out as a single back in 1980.  It’s certainly not every song that breaks the top ten.  The album, also called “Emotional Rescue” broke to number one.  Not bad for an album where the band doesn’t follow it up with a tour.  I remember that summer it came out.  I loved the song the moment I heard it. 

The reason it’s news is because in the thirty-three years since the song was written the Stones have never played it live.  Well why not if the song was fairly successful?  Well there was no immediate tour.  It would have been natural to play your top song off the current album.  But if I remember correctly Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had one of their famous spats, and according to Wikipedia Jagger just refused:

“The recording of the album was reportedly plagued by turmoil, with Jagger and Richards' relationship reaching a new low. Richards, though still using heroin according to former keyboardist of The Small Faces, Ian McLagan, wanted to tour in summer or autumn of 1980 to promote the new album, which Jagger declined.”

So why didn’t they play the song on subsequent tours?  Well first off, the song did and still does divide a lot of Stones fans who at the time felt that the band had turned disco.  It’s got a dance beat, and in the late 70’s and early 80’s there was this rivalry between traditional rock and dance music.  A real rocker had to remain pure. But more important than that Keith Richards has always detested the song.  Yes, he was more the pure rocker and Jagger has always experimented with dance music.  But I have to say that “Emotional Rescue” is a very quirky song (more on that further down), and I can see how Keith (and others) just don’t get it.  Keith once famously punned on the title, calling it “Emotional Doo-Doo.”  Yes, he’s got writing credit for the song, but that’s because Jagger/Richards is a contractual (not sure if that’s the correct term) song writing team, and anything either writes for the Stones is a shared credit, whether one contributed or not.  But if you check out the studio credits, he’s got no part in playing on the song, no guitar or bass or even backing vocal, except for a quick mention of a backing vocal at “song’s close.”  That was probably something desperately needed to polish off the song at album mixing, since he’s always intimately involved with the final production.  He has not ever wanted to have anything to do with it, and I'm sure he's squashed any suggestion of playing it live.

I can understand why some don’t like the song.  It doesn’t have a big sound, either in dynamics or range (except for the vocal).  It’s minimalist.  It’s really hard to categorize.  It’s got a disco beat but no big disco drum sound, and guitar phrasing sounds more like reggae.  Even the drums seem to alternate between a disco beat and a reggae rhythm.  The melody is driven by the bass, as is the musical “hook.”  Listen to the song.

 

 

The most apparent musical interest is Jagger’s vocals.  He starts with a falsetto, part way moves to his natural voice, and concludes with a echo inflated, lowered register, which gives his tone a peculiar pomposity.  I love the way the drums shift rhythms and the sax imbues the chorus section with so much suggestion.  Jagger has said the song is about "a girl who's in some sort of manhood problems", not that she was going crazy but she's "just a little bit screwed up and he wants to be the one to help her out.”  Perhaps that’s part of it, but really the person who is mentally off is the male narrator persona as he fluctuates between “you could be mine,” “you should be mine,” and “you will be mine.”  He’s the emotionally disturbed one, going from fantasy ("knight in shining armour") to breaking down into tears “like a child.”  The irony is that the person who is here to bring the girl emotional rescue is the one in most need of emotional rescue.  That sax just drives home the disturbed inner nature, and the changing vocal register fragments the verse sections, further suggesting a fragmented, disturbed mind.  All the elements of this song work masterfully together.  I love it!

 

The lyrics are just so supple and dexterous. It’s not easy writing a song around a four syllabic word, “emotional,” and who would think the word “Pekinese” could fit into a rhythmic phrase. I just love this verse, “I come to you, so silent in the night /So stealthy, so animal quiet /I'll be your savior, steadfast and true /I'll come to your emotional rescue.” This song is Jagger the lyricist at his best.

Here are the song’s lyrics, taken from Keno’s Rolling Stones Website.

 

EMOTIONAL RESCUE
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Is there nothing I can say
Nothing I can do
To change your mind
I'm so in love with you
You're too deep in
You can't get out
You're just a poor girl in a rich man's house
Yeah, baby, I'm crying over you

Don't you know promises were never made to keep?
Just like the night, dissolve in sleep
I'll be your savior, steadfast and true
I'll come to your emotional rescue
I'll come to your emotional rescue

Yeah, the other night, crying
Crying baby, yeah I'm crying
Yeah I'm like a child baby
I'm like a child baby
Child yeah, I'm like a child, like a child
Like a child

You think you're one of a special breed
You think that you're his pet Pekinese
I'll be your savior, steadfast and true
I'll come to your emotional rescue
I'll come to your emotional rescue

I was dreaming last night
Last night I was dreaming
How you'd be mine, but I was crying
Like a child, yeah, I was crying
Crying like a child
You will be mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, all mine
You could be mine, could be mine
Be mine, all mine

I come to you, so silent in the night
So stealthy, so animal quiet
I'll be your savior, steadfast and true
I'll come to your emotional rescue
I'll come to your emotional rescue

Yeah, you should be mine, mine, whew
Yes, you could be mine
Tonight and every night
I will be your knight in shining armour
Coming to your emotional rescue
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine
I will be your knight in shining armour
Riding across the desert with a fine Arab charger

So here’s a bootleg video of the live song from a couple of days ago someone uploaded to Youtube.  There are several versions, but I think the sound quality is best on this one, though you can find other videos who had a better angle.

 

 

 

They better produce a live album out of this tour because I want a live version in my collection.  Fantastic!