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From Songfacts: The Stones recorded a track of the music into an old mono cassette recorder to get a distinctive sound on this.
Performed in a Blues style, this song is loaded with sexual metaphors.
Mick Jagger played the harmonica on this track.
The Rolling Stones performed this on Rock and Roll Circus, a British TV special The Stones taped in 1968 but never aired. A series of musical acts and circus performances, it was released on video in 1995.
The Beggars Banquet album cover was designed to look like an invitation, with the letters RSVP at the bottom. This is not what The Stones had in mind. They wanted to use a photo of a graffiti-covered bathroom, but Decca Records wouldn’t allow it. This resulted in a stalemate that held up the album’s release until the band finally relented.
From the Rolling Stones – All the Songs, The Story Behind Every Track book: Following the Stones’ controversial incursion (of debatable success) into psychedelic rock, “Parachute Woman” confirms the return of the Stones to what had been their main strength since 1963: an impassioned rereading of the blues. Here there are no half measures from Mick and Keith. The song could even be described as a florid tribute to their sexual exploits—possibly the memory of some erotic experience during a US tour. In this respect the third and final verse could not be any more explicit: Parachute Woman, will you blow me out?/Well my heavy throbber’s itchin’ just to lay a solid rhythm down.
