Memo from Turner
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| “Memo from Turner” | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Mick Jagger from the album Performance |
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| B-side | "Natural Magic" | |
| Released | 23 October 1970 | |
| Format | 7", 45rpm | |
| Recorded | September 1968, Olympic Studios, London | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 4 min 09 s | |
| Label | Decca Records | |
| Writer(s) | Mick Jagger, Keith Richards | |
| Producer | Jack Nitzsche | |
| “Memo from Turner” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song by The Rolling Stones | ||
| Album | Metamorphosis | |
| Released | 6 June 1975 | |
| Recorded | August 1968, Olympic Studios, London | |
| Length | 2:45 | |
| Writer | Jagger/Richards | |
| Producer | Jimmy Miller | |
"Memo from Turner" is a song by English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. It was re-released in October 2007 on a seventeen song retrospective compilation album The Very Best of Mick Jagger, making a re-appearance as a Jagger solo effort. After its original release in 1970, it had been included on Rolling Stones compilations, such as Singles Collection: The London Years as a track credited to Jagger/Richards songwriters.
[edit] Versions
There are two distinct versions of "Memo from Turner" in existence. The first released version of the song was the one recorded for the soundtrack to the movie Performance, starring Mick Jagger as the song title's "Turner". This is the more well-known version of the song, as it was released as a solo single by Jagger in England in 1970 and is featured on the later Singles Collection: The London Years. Jagger was contractually obligated to write the soundtrack song for the film he was also starring in. While Richards was preparing material for what would be Let It Bleed, and ushering his then girlfriend and Performance co-star, Anita Pallenberg, to the film set, Jagger was unable to write a new song for the soundtrack.[1] Under a deadline to deliver a song to producers, he likely re-recorded a demo track from 1968, which was credited as a Jagger/Richards song, typical of all Rolling Stones collaborations. However, Richards neither played on nor co-wrote the song. [2] Ry Cooder is the guitarist playing on the soundtrack version.
The second version, released on Metamorphosis in 1975 on the Allen Klein Decca/London pre-existing legacy contracts of the Stones 1960s recordings, was the original demo recorded in November 1968. This version probably featured Brian Jones and Stevie Winwood of Traffic, or even Al Kooper, who also likely plays the song's keyboards. Either Charlie Watts or Jim Capaldi (also of Traffic) play the song's drums.
Besides the differing line-up between the two versions, there are also changes to the lyrics. The track was reviewed as Jagger:
...puts on his best drawling speak-sing voice for the lyrics, spinning bizarre mini-snapshots of decadent, cruel gangster behavior... The music isn't grim, though; it's more in a sly, ironic happy-go-lucky vein, as if to illustrate the callous, carefree glee gangsters take in such antics. It's not a celebration of the gangster mentality, though, so much as a subtle, mocking look at its decadence, with hints of repressed homosexuality and almost gruesome imagery of dog-eat-dog behavior." [3]
Ronnie Wood performed "Memo from Turner" live at various club gigs in 1987-88, including some of his shows with Bo Diddley. Martin Scorsese uses the track in a scene from Goodfellas where Ray Liotta's character Henry emerges from the house during the daylight on a cocaine binge.
