Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Before They Make Me Run
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Pathé Marconi Studios (EMI Studios), Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France,
January 5 - March 2, 1978

Keith Richards - lead vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass
Mick Jagger - backing vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Ron Wood - electric guitar, slide electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals

Worked the bars and sideshows along the twilight zone
Only a crowd can make you feel so alone and it really hit home
Booze and pills and powders, you like to choose your medicine
Well, here's another goodbye to another good friend

So after all is said and done, gotta move while it's still fun
Well, let me walk before they make me run
After all is said and done, I gotta move, it's still fun
I'm gonna walk before they make me run

Watched my taillights fading, there ain't a dry eye in the house
There’s laughing and singing, well, they’re dancing and drinking as I left town
Gonna find my way to heaven, `cause I did my time in hell, oh yeah
I wasn't looking too good but I was feeling real well

So after all is said and done, I gotta move I had my fun
So let us walk before they make us run

So after all is said and done, I did alright, I had my fun
But I will walk before they make me
But I will walk before they make me run
I will walk before they make me run
I will walk before they make me run

So if it’s all been said and done, I gotta move, I had my fun
Well, let me walk before they make me run
So let me walk before they make me run
I'm wanna walk before they make me run
Before they make me run

Produced by The Glimmer Twins

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Some Girls” LP
(Rolling Stones Records CUN 39108) UK, June 9, 1978
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Before They Make Me Run (single version)
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Pathé Marconi Studios (EMI Studios), Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France,
January 5 - March 2, 1978

Keith Richards - lead vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass
Mick Jagger - backing vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Ron Wood - electric guitar, slide electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals

Worked the bars and sideshows along the twilight zone
Only a crowd can make you feel so alone and it really hit home
Booze and pills and powders, you like to choose your medicine
Well, here's another goodbye to another good friend

So after all is said and done, gotta move while it's still fun
Well, let me walk before they make me run
After all is said and done, I gotta move, it's still fun
I'm gonna walk before they make me run

Watched my taillights fading, there ain't a dry eye in the house
There’s laughing and singing, well, they’re dancing and drinking as I left town
Gonna find my way to heaven, `cause I did my time in hell, oh yeah
I wasn't looking too good but I was feeling real well

So after all is said and done, if you can’t kiss and you can’t come
Well, let us walk before they make us run
So now it’s all been said and done, I gotta move, I had my fun
So let us walk before they make us run

After all is said and done, I did alright and I had my fun
But I will walk before they make me run
So if it’s over, I’ll be gone, I gotta move, I had my fun
But I will walk before they make me
I will walk before they make me run
I will walk before they make me run
I will walk before they make me run

So if it’s all been said and done, I gotta move, I had my fun
But let me walk before they make me run

Produced by The Glimmer Twins

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Before They Make Me Run” promo 7” single
(Rolling Stones Records PR 316) US, June 1978



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-11-24 19:44 by René.

My personal fav by Keith.

Nothing less than perfect. Perfect choice of singing, perfect riffing, all perfect. Can just see him cuddling a telecaster and a bottle of JD and coming out with this one!


C

yeah, true Keith. great lyrics, too!

Booze and pills and powders...

>> you like to choose your medicine <<

you like to or you got to?

this number flows like a river ... the Barbarian rendition with the 3x intro is wonderful

Just watched X-pensive Winos´Boston gig 1993.

BTMMR was one of the highlights! Great song, indeed.

A fabulous song. I remember thinking at the time that it so captured the post Montreal atmosphere surrounding the Stones. Will they tour again if Keith goes down? What's going on in his head? Will he give up the hard stuff? And then this came out which kinda summed it all up perfectly. Zeitgeist captured.

<the Barbarian rendition with the 3x intro is wonderful>

Yeah, love that intro!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-22 14:11 by DandelionPowderman.

It's very 1978...and Mick did 'Don't look back' with Tosh..but Punk-rock got my ears that devoted year...

2 1 2 0

Strange it was never released on any live album !

---

Sorry for my english ; I'm a french little boy (but I like it)

a keith tour de force... but I don't think any live versions have approached the multilayered studio cut. The riff tends to be rushed.

Fantastic bridge too - that whole going around bit was utilised well in the bridges for songs back then - they've yet to equal that. Very similar to the bridge in Shattered, for example.

Great song. It's very loose, very messy, yet it's such a tight production, everything has its place and its space.

I like it--the only problem i had with it is Keith sings it way to high...
It almost come across as a Whine...You know sings too much out of his nose very high-pitched..
Yes its a Keith song but it could have worked a little better if Mick & Keith sung it together, Mick singing more of the lead.
Hard song to sing!

My fave song by Keith. Everything about this tune is stellar. Simple as that.

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liddas
My personal fav by Keith.

Nothing less than perfect. Perfect choice of singing, perfect riffing, all perfect. Can just see him cuddling a telecaster and a bottle of JD and coming out with this one!


C

Totally agree!

Keith's solo songs used to be so personal - so much reflected of his own life. Just think of "Happy", "Coming Down Again", "All About You"... and i think "Bfore They Make Me Run" is a the best of 'em all.

I think it is the most 'Keith Richards sounding' song ever done - the loose, even messy feeling, but still everything in control - the lyrics of philosopshy of 'been there, done that' with unmatched credibility. And in its context - next to all those Jagger 'more fast numbers' which go strumming between A and D with occasional E chord - it is musically much sharper and a novel try. Strange, Keith seemed to have a richer musical vocabulary back then - for example, I don't think that in TALK IS CHEAP there is anything that could really hold a candle to "Before They Make Me Run". Pure work of genious, the whole track.

- Doxa

I like the MONO promo version alot too(even though its basically just a little longer with a couple extra lines but the MONO mix is nice) I think theres some
pretty clever stuff on "Cheap" too. "I Could Have Stood You Up" is great lyric wise IMHO.

Before They Make Me Run is a great song! i think one of the best Keith has ever done. and it fits marvellous on one of the greatest stones albums ever - some girls (i just think of shattered, beast, whip, respectable, some girls)!

It is indeed a wonderfully exuberant song from a great album. Keith is out there on the edge giving it his all. When it was first presented live it was a show stopper, and until recently is has always elevated a concert. Keith really played it aggressively for many years and Ronnie has always backed him admirably. It was all very upbeat and exciting to see Keith up there hammering away on this song. Pity that Keith has almost ceased playing guitar on this number from recent outings. This song is supposed to rock it up instead of morphing into a crooners delight if you know what I mean...Hopefully, with his head injury woes behind him Keith emerges with some aggressive chops next time out.

he wasn't crooning it in Europe in 06 - was it Vienna or Berlin where we got that blow-the-roof-off version
with the extended guitar breaks? signs & freakin wonders, baby - that was hot! :E



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-24 18:18 by with sssoul.

Quote
hot stuff
I like it--the only problem i had with it is Keith sings it way to high...
It almost come across as a Whine...You know sings too much out of his nose very high-pitched..
Yes its a Keith song but it could have worked a little better if Mick & Keith sung it together, Mick singing more of the lead.
Hard song to sing!

not all all in my book! its perfect as it is and nowadays I miss Keith's high-pitched voice. Keith should really have recorded a solo album in the 70s with THIS voice. but there are a lot of outtakes around so Im able to compile my own fictious "Keith - The Lost 70s" album....

Quote
alimente

Quote
hot stuff
I like it--the only problem i had with it is Keith sings it way to high...
It almost come across as a Whine...You know sings too much out of his nose very high-pitched..
Yes its a Keith song but it could have worked a little better if Mick & Keith sung it together, Mick singing more of the lead.
Hard song to sing!

not all all in my book! its perfect as it is and nowadays I miss Keith's high-pitched voice. Keith should really have recorded a solo album in the 70s with THIS voice. but there are a lot of outtakes around so Im able to compile my own fictious "Keith - The Lost 70s" album....

Keith voice in Before they make me run has always intrugued me.
thin, high-pitched, nasal.
its even TOO thin and TOO high-pitched for 1978. If you listen to keith singing during 78 usa tour, his voice had already changed. lower, i'd say broken. maybe Keith lost that typical 1969-1977 timbre just while recording some girls.

I totally agree with all u said, alimente.
A solo keith album from 77-78 would have been my favourite album ever, kind of dream album. with THAT voice and THAT look.
i think anyway he still can do something like that. a solo album with some new original tunes, and some covers, like country, blues and raggae numbers (apartment n9, sing me back home, your angel steps out of heaven, worried life blues, pressure drop, etc)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-23 21:25 by farawayeyes2.

So what's the song actually about?

I think its Keith saying its time for me to change...Not that he really wants too but because of the times and his age he HAS TOO...He likes to party and play all day....But he knows he can't...So he rather walk away on His terms than being carried away or having to RUN aWAY..
go keith!

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Harlem Shuffler
So what's the song actually about?

(then-)current events, I would guess.

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Harlem Shuffler
So what's the song actually about?

What's it about?

... the tension surrounding the aftermath of his Toronto bust maybe???

[thepowergoats.com]

Don't forget Wood's great licks on the B-bender.

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Come On
It's very 1978...and Mick did 'Don't look back' with Tosh..but Punk-rock got my ears that devoted year...

" Walk and Don't look back" comes to mind when I listen to this song. it must be because of the "walk before they make me run" line with Mick doing the BU vocals. Even though this song is a different genre of music, I think they both have the same spirit BTMMR is more of an outlaw song though. To me, live versions don't capture the magic thats in the studio version.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-12-24 07:01 by ryanpow.

Thanks for the replies to my question within this original post. I always wondered whether "they" referred to drugs or the police - maybe both!

Quote
hot stuff
I like it--the only problem i had with it is Keith sings it way to high...
It almost come across as a Whine...You know sings too much out of his nose very high-pitched..
Yes its a Keith song but it could have worked a little better if Mick & Keith sung it together, Mick singing more of the lead.
Hard song to sing!

I disagree. I think it works and I do not think Mick would improve it. But, you make an interesting point about "hard song to sing" -- the meloldies keith writes are different, with more unexpected turns, than the ones mick writes.

This is my all time favorite Keith song!!! I have never cared for it live though. I heard it in Boston 4 or 5 years ago and remember commenting that Keith, Woodie and Charlie were really tight but Keith mangled the vocal.