Jigsaw Puzzle (song)

"Jigsaw Puzzle"
Song

"Jigsaw Puzzle," sometimes spelled "Jig-Saw Puzzle" is a song by rock and roll band the Rolling Stones, featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet.

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Jigsaw Puzzle" is one of the longer songs on the album. It comes in just ten seconds shorter than "Sympathy for the Devil" to which it is stylistically similar.

Recording began at Olympic Sound Studios on 25 March 1968. Parts of the recording sessions are available on the bootleg market, and on these recordings, Jagger is on acoustic guitar, Richards on electric slide guitar, Charlie Watts on drums, Bill Wyman on bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Brian Jones is not present on these sessions. The released version has Richards on acoustic and slide guitar. Jones adds the distinctive "whine" throughout with a mellotron. "Jigsaw Puzzle" has never been performed live by the Stones.

Critics' opinions

Musical opinions have diverged widely on the merits of "Jigsaw Puzzle". Music journalist Steve Knopper quoted on Amazon considers it inexplicable that it never became a hit in its own right. However, journalist Richie Unterberger describes it unenthusiastically as a mere "album filler".

Unterberger draws comparisons to the mid-to-late 1960s work of Bob Dylan. (Dylan's name appears among the graffiti on the album cover.) Unterberg writes "...the similarity to some of Dylan's long, wordy surreal songs of the mid-'60s is close enough that it's a little surprising 'Jigsaw Puzzle' hasn't been singled out by more listeners as being a Dylan imitation, particularly since it frankly sounds a little hackneyed in its approximation of Dylanesque weirdness." Some Dylanologists consider this song to be a direct response to the 1966 "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again." The lyrics depict the observations of the singer who finds himself surrounded by "misfits and weirdos";

There's a tramp sittin' on my doorstep, Tryin' to waste his time; With his methylated sandwich, He's a walking clothesline; And here comes the bishop's daughter, On the other side; She looks a trifle jealous, She's been an outcast all her life

Me, I'm waiting so patiently, Lying on the floor; I'm just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle, Before it rains anymore

Of the song, Unterberger concludes, " Like many of the tracks on that album, it drew on country blues for musical inspiration... The lyrics, however, are not the sort that would be heard on actual rural Delta blues records... More of a drawback to the song, however, is its lack of melodic development, just keeping on the same basic monotonous stock blues tune for a good six minutes or so. For album filler such as this, some other creative touches were needed to make it stand out more."

Others are not so harsh - the BBC concludes, "The self-referencing and mocking "Jigsaw Puzzle" is a treat" [1], and PopMatters says, "Of the 19 songs on the two albums, there are two that stand out head and shoulders above anything else. And no, they aren’t the obvious ones most would think of. I’m talking about “Jigsaw Puzzle” and “Monkey Man. Unfortunately ignored on 40 Licks, both tunes capture the band’s blues rock at its finest. “Jigsaw Puzzle” starts a bit stilted before finding its legs by the second verse and definitely by the initial chorus. Defining the outcasts on the street before later going through the band one by one, the Glimmer Twins nailed Wyman’s persona almost as much as Wyman nailed his hundreds of groupies. 'And the bass player, he looks nervous, about the girls outside,' Jagger sings. And again the blues slide guitar is complemented by Nicky Hopkins’s piano touches at the end" [2].

Personnel

• Mick Jagger — vocal
• Keith Richards — guitar, slide guitar
• Brian Jones — mellotron
• Bill Wyman — bass guitar
• Charlie Watts — drums
• Nicky Hopkins — piano