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Rolling Stones songs: Loving Cup (alternate take)
Well I can run and jump and fish, but I won’t fight/ You if you want to push and pull with me all night…
Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: Rolling Stones Mobile, Villa Nellcote, Villefranche-sur-mer, France, June/November 1971; Sunset Sound Studios, L.A., USA, Dec. 1971-March 1972; RCA Studios, L.A., USA, March 1972 Guest musicians: Nicky Hopkins (piano) *Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012
More about ‘Loving Cup’ (alternate take) by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni Loving Cup is yet another example of Mick Jagger’s knack for weaving sexual innuendos into his lyrics. The imagery begins with the man on the mountain, who transforms into a plowman in the valley, his face caked with mud—a humble, imperfect figure clearly not meant to represent the suave Stones frontman. This character fumbles through life, driving a car that won’t start and playing a bad guitar. The metaphor here is hard to miss.
The song’s title draws from Celtic tradition, where a cup is shared in a toast by the bride and groom, but it also subtly alludes to female anatomy. Jagger’s poetic language continues this theme, with phrases like “push and pull” and “spill the beans” offering further metaphors for intimacy and the culmination of desire. The song’s evocative lyrics blend playful sensuality with vivid storytelling, a hallmark of Jagger’s lyrical style.
As explained by Mick Jagger in 2003: “On the Forty Licks tour, when we were preparing the set list for a show in Yokohama, Chuck Leavell suggested we play Loving Cup, the ballad from Exile on Main St. I didn’t want to play the tune and I said, Chuck, this is going to die a death in Yokohama. I can’t even remember the bloody song, and no one likes it…
…I’ve done it loads of times in America, it doesn’t go down that well, it’s a very difficult song to sing, and I’m fed up with it! Chuck went, Stick in the mud! so I gave in and put it in the set-list. Lo and behold, we went out, started the song and they all began applauding… Which just proves how, over time, some of these songs acquire a certain existence, or value, that they never had when they first came out. People will say, What a wonderful song that was, when it was virtually ignored at the time it was released”
This alternate take of the Exile On Main St. song, a sbeautiful as the original one, finally showed up in the expanded deluxe version of the album, released in 2010.
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