Memory
Motel
Composers: Mick
Jagger & Keith Richards
Recording date:
March, October & December 1975
Recording locations:Musicland
Studios, Munich, West Germany & Mountain Recording Studios,
Montreux, Switzerland
Producers: The
Glimmer Twins Chief
engineer:
Keith
Harwood
Performed onstage: 1994-95,
1997-99, 2006, 2013

Line-up:
Drums: Charlie
Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Acoustic guitar: Wayne
Perkins
Electric guitar: Harvey
Mandel
Lead vocals: Mick
Jagger & Keith Richards
Harmony vocal: Keith Richards
Background vocals: Mick
Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood & Billy
Preston
Piano: Mick Jagger
Electric piano: Keith
Richards
Synthesizer: Billy
Preston
Hannah honey was a peachy kind of girl
Her eyes were hazel and her nose was slightly
curved
We spent a lonely night at the Memory Motel
It's on the ocean, I guess you know it well
It took a starry night to steal my breath away
Down on the waterfront, her hair all drenched
in spray
Hannah baby was a honey of a girl
Her eyes were hazel, her teeth were slightly
curved
She took my guitar and she began to play
She sang a song to me, stuck right in my brain
You're just a memory
Of a love that used to
be
You're just a memory
Of a love that used to
mean so much to me
She's got a mind of her own and she use it
well, yeah
Well she's one of a kind
She's got a mind
She's got a mind of her own, yeah, and she use it mighty fine
She drove a pick-up truck painted green and
blue
The tires were wearing thin, she'd done a
mile or two
And when I asked her where she headed for
Back up to Boston, I'm singing in a bar
I've got to fly today on down to Baton Rouge
My nerves are shot already, the road ain't
all that smooth
Across in Texas is the rose of San Antone
I keep on a-feeling that gnawing in my bones
You're just a memory (just a memory)
Of a love that used to
mean so much to me
(just a memory)
You're just a memory
(just a memory)
Of a love that used to
mean so much to me, yeah
You're just a memory, girl - you're just a sweet memory (just a memory)
And it used to
mean so much to me, yeah
Sha la la la, sha la la la
Sha la la la, sha la la la
You're just a memory
Of a love that used to
mean so much to me
She's got a mind of her own and she use it
well, yeah
Mighty fine, well she's one of a kind
She's got a mind of her own, she's one of
a kind, and she use it well
On the 7th day, my eyes were all aglaze
We'd been 10 000 miles, been in 15 states
Every woman seemed to fade out of my mind
I hit the bottle and I hit the sack and cried
What's all this laughter on the 22nd floor?
It's just some friends of mine and they're
busting down the doors
It's been a lonely night at the Memory Motel
You're just a memory, girl - just a memory
And you used to
mean so much to me
You're just a memory, girl - you're just a memory
And you used to
mean so much to me
You're just a memory, girl - you're just a memory
And you used to
mean so much to me
You're just a memory
Of a love that used to
mean so much to me
Mm she's got a mind of her own and she use it
well, yeah
Well she's one of a kind
TrackTalk
Keith or I might have had the initial idea (for
a song), but after a while you can't separate who wrote it. We just sit
down and do them, sometimes in the studio, sometimes at home. Like here,
this song, Memory Motel, I wrote the first part, the piano part,
which I played. Course I had to take time off from the Stones... that takes
a lot of my time, let me TELL you... but I don't mind, it's my own time
- to do my own solo stuff on the LP, but more of that later. So anyway...
I play the bloody piano, right? Okay, so I'm going, mmmmm-mmmmm, a-mmmmmm,
and Keith goes, hmmmmmgghh... uhhh... that sounds all right...,
and I say, Well, I only just started it, I ain't finished yet, 'cause
I like to get everything finished, done, written on paper, typed up, all
written out. But he doesn't like that so he says, I've got a middle
bit here, and he sits down at the other piano, the electric piano,
and he plays the middle bit. Then I learn that and he learns my part, and
THEN we make the track, and I sing what I've got. And then I go and finish
the words. They're all done in a day. And in fact, when Keith wrote the
middle bit, he did those words... he goes... mmmm... she's got a mind...
of her own... Anyway, that's how, for instance, we wrote that song.
Boring, isn't it?
-
Mick Jagger, 1976
Yeah, I thought it was beautiful. Mick had nearly
all of it planned out, but he had no bridge, no middle part. And it so
happened that the other part that I do, I was writing this song that
had no other part. And for some amazing reason, they both seamlessly
fit into each other, which is what Mick and I do, with a bit of luck.
But yeah, I remember that moment, realizing that we had one song and
not two.
- Keith Richards, 2015
Well, we've got similar voices, we're from
the same town. It's PRETTY similar. I mean when Billy (Preston) comes in
you can tell it's Billy, but when Keith comes in you can't always tell
it's him.
-
Mick Jagger, 1976, on Keith's singing
Ummm, yes, and you were ON the tour so you've
got the... yes, they do, it does, it's pretty obvious. I mean down to
Baton Rouge... the track was done prior, and then after the tour I
finished off the vocals.
-
Mick Jagger, 1976, on the lyrics being written
after
the 1975 tour
But
actually I don't think that there's any particular. . . it's more about
the tour, really, rather than about the girl.. A guitar player,
she is.
-
Mick Jagger, 1976
(T)he girl in Memory Motel is actually
a real, independent American girl... Actually, the girl in Memory Motel
is
a combination (of a real girl and a fantasy).-
Mick Jagger, 1978
You like that song? It is kinda nice. Ah, that's more or less the Stones, though, isn't it?. . . You think it's different?
-
Mick Jagger, 1976
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