Line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Darryl Jones
Electric guitars: Keith Richards & Ron Wood
Lead vocal: Keith Richards
Background vocals: Keith Richards, Bernard Fowler & Blondie Chaplin
Piano: Clinton Clifford
Organ: Clinton Clifford
Saxophone: Joe Sublett
Trumpet: Darrell Leonard
Percussion: Jim Keltner
 

Oh

You don't, you don't have to mean it
You just got to say it anyway
I just need to hear those words for me
Baby, baby, baby

You don't have to say too much
Baby, I wouldn't even touch you anyway
I just want to hear you say to me

Sweet lies, baby, baby
Dripping from your lips, ooh yeah
Sweet sighs, say to me
Come on and play, play with me, baby

No, you don't have to mean it
You've just got to say it to me baby
Whisper, whisper ,whisper in my ear (I don't believe it)
Baby, baby, baby, baby, yeah

I don't believe

I wouldn't want to use you
Ooh I wouldn't blame you anyway
If you never ever spoke to me

Just say those little words
Sit on my shoulder like a little bird
Baby, sing those words for me

Sweet lies, baby, baby
Dripping from your lips in the darkness
Sweet sighs, oh you make me cry
Baby, baby, baby, you know it, you know what I want to hear
I've got to tell you, baby

You don't have to say too much
Whisper, whisper, baby, baby
I just want to hear you say to me
Baby, baby, baby, baby, yeah

You don't have to mean it
Baby, just say it anyway
I just need to hear those words from your sweet lips, oh sweet lips

You don't have to mean it
I don't believe

You don't have to shout across the room

Whisper in my ear, baby, yeah
 
 

TrackTalk

You Don't Have to Mean It was a Buddy Holly tune, it was like Buddy Holly and I was playing drums on that (laughs) (when we wrote it). It hasn't come out like that but it's come out a bit like that, because I can't really play the drums and I would play it very badly but I was playing this kind of reggae beat on the bass drum because that was the only beat I could play... and then sort of went on from there.

You Don't Have to Mean It had a totally different feel at first. It was more Buddy Holly-ish, which people have spotted in there. It had that sort of vibe to it, and then gradually went in the reggae direction. It's kind of its own permutation of reggae; it's got a backbeat on the 2 and 4, but it's still reggae.

I would never ignore that... rhythm and that life that I've lived when I can. I've been living there 25 years so it rubs off anyway, you are trying to get the Jamaican out of me. When I'm talking to the band I still go like, This is mine in a blood gut (laughs). But it started off as a Tex-Mex sort of song, it sounded very Buddy Holly but it didn't roll off the tongue right. It was something jamming up the beat and sort of fiddling around, instead of Yeah, it's on beat, it's reggae stuff. That's where it really can express itself but at the same time there's a backbeat on it. It's a mixture, it's a funny mixture, but it's a lovely song to sing.

Yeah. I think I really got it right on this one. Even my Jamaican brethren say so.

I particularly like the way Keith delivers this one and we've been rehearsing it (for the tour) and it just is a natural.

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