Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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I’m Free
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

RCA Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, September 6, 1965

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, backing vocals
Keith Richards - electric guitar, backing vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Brian Jones - electric guitar
Jack Nitzsche - organ
James W. Alexander - tambourine

I'm free to do what I want any old time
I'm free to do what I want any old time
So love me, hold me, love me, hold me
But I'm free, any old time, to get what I want

I'm free to sing my song tho' it’s out of time
I'm free to sing my song tho' it’s out of time
So love me, hold me, love me, hold me
But I'm free any old time to get what I want, yeah

Love me, hold me, love me, hold me
Cause I'm free any old time to get what I want

I'm free to choose what I please any old time
I'm free to please who I choose any old time
So hold me, love me, love me, hold me
But I'm free any old time to get what I want, yes I am

Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Out Of Our Heads” LP
(Decca SKL 4733) UK, September 24, 1965



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-07-12 14:55 by René.

It puzzles me that three versions of this song are available on live documents: on Get yer ya-ya's out,
Stripped and Shine a Light. What makes this song special enough to give it this treatment?
I mean, I think it's a nice song, but compared to stage favorites like All down the line
or Gimme Shelter, I think it is a bit overexposed.
What is the added value of adding it to the Shine a Light album?

BTW, I liked the cover The Soup Dragons did of the song:

>> Get Yer Ya-Yas Out [the reissue], Stripped and Shine a Light <<

and Stones in the Park, where playing it on the same bill with Have Mercy was an interesting choice.
like you, marcovandereijk, i never quite got why the band loves this number so much,
but ... well, they are the Stones and we're not! so i try to figure out what i'm missing.
and since the Shine a Light rendition taught me a lot about how to love this number,
someone in the equation is improving :E



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-04-04 13:49 by with sssoul.

The best & most soulful version ever imo... Like flying back in a time machine.

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with sssoul
and Stones in the Park, where playing it on the same bill with Have Mercy was an interesting choice.

I thought the biggest "wtf?" at Hyde Park was 'Down Home Girl'. This as far as I know was never part of their live repertoire in the Brian Jones era (unlike 'Have Mercy'), & at least 'I'm Free' fit in with the vibes of the time...

I actually think this is one of the few RS songs where the best version is the originally released studio cut (I particularly dislike the draggy 1969-1970 versions).

A great song, lyrically ahead of it's time.

what i meant was that Have Mercy and I'm Free are musically very similar
so playing them during the same show was an unusual choice to make. subtly risky, as it were.

lyrically ahead of its time indeed ... but ... well, never mind! :E

Quote
with sssoul
what i meant was that Have Mercy and I'm Free are musically very similar
so playing them during the same show was an unusual choice to make. subtly risky, as it were.

Good point. Maybe that's why they slowed 'I'm Free' down, to make it a little less similar?

For me this great song is the Flip-side on 'Get off of my cloud'-single...
First song we pick with my first garage-band 1979 also...2 chords...3 on the bridge....

2 1 2 0

>> James W. Alexander - tambourine <<

by the way, that's the same James W Alexander who wrote Let's Go Steady, which Keith sang with the New Barbarians

What a lovely gem of a song. The Stones are right to include this in a lot of their live documents: to me, the Rolling Stones (and rock and roll in general) are really about freedom more than anything else. And this song nails it. No posturing, just a gorgeous melody and wonderful instrumental touches. The version on Stripped is great too, and the '69 live version that Amsterdamned posted is so soulful and heartfelt, it can bring a tear to the eye.

Drew



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011-04-09 16:10 by drewmaster.

It's got a lovely lazy, laconic style but what makes it for me is that big, booming rhythm guitar - presumably Brian - that fills the sound. The song is also special to me as you can hear the past in its slowed down r'n'b groove but also hear echoes of the future, especially the beginnings of psychedelic pop which is just waiting round the corner on Aftermath. So one foot in Chicago and the other in Carnaby Street. Yes, a hit for me.

Quote
with sssoul
>> Get Yer Ya-Yas Out [the reissue], Stripped and Shine a Light <<

and Stones in the Park, where playing it on the same bill with Have Mercy was an interesting choice.
like you, marcovandereijk, i never quite got why the band loves this number so much,
but ... well, they are the Stones and we're not! so i try to figure out what i'm missing.
and since the Shine a Light rendition taught me a lot about how to love this number,
someone in the equation is improving :E

I don't think they love it all that much. They went decades without playing it live.

fun little ditty...a reminder that simplicity is often sublime....

I used this song to break up with my girlfriend. We where having an argument and I said it was over between us. Then I put a dime in the juke box and played this song. Yes, this was a long time ago.

I love the original version, so fresh and lively, I don't like the 69' slowed-down version...Taylor plays too many notes during the solo or something.

I love the everyday triumph of the song. 'I'm free to do what I want any old time' over the gentle surges of the melody and the lovely shimmering guitars.

when it comes to I'm Free - check out how different is Mick Taylor's solo from Oakland and any other '69 show. I love that Oakland version a lot! much more lyrical...

for me the best version is the hyde park version. i like it even more than the 1969 tour version. it is played very rough. I don't like the new versions at all (stripped and shine a light)...

Stanley Booth always maintained that playing I'm Free was quite disingenuous of the Stones on the 69 tour.

I find it hard to believe the big fat rhythm guitar alluded to on the studio version was not Keith.

Feel free to disagree.

Quote
Zack
Stanley Booth always maintained that playing I'm Free was quite disingenuous of the Stones on the 69 tour.

I find it hard to believe the big fat rhythm guitar alluded to on the studio version was not Keith.

Feel free to disagree.

There are two guitars on this song, the lead picking part and the shimmering rhythm. It's my guess that Keith does the lead and Brian the rhythm, unless we want to believe Keith did all guitars. I think Brian was still very much involved with playing guitar in mid-1965.

Classic Stones track. One of my favorites.

I like it! I don't know exactly why, but I always hear the echo of 'Suspicious minds' when I hear 'I'm Free'. Stones track came first, anyway.

I remember very clearly my response to I'm Free and Prodigal Son during the '69 show. Even then I thought the song was a bit of pandering to the sensibilities of the time. It's probably the closest the band got to sounding like the Dead. I know the song is supposed to have a broader implication, but for a cash-strapped teenager I thought "That's easy for you to say."

On the other hand Prodigal Son was a very off message song for the times. Somewhat like The Band's "Tears of Rage."

But years later I'm Free's point of interest became what Taylor got to do with it. That little 22 second Ya-Ya's solo is so sweet.

This was my favorite song off of my first boot back in 1978 mainly because it wasn't included on Ya Yas. I totally love the mood and the different tempo from the original that they played on the early part of the '69 tour. I wish they wouldn't of dropped it. I was also dissapointed in the medley with Under my thumb because it lacked that melodic mood that the Oakland shows had. It also seems so rushed in the medley and is not as relaxed and beautiful as it was originally played on the tour. Much credit to the brilliant solo by Taylor. It stands alone on the early shows of the tour for me but am grateful that they at least brought it back as a medley than to not play it at all. So glad that it was included in the GYYYO deluxe edition.

when I hear this track, I always think of a "Greatest Hits Vol. 1" LP that I first heard it on, kind of a reddish cover with separate portraits of the band members. Not really sure what the status of it was, as it wasn't in the canonical High Tide or Past Darkly series. Maybe a European import, but it appeared if anything cheaper. "Good Times, Bad Times" was also on there.

Best version was the (second?) Oakland show in '69 on Liver than you'll ever be. M Taylor sublime on that one, had a little west coast quicksilver messenger/grateful dead feel to it.

Then best video was of them lip-synching it on the Red Skelton show at the London Palladium. But then again, I always liked Red Skelton anyway.

I thinks it's rather a silly little song, but I recently got (out of my local library) the box set of GET YER YA YAS OUT and enjoyed the "new" recording where Under my Thumb "morphs" into I'm Free.

Quote
Kirk
I like it! I don't know exactly why, but I always hear the echo of 'Suspicious minds' when I hear 'I'm Free'. Stones track came first, anyway.

Because of the I/IV chord strumming. It's a bit similar.

As far as a set list goes,I quite enjoyed Hyde Park. Down Home Girl is just some of that gut-bucket funk that the Stones pull off so easily. I wished they would have kept it on the US 69 tour instead of I'm Free(although "Free' grows on me) I always thought how strange it was that "Under My Thumb" was in the 69 live set and also part of the HOT ROCKS line-up. Not because I dont love the song but since it was never a single in it's original form.

>> I always thought how strange it was that "Under My Thumb" was in the 69 live set <<

it's that guitar line - Keith loves it.
it recurs a lot in his music - in Gimmie Shelter for example