Black Limousine

Last updated
"Black Limousine"
Song by the Rolling Stones
from the album Tattoo You
Released24 August 1981
RecordedJanuary–March 1978, April–June 1981
Genre Blues rock, hard rock
Length3:31
Label Rolling Stones/Virgin
Songwriter(s) Jagger–Richards, Ronnie Wood
Producer(s) The Glimmer Twins
Tattoo You track listing
11 tracks
Side one
  1. "Start Me Up"
  2. "Hang Fire"
  3. "Slave"
  4. "Little T&A"
  5. "Black Limousine"
  6. "Neighbours"
Side two
  1. "Worried About You"
  2. "Tops"
  3. "Heaven"
  4. "No Use in Crying"
  5. "Waiting on a Friend"

"Black Limousine" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones featured on their 1981 album Tattoo You .

Contents

The song

"Black Limousine" is one of two songs on Tattoo You credited to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. "Black Limousine" is a hard blues number (described as "fast mid-tempo blues of no specific nature" [1] by Jagger) which heavily hearkens back to the Rolling Stones' earliest recordings from their ABCKO/London albums. Using a heavy bellow, Jagger delivers his lines and spells out the growing rifts in an aging romance:

We used to shine, shine, shine, shine, Say what a pair, say what a team/We used to ride, ride, ride, ride, In a long black limousine/Those dreams are gone baby, Locked away and never seen/Well now look at your face now baby, Look at you and look at me.

On the lyrics, Richards said in 1981, "That song does have a more generous view of relationships with women... I guess, because the women in our lives at the moment have made a change in our attitudes toward it. I guess because everything that comes out from the Stones is just as it comes out... That's how we used to feel about it, and that's how we feel about it now. This is purely a guess... but it seems logical that the people you're with are the ones who are gonna influence you most, whether you intend it or not. Mick might intend to sit down and write a real Stones song - you know, 'Blechhh! You cruddy piece of shit, you dirty old scrub box!' But obviously, that's not the way he's feeling now. It's not the way I'm feeling now." [1]

On the music, Wood said in 2003, "'Black Limousine' came about from a slide guitar riff that was inspired in part by some Hop Wilson licks from a record that I once owned... And there was another guy called Big Moose, who I've never heard of before or since... He was an old slide guitar guy who had one particular lick that he would bring in every now and again. I thought, 'That's really good, I'm going to apply that' - and so subconsciously I wrote the whole song around that one little lick, building on it, resolving it and taking it round again... That was something that clicked musically straight away with the guitars and drums and Mick, and then we immediately got into sparring about the lyrics for it, since it was obviously crying out for some words... Mick's got his own style and that's why I let him interpret it in his own way..." [2]

Recording and aftermath

Recording began in January and ran through March 1978 during the band's sessions at Paris' Pathé Marconi Studios for the album Some Girls . The song re-emerged during the Tattoo You sessions in late 1980. With Jagger on vocals and shrieking harmonica, Richards and Wood performing the song's electric guitars, with Wood providing the solo. Ian Stewart performs the song's piano. Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman perform the song's drums and bass, respectively. [1]

On his rare credit, Wood continued, saying, "I fought until I was blue in the face to get the credit, going on and on: 'I wrote that, I wrote that.' One of the lessons I had to learn was that if you want to get a credit, it has to happen there and then in the studio, as you're recording it." [3]

"Black Limousine" was performed heavily by the band during their American Tour 1981/European Tour 1982, and was included in the concert film Let's Spend the Night Together . The song was also performed during the 1995 leg of the Voodoo Lounge Tour. [1] A recording was featured as a bonus track on the Japanese release of 1995's Stripped , as well as being the b-side to the album's lead single "Like a Rolling Stone".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street Fighting Man</span> 1968 single by the Rolling Stones

"Street Fighting Man" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, written by the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Considered one of the band's most popular and most controversial songs, it features Indian instrumentation contributed by Brian Jones, which has led to it being characterized as a Raga rock song. It also features controversial and ambiguous lyrics about armed revolution. In the United States, it was released as a single in August 1968, while it was not released in the United Kingdom until four months later on the Beggars Banquet album, where it opened side two. The B-side of the American single featured "No Expectations", considered one of the final Stones tracks in which founding member Jones played a significant role in its construction.

<i>Tattoo You</i> 1981 studio album by the Rolling Stones

Tattoo You is the 16th British and 18th American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 24 August 1981 by Rolling Stones Records. The album is mostly composed of studio outtakes recorded during the 1970s, and contains one of the band's most well-known songs, "Start Me Up", which hit number two on the US Billboard singles charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sympathy for the Devil</span> 1968 song by the Rolling Stones

"Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it is the opening track on the band's 1968 album Beggars Banquet. The song has received critical acclaim and features on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. It is the 22nd best ranked song on critics' all-time lists according to Acclaimed Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Start Me Up</span> 1981 single by The Rolling Stones

"Start Me Up" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's lead single, it reached number one on Australian Kent Music Report, number two in Canada, number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number seven on the UK Singles Chart, and the top ten in a handful of European countries north of the Alps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beast of Burden (song)</span> 1978 song by The Rolling Stones

"Beast of Burden" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, featured on the 1978 album Some Girls. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song No. 435 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

“Ventilator Blues” is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones that is included on their 1972 album Exile on Main St.

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is a track by English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. The track is over seven minutes long, and begins with a Keith Richards open-G tuned guitar intro. The main song lasts for two minutes and 43 seconds, after which it transforms into an extended improvisational jam. The entire track was captured in one take, with the jam being a happy accident; the band had assumed the tape machine had been stopped, and were surprised to find the entire session had been captured. Originally they were going to end the song before the jam started, but were so pleased with the jam that they decided to keep it in. Besides the regular Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Mick Taylor (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums) and Bill Wyman (bass), the track also features conga player Rocky Dijon, saxophonist Bobby Keys, organist Billy Preston and additional percussion by producer Jimmy Miller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waiting on a Friend</span> 1981 single by the Rolling Stones

"Waiting on a Friend" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and released as the album's second single, it reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US.

"Live with Me" is a song by the Rolling Stones from their album Let It Bleed, released in December 1969. It was the first song recorded with the band's new guitarist Mick Taylor, who joined the band in June 1969, although the first record the band released with Taylor was the single version of Honky Tonk Women. Taylor later described the recording of "Live with Me" as "kind of the start of that particular era for the Stones, where Keith and I traded licks."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)</span> 1974 single by The Rolling Stones

"It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" is the lead single from English rock band the Rolling Stones' 1974 album It's Only Rock 'n Roll. Writing is credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the single reached the top ten in the UK charts and top 20 in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far Away Eyes</span> 1978 single by the Rolling Stones

"Far Away Eyes" is the sixth track from the English rock band the Rolling Stones' 1978 album, Some Girls. It was released, as the B-side of the single "Miss You", on Rolling Stones Records, on 9 June 1978. Rolling Stone magazine made it the 73rd song on their list of 100 Greatest Rolling Stone's Songs.

"Little T&A" is the fourth song on the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones' 1981 album Tattoo You. The song is sung by guitarist Keith Richards. It was the B-Side of their single "Waiting on a Friend".

"Shine a Light" is a song released by English rock band the Rolling Stones on their 1972 album Exile on Main St. about founding band member Brian Jones and was subsequently reworked and released after his 1969 death.

"When the Whip Comes Down" is a song by the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from their 1978 album Some Girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don't Stop (Rolling Stones song)</span> 2002 single by The Rolling Stones

"Don't Stop" is a single by rock band the Rolling Stones featured on their 2002 compilation album Forty Licks.

"Hey Negrita" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones that appeared on their 1976 album Black and Blue.

"Send It to Me" is a song by English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones featured on the 1980 album Emotional Rescue.

"Neighbours" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it is an uptempo song featuring a saxophone part played by Sonny Rollins. The song was released 24 August 1981 by Rolling Stones Records and included as the sixth track on the band's 1981 studio album Tattoo You.

"Slave" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones on their 1981 album Tattoo You.

"Worried About You" is a song featured on the 1981 the Rolling Stones 1981 album Tattoo You.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Black Limousine". timeisonourside.com. Retrieved 2006-08-06.
  2. ↑ Jagger, Mick; Richards, Keith; Watts, Charlie; Wood, Ronnie (2003). According to the Rolling Stones . Chronicle Books. p.  221. ISBN   0811840603.
  3. ↑ Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood 2003 p. 221-22
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.