"Mother's Little Helper" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track to the United Kingdom version of their 1966 album Aftermath. It was released as a single in the United States and peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1966. The B-side "Lady Jane" peaked at number 24.
The song deals with the sudden popularity of prescribed calming drugs among housewives, and the potential hazards of overdose or addiction. The drug in question is variously assumed to be meprobamate (Miltown) or diazepam (Valium).
Video Mother's Little Helper
Lyrics and composition
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Mother's Little Helper" was recorded at the RCA Records studios in Hollywood, California, in March 1966.
The song begins with the line that is also heard as the last line in the repeated bridge section:
Toward the end of the song, the mothers are warned:
The song is based around folksy chords and an eastern-flavoured guitar riff sounding like a sitar, but is a slide riff played on an electric 12-string. As Richards stated in 2002:
[The strange guitar sound is] a 12-string with a slide on it. It's played slightly Oriental-ish. The track just needed something to make it twang. Otherwise, the song was quite vaudeville in a way. I wanted to add some nice bite to it. And it was just one of those things where someone walked in and, Look, it's an electric 12-string. It was some gashed-up job. No name on it. God knows where it came from. Or where it went. But I put it together with a bottleneck. Then we had a riff that tied the whole thing together. And I think we overdubbed onto that. Because I played an acoustic guitar as well.
Richards also remembers the ending of the song being the idea of Bill Wyman,who also contributed a powerful and distinctive bass riff.
Maps Mother's Little Helper
Personnel
- Mick Jagger - lead vocals, percussion
- Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, electric twelve-string slide guitar, backing vocals
- Brian Jones - acoustic guitar
- Bill Wyman - bass guitar
- Charlie Watts - drums
- Jack Nitzsche - Nitzsche-Phone
Charts
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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