THE ROLLING STONES - “The Last Time”
(20th March 1965)
I’ve been trying to figure out why this doesn’t quite work for me. There’s a stiffness to it - the band don’t seem comfortable with this jaunty a sound. The riff’s a good one, full of bounce, but maybe not good enough to carry a song virtually by itself, and certainly not without some more variety in the dynamics (sure enough the instrumental break brings the track to life). The monotony of the riff then ends up highlighting the problems with Jagger’s vocals - every line in every verse has its final words bluntly emphasised, which puts too much stress on the rhymes and not enough on their content. It’s rather like listening to a non-rapper try to rap, they usually make the same “wow I’m rhyming!” mistake.
The chorus is great, though, Jagger at his most viperish - so manipulative. “This could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don’t know”. The tease! There will be many, many more times to come - it’s just that they’ll happen when and if Mick wants. Maybe that’s my problem with the song - musically it’s a jangly crowd-pleaser, verbally it’s a cold power-play. 6
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rosie on July 28th, 2008
Amazingly, this is the first Jagger/Richards song that the Stones took to the top, and that really rather underlines the way the Beatles were exceptional in performing their own materialk at this level, at this time. All that would change, of course, but it surprises me now.
DJ Punctum on July 28th, 2008
Regretfully (or not) we will not be encountering David Whittaker’s slowed-down orchestral arrangement of this tune on Popular in any shape or form…
Mark G on July 29th, 2008
hmm, yeah that would have been some debate, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”
(hah! Safe from teh bunnie)