Monday, September 19, 2011

"Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord."

From 1978 and Some Girls, here are those Rolling Stones guys again and the official video for "Far Away Eyes."

Which I somehow never saw before I found it on YouTube last week. In fact, I didn't even know it existed, and the song's Wiki entry makes no mention of it either.



Having seen it now, of course, I have to say that the expression on Jagger's face when he gets to the Jeebus line is absolutely fricking priceless.

18 comments:

Sal Nunziato said...

Live lead vocals? Sounds like it. This is a killer. This was also a highlight of the Scorsese film.

racymind said...

A song for sing-alongs.

Bob said...

Extraordinary, on so many levels!

DB said...

Charlie Watts looks like he wants to be in another county.

Hilarious.

wonderfully subversive country music.

big bad wolf said...

i would say charlie's look wins the day, and keith doesn't look so happy to be there either.

i kind of like the song, but even at 17, i thought mick's vocal too much. for me, dead flowers works wonderfully because mick sings subversive and self-mocking lyrics; the lyrics of far away eyes turn sarcasm on folks who live, intellectually and socially, far below jagger and so the joke, as charlie gets, is lame. as swift and ivins reminded us, sarcasm works best when aimed at equals or betters. helluva band, though

Faze said...

Mick's face is a source of endless fascination, but I can't get behind wealthy Stones doing easy mockery of working class whites. The London School of Economics is a long way from Bakersfield in every sense of the word. Also, as my brother once observed, "The English never 'got' American country music they way they get American blues -- they think country is just singing in a funny voice."

steve simels said...

I dunno...I was in Bakersfield once in the 70s, and I found it every bit as askew as this song.

pete said...

I, too, have never liked this song. It's a throwaway and it's mean.

An interesting aspect of Keith's book was the repeated references to himself and Jagger as "Dartford yokels," whose manners and accents stood out among their increasingly aristocratic running-buddies. Americans often thought of the British Invasion bands as being all better-educated and better-off than we were, but it wasn't always that way. Newly rich Bit-rock stars had to negotiate social landscapes that we didn't know existed. Some (Jagger, McCartney) became classic upwardly-mobile arrivistes. Some (Richards, Lennon) kicked all the way to the bank. Either tack has its pitfalls, but whether it's John Lennon telling us who to vote for or Mick Jagger sneering at our music (and, perhaps, our religion) my personal response has been the same resentment I'd feel at any supercilious and patronizing outsider making satchels of money at out expense.

An exception: the hilarious falsetto spoken part in "Dear Doctor." But there they're making fun of themselves as much as anyone else.

Anonymous said...

Maybe there was a reason we have never seen the video before, it's not very good. (I really want to say it sucks but I'm being polite.)

ROTP(lumber)

Word Verification: porsome (for real!)

Anonymous said...

Do you think that Pee Wee Herman may have designed his look after Charlie circa 1978?

buzzbabyjesus said...

"Dear Doctor", and "Dead Flowers" work, this doesn't and never did.
It kind of illustrates perfectly the demarcation of when the Stones went from vital to self parody.

buzzbabyjesus said...

I cringed all the way through.

Anonymous said...

buzzbabyjesus said...

"Dear Doctor", and "Dead Flowers" work, this doesn't and never did.
It kind of illustrates perfectly the demarcation of when the Stones went from vital to self parody.


Oh, that's just silly. So they have a little fun sometimes. Big deal.

buzzbabyjesus said...

I'm sorry, it's not silly, the difference between the fun of "Dear Doctor" and "Dead Flowers" and the "fun" of "Faraway Eyes" is significant.

Sal Nunziato said...

Jeez.

Anonymous said...

I love this song. I read somewhere it was a kind of homage to Gram Parsons. Musically it could have been on Gilded Palace of Sin.

Regarding the song's supposed class condescension, this line of thinking disauthenticates 99 percent of pop music... Harvard dropout GP wouldn't pass muster any better than Jagger, on that count.

AP

Anonymous said...

buzzbabyjesus said...

I'm sorry, it's not silly, the difference between the fun of "Dear Doctor" and "Dead Flowers" and the "fun" of "Faraway Eyes" is significant.


Ah ... sorry, I missed your original point. I thought you were dissing "Dear Doctor" and "Dead Flowers" as well. Mea culpa. And I agree with you.

buzzbabyjesus said...

Thanks for sayin'.

Every country song the Stones do is an homage to Gram.
I've sung "Dear Doctor" many times and it's interesting to note that the key change is there to facilitate the falsetto.