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Lonely hearts, they’re not made to break/ I got no spare parts, got no oil to change…
Written by: Jagger/Richards Recorded: EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Boulogne-Billancourt, Jan. 5-March 2 1978; Overdubs at Le Fork Studios, Pocé-sur-Cisse, France, Aug-Sept. 2011 *Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012
From Songfacts: Whilst raiding the archives for spare parts for the 2011 reissue of Some Girls, producer Don Was came across this Country-Rocker which tells the story of a trip from Los Angeles to San Antonio. Released as the lead single for the new edition of the album, the song made its worldwide debut on October 20, 2011 on BBC Radio 2’s the Ken Bruce Show and was made available the same day on US platforms.
First recorded by Some Girls engineer Chris Kimsey during early 1978 in Paris, the song features Mick Jagger on electric piano and vocals, Keith Richards on acoustic piano, Ron Wood on pedal steel guitar, Bill Wyman on bass and Charlie Watts on drums. According to Universal Republic Records the “powerful and poignant acoustic tune,” features a “country guitar twang, subtle groove and soulful storytelling.”
From the Rolling Stones – All the Songs, The Story Behind Every Track book: “No Spare Parts” is one of the twelve bonus tracks that accompanied the release of the two-CD deluxe edition of Some Girls in November 2011. It is a song by Mick Jagger. “The idea for the song began at the Some Girls sessions,” he explains, “but I finished the idea and turned it into a complete piece. It’s all about driving from San Antonio to Los Angeles to meet a woman, which I did once, so it’s based on my own experience.” A road song, then, in which the feelings of the narrator unfold as he crosses the country and finds himself confronted by mechanical problems. “No Spare Parts” is also a song about solitude sublimated by the big open spaces of the United States… It is in the spirit of country and western, a genre the Glimmer Twins had appreciated for many years and to whose pioneers they had paid regular homage, starting with “Country Honk” on Let It Bleed. This Some Girls bonus track was released as a single a year and a half after “Plundered My Soul,” on November 13, 2011, to be exact (with “Before They Make Me Run” as the B-side), and reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales in the United States.
