Line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Acoustic guitar: Wayne Perkins
Electric guitar: Harvey Mandel
Lead vocals (& harmony): Mick Jagger & 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, (mighty fine) well she's one of a kind
She's got a mind
She's got a mind of her own (she's one of a kind), yeah, and she use it (well) 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 feeling that gnawing in my bones

You're just a memory, girl, you're just a sweet old memory
And it used to mean so much to me

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

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?

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.

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.

(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).

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