Composers:
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
Recording date: January-March
1978
Recording location: Pathé
Marconi Studios, Paris, France
Producers: The
Glimmer Twins
Chief engineer:
Dave
Jordan
Mixer:
Dave
Jordan Performed
onstage: 1989-90,
1994-95, 1999, 2002-03, 2006-07

Line-up:
Drums: Charlie
Watts
Bass: Keith Richards
Acoustic guitar: Keith
Richards
Electric guitars: Keith
Richards & Ron Wood
Slide electric guitar: Ron
Wood
Pedal steel guitar: Ron
Wood
Lead vocal: Keith
Richards
Background vocals: Mick
Jagger, Keith Richards & Ron Wood
Worked the bars and sideshows along the twilight
zone
Only a crowd can make you feel so alone
And it really hit home
Booze and pills and powders, you've got to
choose your medicine
Well it's another goodbye to another good
friend
(Well) After all is said and done
I've got to move (while) it's still (I've
had my) fun
Well let me (us) (I'm going to) walk before
they make me (us) run
Watch my taillights fading, there ain't a dry
eye in the house
They're laughing and singing
Well they're dancing and drinking as I left
town
I'm going to find my way to heaven 'cause I
did my time in hell, oh yeah
I wasn't looking too good but I was feeling
real well
Well after all is said and done
I didn't hide, had my fun
And I will walk before they make me run
So if it's all been said and done
I've got to move, I had my fun
Well let me walk before they make me run
I want to walk before they make me run
Before they make me run
TrackTalk
Keith's got a strong optimistic streak. His last complete song was Happy. And he wrote nearly all of this one except for one or two Oh yeahs in the middle. It's definitely his song.
I wrote most of Before They Make Me Run,
but it was Keith's idea.
Rotten Roll was the working title for
Before
They Make Me Run.
Keith had a bee in his bonnet about that song.
He just wanted to go in and get completely absorbed and lost in it, which
he did. He got Dave Jordan in and I remember seeing Dave after five days
in the studio working with Keith on that same song. When he went in he
looked quite tanned and healthy; when he came out he was a greyer shade
of white. He couldn't handle it after that.