Friday, June 6, 2014

Rolling Stones Friday: Sister Morphine

Let's get right into it this week -- "Sister Morphine" from Sticky Fingers (1971):


The song was originally recorded by Marianne Faithfull in 1969. Faithful, muse and longtime lover to Mick Jagger, eventually, following a lawsuit, was given a co-credit for writing the song along with Jagger-Richards.  Here's her version with its spellbinding, chilling vocal:


Both versions featured Ry Cooder on slide guitar and Jack Nitzsche on piano.

The song pays obvious homage, both musically and lyrically, to the Velvet Underground. Faithfull explained the background for the lyrics: "The story is about a man in a car accident in hospital, who's very damaged and wants to die. It isn't exactly what happened to me, but my feelings about it are probably the same. I was hospitalized in Sydney after an attempted suicide after Brian Jones died. It was a terrible time."

A big thank you to my man Frank Fahey, one of our contributors here at WYMA, for suggesting this entry today.

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