ON THIS DATE (36 YEARS AGO) August 28, 1978 - The Rolling Stones: Beast Of Burden b/w When The Whip Comes Down (Rolling Stones RS 19309) 45 single is released in the US. Beast of Burden is a song by The Rolling Stones, featured on the 1978 album Some Girls. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song #435 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and #433 on the 500 Greatest Rock and Roll Songs of all time. A beast of burden is a semi-domesticated animal that labors for the benefit of man, such as an ox or horse. The music and some lyrics were primarily written by Keith Richards. In the liner notes to the 1993 compilation disc Jump Back, Richards said, [Beast of Burden] was another one where Mick [Jagger] just filled in the verses. With the Stones, you take a long song, play it and see if there are any takers. Sometimes they ignore it, sometimes they grab it and record it. After all the faster numbers of Some Girls, everybody settled down and enjoyed the slow one. In those same notes, Jagger says, Lyrically, this wasnt particularly heartfelt in a personal way. Its a soul begging song, an attitude song. It was one of those where you get one melodic lick, break it down and work it up; there are two parts here which are basically the same. The song can be seen as allegorical, with Richards saying in 2003, When I returned to the fold after closing down the laboratory [referring to his drug problems throughout the 1970s], I came back into the studio with Mick... to say, Thanks, man, for shouldering the burden - thats why I wrote Beast of Burden for him, I realise in retrospect. Beast of Burden was recorded from October–December 1977. Although basic lyrics were written before the Stones entered the studio, many of the lyrics on the recording were improvised by Jagger to fit with the smooth running guitars of Richards and Ronnie Wood. Characteristically, Richards and Wood trade off rolling, fluid licks. Neither is really playing lead or rhythm guitar, they both slip in and out, one playing high while the other is low. The song is another famed Some Girls song that features each band member playing their respective instruments without any outside performers; both Richards and Wood play acoustic and electric guitars, with Wood performing the solo. Bill Janovitz, allmusic The most striking thing about Beast of Burden, and indeed most of the magnificent Some Girls (1978) album, is the interplay of the two guitars of Keith Richards and Ron Wood -- sometimes with a third played by Mick Jagger. The two practice what they have referred to in interviews as weaving the dual-guitar attack. The result is a break from the traditional formula of a rhythm player and a lead player, a configuration that had dominated rock & roll for over ten years at that point and was also the protocol for the Rolling Stones from 1969 (when Mick Taylor took over the second guitar player slot left open by the departure and subsequent death of Brian Jones) to 1976 (when Wood stepped in to what seemed to be a role of destiny for him). The kind of twin-guitar interchange that one hears on Beast of Burden is not miles away from what bands like no wavers Television practiced right around the same time as Some Girls: a mostly clean strumming and picking mix. Woods style was so similar to that of Richards that the band was worried that the lack of distinction would make Wood redundant. The results, however, as demonstrated on Beast of Burden, ushered in a new era for the Stones; the two guitarists steered the band away from gratuitous soloing, instead accenting the groove and the songwriting. Their shared influences of Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, and the masterfully understated and tasteful session players of the Stax and Motown labels led the band back toward the country, soul, and R&B philosophy of feel and groove over accomplished soloing. In a way, it was a return to the bands roots, when Jones was still in the band -- although, with the widespread use of stereo mixing, the utilization of two guitars doing rhythm became more distinct in the final mix. Beast of Burden is a raw torch-soul ballad that sounds like nothing else but the Stones. If anything, it bears some of the traits of a slow-burning Al Green soul-torch ballad, without aping the trademark production elements of Greens records. The Stones sound like a good bar band here. The records engineer, Chris Kimsey, once remarked that they had set up in a room just for the purposes of rehearsing, with a PA, and thought the sound and vibe were fantastic, so they recorded Some Girls with the same configuration, a relatively raw scenario for late-70s recording. Richards begins the song with yet another of rock & rolls most memorable riffs, played through a slow phase shifter. Wood soon locks in on the other side of the stereo spread and the guitars interlock, playing off each other and the groove, a groove the band rarely abandons, only for the odd chorus here and there. If this song were recorded in the late 90s or beyond, the band would have likely employed a drum machine or sampled loop, aiming for the type of contemporary soul record that Macy Gray and Jill Scott were making. But Charlie Watts is a steady, soulful, and human player and -- along with bassist Bill Wyman -- sets a sturdy foundation for the two guitarists bobbing-and-weaving rhythms. A mere flick of the wrist on the hi-hat is a simple enough variation to add giddyup to the songs rhythm. Jagger has rarely sounded more committed to a lyric than he does on Beast of Burden, a promise to devotion, albeit with limits: Ill never be your beast of burden/My back is broad, but its a-hurting/All I want is you to make love to me. Like a great mid-60s Solomon Burke number, Jagger testifies in the middle section of the song: Ill tell you, you can out me out on the street/Put me out with no shoes on my feet/You can out me out, put me out, put me out of misery. The songs arrangement builds through effective use of varying vocal harmonies, added as the arrangement progresses. Bette Midler gave Beast of Burden a tough-girl approach on No Frills (1983), sounding like the missing link between Etta James and Maria McKee. On Where Theres Smoke Theres Fire (1990), Buckwheat Zydeco gave the song a soulful look, with the added bonus of an accordion coloring the arrangement. The Rolling Stones..
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 09:27:39 +0000
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