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Rolling Stones songs: Before They Make Me Run
Booze and pills and powders, you gotta choose your medicine/ Well it’s another goodbye to another good friend…
Original title: Rotten Roll Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, March 1978 *Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012
More about Before They Make Me Run by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
Keith Richards’ life in the late ’70s was as chaotic as his guitar riffs—unfiltered, rebellious, and always on the edge. Before They Make Me Run wasn’t just another Rolling Stones song; it was Keith’s personal anthem, a gritty reflection of his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and the troubles that came with it. Fueled by his signature swagger and a dose of hard-earned wisdom, the track captured the defiance of a man staring down the consequences of excess.
The song’s origins were steeped in real-life drama. On February 7, 1977, Keith and Anita Pallenberg were arrested in Toronto for heroin possession, a charge that could have landed him in prison for life. The bust shook the Stones’ world, forcing Keith to confront his lifestyle head-on. Given a temporary pass to leave Canada, he had to detox in New York before facing trial in October 1978. It was a pivotal moment—one that could have ended his career, but instead, it fueled one of his most iconic songs.
Written and recorded for Some Girls (with his vocals layered with a double track to give them more presence and emphasis), the track is pure Keith: ragged vocals, raw guitar licks, and lyrics dripping with outlaw spirit. He sang about running, dodging trouble, and living life on his own terms, all while knowing the walls were closing in. But rather than letting the weight of his situation break him, he did what Keith Richards does best—turned his troubles into rock ‘n’ roll gold.
With the weight of an uncertain future pressing down on him, Keith Richards channeled his defiance into Before They Make Me Run, a song that felt more like a battle cry than a mere track. Every line drips with raw honesty, a reflection of a man who had lived on the edge for far too long. “Watched my taillights fading“, he sings, a nod to the countless times he had to slip away from trouble, whether it was the law, addiction, or the inevitable march of time.
The song wasn’t just about Keith’s own struggles—it was also laced with loss. Well it’s another goodbye to another good friend“, he laments, an allusion to Gram Parsons, his close friend and fellow rock outlaw who had succumbed to a tragic mix of drugs and alcohol in 1973. That line turns the song into more than just a rebellious anthem; it’s also a bittersweet eulogy, a reflection on the price of the lifestyle they had both lived.
Keith in his book Life (2010): “For sheer longevity – for long distance – there is no track that I know of like ‘Before They Make Me Run.’ That song, which I sang on that record, was a cry from the heart. But it burned up the personnel like no other. I was in the studio, without leaving, for five days…
…I had an engineer called Dave Jordan and I had another engineer, and one of them would flop under the desk and have a few hours’ kip and I’d put the other one in and keep going. We all had black eyes by the time it was finished… That’s probably the longest I’ve done. There have been others that were close – ‘Can’t Be Seen’ was one – but ‘Before They Make Me Run’ was the marathon”
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