# Favorite Stones song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 16, 2017, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830 "2017-08-16T22:22:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/61 "2017-08-17T19:55:07Z")
“Dead Flowers” But I, too, am not much of a Stone’s guy. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/62 "2017-08-17T22:06:14Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I don’t remember that _500 Greatest Songs Of All Time_ bit a little while ago getting any controversy for placing FLASH (which, near as I can tell, never hit #1 in the US) behind HONKY TONK WOMEN and YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT and GIMME SHELTER and SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL and, of course, SATISFACTION. > > Not that any of that is _proof_ that you’re wrong about it being the best, just that it casts doubt on the “controversial” part. (I mean, you’re still _wrong,_ but you’re wrong because the right answer is WILD HORSES. ;)) Well I know I’m wrong. But it seems vastly underrated in this thread compared with it’s place in history. Yes it was historic. It was a very important and great song. I admit I don’t need to listen to the stones any more. I can just imagine Street fighting man, Honky tonk women, satisfaction ad infinitum. But JJF is an actual kinetic experience to listen to for the thousandth time. Angie, she’s so cold, dancing with Mr D, 100 Years ago? How about “She was Hot” or emotional rescue? Let’s get to the good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/63 "2017-08-17T22:39:36Z")
As a guitar player, I LOVE some of the Stones intros more than I like the rest of the songs. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is an unreal alt-tuned opening rhythm riff, and I absolutely love “Monkey Man” and the intro to “Honky Tonk Woman”. It’s hard to pick a single song, so for overall, I will go with “Sympathy For The Devil”. Every time I hear that solo I think “There’s a guitar player on heroin”. Heroin: I don’t recommend it, I wouldn’t do it myself, I don’t want my kids doing it…but it hasn’t hurt my record collection. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/64 "2017-08-17T22:50:05Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > As a guitar player, I LOVE some of the Stones intros more than I like the rest of the songs. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is an unreal alt-tuned opening rhythm riff, and I absolutely love “Monkey Man” and the intro to “Honky Tonk Woman”. > > It’s hard to pick a single song, so for overall, I will go with “Sympathy For The Devil”. Every time I hear that solo I think “There’s a guitar player on heroin”. > > Heroin: I don’t recommend it, I wouldn’t do it myself, I don’t want my kids doing it…but it hasn’t hurt my record collection. I was tempted to list Mercy Mercy from Out of our heads just for the intro. 5 seconds of joy from Brian Jones I think. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNiCRzduz_s) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/65 "2017-08-18T00:07:49Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Well I know I’m wrong. > > But it seems vastly underrated in this thread compared with it’s place in history. Yes it was historic. It was a very important and great song. > > I admit I don’t need to listen to the stones any more. I can just imagine Street fighting man, Honky tonk women, satisfaction ad infinitum. > > But JJF is an actual kinetic experience to listen to for the thousandth time. > > Angie, she’s so cold, dancing with Mr D, 100 Years ago? > > How about “She was Hot” or emotional rescue? Let’s get to the good stuff. Heh. You know which one surprises me by dint of it not having been mentioned yet? LET’S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER. Sure, I stand by WILD HORSES, because I’m the kind of guy who likes that kind of song; but I kind of figured there’d be plenty of folks who like the LET’S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER sound, and, uh, when did the Stones do that kind of thing better than they did with that one? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/66 "2017-08-18T00:16:28Z")
It’s actually “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”. Get your facts straight. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/67 "2017-08-18T00:17:24Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > “Sway” > > “Stray Cat Blues” Two of my favorites! For “Stray Cat,” especially the live version on _Ya Yas_. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/68 "2017-08-18T00:21:49Z")
[quote=“drad\_dog, post:64, topic:793830”] I was tempted to list Mercy Mercy from Out of our heads just for the intro. 5 seconds of joy from Brian Jones I think. [/QUOTE] It’s crazy to me how much the Stones early years mirrored the Beatles in so many ways…haircuts, songs, attire… “Mercy” led me to a song I had forgotten, “The Last Time”. Total early 1960’s Beatle-esque music. [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMYYCO_hwAs) It’s funny…back in those days everyone “behaved” by and large on television, then drugs took over and both the Beatles and Stones experienced rapid growth as bands and stopped playing all the “I Want To Hold Your Hand” type stuff. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/69 "2017-08-18T00:22:49Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Nineteenth Nervous Breakfast 🙂 Child of the Mooch ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/70 "2017-08-18T00:57:42Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > It’s crazy to me how much the Stones early years mirrored the Beatles in so many ways…haircuts, songs, attire… > > “Mercy” led me to a song I had forgotten, “The Last Time”. Total early 1960’s Beatle-esque music. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMYYCO\_hwAs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMYYCO_hwAs) > > It’s funny…back in those days everyone “behaved” by and large on television, then drugs took over and both the Beatles and Stones experienced rapid growth as bands and stopped playing all the “I Want To Hold Your Hand” type stuff. O my god that riff. When you get on it it really takes over. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/71 "2017-08-18T01:37:28Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > O my god that riff. When you get on it it really takes over. It was good enough for Elvis Costello: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5jaFC8-mAU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5jaFC8-mAU) ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/72 "2017-08-18T02:04:39Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > It was good enough for Elvis Costello: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5jaFC8-mAU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5jaFC8-mAU) O shoot! thats the song where he cops on van morrison too. The Gloria chords. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/73 "2017-08-18T02:07:09Z")
Torn between Lady Jane and Time is on My Side. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/74 "2017-08-18T03:19:12Z")
“Miss you” ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/75 "2017-08-18T03:24:44Z")
Happy, followed by Sympathy for the Devil. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/76 "2017-08-18T05:43:27Z")
[quote=“FoieGrasIsEvil, post:68, topic:793830”] It’s crazy to me how much the Stones early years mirrored the Beatles in so many ways…haircuts, songs, attire… “Mercy” led me to a song I had forgotten, “The Last Time”. Total early 1960’s Beatle-esque music. [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMYYCO_hwAs) Here’s what Keith himself says inspired the Stones’ song: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j1jGF-6bFpI/hqdefault.jpg "The Staple Singers - This May be the Last Time") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1jGF-6bFpI) Don’t know what point I’m making here, if any. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/77 "2017-08-18T12:05:53Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I absolutely love “Monkey Man” and the intro to “Honky Tonk Woman”. - Monkey Man - oh, man, is that a fun groove to give a work out. I jam on this with my drummer friend for long stretches. It has that Funk No. 49 feel to it - so fun to play. - Honky Tonk: Keith’s first song in Open G. Gloriously lifted from Ry Cooder who was showing Keith how to play in that tuning: [Ry Cooder’s Elegant Indignation | The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ry-cooders-elegant-indignation) > [@](#): > > Cooder’s guitar playing is expressive, elegant, and rhythmically intricate. It frequently has a pressured attack that he has described as having the feel of “some kind of steam device gone out of control.” His sense of phrasing was partly imprinted in his childhood by a record of brass music made by a group of African-American men who found instruments in a field left by Civil War soldiers during a retreat, and played them according to their own inclinations. If you wonder what his sensibility sounds like when applied to rock ‘n’ roll—one version of it anyway—the most widely known example I can think of comes from the period when Cooder had been hired to augment the Rolling Stones during the recording of “Let It Bleed.” He was playing by himself in the studio, goofing around with some changes, when Mick Jagger danced over and said, How do you do that? You tune the E string down to D, place your fingers there, and pull them off quickly, that’s very good. Keith, perhaps you should see this. And before long, the Rolling Stones were collecting royalties for “Honky Tonk Women,” which sounds precisely like a Ry Cooder song and absolutely nothing like any other song ever produced by the Rolling Stones in more than forty years. According to Richards in his recent autobiography, Cooder showed him the open G tuning which became his mainstay and accounts for the full-bodied chordal declarations that characterize songs such as “Gimme Shelter,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Start Me Up,” and “Brown Sugar.” The most succinct way I can think of to describe the latticed style that Keith Richards says he has sought to achieve with Ron Wood is to say that for thirty-five years the Stones have been trying to do with four hands what Cooder can do with two. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/78 "2017-08-19T00:39:52Z")
I been hearing the stones since let’s say exile and Hot Rocks. Not a completist by any means But I’ve heard most of the usual suspects thousands of times. When I read another written account of the supreme drama of Gimme Shelter, I just lose interest. It’s not that dramatic after 50 years of continuous use. it would be interesting to know how many times, estimated and/or actual, posters have heard their favorite stones song. But musically I can’t take that song the same way I took it as a fresh sound. I judge the stones strictly on melody really. But the stones is simple stuff. Now if I had only heard these songs in the last 5 years I’d think it was…still Jumpin Jack Flash. People on here like all kinds of songs that have the qualities that JJF has, but has better. Yet I see it on no lists except one other here. That is extraordinary. How does the beard feel about JJF then? It evades each list. Yet it has the same qualities if not better in melody, harmony, hard rock power and historic watershed than 99 percent of their material. Need I point out the RIFF? How does no one else appreciate that song, at least enough to mention it? That is the weirdest thing I’ve seen all day. Is it me? That’s OK I like where I am. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/79 "2017-08-19T01:05:34Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > - Monkey Man - oh, man, is that a fun groove to give a work out. I jam on this with my drummer friend for long stretches. It has that Funk No. 49 feel to it - so fun to play. > > - Honky Tonk: Keith’s first song in Open G. Gloriously lifted from Ry Cooder who was showing Keith how to play in that tuning: [Ry Cooder’s Elegant Indignation | The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ry-cooders-elegant-indignation) Any ideas on how to cop that sound? I have a two channel tube amp, a Boss delay pedal and an Ibanez Tube Screamer that I never use. I’m assuming that dirty sound is a cranked up tube amp clean channel. Any thoughts? And what is the tuning progression? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830/80 "2017-08-19T01:10:25Z")
JJF: As with Stray Cat Blues and Midnight Rambler, I LOVE the _Ya Yas_ version\*. Perfect opening number. The original (studio) version? Not so much. In fact, I prefer its b-side (Child of the Moon). \*though it would have been more interesting had Jagger kept in the “well it’s all right, yes it’s all right” vocals (heard in the _Gimme Shelter_ film), rather than overdubbing them with the “well it’s a - - ll ri - - ght now” to match the single. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-stones-song/793830.md?page=5)