Song Lyric Sunday: Then And Now

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Today is Jim’s almost annual event for Song Lyric Sunday where he gives us ‘user choice’ as his theme. Read all about it here in his post Third Time Is A Charm. You may have noticed that there has been quite a lot of music made over the years, so the field for choice on this one stretches further than the eye could possibly see. I’ve decided to narrow it down by playing two songs by one of the bands I featured last week: there’s imagination for you, right! These come from a little band you may have heard of, even without my help last week. Here’s the ‘then’ one:

And in case you weren’t paying attention, here are the lyrics:

I met a gin-soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride
She had to heave me right across her shoulder
‘Cause I just can’t seem to drink you off my mind

It’s the honky tonk women
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

I laid a divorcée in New York City
I had to put up some kind of a fight
The lady then she covered me with roses
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind

It’s the honky tonk women
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues
It’s the honky tonk women
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

It’s the honky tonk women
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Keith Richards / Mick Jagger

Honky Tonk Women lyrics © Abkco Music Inc.

I think I’m on fairly safe ground in calling that a rock classic, with one of the best lines ever written in a song, and it remains a favourite of mine to this day. Honky Tonk Women was released as a non-album single on 4 July 1969 in the UK, and a week later in the US. A country reworking of the song called Country Honk was later included on the album Let It Bleed. The single version topped the charts in both the UK and the US, as well as In Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland, and reached #2 in Canada, Germany, Norway and Sweden. It has since appeared on numerous compilation albums, the first of those being Through The Past, Darkly, their second compilation after Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass). TTD,P came out in September 1969 and reached #2 in both the UK and the US, no doubt helped along the way by my purchase. It is one of those songs that has stayed with me forever, as it was #1 for five weeks around the time of my first full time summer holiday job and got played a lot in the cafe where I worked. A sad footnote: the single was released the day after the death of Brian Jones, who had left the band a month before – this timing adds a certain poignancy to it, I think. He didn’t play on this track, though.

As I said at the beginning, that was the ‘then’ part of a two song set for today, and this is the ‘now’ one. You may have noticed the publicity this past week for the upcoming release of a new Stones album, Hackney Diamonds, which is due out on 20 October. It is the first studio album of original material by the band in eighteen years, since A Bigger Bang in September 2005. They released the lead single a couple of days ago, and it is an absolute stonker:

See what I mean? Those who have heard the whole album have rated it as their best since Some Girls, in 1978 – the one which included Faraway Eyes, the song I played last week. Judging by this track they may well be right, and I can’t wait for the album. The video features the actor Sydney Sweeney being driven through Los Angeles, rocking it out in the back of an open top limo, and she seems to be having a blast. I’ve seen her in Sharp Objects and the first series of The White Lotus, and she was very good in both. She was quoted in an interview as saying that she was shocked when she received the offer to appear in the video. “I freaked out and called my family. This is the biggest thing ever. I didn’t know it was going to be the first single but I love the song, it’s stuck in my head.” I think she more than does the band justice in their choice. The album has been a long time in the making, which is reflected in the fact that Bill Wyman, who has now retired, played on one of the tracks, and that Charlie Watts played on two before he sadly passed away. I’m just glad to have one of my favourite bands back, storming it out as well as they have ever done in their sixty years together.

That’s all for this week. Somehow I’ve managed to whittle down the vast universe of music into two songs for my ‘user choice’ selection, and I’m looking forward to seeing what others have chosen. See you again for Tuesday Tunes, I trust? Take care 😊

40 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Then And Now”

  2. Pingback: So, Last Year… | Take It Easy

  4. The one Rolling Stone’s song that I considered overplayed was “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” which was a standard of most garage bands and played at every high school dance I attended. At the end of it all I thought I would scream if I heard it again but then as a young adult there I was again in some NYC nightclub dancing once again to just this song. To this day I cannot listen to it one more time but I do love listening to other songs by this awesome band. And my teenage mantra about heartbreaks and things that went wrong was the Rolling Stone song “Last Time” with me blasting and shouting “this will be the last time” concerning whatever problem was weighing heavily on me at the time,

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    • For me, I can’t think of any Stones single which has been overplayed, and I’ve been a fan since they started out sixty years ago. But they are good for blasting away the cobwebs, aren’t they!

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  6. Pingback: The Rolling Stones Are “Angry!” Here’s Their Brand New Music Video – With Sydney Sweeney! – johnrieber

  9. In my younger days, some people said I looked like Mick Jagger. I wouldn’t necessarily take that as a compliment. Others are far bigger Stones fans than me, though I must say I like Angry a lot.

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  10. I do really like this. Since the 80s they put out the odd song that showed the old spark on the odd song, even if momentarily. The remainder of the past 80s albums I listened to were mostly ‘Meh.’ ‘Saint Of Me’ was one that worked and ‘Living In A Ghost Town’ raised an eyebrow, but most felt like going-through-the-motions rehashes. But this is a great lead single.

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  11. Always nice to hear Honky Tonk Women. The Country Honk version was always popular when we played it when I was in a band in the 70s. The new single is classic Stones isn’t it? The video was entertaining and very much enhanced by Sydney Sweeney. I’d never heard of her.

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    • I’ve always liked Country Honk too – good to see them having fun and bringing out their inner Gram Parsons. It is very much classic Stones, and you should try to see more of Sydney Sweeney: a very good actor.

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    • Likewise, Jim. They have proved themselves the best over so many years. Happy to share the new one: I thought people might not have heard it yet and it needs to be heard! I thought about saving it and making ‘angry’ a Tuesday Tunes theme, but that felt a little negative!

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  14. I would love to be able to tell my father he was wrong when as a teen he told me that none of these will last as long as the songs of his era…but they have and many as The Stones are proving are still just as good…Thank you, Clive as I wasn’t being out of the loop here aware they had another album coming out xx

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    • They prove that class is permanent. It was no surprise to me how good this is, especially when compared to most of the crap that has filled the pop charts for the past 45 years or so.

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