Apologies for last week's mix up. I wasn't sure if I could recover. I needed a breather, otherwise the next battle might have been "Factory Girl" vs. "Start Me Up." I think I'm okay now. And I am pretty sure "Sister Morphine" beat out "Stray Cat Blues" by just one vote.
Back on track, here's where we stand so far:
Side One
BROWN SUGAR
NO EXPECTATIONS
WILD HORSES
CAN'T YOU HEAR ME KNOCKING?
JIGSAW PUZZLE
Side Two
STREET FIGHTING MAN
I GOT THE BLUES
SISTER MORPHINE
Today's bout features Track 9 and Track 9, two more very strong contenders. "Factory Girl" and "Dead Flowers." The acoustic guitar, percussion and fiddle combo of "Factory Girl" really sends me. I can loop that groove and be happy for hours. But I am going with"Dead Flowers," for the chorus alone.
19 comments:
This is the hardest one for me since I love them both. I'm going with "Dead Flowers" because it's less condescending. The factory girl is viewed from a distance, while the subject in "Dead Flowers" is someone they know.
Dead Flowers. Factory Girl never did much for me...
To confuse things, I would've gone for Stray Cat over Sister M.; love that swampy sinister feel on SCB, though SM is also a great track. On to the next: Dead Flowers, easily, for me. Factory Girl is fun, but more of a comic novelty I think ( I also agree with the comment above about the writer's sympathy - or lack of- with the female subject). Dead Flowers is a great distillation of an upbeat country rock style, also with a sense of humor in the lyric, but a genuine yearning in the melody, Keith's beautiful harmony, and the really tasty guitar licks. It's also an easy song to play; it's one of the first tunes that my teenage band learned to play, as it was for many other kids' bands, I'm sure.
Two more strong contenders, indeed. One, a little more of a folk/Appalachian tune with a lovely, simple arrangement (almost every time I hear a fiddle in rock music I'm so in love with it that I wonder why it's not used more often. there's also some very cool drumming on FG); the other more of a straight country type.
I'm going with Factory Girl, based on two things:
1.The turn the lyrics take when he sings, "Waiting for a girl and my feet are getting wet/She ain't come out yet...", suggesting she ain't coming out for you tonight at all, if ever again. That sentiment predates the one expressed by Elton John/Bernie Taupin in 'Come Down in Time': "There are women, women and some hold you tight/while some keep you counting the stars in the night"
2.The Kentucky Derby reference in Dead Flowers unfortunately reminds me of the Saratoga reference in Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain', which of course Mick sings back up on. I hate 'You're So Vain' passionately because the song clearly IS about whoever the YOU is in the song! You can't write a song about someone and sing it right to them, saying 'YOU think this is about YOU' and then accuse them of being vain for rightly recognizing themselves. 'Well, it is about me, Girlfriend'. And it drives me nuts that that song became so popular. End of rant.
Factory Girl, for me....
I'll go with "Late Bloomers." An absolute earworm...
'Dead Flowers' and it's not even close for me. A singalong if there ever was one. So many cover versions done.
i like factory girl. i think he means it to be a little love story of two ordinary people tied together through ordinary things and uncaring of how they appear. so i think he means the song, as written, neither to be distant nor condescending and that the little things--scarves, knees, standing in the rain, maybe because her boss won't let her leave work yet--are all meant to be signs of his devotion. the difficulty is that mick's vocal teeters between the character's devotion and the rich, hip 25-year old singing the song who seems to finds the things enumerated about the girl less endearing, and therefore suggests condescension. still it sometimes works for me.
that said, i am a strong vote for dead flowers. it is their best and wittiest country song, which i admit is not saying much, but it also makes fun of them, instead, as too many of mick's country songs easy and obvious targets. .
I just love Factory Girl, like pretty much all of Banquet it has a hazy, folky feel that was an obvious influence on early Rod Stewart/Ron Wood collaborations. So my vote is for Dead Flowers! Go figure...
Dead Flowers hands down for me. Hope they can play it at my funeral.
As Dr. Wu said about cover versions, isnt latter day Replacements carrer
all built around this song?
Dead Flowers, no contest. Factory Girl feels like an enjoyable piss take, and Dead Flowers is, for me, among my top 20 Stones songs.
Thanks for continuing this, Sal!
As for that guy's You're So Vain comment, I'd say, sure, but I always took that as part of the joke. OF COURSE it's about him, and of course it's unfair to call him vain for thinking it's about him. That's the joke.
It's like complaining that in Start Me Up they say "you make a dead man come". BUT, you can't make a dead man come!He's dead, and his body won't ejaculate, nor even feel an orgasmic sensation. That joke is false!
I get what he's saying, and I'm not trying to start any debate, or insult the other person who commented in any way, but I think you're blaming the joker for missing something that actually IS part of her joke.
Dead Flowers but I do love Factory Girl. I feel as if I'm picking more from Sticky. I'm surprised at myself. I always say Beggars is my fave of the two. Perhaps it's an overall listen for Beggars- the feel as someone said above- but individual songs it goes to Sticky.I know my pick for the next one by a mile and it's from Sticky Fingers.
Dead Flowers. It doesn't get much sleazier than "in the basement with a needle and a spoon." And I mean that as a compliment.
Robin has it right -- I'm surprised too at the number of Sticky songs I'm voting for when I prefer the album Beggars Banquet. Here's a perfect example. "Dead Flowers" is so sing-along great it feels like a single. (I was a little surprised actually that it wasn't one when I checked.) Whereas "Factory Girl" works brilliantly in the context of the album but is modestly shakier on its own. Lyrically, I find "Dead Flowers" a little repetitive on the drugs since we just heard "Sister Morphine" but again, here I'm looking at the song on its own. I always thought Factory Girl was cynical of course, with him waiting for a gal with a job (obviously, he has none) and commenting on her fat knees and how he's killing time in the rain and she hasn't come out yet. I don't think he's getting his comeuppance but it's certainly no love song, just a tune about the joys of a gf with a paycheck. On "Dead Flowers" I was never certain about the contrast with roses. Aren't all flowers you give sort of dead flowers? Or does he mean she's literally sending brown and dried up bunches of flowers, as I assume? I guess one on one I'll vote for "Dead Flowers."
PS I must echo the "You're So Vain" comment. I know you're joking (not about hating the song, which is fine -- listening to her early albums for some reason as they've just been put out again, they're pretty godawful.) But I always thought the one great thing about it (other than the killer melody) was that "You're so vain -- I'll bet you think this song is about you" is such a perfect, unanswerable put-down. Not that it stopped Warren Beatty....
It's got to be Dead Flowers, classic track...
Dead Flowers hands down
I said on the first post I thought "Beggars Banquet" was the better album, but as we go through it "Sticky Fingers" is looking like the winner. They matured. The country songs on BB are fun sendups, while "Dead Flowers" is the real thing, and "Faraway Eyes", a mannered failure.
I can't help wondering what would happen if "Let It Bleed" went up against "Stick Fingers"?
I'm just into the fray....gotta go with Factory Girl. Married one.....
Hello all...no, please remain seated,
Dead Flowers for me, thank you very much. For all the reasons listed above, but also....this is one of those great Charlie Watts drumming performances where there's nothing really fancy going on - near as I can tell - but he just sounds so, so good. Little rolls to set up the chorus, keeping it simple underneath the guitar solo, using one of the cymbal- things to keep the beat. I've read in various places over the years ( and probably from our host, Sal) that Charlie gets good tone out his drums. Not being a drummer, i'm not dure what that really means, but perhaps this song is an example.
Regards,
RichD
Charlie plays with amazing restraint and style. One of the best. He and Keith are the band.
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