Alley, Pacifistic Woman

Isn't it weird how much the word "pacifistic" looks like the word "pacific"? I think it's pretty sweet.

Anyway, this blog post is all about the Rolling Stones song Street Fighting Man. It's a good song.

I've always enjoyed listening to this song, but recently, and most probably because of STAClive, I have been listening to it a lot more and really thinking about it more in-depth than ever before. 

The first thing that has always struck me about the song is its pure rebellious attitude. Think about it; for a song made in 1968, this is as punk as it gets. When I listen to this song I'm not sure if I want to get up and yell out my window, run down the street naked, or punch a hole in my wall.

This song gets me excited.

What's interesting, other than the inspiration for the song (which, contrary to most people's ideas, is about the riots in France at that time rather than the Vietnam War), is its recording technique and writing process.

Guitarist Keith Richards and lead vocalist Mick Jagger would usually record some riffs or melodies they thought sounded cool while on tour. When they returned from their journeys, that melody would sometimes turn into a tune. Street Fighting Man happened to escalate into one of the most famous rock songs of all time.

Richards played a riff on his acoustic guitar and recorded it using one of his cassettes (you know, those little rectangles that our ancestors used to use to listen to music)while he was on tour. Using a simple open-E tuning to accent barred chords on the upstrokes during the verse, the iconic and startling acoustic guitar part was born. From there, Jagger improvised half-heard lyrics that fit perfectly into the revolutionary attitude of the song.

Something I found really interesting about the entire process is that the drums that were first recorded on the demo cassette were played on a 1930s toy jazz kit that was "incredibly louder than the guitar, yet sounded nice", as described by Richards. The track was recorded on a tape in the studio that had no limiter. 

The result was a perfectly sounding, distorted wonderful mess that crackles in your eardrums during the verse and chorus only to be surpassed by a smooth piano riff in the outdo to end the day. WooOOooOOwOOoooooOOoOoOoo!

-Peter