Comments on: It's a Hell of a Song

It's a Hell of a Song

Poolio — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:18:19 -0800

In early 1968, Jean-Luc Godard filmed The Rolling Stones in the studio writing/recording "Sympathy for the Devil".

Mick Jagger recalled in a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner: "... [it was] very fortuitous, because Godard wanted to do a film of us in the studio. I mean, it would never happen now, to get someone as interesting as Godard. And stuffy. We just happened to be recording that song. We could have been recording "My Obsession." But it was "Sympathy for the Devil," and it became the track that we used."

Later that year, Godard released a film (in Europe) titled "One Plus One" which featured the "Sympathy for the Devil" studio footage. To increase the commercial value of the film, the U.S. release was re-titled after the Stones song and the end of the film's soundtrack was altered to include a full take of the song in its final form, much to the dismay of Godard.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:18:31 -0800

Contrary to popular belief, the Stones were not playing "Sympathy for the Devil" when Meredith Hunter was killed during the Altamont Music Festival. They were playing "Under My Thumb".

By: McLir

McLir — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:37:53 -0800

THANK YOU! I've been wanting to see this doc since I heard about it years ago.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:41:28 -0800

McLir - I couldn't find the whole film anywhere... just the Stones footage and the trailer.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:09:12 -0800

Wow, fantastic. It's like Let It Be, only the band in question is not a dysfunctional family. In fact, the Stones were about at the height of their powers here. Thanks for the post! BTW, a little voice tells me this is gonna get yanked. I think I'll download this post haste.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:13:55 -0800

BTW, a little voice tells me this is gonna get yanked. I think I'll download this post haste. Yanked from YouTube, you mean?

By: peacay

peacay — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:21:39 -0800

jonmc's great post on Meredith Hunter.

By: bardic

bardic — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:42:31 -0800

I'm fairly sure the video for the new Spoon single is an homage to the Stones and the Godard footage, the "finished" version of "SftD" in particular.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:48:10 -0800

Jefferson Airplane's 1968 NYC rooftop performance of 'House at Pooneil Corners' - shot by Godard, who is visible in the film (as is Rip Torn).

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:00:58 -0800

Yanked from YouTube, you mean? That's what I mean! There's been so many good music-related videos that've been pulled, and I've kicked myself later for not having downloaded them sooner. Lotsa blues, rock and whatnot. Stuff gets pulled off YouTube all the time.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:03:24 -0800

Stuff gets pulled off YouTube all the time. Yup... the Rock & Roll Circus version of SftD I included has been pulled numerous times. I think this is like the 3rd or 4th copy I've favorited in the past year.

By: punkfloyd

punkfloyd — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:42:04 -0800

@bardic: You just introduced me to my next favorite band, I think.

By: bardic

bardic — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:18:59 -0800

You should be warned -- my favorite bands suck.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:20:37 -0800

I saw this on Nightflight on USA sometime around 1980, haven't thought about it since.

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:27:11 -0800

I'm kind of surprised Wenner was able to conduct such a coherent interview with Jagger's dick permanently lodged in his mouth.

By: oddman

oddman — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:49:47 -0800

You know, for the first minute and a half I kept wondering where Keith Richards was. Wow, as he's aged, he's come to look completely different.

By: FelliniBlank

FelliniBlank — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:24:39 -0800

Oddman: That's because he has someone else's blood.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:28:50 -0800

...as he's aged, he's come to look completely different. I think with ol' Keef needs a different qualifier: "aged" just doesn't seem... enough. Or it's just inadequate, somehow. I mean, that guy is just one big wrinkle, and there's gotta be a Richards-specific term for that. He's more than just aged he's... I dunno... "pickled"?

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:33:10 -0800

And otherwise, I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that I think Godard is one of the most overrated directors in history. I could never get what's supposed to be so great about his work. Maybe I just haven't seen the right ones...

By: ghastlyfop

ghastlyfop — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:39:58 -0800

I love Godard, and I love (this era of) the Stones, but holy cow, does the movie suck.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:24:41 -0800

Keyboards from the late great Nicky Hopkins.

By: ob

ob — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:34:33 -0800

I've seen this a couple of times and it's a great document of the times. I didn't know that it had found it's way onto youtube though...

By: micayetoca

micayetoca — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:45:00 -0800

Great, great post. I love it how in such short piece you are able to get a sense of the evolution of the song. They go through three different versions and you can see how it slowly becomes the one we've all heard a million times. Nice one, Poolio.

By: aiq

aiq — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:13:57 -0800

"Keefed"?

By: mike_bling

mike_bling — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:20:12 -0800

Flapjax, As far as Godard's oeuvre (that's French - see how I did that?) goes, this is my least favorite of what I've seen. You should probably just watch ALL of his 60s movies as he takes on basically every film convention and redoes them his own way. They're far from perfect (maybe with the exception of Contempt) and can be digressive and plotless, but the ideas in them are brilliant and poetic. Contempt is the movie that addicted me. I think a lot of people's problem with Godard is that he really is attacking YOU as an audience member much more than most people have the balls or mind to do. (Whenever you're saying, man I hate this fucking movie - that may be the point - which is admittedly a strange feeling).

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:59:49 -0800

Without the polish of studio production, I now see how Dylanesque Jagger's vocals are. Fantastic post, cheers.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:00:44 -0800

The whole version of this is deeply weird, and more than a little off-putting. I've always regretted that the organ heavy version of the song that shows up about halfway through was not the version that got pressed.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:05:14 -0800

If you don't like the sea... and don't care for the mountains... and don't like the big city either... go fuck yourself!

By: mosk

mosk — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:35:12 -0800

Always wanted to see this, even if it isn't the whole film. Thanks. Seems like the other celluloid bookend of this period in the Stones' career is Cocksucker Blues, which I recently/finally viewed via BitTorrent. The scope of the decadence captured in that movie is pretty devastating, and certainly not in a good way. Amazing any of those guys are still walking around.

By: notmtwain

notmtwain — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:05:42 -0800

Terrific post. Listening to part 1, when Mick is teaching the song to his band, it's hard to believe the song will become a classic. Mick keeps screwing up the timing and words here and there on the lyrics. The drummer isn't very interesting at first until the switch is made to congas and then to the last mini-tympani set of drums.(don't know what they are called.) The organ heavy keyboards are good but seem outdone by the grand piano. My respect for Mick multiplied by 100 after watching these videos and by not a small amount for the rest of the band. What a fascinating process. Any one know of other videos of bands showing the song creation process?

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:43:33 -0800

Any one know of other videos of bands showing the song creation process? Miscellaneous Beatles studio footage John Lennon studio footage and home videos (1st video [How Do You Sleep] includes George Harrison) Paul McCartney & Wings studio footage

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:49:46 -0800

other videos of bands showing the song creation process? And of course, the Beatles in Let It Be, and when you watch that and see what a messy, ramshackle sort of process that was, it's doubly amazing that they came up with the album that they did. Most of the rehearsal footage from Let It Be shows four musicians who barely want to play with each other, and more often than not can't play with each other for much longer than a few bars! But, damn, then they went up to the roof and pulled off a pretty good little show! (Flubbed lyrics and the occasional bum not notwithstanding...) Must've been kind of weird for Billy Preston, too, who took part in those sessions with a band of superstars that was clearly well on the way to implosion.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:54:15 -0800

Let It Be used to be available on YouTube, but it got pulled a while ago, and I haven't seen a new copy pop up. Here's the Apple rooftop concert footage, which makes up the last 22 minutes of the film.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:55:57 -0800

BTW, among the "Miscellaneous Beatles studio footage" I posted is several clips from the "Get Back" sessions.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:07:03 -0800

Just to bring things back to the Stones, here's my favorite version of "Gimme Shelter".

By: Poolio

Poolio — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:23:54 -0800

I'm fairly sure the video for the new Spoon single is an homage to the Stones and the Godard footage, the "finished" version of "SftD" in particular. I think you're probably right. What's interesting is that the Spoon video starts out showing the sound engineers, who are never seen in the Godard footage.