Moonlight Mile (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Moonlight Mile" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Rolling Stones
from the album Sticky Fingers |
|||||
| Released | April 23, 1971 | ||||
| Recorded | March & May, 1970 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 5:56 | ||||
| Label | Rolling Stones/Virgin | ||||
| Writer | Jagger/Richards and Mick Taylor (uncredited) | ||||
| Producer | Jimmy Miller | ||||
| Sticky Fingers track listing | |||||
|
|||||
"Moonlight Mile" is a song from rock band The Rolling Stones' 1971 release Sticky Fingers.
Credited to singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, "Moonlight Mile" is widely considered to be one of the Rolling Stones' greatest ballads.[1] Recording began in March 1970 at Stargroves. The song was the product of an all-night session between Jagger and guitarist Mick Taylor. Taylor had taken a short guitar piece recorded by Richards (entitled "Japanese Thing") and reworked it for the session. Jagger performs the song's prominent acoustic guitar riff. It was Taylor's idea to add a string arrangement by Paul Buckmaster to the song. Piano is played by regular Stones trumpet player Jim Price.
Like many of the Stones songs, the meaning of the song's lyrics are elliptical and mysterious, but some of the lyrics make direct reference to the alienation of living a life on the road.
| “ | The sound of strangers sending nothing to my mind; Just another mad mad day on the road; I am just living to be lying by your side, But I'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road | ” |
In his review of the song, Bill Janovitz says, "Though the song still referenced drugs and the road life of a pop-music celebrity, it really is a rare example of Jagger letting go of his public persona, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the weariness that accompanies the pressures of keeping up appearances as a sex-drugs-and- rock & roll star."[1] Rock critic Robert Christgau said the song, "re-created all the paradoxical distances inherent in erotic love with a power worthy of Yeats, yet could also be interpreted as a cocaine song."[2] This is a reference to the first stanza, which reads, "When the wind blows and the rain feels cold, With a head full of snow..."
The track was used extensively during the final episode of the first part of the HBO series The Sopranos' sixth season, "Kaisha," as well as giving its title to and being used in the 2002 motion picture Moonlight Mile. The song has been covered live by The Flaming Lips and on The 5th Dimension album, Earthbound.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Janovitz, Bill. ""Moonlight Mile"". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:fcfoxcq5ldde. Retrieved 2006-06-28.
- ^ Christgau, Robert. "The Rolling Stones". Rolling Stone. 2007 (accessed 28 June 2007).
