Rolling Stones Single-By-Single Thread

And some other tracks that had not appeared on U.S. albums yet at the point that Flowers was released.

 

A real advert from the time

by

 

Yes during the 1970s I bought a lot of Stones (along with Beatles and Dylan) singles because they were still on catalogue and could be ordered in by the local record shops.

 

Next up we have the last single of 1966:

Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow? (1966)



Released: 9/23/66
B-Side: Who's Driving Your Plane?
Charts: #5 (UK); #9 (US)

"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" is a song by English Rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was recorded in the late summer of 1966 during early sessions for what would become their Between the Buttons album. It was the first Stones' single to be released simultaneously (23 September 1966) in both the UK and the US, and reached number five and number nine on those countries' charts, respectively.

It is the first Rolling Stones song to feature a horn section, which was arranged by Mike Leander. The group have said that they were unhappy with the final cut, bemoaning the loss of the original cut's strong rhythm section. It is also the first song Richards is said to have written on piano even though he does not play piano on the final cut. Jack Nitzsche, friend of the band and their occasional pianist, is credited in the session logs to piano, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones is also credited in the logs for playing the piano. But when the band mimed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show on 11 September 1966, shorty before its release, Richards mimes the piano with Jones miming the guitar.[1]

The American picture sleeve includes a photo of the band dressed in drag. Peter Whitehead's promotional film for the single was one of the first music videos. The Stones only performed the song live over a span of twelve days during their 1966 tour. One live recording appears on Got Live If You Want It! (1966, US). In 1993, Jagger performed it in New York city during his only show promoting his solo album Wandering Spirit.

The song is included on several Rolling Stones' compilation albums, such as the British edition of Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) (1966), Flowers (1967, US), Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (1969 US edition), and Forty Licks (2002, with the abbreviated title "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby?").

Personnel[edit]

• Mick Jagger – vocals, handclaps
• Keith Richards – guitars, backing vocals, handclaps
• Brian Jones – guitars
• Bill Wyman – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Charlie Watts – drums
• Jack Nitzsche – piano, tambourine
• Session musicians – trumpets

 

A glorious noise, with one of their best flips - plus I've always like 'em in drag

 

I've mentioned it before in a different thread but "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?
" is a cacophonous mess of a record but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love it. It's what rock and roll is all about. There are no sweeping arpeggios or neat harmonies , it's a band train going off the rails with reckless abandon . What a record. It just explodes out of the speakers .

 

well of course this is not going to go to number one, obviously.....but it's not about that now is it?
Here we're pushing the boundaries of music. The merge of noise into popular song. Psychedelia at its most intense.

 

Have You Seen Your Mother...
This record is insane. I love that they had the balls to put this thing out as a single and that it went top ten on both sides of the Atlantic. It doesn't sound like anything else...just this stew of noise and psych guitars and those trumpets blaring away. It is so much fun and so unique. I love it.

Who's Driving Your Plane?
One of my favorite b-sides, as well. It's psychedelic blues and Mick has a cadence like Dylan on the verses. The whole thing oozes confidence and I love how it marries their early influences with the burgeoning sounds of the mid-'60s. They were so full of daring as this point in their career.

This single rocks. The drag photo is one of my favorites as well. Brian totally goes for it. He looks hot!

 

Are there just the photos of them in drag, or is there footage out there as well of the session?

 

Flowers was my first early Stones purchase...thought it was a proper album at the time. Have You Seen grabbed me right away....as did that whole album. I dig the b-side too. Yes it rocks.

 

Yes!

Another one of the songs that I don’t remember really hearing until the Singles Collection set in 1989 came out as I don’t remember it getting a lot of play on our classic rock radio station. What a kick ass song! I just love the cacophony of sound going on. Meant to be played LOUD! Quick and to the point it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

 

Have You Seen Your Mother
What a total cacophony... in a good way. This has got to be one of the Stones’ wildest singles. Everything about it is all over the place; The lyrics are cryptic, the instruments are loud and over the top and don’t exactly go together. It reminds me of The Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much,” only considerably louder and messier. This also might be the only proto-punk song to feature horns.

Who’s Driving Your Plane
This song is also really strange. It’s not quite as off-the-rails as the A-Side, but it is weird in its own way. I had always assumed The Stones stopped playing the blues (on singles at least) when they started playing psychedelic rock, but this song is equal parts blues and psychedelia. In some ways if feels like a blues song, but it also has those wierd lyrics and that heavy, disorienting, psychedelic feel.

 

"And then there was the nitzschephone, that mythical instrument! I made that up for the credits on those Stones albums—it was just a regular piano (or maybe an organ) miked differently. It was all part of this package that was created around the Stones. People believed it existed. The idea was meant to be: "My god, they’ve had to invent new instruments to capture this new sound they hear in their brains." And they were inventing fresh sounds with old toys—therefore, it deserved to be highlighted—it was the read-up of creation, of imagination—getting credit for a job well done. I mean you wouldn’t, for instance, have found a "nitzschephone" on a Freddie and the Dreamers record." -----Andrew Loog Oldham

 

Yes, Freddie was strange enough already without having a toy like a 'nitzschephone' to play with...lol

"Have You Seen Your Mother" is indeed a mother. Where the hell did this come from - radical as all get out for the times. Though I agree the production could have been better realized - in fact, I've often wondered if the Got Live 'live' version is indeed the lost alternate rhythm track that Keith pined over so much - if you listen closely, it seems to have somewhat of a studio sheen that I don't think could have been achieved just via overdubs. I may even prefer it to the single version.

I echo the general sentiments regarding "Driving Your Plane" - one of their best original blues appropriations ever and very forward looking - with slightly different production wouldn't even sound out of place on Beggars...

 

Bloody perfect, capturing the '66 Stones in all their glory. And I've always thought Charlie looked cool as **** during this period.

 

I don't think so. The alternate version found on boot, while seemingly totally different, actually has elements that remained until the final mix, including the drums:



That is, I don't think there was anything "alternate" about the "lost" rhythm track, it just got buried a bit in the process of overdubs and reduction mixes.

Unfortunate that this is yet another track without an officially released stereo mix.

 

"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"

A nice slice of mutant R&B headed in the direction of proto-punk.

Good B-side, too. ("Who's Driving Your Plane")

 

Tell ya what....i'm sure gettin in the mood to hear some Stones this evening.

 

Do you then think the Got Live version is actually live then (or at least the rhythm track)? I know they were playing it on tour then - and Bill claims that all the rhythm tracks on the LP were actually played live - or at least the non-studio inserted tracks. To me, it just sounds like a little too polished of a performance for the Stones at that time, and the underlying ambience sounds more studio - plus, there's the very rough segue into "Satisfaction" following that sounds like an edit.

 

The Stones are perfect for a Friday evening.

 

The Got Live tracks are still a mystery to me. I'll say this though: the drums in particular seem pretty poorly recorded to be a studio performance.

As far as the Satisfaction segue/edit goes, note it's different on all of the different mixes. And one would *think* that if it was a studio recording there would be a clean ending, not a segue into Satisfaction.

 

Looking at the construction and layout of the picture sleeve in online images, I'm of the opinion that the drag photo is supposed to be the back of the picture sleeve, not the front. That having been said, a lot of U.S. picture sleeves in this era had the same artwork on both sides, and were essentially reversible, so there wasn't necessarily a clear distinction between a picture sleeve having a "front" and a "back". While the "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In the Shadow" sleeve obviously doesn't have the same artwork on both sides (I think it was the first U.S. Stones picture sleeve that didn't), it is likewise reversible, as both sides prominently display the name of the artist and the title of the A-side.

Ultimately, I think the sleeve was designed so that either side could be used as the "front", and the drag photo may have been put on the side that was technically the back simply to give London some cover if anyone complained about it.

Speaking from the perspective of someone who was born in 1970, this song has always seemed to be relatively obscure, certainly far more obscure than any other '60s Stones single of comparable or greater chart impact upon its initial release. I don't remember hearing "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In the Shadow" on the radio at all as a child, and the AOR/Classic Rock stations I discovered as a teenager in the '80s didn't play it, either. I think the first time I heard it was when I bought More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies). That it wasn't included on the first Hot Rocks compilation suggests that it was already regarded as a lesser song in terms of popularity as far back as the early '70s.

 

that picture sleeve is truly one of their best. That they even went through all that to take a pic for a sleeve...too much!

 

HYSYMB was on More Hot Rocks too. I thought I was crazy for a second there.

Mick was quoted as saying that after this record he "couldn't make it with that anymore" and he had a nervous breakdown. I am always amazed at how Mick dealt with being himself in that time. It must have been very strange. The music did change a lot after this.