Rolling Stones Single-By-Single Thread

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WOW that is outstanding. We coulda had Sonny f’ing Colossus Rollins on the tour instead of Ernie Watts

 

"Waiting On A Friend"...yes, it does have that Goats Head Soup feel to it, in spite of the '81 overdubs. I think Mick Taylor is playing the guitar that does the little riff leading into the choruses.
"Little T & A"...lyrically not one of Keith's better moments IMO. I wonder what Patti Hansen Richards thought of it...

Charlie Watts, jazzer that he is, was probably heartbroken when he read that. I love jazz myself, but I detect just a bit of jazz snobbery on Sonny Rollins' part. Uh, Sonny? Tattoo You probably ended up being the biggest selling, most popular record you ever played on- a rock record by The Rolling Stones. Suck on that.

If Mick Jagger wasn't so g-ddamn petty and deliberately trying to piss off Keith, we coulda had Bobby Keys on the '81 tour instead of just a couple of cameo appearances. At least Keith put his foot down and got Bobby back into the fold full time in '82.

 

1972! Wow, I didn't know that they had done that so early. I always thought that they had copied the intro to Joni Mitchell's Coyote:



Anyway I love "Waiting On A Friend". It's similar to "Fool To Cry" in a way.
"Little T& A" - An amusing throwaway for Keith to do his thing with.

 

You should check out The Everly Brothers' "Walk Right Back" collection on Warners. Their remake of "I Wonder If I Care as Much" pretty much defines the whole genre of Psych Country. "Lord of The Manor" fits the bill nicely as well

 

Not exactly the most ringing endorsement I could think of! Gimme "Waiting On A Friend" over "Fool To Cry" any day...

Keith probably heard 'em...he loved Don Everly's rhythm playing.

 

This song could not be anymore lame. IMO

 

I'm sure he figured he would lose cred in the jazz world and was worried about that, after all it was never his game plan to be a rock musician. It's too bad he can no longer play. I believe he suffers from respiratory problems now.

As an aside, one of the first jazz albums I listened to when I was little was a Sonny Rollins album that my dad had.

 

That's Jazz over there. Rock is over here. England is behind here. U.S. is on that shelf.
Walls walls walls
Perhaps Sonny feared downbeat's wrath most of all?
Perhaps he would have preferred an endowment from Phillips Petroleum via PBS to help fuel the next decade of club gigs?
Mr. Rollins..your wife was right.

 

Next we have the final single released from Tattoo You (US only):

Hang Fire (1982)



Released: 4/82
B-Side: Neighbours
Charts: #20 (US)

"Hang Fire" is a song by rock and roll band The Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You.

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Hang Fire" is a fast-paced, up-tempo rock and roll track, which belies the happy beat with sharp, satirical lyrics directed squarely at England's economic decline through the 1970s.

“ In the sweet old country where I come from, Nobody ever works, Yeah nothing gets done/We hang fire, we hang fire. ”

The song is a bleak look at English society of the time.[1] The lyrics lament an unemployed working class Englishman who would rather bet the horses than try to marry into the upper class, the only way to get ahead in English society.

“ You know marrying money is a full time job/I don't need the aggravation/I'm a lazy slob. ”

The song is one of the few times the band wrote an overtly political song, and it is notable that it was never released as a single in England, even though the band was touring Europe during the single's North American release. The lyrical irony and commentary on English society harks back to some of the group's more socially contentious songs of the sixties such as "Mother's Little Helper", "19th Nervous Breakdown" and "Street Fighting Man".

Richards was asked about the track in a 1981 Rolling Stone magazine interview where he admits the track relates to England and the "ugly politicians" who had caused the country to decline when the "money got tight".[2]

The title expression "hang fire" (by formal definition) means to do nothing, to delay, wait, hold back, or hesitate.[3] The phrase originally denoted the instance when a gun, using an antique type of ignition such as percussion cap, or flintlock, would fail or markedly delay to fire when the trigger was pulled.

"Hang Fire" was first written and recorded during the Some Girls sessions in Paris. Released as the third single from Tattoo You, the song became a radio hit in the US, where it reached No. 20 on the singles chart. The song was played heavily on the Stones' tours of 1981 and 1982, but has been played scarcely since. Its B-side, "Neighbours", would become an airplay hit and a video was also made for the song.

 

I adore the video for "Waiting on a Friend"...u gotta be some kind of curmudgeon if this one doesn't tug at your heartstrings imho (and that saxophone!)

 

I linked it above, but here is the Rear Window inspired music video for "Neighbours," just to bring it upfront in the thread:

 

Blech.

 

...and here is where it ends for me, I think the Tattoo You tracks are terrific but for me it's the end of the line, I liked the song Undercover but that really is about it..even Mixed Emotions just doesn't do it for me. sniffle.

 

Hang Fire
I first heard this song on my dad's copy of Rewind and loved it right away. The "do do do" vocals are extremely catchy and pretty much make the song for me. It's uptempo, it sounds great and I like the lyrics. Funny that they didn't release this as a single in Britain, with the lyrics being so heavily drawn from a unique British experience. It's a good one and it doesn't overstay it's welcome...not even two and a half minutes.

Neighbors
According to Wiki, Mick wrote this song for Keith after Keith and Patti got evicted from their NYC apartment for noise violations.

Keith said, "Neighbours is the first song I think Mick's ever really written for me. It's one I wish I'd written, that."

I actually disagree with him that this is the first song Mick wrote for him because I think "Torn and Frayed" sounds like a song of concern and caring for Keith to my ears. But it's a nice story. It's a fun song and I like the music video a lot. It's their first higher concept music video, which we'll be getting more of as we delve deeper into the MTV era.

 

When I was in England, I heard the phrase 'hang fire' a couple of times which basically meant 'wait it out' but I never heard it anywhere else in my North American experience. I liked each of Tattoo You's sides for what they were including the more revved up side. I listened to both sides a lot and this got drilled into my brain along with everything else. I think I had heard the title from a piece Roy Carr did for NME from 1978 talking about some of the unreleased songs from the Paris sessions. I believe this version comes from the Emotional Rescue sessions, not the Some Girls sessions. And it describes Mick's view of the British way of life - that would be the Mick Jagger who attended the London School of Economics and would later record a single called "Let's Work". Mick Jagger's Protestant work ethic need never be questioned. I don't think it's meant to be taken too seriously.
"Neighbours" (with the Anglo spelling of course) I always thought was great. Raucous with a gutsy Rollins solo. Apparently Mick wrote it for Keith who got kicked out of a New York apartment building.

 

I don't take any umbrage at it. Just because Sonny Rollins was a great jazz sax player does not make his opinions about music in general of any particular note. Part of me would like to believe otherwise, but that's just the way life is.

 

I love "Neighbours" and it should have been the A-side. "Hang Fire" is more of a throwaway — the first of Jagger's Thatcherite screeds about dole queues and class warfare

Ronnie's solo is nice tho

 

Hang Fire
This is another good, catchy, punk-influenced rocker. I think it’s one of the better songs on Tattoo You.

Neighbors
I really like this song, and would rank it as my second favorite off Tattoo You after “Start Me Up.” It’s just a great rock song and represents this era of the Stones at their best.

 

I was really surprised when "Hang Fire" was released as the third single from Tattoo You.

When I first heard the album, it stood out even more than most of the other standouts, and I thought it was a worthy single candidate. My surprise was at the timing, because in my neck of the woods, "Hang Fire" was already played out. Album-rock and college radio latched on to it as soon as Tattoo You was released and made it the second most played song off the LP after "Start Me Up." Indeed, it peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top (Rock) Tracks chart, but by March 1982, it was ancient history on album-oriented radio.

When "Hang Fire" peaked at #20 in Billboard, it made Tattoo You the first non-compilation Rolling Stones album with three Top 20 singles. It was much bigger in Billboard than in Cash Box, in which it peaked at #32. And in Record World, it stopped at #56, but with a huge asterisk: That was where "Hang Fire" was, with a bullet, on April 10, 1982, the date of the last issue of Record World.

Sometimes, magazines know in advance that they are ceasing operations, thus the final issue turns out to be loaded with tributes and fond farewells. This was not the case with Record World; the April 10 issue shows no signs that it would be the last. According to a brief article in the April 17 Billboard, staffers were not notified of the magazine's closing until April 6, after the April 10 issue went to press. Per the same Billboard article, Record World didn't publish a March 27, 1981 issue because of its financial problems, but seemed back to what passed as normal the two weeks after that. Over time, the vacuum left by Record World's demise was filled by the already existing (founded 1973) Radio & Records, which published airplay-based charts. By the end of the 1980s, R&R was as widely consulted by radio as Billboard, and it became the source for several syndicated radio-show countdowns. By the way, "Hang Fire" peaked at #21 on the R&R CHR/Pop (Contemporary Hit Radio, the "new" version of Top 40) chart.

Another list-price increase for 45s changed the Rolling Stones Records 45 numbering series again; "Hang Fire" was issued as RS 21300. Promo copies are mono/stereo and feature the full version of a short song. Stock copies were pressed by Specialty and Allied. No "Oldies" 45s were made of this or any later Rolling Stones single; until Atlantic lost the rights, it filled orders using (presumably) back stock of the originals.

No picture sleeve was issued, but for one brief shining moment, Atlantic revived the beloved card-based "tongue" conpany sleeve, which had not been used since the two Exile singles. Collectors and dealers scoured the record racks, especially jukebox overstocks and discards, for extra tongue sleeves and, after obtaining them, put other Stones singles, most of which never officially had that sleeve, in them. Only three original Rolling Stones 45s came in the tongue sleeve: "Tumbling Dice"; "Happy"; and "Hang Fire."

 

Tim, your posts are just full of amazing trivia and information. Thank you so much for your contributions! This post is just packed with fascinating tidbits.

 

Hang Fire - This single wasn't released in the U.K. The song originated at the Some Girls sessions but this version comes from the Emotional Rescue sessions. It is political song which Allmusic refers to as frenzied doo-wop and song title is slang for delay. It was played a lot on the U.S. radio back in the day. I quite like it but it has not appeared on many of their compilation albums. It was included on U.S. version of Rewind but not Jump Back, Forty Licks or even the super Deluxe Version of GRRR! It was played live on the 1981-82 tours but not much since. There is a promo video for the song.

Neighbours - Neighbours is a Chuck Berry/punk influenced rocker about Keith getting kicked out of his apartment. It was started at the Emotional Rescue sessions and features Sonny Rollins on sax. It appeared on the Super Deluxe Edition of GRRR! instead of Hang Fire and was played live on the 1981-82 tours and disappeared until being brought back for the Licks Tour. There is also a promotional video for this song as well. I prefer Hang Fire myself.

 

As with the "Oldies" reissues of the two singles from Emotional Rescue, the two singles from Tattoo You that were reissued with Atlantic Oldies Series catalog numbers were assigned consecutive numbers ("Start Me Up" was RS 13237). This again indicates that these two reissues were released at the same time, probably as part of a larger batch of Oldies Series reissues. Looking at the content of other nearby catalog numbers in the series, I'd guess that these two reissues were released in the second half of 1982, possibly early 1983.

I hadn't noticed this until you pointed it out, but all of the Stones "Oldies" releases that were reissued with Atlantic Oldies Series catalog numbers are like this. The album credits from the original 45 are deleted, and replaced by a reference to the catalog number of the original 45. As you alluded to, this is how Atlantic usually did things with its Oldies Series releases, so it makes sense.

For the pre-Some Girls singles, when reissues kept their original catalog numbers (whether branded as "Oldies" or not), whatever album credits were on the original single were retained. For some reason, the original "Tumbling Dice" and "It's Only Rock 'N Roll" 45s didn't have album credits to begin with, so their later reissues didn't have them, either.

The album credits on most of those pre-Some Girls 45s follow an odd practice Atlantic had at the time. They would state the catalog number of the album the song came from, but not its name. This has always struck me as odd. Knowing the catalog number of an album, but not its name, would not seem to be especially useful to the average consumer. If someone bought the "Fool To Cry" 45, liked what they heard, and wanted to buy the album it came from, were they supposed to go to a record store and ask, "Do you have COC 79104 by the Rolling Stones"? "Brown Sugar" is an exception; for some reason, it references its parent album by both catalog number and name.

Of the three singles from Some Girls, one ("Miss You") was reissued with an Atlantic Oldies Series catalog number, while the other two kept their original catalog numbers for their "Oldies" reissues. The "Oldies" reissues of the latter two singles have the album credits from the original 45 deleted, like an Oldies Series title, but don't have it replaced by a reference to the catalog number of the original 45 (doing so would have been redundant, since the reissue still carried that catalog number).

"Hang Fire" probably would have come up for consideration as an Atlantic Oldies Series release sometime in 1983. By that time, knowing their rights would be up soon (Undercover was the last album covered by Atlantic's distribution contract), Atlantic probably saw no point in putting out any further Stones Oldies Series reissues. Of the singles the Stones released for Atlantic after "Waiting On A Friend", only one peaked higher than #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, so most of the affected singles probably weren't in especially high demand anyway.

 

Undercover was the last *studio* album released by Atlantic, but the last album released by them was Rewind.

Speaking of which, does anyone know when the Atlantic releases went out of print? The Columbia reissues didn't show up (at least on CD) until late 1986.

 

If you compare the Top Rock Tracks chart to the Hot 100, songs that appeared on both charts often didn't chart and peak at quite the same time, although the difference in the case of "Hang Fire" is pretty extreme. AOR stations seemed to cycle through songs more quickly, so they would often move on to the next single before Top 40 radio did. To keep AOR from getting too far ahead of Top 40, record labels would buy time by promoting LP cuts to AOR radio in between the singles. When a major AOR act released a new album, it was also a common practice for AOR stations to give airplay to multiple songs from the album right out of the gate, as seems to have happened with "Hang Fire".

It's too bad Billboard didn't have a chart like this prior to 1981. It would be interesting to have AOR airplay data for songs from the Stones' pre-Tattoo You albums as well.

This skip in numbering marked a retail list price increase from $1.69 to $1.99. The price increase occurred at different U.S. labels at various times in late 1981 and early 1982. In Atlantic's case, it took place in January, 1982.

After a series of increases which had seen the retail list price of 45s jump from $1.29 to $1.99 between 1979 and 1982, prices finally stabilized at this point. The $1.99 list price for 45s would remain in effect for several years, continuing to at least the point when 45s ceased to be a mass market item around 1989-90. Cassette singles, which began to replace 45s in 1987, initially had a list price of $1.99 as well, but were increased to $2.49 in 1988.

With the advent of bar codes and computerized inventory systems, the practice of coding list prices into catalog numbers was becoming obsolete. Later in 1982, Warner Music would totally revamp its catalog numbering systems, going to a numbering system which tied into bar code numbers and no longer indicated the list price of an item. We'll be seeing that system's first appearance in this thread a few days from now.

My copy of "Hang Fire" has this sleeve. I bought it from a mail order vendor back in the 1990s. I was expecting it to have a picture sleeve - I think I picked it off a list of (mostly '80s) 45s that were advertised as having picture sleeves - and wasn't quite sure what to make of it when I opened up the package and saw the sleeve. I later came to understand that there is no true picture sleeve for "Hang Fire", but this special sleeve was apparently produced in lieu of one. Someone in the Stones' camp (or someone at Atlantic?) must have remembered the sleeve from the early '70s and had it brought it back for this one single.