Tell you what gentle readers, don’t you just hate it when you are happily wallowing in your own sweet melancholy, lost in your thoughts, possibly ensconced with a glass of some thing nice in your hand, maybe thinking about counting how many LP’s you own that begin with the letter ‘G’* and some lowbrow extrovert of your acquaintance calls you up trying to foist his company on you, in the guise of doing you a favour?
Your phone rings It's just some friends of mine that say "Hey, what's the matter, man? We're gonna come around at twelve With some Puerto Rican girls that's just dyin' to meet you We're gonna bring a case of wine Hey, let's go mess and fool around You know, like we used to"
I mean a bevvy of Puerto Rican girls and a case of wine can be all well and good, if a little rough on my bad back these days, but give me a break man! I’m with Mick on this one, just piss off and just let me wander around NYC feeling sorry for myself in a naff jacket; it’s my inalienable** right.
I might just have hinted earlier that I love Rolling Stones Miss You, their (Gasp! Quelle horreur!!) disco track. My daughter^ really started to get into the Stones a couple of years ago and being the kindly dad I am I bought her the 1978 pink vinyl 12″ version, for Christmas. It is a real beauty too, the sleeve front and back is superb, the neon pink sets of the yellow Rolling Stones Records perfectly. A perfect bright, disposable looking artefact of its’ time.
Soooo … I did what any loving father would do and thought ‘this is way too good for her, I’m keeping this’ and I did. I think she might even have been a bit ill at the time too. I’m not proud, just honest. Occasionally. I wanted it more.
So what didn’t my daughter get? well Miss You is a real gem. If it’s disco then it sounds unlike any other disco track I have ever heard, Sugar Blue’s harmonica gives the whole edifice a definite shift towards the blues, regardless of the (immaculate) beat. We need a big shout out to the shiftiest Stone of all, Mr Wyman his bassing is on the money here, good style.
There seems to be a bit of confusion knocking around somewhere, there is a 5:47 ’12” single mix’ in existence, which is okay BUT the 8:32 mix here is much better. The bass is clearer, the instrumental bulk and extra vocal asides that Bob Clearmountain allows/mixes in never seem like filler here, never break the slinky downbeat mood. More is definitely more in this context – this is a good 5″ better than the single version.
The whole point of a 12″ single was that because the grooves had more room they were cut deeper, longer and better, the whole resulting platter was louder and clearer. Miss You really does prove a point here it is an excellent cut.
There’s a B-side too, but let’s not go there.
Dodgy to their core, there is a very Stones-like injustice behind the genesis of Miss You. The song was initially workshopped via a jam between Jagger and Billy Preston. Bill Wyman, by his own unreliable It-was-all-me-what-did-it-all testimony AND other sources should have been given a co-writing credit too. As always though Miss You was credited solely to Jagger/Richards as was the norm, no explanation, no negotiation, no contributions, no writer’s royalties.
I love the Stones but I really would not have wanted to be a part of their cavalcade.
So in a few minutes, I’ll turn the lights off and lie on the floor when the posse of Peurto Rican girls comes around trying to meet me; I would appreciate it if they left their wine on the doorstep though, that’d be useful.
Then I shall turn the Anglepoise to the wall, slip on Miss You for the 487th time and throw some electric, yet melancholy shapes all on my own.
1025 Down.
PS: I did buy my daughter another pink vinyl copy of Miss You a few months later AND resisted the urge to check if the cover was marginally better than my own one (with a view to swapping). I miss her now she’s away at university.
*79 since you ask.
**not a word that gets used often enough in my view.
^currently locked-down and self-isolating in student halls in Glasgow, in conditions somewhat akin to early-Victorian slum living.
I’m struggling with giving my daughter this big Cuban stogie or keeping it for myself. I think we’ve been down this road before. Sorry Falda. Yeah I still have my disco pants that I bought at the same time as this record. Time for a little prancing around to stir up a few memories.
Does the zip still do up though? that’s the test.
He may be afraid of getting Sticky Fingers.
Yup but it’s like 10lbs of sausage in a 5lbs bag.
That’s a powerfully erotic image CB.
“Oh Johnny Thunder looks a little overwieght and his sideburns are turning grey but he still likes to bee-bop boogie and jive to his worn out 78’s” Words by Ray Davies.
You did make me chuckle with your response.
The shiftiest Stone. Classic.
Hey, is your daughter a cowboy or a pirate queen. The people need to know.
Definitely dodgy to their core as you say and Mick is a bit of a wally, but this is brilliant. But that IS Billy Preston playing on the disco version, isn’t it? Shoulda got a credit. They’ve definitely got form in this area. Bobby Womack was reportedly massively ripped off during the ‘Dirty Work’ era too.
Hi Matt, I think the only keys on the finished version are Ian McLagan. I didn’t know that about Womack – I do like Dirty Work too.
On a side note, how incredibly cool is Billy Preston? what a guy.
“Miss You” with his lightly discotouch and the great violin parts is not necessarily their best song, but certainly one of their most striking.
Absolutely. I just like this as an object too.
Funny. I was just in a record store today and they had the Steel Wheels Atlantic City new disc spinning. I was (and I will be as neutral as possible in case Aaron reads this) aghast at how dreadful it sounded. Honestly, I can not comprehend how they thought this was worthy of beong released.
As for anything Some Girls related, I am all in. One of my favourite Stones albums. Now that I see the 12″ pink, and realize it is a longer, better version (oh behave), I must own it. Off to Discogs I go.
My daughter is in University as well. However she lives at home.
I am not paying for residence for her to attend class online. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.
There were a couple of copies in my store on Saturday and I passed. I saw them on that tour too and it was great at the time, but I’ve no interest in that era.
It is such a great 12″ this – definitely a better version. maybe buy your daughter one?
Mine is up in Glasgow, locked down with 600 others … really enjoying herself too. The resilience of youth, I guess.
Anyway Bop, how do you cope when you’re beseiged by hordes of wine-bearing Puerto Rican girls?
I have gotten pretty good at racing to the front door before my wife (mostly to claim my musical purchases), but it works equally well for the Puerto Rican girls that keep showing up. I have to let them down easy and dispel the rumour that I am 1537.
Somehow they think I am you. I give them your address and tell them how to get to the airport.
“Who was that at the door?”
Just another free wine delivery and more work manuals (code words for musical purchases)
Nice score and twice at that. Can’t go wrong with the Stones.
This is such a great object.
Enjoyed the story about the thoughtful gift, followed by the change of heart, followed by an eventual additional thoughtful gift.
I like, but I’m not a huge Stones fan (quelle horreur indeed!), and I’d have to say this song was the highlight of their ‘Sars-Stock’ performance in the early 2000s in Toronto.
Thanks Geoff, isn’t ‘quelle horreur’ a great expression? I’ve no idea why that came to mind, but I’m determined to use it in every single work conversation I have today.
She’s probably eaten her copy by now. Or traded it for bread and soup.
Or burnt it for fuel.
That bass line is great. I read they sent Wyman to discos until he got it down.