Rolling Stones Single-By-Single Thread

Any one know when Satisfaction first appeared on official record or cd in stereo and was this mix done at the time of the song's recording?

 

Ignoring the version on the 2002 discs, the only stereo release was on Hot Rocks 1 in 1985. It's unclear exactly when that mix was made.

The (superior) alternate stereo mix on boot was apparently made in March 1966.

 

Thanks. The boot stereo is good and nice to know it was done in March 1966.

 

Here it comes!...Here comes your...

19th Nervous Breakdown (1966)



Released: 2/5/66 (UK); 2/12/66 (US)
B-Side: As Tears Go By (UK); Sad Day (US)
Charts: #2 (UK); #2 (US)

The song was written during the group's 1965 tour of the United States and recorded at the conclusion of their fourth North American tour during the Aftermath album sessions, between 3 and 8 December 1965 at RCA Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.

Jagger came up with the title first and then wrote the lyrics around it. The opening guitar figure is played by Keith Richards while in the verses Brian Jones plays a bass-note figure that derives from "Diddley Daddy" by Bo Diddley, a major influence on the Rolling Stones' style.[2][3] Here the riff is extended into a long blues chord progression behind verbose lyrics similar to those of their previous UK single, "Get Off of My Cloud", and the verse alternates with a bridge theme. The track is also known for Bill Wyman's so-called "dive-bombing" bass line at the end. At almost four minutes' duration, it is long by the standards of the time.

Like many early Rolling Stones recordings, "19th Nervous Breakdown" has been officially released only in mono sound. A stereomix of the song has turned up in private and bootleg collections.[4] One version of the stereo mix features a radically different vocal from Jagger, who alternates between mellow on the verses and rawer on the chorus.

Personnel[edit]

• Mick Jagger – lead vocals
• Keith Richards – electric guitar, background vocals
• Brian Jones – electric guitar
• Bill Wyman – bass guitar
• Charlie Watts – drums[5]

"19th Nervous Breakdown" was released as a single on 4 February 1966 in the UK and reached number two in the United Kingdom Record Retailer chart. However, it topped the NME chart and the BBC's Pick of the Pops charts, both widely recognised in Britain at the time, and was the fifth best-selling single of 1966 in the UK (achieving greater full-year sales than both Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", which had prevented "19th Nervous Breakdown" from reaching number one on the Record Retailer chart, and the Rolling Stones' next single release, "Paint It Black", which reached number one on the Record Retailer chart for a week at the end of May 1966).[6]

"19th Nervous Breakdown" was released on 12 February 1966 in the US and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 (behind "Ballad of the Green Berets" by S/Sgt. Barry Sadler). It was one of three songs ("(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "As Tears Go By" being the other two) the Rolling Stones performed on their Ed Sullivan Show appearance in the US in February 1966.

In 2016, a previously unreleased alternate mono mix of the track, appeared on Stray Cats, a compilation of singles and non-album tracks, in the boxed set The Rolling Stones in Mono.

 

here's where it goes from garage to proto psych IMO. Shimmery guitars, dive bombing bass....and then there's the psycho analysis of it all

 

Stanley's book is one of the very best books in the whole general subject of rock. But for me it's strength was in his reporting and descriptions, not so much for his point of view and opinions. To be clear I agreed a lot with his opinions. But not on everything. On I'm Free I think he simply got mixed up their apparent difficulties getting a good arrangement, a good live version, with the take he had on the lyrics in effect being insincere. For me I always thought the claim inherent in I'm Free was if you will more aspirational than an accurate description, with maybe not so much a hint of irony as existential struggle. In other words the singer is describing a goal rather than the way his life actually is. Least that's how it seems to me.

When the Stones were singing I'm Free on the 69 tour, I don't think for a single moment they thought the lyrics were totally accurate about the state of the world. Stanley I think was a bit over the top suggesting there was some issue there.

Add in as discussed yesterday that the version of I'm Free on Live'R Than You'll Ever Be is in fact excellent.

 

Great single. The 45 just explodes out of the speakers. There also seems to be a little bit of tape lag during the outro, but I’m not sure.

 

On the original mono mix, yes.

It's also worth noting that the original CDs and many older LPs had noticeable static in the intro. It seems that the master tape was damaged between the release of the 45 and Big Hits in the UK, and a (noisy) needledrop was spliced in as a repair. Tape copies outside of the UK were not affected, but UK LPs had the issue, and the original CDs apparently all used the (UK) master tape. The 2002 discs used a remixed intro, while the 2016 mono box used a remix of the whole song. Why the mono master has not been repaired using a tape copy is a mystery. Even a clean needledrop is an improvement over the static section.

 

19th Nervous Breakdown
This is one of my top three favorite Stones singles of the '60s (the other two are still to come). I absolutely love it. It comes galloping out the speakers and delivers something uptempo and unusual with touches of psych. Bill Wyman's dive bombs at the end are superb, I love the frenetic tempo and full arrangement. I've just always loved it. It also features more great lyrics from Mick, touching on class differences and the impact of dating someone spoiled by the upper crust. This bit is my favorite:

You were still in school when you had that fool who really messed your mind.
And after that you turned your back on treating people kind.
On our first trip I tried so hard to rearrange your mind.
But after a while I realized you were disarranging mine.

In February 1966 he wrote this! Incredible song.

Sad Day
This is one of the true lost gems of the period. I heard it on The Singles Collection first. This is a truly great composition with a complete arrangement and a great juxtaposition between verse and chorus. It really signals what was to come on Aftermath and how much Jagger/Richards had matured and grown as writers. This period was so crucial for them mastering the craft of song structure.

 

19th Nervous Breakdown
This was one of the first few Rolling Stones songs I became familiar with. I didn’t really care for it then, but upon revisiting it, I’m actually really enjoying it. I would say it’s one of the best songs of their pre-psychedelic era. It shows the Stones finally having found their sound and writing and playing a good song in that style while forshadowing what’s to come.

Sad Day
It seems we have reached the Stones’ psychedelic era. “Sad Day” has all the characteristics of their psychedelic music: noisy guitars and bass mixed with cleaner guitar and ornate instrumentation, gritty vocals mixed with higher, clean vocals, etc.

 

19th Nervous Breakdown was probably the first Stones song I was aware of. My older brother had the single, as well as Dickie Goodman’s classic “Batman and His Grandmother” which included a snippet of it:



Sad Day is another great track, tell me again why Lady Jane is on Flowers?

 

Because it’s a great track?

 

That’s debatable! Just seemed a shame that with tracks like Sad Day and Long Long While laying around they’d use stuff that had already been on fairly recent LPs.

 

"19th Nervous Breakdown" is one of my fave Stones singles of the Sixties - that bass at the end is the icing on the cake. By this point, Mick's persona has developed even further - this song is a close relative of "Play With Fire" lyrically. It is also the first reference to LSD in a Stones song ("on our first trip"). But more than anything I just love that riff. Heard it live on the Bridges To Babylon tour. The stretch of singles beginning with "The Last Time" is a tremendous run. "Sad Day" is a decent B-side - this one grew on me over the years.

 

Of the Stones' biggest hits, "19th Nervous Breakdown" might be closest to a lost classic; I can't remember the last time I heard this on the radio. In their U.S. chart life, the Stones had eight #1 hits and two #2 hits. The other #2 smash, which we'll get to later, has become a cliché, but this one is all but forgotten. Go figure.

I'm not sure if I heard "19th Nervous Breakdown" first on a 45 or on Hot Rocks, but I marveled at it. It's yet another Stones song with lyrics difficult to discern, though the "stop...and look around" and "here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes" were pretty easy. The production is amazing; just when you think it's over, it starts up again, and it does so twice! And that tape drag on one of the final "19th nervous breakdoooown" repeats only adds to the appeal for me. The song is long, but not that much longer than either "Satisfaction" or "The Last Time."

"19th Nervous Breakdown" was first on Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), which was released just a few weeks after the single. By today's standards, it would be considered an album preview, but things were different in 1966. "Sad Day" didn't appear on a U.S. album until Singles Collection: The London Years.

As far as I know, none of the London 45s, whether with the original 45 LON prefix or any of the three label variations with the later 5N prefix, are significantly different from each other in musical content.

The picture sleeve is about a 5 on the 1-10 rarity scale.

 

Does anyone happen to know offhand when the UK first got "Sad Day?" Was it on No Stone Unturned in '73?

 

19th is an awesome song. The tempo is key. It just bowls you over. Lots of great energy. For me it takes off right from the get go when Charlie rolls in. Love the stops and starts. There's an effect after one of the choruses where it sounds like some girls are screaming, or some whistling, that fits in great.

I know this was recorded around the time of Aftermath, but to me it sounds more of a piece with what was going on before. A digression here is whether one considers Aftermath a true transition album, or the end of the run that preceded with Buttons being the real transition album. I think 19th has more in common with the December's Children sound than with Buttons.

 

There might have been some inspiration from this Searchers single, also based on "Diddley Daddy" from a few months earlier:

 

Anyone else think it's "...Still in school, you had that boo..." Boo is weed.

 

No, it's definitely "You were still in school when you had that fool..."

 

Yes, instead of duplicating tracks already on other releases they could have added those along with Who's Driving Your Plane and What To Do the other missing U.K. Aftermath track and they would have had all the previously released tracks from this period in one place.

 

Yes and it was released as a single.

 

Some major trivia worth noting: "Breakdown" was the first non give-away Jagger & Richards tune to include a bridge (two of 'em as a matter of fact). Up until now, everything they composed that had a bridge, they gave to others to record ("That Girl Belongs To Yesterday," "Each And Every Day," "I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys," "We're Wasting Time" etc).

Speaking of give-aways, this came out a month before "19th Nervous Breakdown" and is noteworthy for two reasons: It predates the release of the Stones' own version by four months, and the lyrics in the 3rd verse (beginning at 1:37) are quite different. I have an old book of sheet music entitled "Rolling Stones Anthology Volume 1" in which these are the lyrics that are included. Why they were changed when the group recorded their own version of this remains a mystery:

 

19th Nervous Breakdown is one of my favorite Brian Jones era singles by the band. Great bass riff by Bill Wyman and some nice fuzz guitar. Another classic track they should bring back to the set list.

Sad Day - I always liked Sad Day. It has some pop and folk influences but catchy enough to enjoy without being too twee.

 

Cover by the great Spanish band Los Salvajes (The Savages)