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The Rolling Stones - Monkey Man

The Rolling Stones - Monkey Man Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Let It Bleed
Released: 1969

Monkey Man Lyrics

I'm a fleabit peanut monkey
And all my friends are junkies
That's not really true

I'm a cold Italian pizza
I could use a lemon squeezer
What you do?

But I've been bit and I've been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town
Have you babe?

But I am just a Monkey Man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too

I was bitten by a boar
I was gouged and I was gored
But I pulled on through

Yeah, I'm a sack of broken eggs
I always have an unmade bed
Don't you?

Well I hope we're not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
But we love to play the blues

But well I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too
Monkey woman too babe

I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
Monkey, monkey
Monkey

Monkey
I'm a monkey

Writer/s: JAGGER, MICK / RICHARDS, KEITH
Publisher: Abkco Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Monkey Man Song Chart

The lyrics don't seem to make much sense, but they are probably about heroin or a bad acid trip.

Nicky Hopkins was featured on piano. He and Ian Stewart made significant contributions to The Stones on keyboards, but were never credited with being official members of the group. Hopkins and Stewart both toured with the band as well.

Most of the album was recorded after the death of Brian Jones and before his replacement by Mick Taylor. On this song, Keith Richards played electric and slide electric guitar. Bill Wyman played bass and also provided vibes. Producer Jimmy Miller assisted drummer Charlie Watts on tambourine. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

The Stones performed this on their 1994-1995 Voodoo Lounge tour.

This song was used in the 1990 movie Goodfellas in a scene where the gangsters are trafficking cocaine. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese, who directed the 2008 Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light.

The Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler

The Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Let It Bleed
Released: 1969

Midnight Rambler Lyrics

Did you hear about the Midnight Rambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
The one that shut the kitchen door
He don't give a hoot of warning
Wrapped up in a black cat cloak
He don't go in the light of the morning
He split the time the cock'rel crows

Talkin' about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Talkin' about the midnight gambler
Did you see him jump the garden wall
Sighin' down the wind so sadly
Listen and you'll hear him moan
Talkin' about the midnight gambler
Everybody got to go
Yeah

Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Well, honey, it's no rock 'n' roll show
Well, I'm talkin' about the midnight gambler
Yeah, the one you never seen before

(Don't you do that)

Well you heard about the Boston,
It's not one of those
Well, talkin' 'bout the midnight, sh,
The one that closed the bedroom door
I'm called the hit-and-run raper in anger
The knife-sharpened tippie-toe...
Or just the shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangler
You know, the one you never seen before

So if you ever meet the midnight rambler
Coming down your marble hall
Well he's pouncing like a proud black panther
Well, you can say I, I told you so
Well, don't you listen for the midnight rambler
Play it easy, as you go
I'm gonna smash down all your plate glass windows
Put a fist, put a fist through your steel-plated door

Did you hear about the midnight rambler
He'll leave his footprints up and down your hall
And did you hear about the midnight gambler
And did you see me make my midnight call

And if you ever catch the midnight rambler
I'll steal your mistress from under your nose
I'll go easy with your cold fanged anger
I'll stick my knife right down your throat, baby and it hurts!

Writer/s: JAGGER, MICK / RICHARDS, KEITH
Publisher: Abkco Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Midnight Rambler Song Chart

In this song, Mick Jagger takes on the persona of killer who is stalking his victim. This character calls himself the "midnight rambler" and he seems to relish his notoriety - much like many real-life serial killers.

A likely inspiration for the lyric is the case of the Boston Strangler. Thirteen women were found dead (many had been sexually assaulted) in and around Boston from 1962-1964. Most of the victims had been strangled and were found with their nylon stockings tied in a bow around their necks.

In 1965, Albert DeSalvo, who was serving time in a mental institution on rape charges, confessed to the murders and was later sentenced to life in prison. There was no clear physical evidence that DeSalvo committed the crimes, however, and his confession has been questioned, with some forensic experts stating that there may have been multiple killers. DeSalvo died in prison in 1973; new evidence has come up in the case from time to time.

As for the song, while the lyrics do not directly relate to the case, Jagger implies it when he sings, "Well you heard about the Boston..." before an instrumental stab cuts him off.

The Stones played this in 1969 and throughout the '70s at their concerts, and when they did, it was a showstopper. Mick Jagger created a morbid atmosphere as he took the role of the killer, spastically whipping the floor toward the end of the song as the audience would scream along.

These performances were enhanced by a custom light rig that their lighting director, Chip Monck, created for the band's 1969 US tour. This was the first lighting system to travel with a rock band, and The Stones used it to great effect on this song. At the climax, the lights would shine red on Jagger in a very theatrical moment.

Mick Jagger: "That's a song Keith and I really wrote together. We were on a holiday in Italy. In this very beautiful hill town, Positano, for a few nights. Why we should write such a dark song in this beautiful, sunny place, I really don't know. We wrote everything there - the tempo changes, everything. And I'm playing the harmonica in these little cafés, and there's Keith with the guitar." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Brian Jones is credited on percussion. Even though he died before this album was released, a few of the songs were recorded during the Beggar's Banquet sessions in 1968. "Midnight Rambler" was one of them. (thanks, Joel - Chicago, IL)

Mick Taylor added an extra guitar to the live performances of this. The live version can be heard on Get Yer Ya-Yas Out.

When Mick Jagger performed this in character on stage, it was good preparation for his acting career. In 1970, he appeared in two films: Ned Kelly and Performance. He would later appear in Freejack (1992) and The Man from Elysian Fields (2001).

Keith Richards: "When we did Midnight Rambler, nobody went in there with the idea of doing a blues opera, basically. Or a blues in four parts. That's just the way it turned out. I think that's the strength of the Stones or any good band. You can give them a song half raw and they'll cook it."

The Rolling Stones - Live With Me

The Rolling Stones - Live With Me Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Let It Bleed
Released: 1969

Live With Me Lyrics

I got nasty habits, I take tea at three
Yes, and the meat I eat for dinner
Must be hung up for a week
My best friend, he shoots water rats
And feeds them to his geese
Don'cha think there's a place for you
In between the sheets?

Come on now, honey
We can build a home for three
Come on now, honey
Don't you want to Live With Me?

And there's a score of harebrained children
They're all locked in the nursery
They got earphone heads they got dirty necks
They're so 20th century
Well they queue up for the bathroom
'Round about 7:35
Don'cha think we need a woman's touch to make it come alive?

You'd look good pram pushing down the high street
Come on now, honey
Don't you want to live with me?

Whoa, the servants they're so helpful, dear
The cook she is a whore
Yes, the butler has a place for her
Behind the pantry door
The maid, she's French, she's got no sense
She's wild for Crazy Horse
And when she strips, the chauffeur flips
The footman's eyes get crossed

Don'cha think there's a place for us
Right across the street
Don'cha think there's a place for you,
In between the sheets?

Writer/s: RICHARDS, KEITH / JAGGER, MICK
Publisher: Abkco Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Live With Me Song Chart

Along with "Country Honk," this was one of two songs new guitarist Mick Taylor played on Let It Bleed. He and Keith Richards produced a distinctive 2 lead guitar sound.

This marked the first appearance of Bobby Keys, who played sax on this and many other Stones songs. He had toured in the past with Buddy Holly and Bobby Vee, and went on the road with The Stones from 1969-1974. Keith Richards and Bobby Keys were born on the same day: December 18, 1943. (thanks, Whitney - Houston, TX)

This song was a harbinger of what was to come for The Stones. The guitar and sax style would appear on their next few albums.

Leon Russell and Nicky Hopkins both played piano on this track. Russell also helped arrange the sax section.

The racy lyrics were a reason the London Bach Choir, who sang on "You Can't Always Get What You Want," asked that they not be associated with the album.

The album cover for Let It Bleed featured a cake, and was designed by a famous UK TV cook named Delia Smith. She said in Bill Wyman's book Rolling With The Stones: "I was working then as a jobbing home economist with a food photographer who shot for commercials and magazines. I'd cook anything they needed. One day they said they wanted a cake for a Rolling Stones record cover, it was just another job at the time. They wanted it to be very over-the-top and as gaudy as I could make it."

This was the first song lead guitarist Mick Taylor worked on with the Stones. He said in 2000: "'Live with Me,' very appropriately named because once I joined The Stones, it was like living with a family for the next five or six years. It was an interesting session, actually, because they were putting the finishing touches on Let It Bleed and the first track I played on was 'Live with Me.' We did that live, and the second thing I did was I overdubbed my guitar part on 'Honky Tonk Women.'"

Bobby Keys: "Both the horns AND Mick Taylor made their debut on the same album on the same track. At the time a lot of people overlooked the fact that it wasn't just Mick (Taylor) joining the band, that was the whole period where the horns joined too. And they all left at the same time." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 3)

The Rolling Stones - Love In Vain

The Rolling Stones - Love In Vain Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Let It Bleed
Released: 1969

Love In Vain Lyrics

Well I followed her, to the station
With a suitcase in my hand
Yeah, I followed her to the station
With a suitcase in my hand

Whoa, it's hard to tell, it's hard to tell
When all your love's in vain

When the train, come in the station
I looked her in the eye
Well the train come in the station
And I looked her in the eye

Whoa, I felt so sad so lonesome
That I could not help but cry

When the train left the station
It had two lights on behind
Yeah, when the train left the station
It had two lights on behind

Whoa, the blue light was my baby
And the red light was my mind

All my love was in vain

All my love's in vain

Writer/s: ROBERT JOHNSON
Publisher: THE BICYCLE MUSIC COMPANY
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Love In Vain Song Chart

This is a reworked version Robert Johnson's Blues classic. Prolific in the 1930s, Johnson was one of Keith Richard's inspirations.

The Stones recorded this with more of a Country feel than the original Blues version, which was more dreary and depressing.

Keith Richards: "For a time we thought the songs that were on that first album were the only recordings Robert Johnson had made, and then suddenly around '67 or '68 up comes this second bootleg collection that included Love in Vain. Love in Vain was such a beautiful song. Mick and I both loved it, and at the time I was working and playing around with Gram Parsons, and I started searching around for a different way to present it, because if we were going to record it there was no point in trying to copy the Robert Johnson style or ways and styles. We took it a little bit more country, a little bit more formalized, and Mick felt comfortable with that."

Mick Jagger: "We changed the arrangement quite a lot from Robert Johnson's. We put in extra chords that aren't there on the Robert Johnson version. Made it more country. And that's another strange song, because it's very poignant. Robert Johnson was a wonderful lyric writer, and his songs are quite often about love, but they're desolate." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 2)

With Brian Jones unavailable due to drug problems, Ry Cooder was brought in to play mandolin.

The Stones' record label at the time, ABKCO Music, lost the rights to this in 2000 when a court ruled that this, along with "Stop Breakin' Down," were the property of Robert Johnson's estate. The Stones thought the copyright on the song had expired.

Eric Clapton recorded this for his 2004 album Me and Mr. Johnson. Clapton is a big fan of Robert Johnson. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

The Stones performed this song at the 2007 Isle of Wight festival with Paolo Nutini, who was just 20 years old at the time and enjoying breakthrough success from his debut album These Streets. The band rehearsed it with Nutini in a Travelodge hotel room before the show, leaving quite an impression on the young Scottish singer.