The Spider and the Fly (song)

Last updated
"The Spider and the Fly"
Spiderandthefly.jpg
1975 French picture sleeve (reverse)
Single by the Rolling Stones
A-side "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (UK)
Released
  • 30 July 1965 (30 July 1965) (US Out of Our Heads album)
  • 20 August 1965 (UK single)
Recorded13 May 1965
Studio RCA, Hollywood
Genre
Length3:38
Label
Songwriter(s) Jagger/Richards
Producer(s) Andrew Loog Oldham

"The Spider and the Fly" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones, recorded in May 1965 and first released on the US version of their 1965 album Out of Our Heads . [3] In the UK, it was released as the B-side to "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". In 1971, the song was released on an album for the first time in the UK on the Decca Records compilation Stone Age . [4]

Contents

The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The lyrics speak about what the band, especially the leader, will do after their gig is over:

Sittin' thinkin' sinkin' drinkin'
Wondering what I'll do when I'm through tonight
Smokin', mopin', maybe just hopin'
Some little girl will pass on by

Jagger explained in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone , "I wasn't really that mad about it, but when you listen to it on record, it still holds up quite interestingly as a blues song. It's a Jimmy Reed blues with British pop-group words, which is an interesting combination: a song somewhat stuck in a time warp." [5] In an AllMusic review, Mike DeGagne describes it as one of their earliest attempts at country music. [2]

The Stones have performed "The Spider and the Fly" live very rarely: they did so during two eras of their career, in 1965-1966 and once during the 1995 leg of their Voodoo Lounge Tour. A March 1995 studio reworking of the song was included on the Stones' album Stripped . For this version the age of the woman in the song was updated from thirty to fifty. [6]

Personnel

According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon: [1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Margotin & Guesdon 2016, p. 121.
  2. 1 2 DeGagne, Mike. "The Rolling Stones: The Spider and the Fly Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  3. Unterberger, Richie. "The Rolling Stones: Out of Our Heads Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  4. Thompson, Dave. "The Rolling Stones: Stone Age Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  5. "Jagger Remembers". Rolling Stone. Dec 14, 1995 (accessed 26 April 2007).
  6. "Stripped (Live)". Apple Music. Retrieved 13 April 2021.

Sources

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