Connection (Rolling Stones song)
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"Connection" is a song by British rock and roll band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1967 album Between the Buttons. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (but mostly Richards), features vocals by both of them and is said to be about the long hours the band spent in airports. The lyrics contain much rhyming based on the word connection. The lyrics also reflect very heavily the pressures the band was under by 1967:
My bags they get a very close inspection, I wonder why it is that they suspect 'em, They're dying to add me to their collection, And I don't know, If they'll let me go
The song was written before Jagger, Richards and fellow Rolling Stone Brian Jones were arrested by the police for drugs.
Although it was never released as a single, it is a popular live song. The song itself is built on a very simple chord progression featuring a repetitive drum pattern, Chuck Berry-like lead guitar from Richards, the piano of Jack Nitzsche, tambourine and organ pedals by multi-instrumentalist Jones, and bass by Wyman. Jagger, Jones, and Wyman later overdubbed handclaps. Jagger said in 1967, "That's me beating my hands on the bass drum."
Personnel
- Mick Jagger - lead vocals, bass drum, handclaps
- Keith Richards - harmony vocals, guitars
- Brian Jones - organ pedals, tambourine, handclaps
- Bill Wyman - bass guitar, handclaps
- Charlie Watts - drums
- Jack Nitzsche - piano
Performances
The song was performed by Richards during his 1988 solo tour and during shows on the Stones' 1995 leg of the Voodoo Lounge Tour and the 2006 A Bigger Bang Tour throughout North America. "Connection" is also featured in the 2008 Martin Scorsese film Shine a Light and on the accompanying soundtrack album.
Cover versions
"Connection" has been covered by American rock and roll band The Connection, on their album Let It Rock, Marble Phrogg (on their 1968 self-titled album), Ramblin' Jack Elliott (on his 1968 debut album for Reprise Records Young Brigham), Montrose (on their 1974 album Paper Money with Sammy Hagar on vocals), Arlo Guthrie (on his 1976 album Amigo), Eddie and the Subtitles (on their 1983 album Dead Drunks Don't Dance) and Everclear.
This song was performed many times by NRPS, with Jerry Garcia and Marmaduke Dawson singing.
References
In the book Black and Blue (1997) by Ian Rankin, police inspector John Rebus, upon hearing Montrose's recording of Connection in a bar during a murder investigation, calls it, "one of the very best cover versions of a Stones song".