If you like this, please consider making a donation with PayPal. From as little as $5, your support helps to do what I do and pay for its maintenance costs. Thank you! *Donate here
And the wolves are howling right at your door/ And the vultures want to tear off some more…
Written by: Jagger/Richards Recorded: Ocean Way Recording Studios, Hollywood, USA, March 13-July 1997 Guest musicians: Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Doug Wimbish (bass) *Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012
From the The Rolling Stones – All the Songs book: Wolves howling at the door, vultures waiting for their chance, children who kick their parents out of their home. What could possibly be the link between all these elements, other than a desire on the part of Mick Jagger to create an apocalyptic atmosphere? Or perhaps the singer simply had fun picking words at random from a rhyming dictionary: sump and hump (of a camel in this case), abused and juiced. As so often in Stones songs, the lyrics to “Might as Well Get Juiced” are subservient to the music, and more precisely, in this instance, to the beat laid down by Charlie Watts. This does not alter the fact that the song is one of the most original on the album. A “fake blues for the ’90s,” is how Mick Jagger has described it. Or, if one prefers, the fruit of an encounter between the Stones, servants of the twelve- bar blues since the beginning of the sixties, and the Dust Brothers (John King and Mike Simpson), who were catalysts not merely of alternative rock, but of hip-hop and electronic music as well.
The start of this track is somewhat reminiscent of the VCS-3 on “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by the Who. Mick Jagger would later describe how, surrounded by synthesizers, he amused himself by producing a multitude of sounds that led to the composition of “Might as Well Get Juiced.” With this sonority, generated right from the intro by a kind of arpeggiator, which dominates the entire track, one could be forgiven for fearing an incursion from the Stones into the world of electronic rock. But this song has a big surprise in store: it is actually a blues revisited to great effect by the Dust Brothers. Charlie’s drumming, which has clearly been put on a loop, is superbly hypnotic and radiates a murky atmosphere in which Mick happily immerses himself, his voice presumably distorted by a sound effect such as a flanger or phasing. Another key element on this track is the bass. The house sound produced by Doug Wimbish, bassist with the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash, is powerful and gives the impression of having been realized on a sequencer. (It is interesting to note that the bass falls away on the bridges.) Ronnie excels with some good phrases on slide, and Keith plays some effective rhythm, while Waddy is also on guitar, in a supporting role. Finally, Mick plays another excellent harmonica solo at 2:21.
