The Rolling Stones hadn't played Britain for almost a year when they took the stage at the Royal Albert Hall, London, to kick off their seventh UK tour (September 23 - October 9, 1966). A month after tour ending the band returned, for the first time since 1963, to Olympic Sound Studios, London, to finish work on their next studio album, "Between The Buttons".
As mentioned before, during the Olympic Sound sessions (November 8-26) a lot of people would drop by the studio, most of them friends of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards or Brian Jones. Musically speaking, a very interesting person to drop by happened to be Nicky Hopkins, who had been working with Brian Jones on the soundtrack of the movie "Mord und Totschlag" ("A Degree of Murder") by German director Volker Schlöndorff.
After Jack Nitzsche at RCA, Nicky Hopkins, one of London's most in-demand session pianists, became the second 'outsider' keyboard player to perform with the Stones, both in the studio and on stage. On "Between The Buttons" Hopkins plays piano on two songs: "Cool, Calm And Collected", and "Something Happened To Me Yesterday".
Jack Nitzsche contributes keyboards to three songs, while Ian Stewart plays piano on four tracks, among which the raunchy "Miss Amanda Jones". And with multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones contributing a whole range of instruments to most of the songs, the 'keybaord department' by now looked very crowded. Or didn't it?
November 8-26, 1966: Olympic Sound Studios, London, England.
ReplyDeleteThe Rolling Stones: My Obsession (Jagger-Richards) (3:18)
The Rolling Stones: Ruby Tuesday (Jagger-Richards) (3:19)
The Rolling Stones: Please Go Home (Jagger-Richards) (3:20)
The Rolling Stones: Who's Been Sleeping Here? (Jagger-Richards) (3:50)
The Rolling Stones: Get Yourself Together (Jagger-Richards) (3:10)
The Rolling Stones: Yesterday's Papers (Jagger-Richards) (2:05)
Mick Jagger: "Yesterday's Papers"
Yesterday's Papers was the first song I ever wrote completely on my own for a Rolling Stones record.
The Rolling Stones: Back Street Girl (Jagger-Richards) (3:29)
The Rolling Stones: She Smiled Sweetly (Jagger-Richards) (2:44)
The Rolling Stones: Miss Amanda Jones (Jagger-Richards) (2:42)
The Rolling Stones: Cool, Calm And Collected (Jagger-Richards) (4:12)
Marianne Faithfull: Is This What I Get For Loving You (Spector-Goffin-King) (3:56)
661108A 8th - 26th November: London, Olympic Sound Studios and Pye Studios. Producer: Andrew Oldham. Sound engineer: Glyn Johns.
- My Obsession (Jagger-Richards)
- Ruby Tuesday (Jagger-Richards) - Keith Richards and Bill Wyman on cello and double bass, Brian Jones on piano and recorder (flute)
- Please Go Home (Jagger-Richards) - Shirley Watts on backing vocals
- Who's Been Sleeping Here? (Jagger-Richards)
- Get Yourself Together (Jagger-Richards) - unreleased
- Yesterday's Papers (Jagger-Richards) - Brian Jones on xylophone
- Back Street Girl (Jagger-Richards) - Brian Jones on accordion
- She Smiled Sweetly (Jagger-Richards) - Keith Richards on organ and piano
- Miss Amanda Jones (Jagger-Richards)
- Cool, Calm And Collected (Jagger-Richards) - Nicky Hopkins on piano, Brian Jones on banjo and sitar
- English Summer (Jagger-Richards) - unreleased, later given to Marianne Faithfull
- Trouble In Mind (Jones)
- Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Blue (Jagger-Richards) - early version of Dandelion with Keith Richards on guide-vocals
- Something Happened To Me Yesterday (Jagger-Richards) – Nicky Hopkins on piano, Brian Jones on saxophone, trombone, and clarinet.
Note: Most of the songs were already begun in August at RCA Studios. These sessions were mainly done for overdubs, vocal recordings, arranging and mixing. More overdubbing and mixing was done at Olympic Sound Studios in December. During the sessions Brian Jones contributed trombone and violin to the Marianne Faithfull recording “Is This What I Get For Loving You”.
Line-up: Mick Jagger (voc, harm, perc)/Keith Richards (gtr, bass, kazoo, bvoc)/Brian Jones (gtr, p, org, harm, kazoo, perc)/Ian Stewart (p, org)/Bill Wyman (bass)/Charlie Watts (dr). Additional musician: Jack Nitzsche (p, org, harpsichord, perc).