Prodigal
Son
Composer: Robert
Wilkins Original
performer: Robert Wilkins (1930)
Recording date: May-June
1968 Recording
location: Olympic Sound Studios, London, England
Producers: Jimmy
Miller
Chief engineer: Glyn Johns
Performed onstage: 1969-71,
1979
Probable line-up:
Drums: Charlie
Watts
Acoustic guitar:
Keith Richards
Vocal: Mick Jagger
Shout (end):
Keith Richards
Harmonica: Brian
Jones
Well the poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road
Started down tahe road
Took all he had and started down the road
Went out of his world, where God only knows
And that'll be the way to get along
Well poor boy spent all he had, famine come
in the land
Famine come
in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land
I believe I'll go and hire me to some man
And that'll be the way I'll get along
Well the man said I'll give you a job for
to feed my swine
For
to feed my swine
I'll give you a job for to feed my swine
Boy stood there, hung his head and cried
Cause that is no way to get along
Said I believe I'll ride, believe I'll go
back home
Believe I'll go
back home
Believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Going down the road as far as I can go
And that'll be the way to get along
Well, the father said See my son coming here to
me
Coming home to
me
Father ran and fell down on his knees
He said Sing and praise, Lord have mercy
on me
Mercy
The poor boy stood there, hung his head
and cried
Hung his head
and cried
Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried
Said Father, will you look on me as a child?
Yeah
Well the father said to the eldest son Kill
the fattest calf
Call the family round
Kill that calf and call the family round
My son was lost but now he is found
Cause that's the way for us to get along
Hey!
TrackTalk
I very rarely play slide on records. There's always
a better slide player in the band than me. I did use slide on things, mostly
on acoustic stuff like You Gotta Move and Prodigal Son, stuff
like that, open-D or open-E.
-
Keith Richards, 1989
There was a kind of country and blues roots
feel to tracks like Prodigal Son. You just let certain parts of
you out when you wanted to. When we first started out we wanted to be a
blues band and then we became more pop-oriented - because we wanted to
be popular and to get played on the radio - and then we started to become
more of an eclectic band.
-
Mick Jagger, 2003
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