Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Rain Fall Down
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

La Fourchette, Pocé sur Cisse, France & St. Vincent, West Indies,
June - September 2004, La Fourchette, Pocé sur Cisse, France,
November - December 2004, March 7 - 9 & March 14 - June 2005 and
Henson Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, June 6 - 28, 2005

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, keyboards, vibes
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Ron Wood - electric guitar
Darryl Jones - bass
Matt Clifford - keyboards, vibes, programming

It was a filthy block of flats, trash was on the floor
A stink was in my nose, hinges off the doors
She took me in her room, all was spick and span
Fixed me up a drink, turned down all the lamps
And the rain fell down on the cold hard ground
And the phone kept ringing and we made sweet love

Why do we live in this strange grey town
They build it up and let it all fall down
Feel like we're all living in a battleground, everybody's jazzed
Why do we live in this strange grey town
The paint is peeling and the sky’s turned brown
The bankers are @#$%&, every Thursday night they just vomit on that ground
And the rain fell down on the cold grey town
And the phone kept ringing and we made sweet love, and we made sweet love

Everybody's dreaming, everybody's scheming, yeah, oh, watching the rain fall down

She cooked me up some eggs, then she made some tea
Kissed me on the cheek, and I turned on her TV
It was all the usual crap, all the usual sleaze
For ten thousand quid, some bimbo spilled the beans, yeah
And the rain fell down on the cold grey town
And the phone kept ringing and we made sweet love
And we made sweet love, yeah
And the rain fell down and we made, and we made, and we made sweet love
And the phone kept, the phone kept ringing, yeah
Yeah, and the phone kept ringing, the phone kept ringing, yeah
And the rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain…

Produced by Don Was, Matt Clifford & The Glimmer Twins

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “A Bigger Bang” CD
(Virgin Records / EMI TOCP 66440) Japan, August 31, 2005

A good groove with some nice guitar by Mick that somewhat sounds like a reworking of the "Ivy League" outtake from the VL sessions. Missed a little something to really take off though, both in the studio and live...a brilliant Bill Wyman bass line possibly ?

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

<<a brilliant Bill Wyman bass line possibly ?>>

A pretty passable Darryl bass line and solo.

I think its ok,but no more than that.

Shakes my tailfeather just fine!
We could never work out who played that "ringing" guitar motif in concert -
the concert videos (Rio for example) are really ambiguous. Are they taking turns??

One of the better songs from A Bigger Bang. Sounds a bit like the Wandering Spirit album grove. It's funky but chic, as the New York Dolls might have said.

And talking of the New York Dolls there's a bit of that Big Apple tenement vibe going on here. Is it about Luciana Morad? Who knows? When uptown goes down town? You betcha!

...Cool coverversion here, if you'd permit me:





Furthermore, I only have to add here that I do like the song (the original) a lót;
as well as about 70% of a Bigger Bang, in fact.

Hopefully lookin' forward to a new album in 2014!!

Egads. Methinks Rain Fall Down is truly but a lame, depressing filler track that Sir Jagger hastily cobbled together, the riff-master obviously had no hand in co-writing, and on which I will, with the grace of God, never waste my time again.

Drew

In another thread I once wrote the following. I enter this point of view anew, as that post never received any comments, in that thread somewhat but not totally out of context.

Quote
Witness
As a late case and and even of psychedelia, I would like to suggest "Rain Fall Down" from A BIGGER BANG. A kind of "soul psychedelia".

To me one of the very best songs of A BIGGER BANG that I for one hold in rather high esteem.

Added: If someone would suggest, rather "funk psychedelia", that is OK with me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-09 12:07 by Witness.

Besides "Neocon" the weakest track from BB in my opinion. The usual disco dance contribution by MJ. The song itself isn't as bad, but the underlying blues structure is buried in the lousy arrangement. The version of Ana Popovic unveils this blues pattern without any compromises.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-11 00:59 by RobertJohnson.

Mick Jagger loves to dance and since the late 70's have also wanted write "dance music" (the stuff which only function is to make the people to move their asses in 'discotheques' - or 'clubs', like they are nowadays called), and "Rain Fall Down" belong to that genre. A harmless little dance/funk/pop song that is entertaining as while it lasts but leaves not much impact afterwards. Probably there is something a bit 'peterpannish' in the approach, and the danger of not quite meeting any longer the youthness the song tries to reach, is present, but still, if we analysize the parts, there is nothing wrong in elements.

Belongs to the better half of A BIGGER BANG, and I recall it worked rather well live when I heard it during A BIGGER BANG TOUR.

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-09 20:57 by Doxa.

Quote
Doxa
I recall it worked rather well live when I heard it during A BIGGER BANG TOUR.

- Doxa

...Agree; and there's proof of that on the DVD/ Blu-Ray "BIGGEST BANG" (bonus track).

Even when you see it live ( yes, I agree it worked OK live ) you can't tell who's playing that guitar at the start - could it be recorded?

Pretty good track. IMO, better live than on record, where it sound somewhat generic sound-wise. Nice bridge.

Quote
with sssoul
Shakes my tailfeather just fine!
We could never work out who played that "ringing" guitar motif in concert -
the concert videos (Rio for example) are really ambiguous. Are they taking turns??

In the clip above it isn't Wood and Richards for sure. Jagger plays the motif, but it sounds just too pitch perfect and studio like that I wouldn't be surprised if he plays along a sample.

Mathijs

??? I really love the song. It has a good groove and fun lyrics.

Quote
Mathijs

Quote
with sssoul
Shakes my tailfeather just fine!
We could never work out who played that "ringing" guitar motif in concert -
the concert videos (Rio for example) are really ambiguous. Are they taking turns??

In the clip above it isn't Wood and Richards for sure. Jagger plays the motif, but it sounds just too pitch perfect and studio like that I wouldn't be surprised if he plays along a sample.

Mathijs

In the clip Keith plays on top of the riff. When Mick stops playing for a bar or so, the riff stops too.

Keith plays with delay. Analog?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-09 19:54 by DandelionPowderman.

Quote
stonehearted
<<a brilliant Bill Wyman bass line possibly ?>>

A pretty passable Darryl bass line and solo.

Ronnie is da man here !

2 1 2 0

Quote
Green Lady
Even when you see it live ( yes, I agree it worked OK live ) you can't tell who's playing that guitar at the start - could it be recorded?

I pondered that, but it doesn't sound identical each time it comes round.
I reckon the wonders of technology make that achievable too, though.
At the shows I was at it always seemed like they knew we were pining to know
and went out of their way to make it difficult to work out

This song has a competent funk groove and a good lyric, yet I still don't like it. I guess that is because the song paints such a bleak picture, but it does paint it well.

Hate Mick's vocal. Very generic work from the band. Boring.

Mick's water trilogy
.........Rain Fall Down ... Following The River ... Watching Da River Flow ..........dig 'em all thanks Mick



ROCKMAN

Some years ago I put forth the proposition that Mick is actually singing about his days living in the flat on Edith Grove. No one seemed to agree with me, though.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-10 02:55 by tatters.

Its great that everyone has a different handle on the song,I myself always thought it was one of the better songs from an album which is pretty shitty.

Quote
Rockman
Mick's water trilogy
.........Rain Fall Down ... Following The River ... Watching Da River Flow ..........dig 'em all thanks Mick

Ya forgot Water Shame off Aftermath!

Quote
tatters
Some years ago I put forth the proposition that Mick is actually singing about his days living in the flat on Edith Grove. No one seemed to agree with me, though.

Good one! Maybe Keith and Brian made some eggs for him

Ya forgot Water Shame off Aftermath!....Hey dat's a good one Daggs



ROCKMAN

I like the extended version

Love the song... It's sexy

I've always liked it, especially the opening chords. My only criticism is that there is nothing dangerous about it, though it seems as if that is what they were trying for. Don't know if that makes much sense, but it always dissapoints me a little when I listen to Rain Fall Down.