I prefer the Ry Cooder version myself.

The non-Cooder versions are rough on my ears . . .

Stones Fanatic:  A word to the wise.  You are posting a bit much for a newbie.  I'd ease into it a bit more.   Especially with starting threads.


Memo from Turner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Single by Mick Jagger
from the album Performance
B-side      "Natural Magic"
Released      23 October 1970
Format      7", 45rpm
Recorded      September 1968, Olympic Studios, London
Genre      Rock
Length      4 min 09 s
Label      Decca Records
Writer(s)      Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
Producer      Jack Nitzsche
“Memo from Turner”
Song by The Rolling Stones
Album      Metamorphosis
Released      6 June 1975
Recorded      August 1968, Olympic Studios, London
Length      2:45
Writer      Jagger/Richards
Producer      Jimmy Miller

"Memo from Turner" is a song by the English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. It was re-released in October 2007 on a seventeen-song retrospective compilation album The Very Best of Mick Jagger, making a re-appearance as a Jagger solo effort. After its original release in 1970, it had been included on Rolling Stones compilations, such as Singles Collection: The London Years as a track credited to Jagger/Richards songwriters.

Versions

There are two distinct versions of "Memo from Turner" in existence. The first released version of the song was the one recorded for the soundtrack to the movie Performance, starring Mick Jagger as the song title's "Turner". This is the more well-known version of the song, as it was released as a solo single by Jagger in England in 1970 and is featured on the later Singles Collection: The London Years. Jagger was contractually obligated to write the soundtrack song for the film he was also starring in. While Keith Richards was preparing material for what would be Let It Bleed, and ushering his then girlfriend and Performance co-star, Anita Pallenberg, to the film set, Jagger was unable to write a new song for the soundtrack.[1] Under a deadline to deliver a song to producers, he likely re-recorded a demo track from 1968, which was credited as a Jagger/Richards song, typical of all Rolling Stones collaborations. However, Richards neither played on nor co-wrote the song. [2] Ry Cooder is the guitarist playing on the soundtrack version.

The second version, released on Metamorphosis in 1975 on the Allen Klein Decca/London pre-existing legacy contracts of the Stones 1960s recordings, was the original demo recorded in November 1968. This version probably featured Brian Jones and Stevie Winwood of Traffic, or even Al Kooper, who also likely plays the song's keyboards. Either Charlie Watts or Jim Capaldi (also of Traffic) plays drums on this recording.

Besides the differing lineup between the two versions, there are also changes to the lyrics. The track was reviewed as Jagger:

    ...puts on his best drawling speak-sing voice for the lyrics, spinning bizarre mini-snapshots of decadent, cruel gangster behavior... The music isn't grim, though; it's more in a sly, ironic happy-go-lucky vein, as if to illustrate the callous, carefree glee gangsters take in such antics. It's not a celebration of the gangster mentality, though, so much as a subtle, mocking look at its decadence, with hints of repressed homosexuality and almost gruesome imagery of dog-eat-dog behavior." [3]

Ronnie Wood performed "Memo from Turner" live at various club gigs in 1987-88, including some of his shows with Bo Diddley. Martin Scorsese uses the track in a scene from Goodfellas where Ray Liotta's character Henry emerges from the house during the daylight on a cocaine binge.

[edit] Notes

   1. ^ Hotchner, A.E. Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990
   2. ^ "Memo from Turner. songfacts. 2007 (accessed 16 June 2007)
   3. ^ Unterberger, Richie. The Rolling Stones "Memo from Turner". allmusic. 2007 (accessed 16 June 2007

Thanks for the info, Zack.  I should not post much since I'm new? There are rules for this??

StonesFanatic wrote on May 12^th, 2009 at 9:27am:


No formal rules for posting etiquette, but I've seen lots of new members get carried away and start to piss people off by posting in every thread and starting a new thread for every thought that pops into their minds, then THEY get insulted and bugger off for good.  Less is more, you know.  Personally, but after seven years on this board, I've always tried not to post more than once or twice a day (the post counts all went back to zero with a change of site address in April 08).   Not that you've started a lot of threads; I'm just sayin' . . .

Zack is spot on. Please refer to chapter 16, Section 8, Paragraph 3.5, Subsection Zebra Aught Two of your "Rocks Off Posting" Manual, which reads:

"Newbie posters are confined to starting approximately no more two threads per week, and should not exceed a daily post count of 15, until that time at which they are officially hazed and accepted by the old guard. Said hazing should include, but not be limited to, the following:

-listening to the entire "hotel california" album whilst being locked in a small, confined space.
-kicking in $20 to help pay off pug's "hogs n honies" bill.
-run through the ROCC "spanking line".
-attend two classes at the howe military academy.
-being forced to read the entire politics thread.

Then...and only then...a jedi will you be.

oh yes....and you must removed that "stones ruled until 1974" tag unter your avatar. how ghey is that?

>Certainly not! ask Ten Thousand Motels, or is it Two Thousand? (Just Kidding)<


Don't ask me....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2_p1pfpLWQ&feature=related