ROCKS OFF - The Rolling Stones Message Board

Hey yall! I used to post a bit on this forum 4 or so years ago, and have lost my log-in info so I made a new account. (I was involved in a CD exchange of sorts I remember, where I was a seed, and kind of messed it up a bit) Either way, LONG time stones fan.

Anyway, I'm doing a little personal project and would love some input from you guys. Basically I'm organizing my favourite stones songs into four categories, of which I believe pretty much every single stones songs can be placed into. The categories are a bit broad but they go something like this: Love Songs, Songs about Girls, Stones and the World Outside, and Stones Within. VERY broad I know, but hear me out.

Distinction between love songs and girl songs may seem a bit unclear, but I believe its there. Songs about girls are mainly Mick Jagger influenced, semi-sexist, womanizing, badass tunes about girls, and how they "come and go" into his/the band's life. Song's ive put into this category are:
1. Lets Spend the Night Together
2. Honky Tonk Women
3. Stupid Girl
4. Factory Girl
5. Stray Cat Blues
6. She’s So Cold
7. Out of Time
8. Star Star
9. Mona
10. Carol
11. Some Girls
12. Brown Sugar
13. She Said Yeah
14. Miss Amanda Jones
15. Complicated
16. Dead Flowers
17. Under My Thumb

Love songs are different because I believe they focus on the relationship between the two people. Things I've put here are:
1. Connection
2. Angie
3. Dear Doctor
4. Ruby Tuesday
5. Anybody Seen My Baby
6. Let It Loose
7. Winter
8. Aint Too Proud To Beg
9. Love in Vain
10. Mercy Mercy
11. Honest I Do
12. Miss You
13. Beast of Burden

Stones and The World Outside are simply a collection of songs about current culture, history, their lives growing up, their experiences, their take on life, things like that. Lots of Keith Richards influence here:

1. Time Waits for Noone
2. Sympathy for the Devil
3. Street Fighting Man
4. Salt of The Earth
5. Mother’s Little Helper
6. Gimme Shelter
7. Paint it Black
9. Ventilator Blues

And the last category is Stones Within, basically songs about the band, their lives, touring, drugs, things like that:

1. Prodigal Son
2. Fool To Cry
3. Moonlight Mile
4. Shine a Light
5. Sister Morphine
6. YCAGWYW
7. Out of Control
8. Waiting on a Friend
9. Monkey Man
10. Before They Make me Run
11. Wild Horses
12. Moonlight Mile

I'm just looking for input from you experts, to see what you think I should adjust, if maybe I'm way of in some places, or things I can add. What I'm doing is introducing a friend to the stones, and because listening to albums (although the best method) is an overwhelming way to dive into the stones, I figured I'd make my own 4 CD set. I pretty much hate all the stones collections out there, and how they categorize their music. it's very amateur most of the time.

A nice attempt to categorize the RS but I dont, many songs are crossovers. For example:
WORRIED ABOUT YOU ~ could be a love song, or a 'girl song' as you put it but that sounds juvenile. I prefer to call them the sexy songs and those are my faves.

OK Lets talk about WORRIED ABOUT YOU for a minute.

Just like your burned out cigarette
You threw away my love
Why did you do that baby?
This line kills me, I feel so bad imagining a love could be compared to a tossed out butt, meaning it's used garbage not worth anything. But here's the answer to MICK/KEEF's question as to WHY?!

Sometime I stay out late, yeah I'm having fun
Yes, I guess you know by now you ain't the only one
Thats the reason why MICK/KEEF! You tell a girl she aint the only one and theres going to be nothing but trouble from her. Women hate this! Thats why he is mistreated in return. You would think MICK/KEEF would know better, huh? Someone should write them a song called 'Stupid Boy' LOL

Bitch wrote on Jan 9^th, 2011 at 5:45pm:

'Worried About You', like several songs, is written as a man/woman song, but is multi-layered in that it's also probably written about Mick and Keiths own relationship - a la 'All About You', 'Party Doll', 'Waiting on a Friend', 'Sweethearts Together' .

Nice to see you postin' again, Branko. Welcome back.

Yes...welcome back Branko.

Great concept...you make it the way that it works for you...

I have my own categories...but they involve:

Red Wine...
weed...
beer (cheap stuff)
and heavy meat laden meals.

So how is this project going, I find your concept very interesting.
And since we have no Tour to talk about I personally, I starting thinking about this and hope to give you my ideas soon.
Would love to keep this thread going................

I recall reading somewhere once where some one analyzed all the stones lyrics to see what were the predominant ideas and themes. Contrary to most expectations that sex/love would be the dominant theme or perhaps drugs and violence it turns out that it is, in fact, mental illness or variations thereof!! If you think about it there are plenty e.g. - Think I 'm going Mad - Crazy Mama - she blew my nose and then she blew my mind - women think i'm crazy always trying to waste me - lose your dreams and you will lose your mind - walkin central park singing after dark people think i'm crazy -19th nervous breakdown - here come a woman giving me a criss cross mind - Crackin' Up - would you think the boy's insane , he's insane - it's a life long addiction that has damaged my brain- did you ever wake up to find a day that broke up your mind - there are plenty more i am sure

stonedinaustralia wrote on Jan 19^th, 2011 at 12:36am:

Now that the kind of analyzing, I was talking about...and yes this makes sense it's not all Love, sex, etc., songs!
Songs about boy meets girl, they do the deed and fall in love, are pretty boring.......the Stones are not boring!
When you take away the music and strip the song down to the words.....you got mental illness! That's great! I love this place.

Interesting shit Kilroy! The Stones have been driving me crazy since I was a teenage virgin! Even my favorite song BITCH which I always thought was about love being a bitch, it really speaks of ups and downs of different moods for no real reason other than stages of the mind:

Sometimes I'm sexy, move like a stud
Kicking the stall all night
Sometimes I'm so shy, got to be worked on
Don't have no bark or bite, alright

Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog

OK from what I remember about Pavlog, he was a scientist who trained dogs to salivate by performing experiments on them, to prove a point that dogs can be trained by repeating mind games on them. So what MICK/KEEF mean is that the lover has them salivating but its just a trained action and reaction. After so many years of listening to this song its amazing to get a new perspective. It isnt love, it's the doglike state of mind thats a bitch. Or am I just over-analyzing?

I think you've got something there, B!

I imagine you've been thinking about this for a while now. :-)

ROCKS OFF - The Rolling Stones Message Board
http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl GENERAL >> MAIN BOARD >> Rolling Stones Song Themes http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl?num=1294520501 Message started by Branko on Jan 8^th, 2011 at 3:01pm