Ronny Woods and Keith Richards look like twin fixtures who could live in the place to avoid the sunlight. And whom do they see sitting on the bar stools, but the rest of the Stones cue hugs all around. Mark’s Bar and Grill, a long gone neighborhood watering hole.
#THE ROLLING STONES WAITING ON A FRIEND FULL#
Keith meet Mick and so it goes.Īfter hanging on the steps for a few minutes, the two friends amble down the street that feels like early 1980’s New York pre-East Village gentrification, dirty, full of character. Mick watches some girls pass when Keith comes up and greets him with a hug and you want to believe that through it all these two really are friends, that they are the same two who first hit it off in a fabled encounter on a train station platform when Mick saw this guy hauling around a stack of blues albums. And who should amble by? None other than a disheveled Keith Richards, smoking a cigarette, scarf draped around his neck. (Jagger and Tosh recorded a single, “(You Got to) Walk and Don’t Look Back.”) Mick is resplendent as only he could be in his white pants, madras shirt and floppy hat, keeping the beat by tapping his fingers on the door way and maintaining a lookout for his friend. Mark’s Place (same building that Led Zeppelin used on the cover of Physical Graffiti) with several Rastas, one of whom is Peter Tosh. It opens with Mick hanging on the front steps of a building on St. Jagger commented on the song in the liner notes to a later compilation album, “We all liked it at the time but it didn’t have any lyrics, so there we were… The lyric I added is very gentle and loving, about friendships in the band.”Īlways loved this video both for the New York setting and the sheer fun of seeing the Stones goofing around. While they did add Sonny Rollins’ sax solos in the latter sessions, the band kept Mick Taylor’s guitar work from the earlier recordings. Jagger says he only had to add some lyrics to pull it all together. With a rhythm so irresistible, there’s no wonder the song kept coming back. The Stones first began recording this song during the Goats Head Sup sessions in Jamaica (surprise) in 1973 and revived it during the 1981 sessions for the Tattoo You album. Maybe he’s all grown up as the final lines suggests: If Mick didn’t sing with such ease and comfort you’d almost think the song a joke, but Jagger makes you believe his heart is in this one. The warmth and openness of the song separate it from much of the Stones catalogue: The sax solos and Mick’s soft “do-do-dos” end the song as if the friends of the title have caught up and they’re lounging with their feet up watching some island sunset. Bill Wyman’s soulful bass and Charlie Watt’s subtle drumming set the foundation, but the real musical touches come from the guests: Nicky Hopkins lightly tripping on the piano and Sonny Rollins adding the sax solos that shimmy and shine in perfect keeping with the song’s laid back groove.
No snarling here, no sex or drugs, just a Caribbean breeze of a summer song with Mick singing about the virtues of a friendship. What a perfect, hip-swaying, Reggae mellow ode to friendship. You can buy the song from iTunes here and buy the album Tattoo You here.
You can hear the studio version and see time-period video here. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.