Composer: "Nanker
Phelge" (Rolling Stones)
Recording date: January
1965
Recording location: RCA Studios, Los Angeles,
USA
Producer: Andrew
Oldham Engineer:
Dave
Hassinger
Performed onstage: 1965-66,
1989-90

Probable line-up:
Electric guitar/bass: Phil
Spector
Acoustic guitar: Keith
Richards
Vocal: Mick Jagger
Harpsichord: Jack
Nitzsche
Tambourine: Mick
Jagger
Tamtams: Jack
Nitzsche
Well you've got your diamonds
And you've got your pretty clothes
And the chauffeur drives your cars
You let everybody know
But don't play with me
Cause you're playing with fire
Your mother she's an heiress
Owns a block in Saint John's Wood
And your father'd be there with her
If he only could
Your old man took her diamonds
And tiaras by the score
Now she gets her kicks in Stepney
Not in Knightsbridge anymore
So don't play with me...
Now you've got some diamonds
And you will have some others
But you'd better watch your step, girl
Or start living with your mother
TrackTalk
It was a classic example of the Stones' ability to absorb different types of sound even when the whole band was not playing on the track. Brian, Bill and Charlie didn't play on Play with Fire. They'd all dropped off to sleep. One could have got them up again but one didn't. So it was Phil Spector on tuned-down guitar and Jack Nitzsche on harpsichord in addition to Richards and Jagger. It was at the end of a session with some old guy sweeping up.
Play with Fire (was made) with Phil
Spector on tuned-down electric guitar, me on acoustic, Jack Nitzsche on
harpsichord, and Mick on tambourine with echo chamber. It was about 7 o'clock
in the morning. Everybody fell asleep.
Play with Fire sounds amazing - when
I heard it last. I mean, it's a very in-your-face kind of sound and very
clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I'm playing the
tambourine, the vocal line. You know, it's very pretty... Keith and me
(wrote that). I mean, it just came out... (I)t was just kind of rich girls'
families - society as you saw it. It's painted in this naive way in these
songs... I don't know if it was daring. It just hadn't been done.
Ah, the imagination of teenagers! Well, one
always wants to have an affair with one's mother. I mean it's a turn-on.