Rocks Off
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| "Rocks Off" | |
|---|---|
| File:Rocks Off cover.jpg
Japanese single cover
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| Single by The Rolling Stones | |
| from the album Exile on Main St. | |
| B-side | "Sweet Virginia" |
| Released | 12 May 1972 (album) September 1972 (single) Japan |
| Recorded | July 1971 - March 1972 |
| Genre | Rock and roll |
| Length | 4:32 |
| Label | Rolling Stones/Virgin |
| Writer(s) | Jagger/Richards |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Miller |
"Rocks Off" is the opening track on the Rolling Stones' 1972 double album Exile on Main St.. It was also released as a single in Japan.
Recorded between July 1971 and March 1972, "Rocks Off" is one of the songs on the album that was recorded at Villa Nellcôte, a house Keith Richards rented in the south of France during the summer and autumn of 1971. Overdubs and final mixing for the song were later done at Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles, California between December 1971 and March 1972.
The lyrics to the song are wide-ranging, harsh and brutally frank at times; as in Richards obviously referring to an injection of heroin:
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I'm zipping through the days at lightning speed. Plug in, flush out and fight and fuck and feed. Heading for the overload, Splattered on the dirty road, Kick me like you've kicked before, I can't even feel the pain no more.
The song features a sudden divergence near the two minute fifteen second mark into what has been called a psychedelic jam of sorts, with Mick Jagger's vocals electronically distorted and the guitar chords stretched:
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Feel so hypnotized, can't describe the scene. Feel so mesmerized, all that inside me...
Allmusic critic Jason Ankeny claims that the song "perfectly sets the mood for what's to follow -- murky, gritty, and menacingly raw, its strung-out incoherence captures the record's debauched brilliance with marble-mouthed eloquence."[1] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considers the song a masterpiece.[2] Jonathan Zwickel of Pitchfork considers it "some of the Rolling Stones' most enduring and soulful work."[3] The song's mix is notoriously haphazard, as many instruments, and even the lead vocals, fade in and out of prominence.[1] The villa's basement, where many of the songs were recorded, was extremely hot and many of the guitars could not stay in tune as a result. Jimmy Miller produced the track, and it features session men Nicky Hopkins on piano, Jim Price and Bobby Keys on brass, as well as regular band members Jagger (lead vocals), Richards (backing vocals, guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), Mick Taylor (guitar), and Bill Wyman (bass).
A live recording was captured during the band's 2002-2003 Licks Tour and released on the 2004 live album Live Licks.
