Line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Rhythm electric guitar: Keith Richards
Lead electric guitar: Ron Wood
Lead vocals: Mick Jagger
Background vocals: Keith Richards, Ron Wood & Billy Preston
Piano: Billy Preston
Organ: Billy Preston
Percussion (incl. maracas & tambourine): Ollie Brown
 

I say Hey negrita, hey now
Move your body, move your mouth
Shake, lady, way down south
Shake, baby, in your home town

Come si chiama, what's your your game?
I'm just a poor man, what's your name?
Shake your body, do it up now
Shake your body, move it up now

Hey negrita, hey now
Hey conchita, shake it up now

Ah yeah, do it up now
Mueva las carreras, do it up now

Flash of gold in your ears, child
Flash of gold in your eyes
Saw the gleam in your mouth
Saw the steel in your thighs

Bate las caderas, do it up now

Just a momentita, not so fast
I need money for my sweet ass
I say, "Listen I'm a poor man, my pay is low
Here's one last dollar and then we go"

"One last dollar?"
She say "I've got my pride
I'm going to cut you balls, boy
I'm going to tan your hide"

Hey negrita, hey now
Hey negrita, do it right now

Come on, boys

Ah shake it up
Shake it up now

Hey negrita, hey now
What I say?
 
 

TrackTalk

That number came about from Keith and I in a hotel, you know... idea swaps. And it eventually came around to, What was that one you were working on, Woody? So I thought, Oh, great, here's my chance. I immediately made up this riff.

All of us, independently and together, were into reggae, and it was also a mood of the time. I had this particular lick that I took into the studio and the others said, What are we going to start with? and I said, I've got this song. Charlie was sitting behind his kit, so he was already into it and then Keith and Mick both got into the motion of it. That was Hey Negrita, which came together very easily. The key to getting a song across in this band is never to try and write all the words. If you've got the rhythm, you're lucky! Let Mick write the words and then you're in with a chance.

Hey Negrita. It's a compliment. I mean,  it's not a put down. I mean, what's the problem, the Hey part? No, I think hey will get past. What, you think colored people won't like it? Well... only the most sensitive ones. It's about South Americans, that's just what you say, you know? You say, hey negrita... one negri... negrota... you say to a lady one, a lady negress... hey negrita! In fact, it's been done, been said to my old lady (Bianca de Macias), you see?

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