Composers:
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
Recording date:
March
1966
Recording location: RCA
Studios, Los
Angeles,
USA
Producer: Andrew
Oldham
Engineer: Dave
Hassinger
Performed
onstage: 1966-67,
1969, 1981-82, 1997-98, 2006, 2017-19, 2021
Probable line-up:
Drums:
Charlie
Watts
Bass: Bill
Wyman
Acoustic guitar:
Keith Richards
Electric guitar:
Keith Richards
Vocal:
Mick Jagger
Marimbas:
Brian
Jones
Piano: Ian
Stewart
Handclaps:
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TrackTalk
It's (Brian) on marimbas on Under My Thumb...
(Brian) was still fantastic making
records,
because he was so versatile. I mean, he'd have marimbas -
which is why
you have marimbas on Under My Thumb - or dulcimer,
sitar. He
kind
of lost interest in guitar, in a way. But at the same time he
added all
of that other color, those other instruments and other ideas.
He was an
incredibly inventive musician.
It's got Brian playing these marimbas.
That
riff played on marimbas really makes it. Plus, the groove it
gets in
the
end of the tune. It speeds up, actually. And it becomes this
kind of
groove
tune at the end. It was never a single, but it was always a
very
well-known
album track. And then it became a thing feminists fastened
on... It's a
bit of a jokey number, really. It's not really an
anti-feminist song
any
more than any of the others... (I)t's a caricature, and it's
in reply
to
a girl who was a very pushy woman.
REALLY? They really do? Ha ha ha. It's
great
to actually have done that, isn't it? Without realising it,
right?
Well,
(those songs) were really naïve - and TRUE. You know? I don't
think
there was anything wrong with them. But when I say it, it
doesn't seem
to come out right. But those songs really were TRUE... See,
what
happens
is that you say something and they think it applies to ALL
women... But
if you listen to the lyrics closely - not TOO closely - under
my
thumb,
a girl who ONCE had ME down
- you see? It's not so unfair? Why should
it apply to every girl? But I think it was really true. It's
funny to
think
about it, it was very adolescent, those songs, about
adolescent
experiences. There aren't any of those kind of songs,
unfortunately, on
(Black and Blue). We
have to
come up with a good one. Soon.
That's going back to my teenage years! At
the time there was no feminist criticism because there was no
such
thing,
and one just wrote what one felt. Not that I let it hinder me
too much
now... (The squirming dog image) was a joke. I've
never felt in
that position vis-à-vis a person - I'd never want to really
hurt
someone.
There was one song that was particularly
chosen
as an anti-women thing, which was Under My Thumb. And
actually
Under
My Thumb - how does it go... (sings) Under my thumb,
there's a
girl
who once had ME down. So the whole idea was that she -
that I was
under
HER, she was kicking ME around. So the whole idea is absurd,
all I did
was turn the tables around. So women took that to be...
against
femininity
where in reality it was... trying to "get back", you know,
against
being
a "repressed male". (Pause) This was a long time ago (laughs).