Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Empty Heart
(Nanker Phelge)

Chess Studios, Chicago, Illinois, US, June 11, 1964

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, tambourine
Keith Richards - electric guitar, harmony vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - harmonica, harmony vocals
Ian Stewart - organ

Yeah
An empty heart is like an empty life
I said an empty heart is like an empty life
Well, it makes you feel like you wanna cry
Like you wanna cry, like you wanna cry

Well, you've been my lover for a long long time
Well, you've been my lover for a long long time
Well, you left me all alone and end my time
I want my lover again, I want my lover again
I want my lover again, I want it back again

Yeah, a little stick
Yeah, a little bit darling
Take it down, let’s take it down, yeah, take it down

Come on back to me, baby
Come on back to me, baby
Come on, come on back to me
And I'll show ya, I'll show ya

That an empty heart, means an empty life
Yeah, an empty heart, like an empty life
Oh, it makes you feel, like you wanna die
Like you wanna die, like you wanna die
I wanna die, like you wanna die
I wanna die, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Like you wanna die
Like you wanna die

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Five By Five” EP
(Decca DFE 8590) UK, August 14, 1964



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-12-01 17:56 by René.

Love this tune,The vocals are great and the whole band is rocking.

Coming Down Again

A classic, one of the Stones greatest but least known tunes. MC5 did an excellent cover as well

Quote
humanriff77
A classic, one of the Stones greatest but least known tunes. MC5 did an excellent cover as well

Indeed...

I like the loose vibe on this cut... not much of a composition (hence the Nanker Phelge credit), but an excellent jam sort of combining several styles at once.

Bit messy and I find the stereo mix not so good, but still fun to listen

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-02-15 23:13 by NICOS.

Always love it !

HMN

Wonderful early Stones - everybody in the band galloping madly off in all directions doing their own thing, the song constantly on the verge of falling apart - but it never does, and the sum of all the parts makes a memorable whole.

...In 1664 it's with this song that I understood the Stones where such a great
group...

WOW someone who was around before the 1772 tour ..........



ROCKMAN

1664 is also a beer><

HMN

I always thought Jones sang backup on EH. Not true?

Mathijs

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Mathijs
I always thought Jones sang backup on EH. Not true?

Mathijs

I've always thought he played harp and all the vocals were Mick and Keith.

The "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah...!" is clearly Brian...(I think)

Great, chaotic track!

Don't mention Yeah Yeah Yeah om this board Mickscary is on board

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I can actually here both Keith and Brian. The 'yeah, yeah, yeah' part is defo Brian, but Keith is there too, to my ears.

Big Al & Mathijs: Guess you're right. Listened again, think I hear both Keith and Brian. Thanks!

René

one of many of their under looked gems. Really, this is pure Stones. Raunch, blues, and rock. The backing "oo ooo ooo"s are like that Pretender's song, I can't remember the one... a template for Rock blues. Some great harmonica by Brian. And great call and response near the end.

About the lyrics:
"Well, you left me all alone and end my time"
Nobody hears the same thing :
you got
"Well, you left me all alone to spend my time"
"Well, you left me all alone, this ain't my time"

and in the spoken part, what means "a little stick"?

Maybe some native speakers could answer...

Quote
cc
I like the loose vibe on this cut... not much of a composition (hence the Nanker Phelge credit), but an excellent jam sort of combining several styles at once.

yeah, that's my take on it too....sounds like one of those songs they kinda "composed" on the fly...and the mc5 version is a likeable mess, too....

As a musician i thought i would mention about Empty Heart that this is one of the classic riffs of rock like the following :

Louie Louie - The Kingsmen
Wild Thing - The Troggs
Something Else - Eddie Cochran
I Wanna Be Your Dog - The Stooges

and many others, its one of those songs that bar bands with taste always drag out, its certainly a staple of rock n roll and musically one of Keiths most important riffs. I noticed over the years that its more musicians that know this song rather than your average Stones fan.

To me it has always sounded like a jam-like track. A fantastic one, by the way, but not a 'real' composition.

Cool song. always loved the ragged harmony vocals.

It's so very lonely, you're 2,000 Light Years from home

Ah yes,I was about 12 (circa 1965)when the big brother brought The 5 x 5 ep home then and now its the dogs Bollox.Great music never dates.

One of the better early original tunes very good song. Much better than Grown Up Wrong and Cingadulations from the second album. Lots of energy in Empty Heart

They probably came up with that song (EH) after practising and playing Fortune Teller.
Rock and Roll,
Mops

I always thought it was a cover... :-)
Great tune indeed!

Cheers,
Wuudy

How do we know that the rhythm guitar is not by Brian?

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rootsman
How do we know that the rhythm guitar is not by Brian?

Cos he was busy licking up a storm on harmonica.

For a brief second you hear that "Goin' Home" style jam start to creep in and give a glimpse of what was to come when The Stones hit that magical groove!!