Shattered

Composers: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
Recording date: October-December 1977        Recording location: Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, France
Producers: The Glimmer Twins        Chief engineer: Chris Kimsey
Performed onstage: 1978-79, 1981-82, 1989, 1994-95, 1999, 2002, 2005-07, 2012-13


Probable line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts & Ron Wood
Bass: Ron Wood
Electric guitars: Keith Richards & Ron Wood (incl. solo)
Pedal steel guitar: Keith Richards & Ron Wood (incl. solo)
Lead vocal: Mick Jagger
Background vocals: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards & Ron Wood
Piano: Ian Stewart
Organ: Ian McLagan
Congas: Simon Kirke
Handclaps: ---
 
Uh-huh, shattered

Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I'm in tatters

I'm shattered

Friends are so alarming and my lover's never charming
Life's just a cocktail party - on the street
Big Apple people dressed in plastic bags directing traffic
Some kind of fashion

Laughter, joy and loneliness
And sex and sex and sex and sex
Look at me, I'm in tatters

All this chitter chatter, chitter chatter, chitter chatter
About shmatta, shmatta, shmatta*
I can't give it away on 7th Avenue
This town's been wearing tatters, uh-huh

Work and work for love and sex
Ain't you hungry for success, success, success, success?
Does it matter?

Does it matter?

Ah look at me, I'm shattered
Yeah

Pride and joy and greed and sex, that's what makes that town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I'm in tatters, yeah
I've been battered

What does it matter?
Does it matter? Uh-huh

Ooh shibodee, shattered

Don't you know the crime rate's going up, up, up, up, up?
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough
We've got rats on the west side, bed bugs uptown
What a mess, this town's in tatters, I've been shattered
My brain's been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

What I say?

This town's full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don't mind the maggots, uh-huh
Shidoobie, my brain's been battered
My friends they come around, they flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
Pile it up, pile it up, pile it high on the platter

 
(* Susan Kauffmann writes: "The word "shmatta" is Yiddish for "rag", but is specifically used to refer to old, worn clothing.  It evolved to refer to the clothing industry (even high end), thus, if you were involved in the clothing industry, you were in the "shmatta business".  Seventh Avenue in Manhatten is the heart of the Fashion district, which is what the song is referring to..." )
 

 
TrackTalk

That's more like Keith's song. I wrote lyrics.
- Mick Jagger, 1995


That's one of Keith's and me in combination.
- Mick Jagger, 1995


In Shattered, Keith and Woody put a riff down, and all we had was the word shattered. So I just made the rest up and thought it would sound better if it were half-talked.
- Mick Jagger, 1978


Shattered, how I remember it, is Keith had the riff and this line, sha-doo-bie, and I came up with all the melody and the lyrics, all that stuff about New York, after the track was cut.
- Mick Jagger, 2002


(The guitar sound) was the MXR Phaser - the 100 model - and I damped (putting the base of the hand on the base of the strings to stop them from ringing) the guitar. That's what gives it that sound.
- Keith Richards, 1982


We aren't using a pull-string or a lot of slide right now, but Ron plays pedal steel, a bit on Shattered and Far Away Eyes. Country music's a part of the way we do that kind of thing, and it comes through even if it's done with straight guitars sort of pulling up against each other.
- Keith Richards, 1982


Shattered, how I remember it, is Keith had the riff and this line, sha-doo-bie, and I came up with all the melody and the lyrics, all that stuff about New York, after the track was cut.
- Mick Jagger, 2011


And also that element of (early rap) was in Shattered... So it's like a kind of punk beat with this guitar riff that Keith does, and me, it's sort of... what I do is a sort of semi-rap thing. You know it's half talking... I was obviously very influenced by (early rap)...
- Mick Jagger, 2011


Maybe it's just my bad enunciation (laughs) running away with me. And it's also because I like the sound of words, the way the NOISES come out. In Shattered, where you have sha-dooby, I wanted that to be heard, because it's as much a part of the song as the words. Van Morrison and Dylan do that kind of thing. Everyone does it, actually.
- Mick Jagger, 1978, being told he "swallows up" words


Yeah, I think (Shattered is) really good, it's kind of unusual.
- Mick Jagger, 1984



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