Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Break The Spell
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Air Studios, Montserrat, West Indies, March 29 - May 5, 1989 and
Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, May 15 - June 29, 1989

Mick Jagger - vocals, electric guitar, harmonica
Keith Richards - electric guitar
Charlie Watts - drums
Ron Wood - dobro guitar, bass
Matt Clifford - keyboards

In the winter when the cold comes
And the wind blows with a scornful spite
And the hard ground feels barren
And the forest seem deathly quiet
And the whole world lies sleeping
There's a gypsy all dressed in white

Put my hand out, ask the question
Here's the silver, do you have the gift of sight?
Can you break the spell?
Can you ring the bell?
Can you break the spell?
It's cold black as night
I've got a hard heart
Since we've been apart
Can you break the spell?
Break it all down tonight

In the springtime when the floods come
And the earth bursts with a terrible life
And the sun splash on the window
There's a gypsy and he's all dressed in white
And my heart burns with the question
Can you break the spell?
Still hot as fire
Can you break the spell?
Can you ring the bell?
Can you break the spell?
It's cold black as night, yes
Cold black as night, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah…

Produced by Chris Kimsey & The Glimmer Twins

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Steel Wheels” LP
(CBS 465752-1) UK, August 28, 1989

My fav from a pretty lack luster disc. Great mood and groove. Too bad the production still had that 80's hangover...

Can you break the spell?
Yes, I can read it at the back of my hand ;-)

As we were talking about funny moments within the post-classic Stones output recently, this was one of them. So I quite liked this little blues ditty when Steel Wheels came out.

Yikes!! I couldn't even place the song! Shows how much I've played that album in recent years.

Have always loved this one; the mood, the atmospherics, Mick wailing on that harmonica.

Brilliant stuff indeed!

one of two enduring tracks, along with ahys, from an otherwise uninspired collection....these song would not have sounded out of place on exile....

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sirdoug
Yikes!! I couldn't even place the song! Shows how much I've played that album in recent years.

Can't quite hum it either!

I cannot recall it being too memorable. I like Steel Wheels as a whole though.

Don't hum it! Better pick it or blow it, just imagine a guitar and a harmonica, jangling down a staircase...remember?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-03-03 17:19 by Greenblues.

Oh that's such an awesome number! The harmonica part in particular is nothing less than brilliant!!!!!

One of their best blues songs for certain. These latter day blues songs are the best blues they ever did IMO (Minus Fancy Man Blues).

JumpingKentFlash

I think of it alongside "Blinded By Love"--a nice idea, half inspired, just doesn't come out very special.

this is terrible, but I honestly can't remember how it goes. I'll maybe give it a play later

I like the bluesy nature of this song, and Mick's harmonica very much.

another good idea for a song that was half-assed and poorly executed.

One British music journal called it a Blues direct from the Dartford Delta.

I think, while still blues, it has fresh and a totally new approach

- most noticeable is Ron's jaunty, rollicking bass-line which really 'works' with the song's more traditional slide and harmonica blues elements.

Can't agree with T&A that most of SW is lacklustre.

Along with DW, the album had some of the best guitar ideas, sounds and playing SINCE Exile imo

(And Exile passed a lot of people by at the time)

In spite of what people consider to be a 'smooth' production on SW - I find it very comparable in terms of immediacy, spontaneity, vibrancy, bright guitar sound .... band chemistry even

drums generallynot as strong though -

Most of the finished SW could be classed as "lacklustre' but the superb monitor mixes show that it could actually have been a great, great album....

I have yet to hear such mixes but I perceive its greatness in its released analogue form ....

and if I want to get a 'kick' or a 'lift' I'm more likely to play Sad Sad Sad than Rocks Off

amongst other things - something totally free and abandoned in Keith's lead playing

The last albu where he was still exploring and attaining new sounds and territories for his instrument - stretching himself



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-03-05 13:58 by Four Stone Walls.

Yeah, it's not exactly a standard blues song but more of a swampy vamping of blues. Great tune on a rather dull album. Note: not a lame album - that would be Dirty Work and Their Satanic Majesties.

When I first heard Fancy Man Blues I thought - COOL - they're gonna have some blues on this album. And I liked Mixed Emotions. So when the album came out and this was the only bluesy song on it...I thought maybe they'd sort of dig back in their treasure chest of inspiration and do some blues (sort of like what they did for Stripped in a way). What's still odd to me this day is that even though I find Steel Wheels to be rather dull I LIKE it a lot. But I hardly listen to it.

Sort of like Emotional Rescue.

I agree Skip! I had high hopes for SW and thought Mixed Emotions was a great track and really was going back to being more blues/rock style I love by the boys. But it is a dull disc. Not bad, just dull and it doesn't reward repeated listening. Rock in a Hard Place and Sad Sad Sad, just seemed stones on autopilot. Hearts For Sale, good, but production brings it down. And the keyboards! Break the Spell and Mixed Emotions are my favs...

No wonder I couldn't remember the tune...it practically has no melody. Nice groove though.

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Four Stone Walls
I have yet to hear such mixes but I perceive its greatness in its released analogue form ....

it's analog form? i thought SW was the first Stones album that was recorded direct to digital, no? are you talking about the vinyl version of it? that would still be sourced from a digital recording....

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skipstone
When I first heard Fancy Man Blues I thought - COOL - they're gonna have some blues on this album.

Don't forget that all 3 b-sides were blues tracks. "Wish I'd Never Met You" is IMO their best latter days blues number. So all in all 4 blues track on the set is not that bad.

Hi T&A,

I have it on vinyl and first had it on cassette.
They never sounded 'slick'/smooth to me.

I never understood the slick/smooth criticism until I added the CD to my collection. Hence I always assumed the older-style formats were analogue.

I think 'lacklustre' is an odd comment. I think the whole thing is full of lustre - positively lustrous infact.
And Tumbling Dice came over as lucklustre when i first heard it on the radio - and Miss You. Low-key - kinda passed you by. Same with Mixed Emotions. All mature with listening.

And Keith's guitar work on Dirty Work and SW - to me it exhibited a renewed zeal, passion, presence and commitment that had not been present on Undercover, Emotional Rescue, only partially on SG, not on B&B, iORR or GHS - not since Exile infact. And it's been largely lacking since SW - Keith as innovator.

imo DW and SW exhibit a Keith renaissance - nothing lacklustre about him on those albums whatsoever. Or Ronnie really.

I expect you won't see it this way - but hope you can understand my angle.

the playing from both ron and keith isn't the issue, really. ronnie's chops had eroded quite a bit in the interval bewtween dw and sw, but not keith's. the issue really resides in the song-writing....you can play as brilliantly as you want - but if the songs themselves aren't up to snuff, it hardly matters. the songwriting thoughout that decade suffered mightily, imo...and it was an epidemic of "lost muse" that affected many mainstream artists, not just the lads...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-03-05 19:19 by T&A.

Fine. Our difference accepted. I'm fortunate in likeing all the songs on DW/SW. Muse recovered to my mind's ears. (i think they lost direction after SG - until DW).

(Weakest 'compositions from the period being Fight and Hold onto Your Hat - but completely compensated for by vicious Exile-quality (almost) rhythm playing on the former - and blistering leads and cracking drums on the latter).

Hearts for Sale - a personal favourite -all strong instrumental ingredients and changes of mood. Just a great composition.

Hey ho.

Now you got me listening to it and liking it more. This should havebeen a MUCH better album. So over-produced.

Never got into this one. Too overproduced, Ok, so's the rest of the album, but it seems more pronounced on a psuedo-blues song like Break the Spell rather than on a pop/rock song like Sad Sad Sad or Mixed Emotions. And the lyrics are kind of cheesy. Continental Drift is by far the best song on Steel Wheels, IMO.

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Four Stone Walls


Hearts for Sale - a personal favourite -all strong instrumental ingredients and changes of mood. Just a great composition.

I like that one too - except for the bridge. I have too say, there quite some good compositions from this that are watered down by some ready-made kind of bridge, and I suspect the "guilty" part here is mostly Mick. It'a just that "professional"/session guy type of writing , that spoils many tracks since Steel Wheels.

That said, I feel much like skipstone about Steel Wheels. It's just too polished and "playing it safe" for my taste, but it always puts a smile on my face. Must be because I still remember the excitement and joy of hearing them TOGETHER again. And you could sense they were having fun too. In this respect I'd never call Steel Wheels a "lacklustre" effort.

very similar about

Break the Spell? Meh ... kinda forgettable, isn't it? Doesn't really cast a spell in the first place, so what's to break? Not much melody here, and Jagger's vocal to me sounds forced and unconvincing. But as others have mentioned, it was so nice to have the re-energized Stones happily back in the studio (and on tour) after all their squabbling in the mid-80's, that the weaknesses on SW were forgivable.

Drew

Mood-wise, I think it's a musical cousin to the studio "Midnight Rambler" from Let It Bleed. It's a nice seque, going from MR to "Break The Spell."