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Rolling Stones songs: Think
And think back, back a little bit. baby/ Back, back alright…
Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: RCA Studios, Hollywood, USA, Dec. 8-10 1965
Mick Jagger: vocals Keith Richards: guitar, backing vocals Brian Jones: guitar Bill Wyman: bass Charlie Watts: drums
Long before Think became an overlooked entry in the Rolling Stones’ 1966 arsenal, its emotional DNA was already taking shape in Mick Jagger’s ongoing duel with the ghosts of past relationships. The song is built around a wounded narrator confronting a former lover after a long separation, demanding maturity while hurling bitter truths—”Take a look and you will find / You’re gettin’ old before your time”. It’s not just an accusation; it’s a carefully sharpened blade, forged in the aftermath of promises broken and affection soured. Whether inspired by Chrissie Shrimpton or echoes of other romantic upheavals, the track reveals Jagger’s fascination with emotional reckoning long before the Stones were fully acknowledged as masters of melodrama. But beneath its barbed lyrics lies a broader story: Think is the kind of song whose real weight emerges only when placed within the shifting landscape of mid-sixties rock, where the Stones were experimenting, testing boundaries, and beginning to understand how far their musical chemistry could take them.
A Pop Song That Was Anything but Soft
Among the lesser-known tracks on Aftermath, “Think” remains one of the most distinctive, balancing a pop-leaning structure with the rougher, R&B-grounded textures that defined the Stones’ developing voice. While it never reached the legendary status of Mother’s Little Helper, Paint It Black or Lady Jane, it stands out for its interlocking guitar riffs that open the song with ominous tension—much like the approach used on 19th Nervous Breakdown. Yet what really jolted contemporary listeners was the use of fuzz bass, a sound still novel in 1966 and rarely deployed with such prominence. The chorus, with its striking stop-and-start rhythmic shift, feels like the musical embodiment of accusation, matching Jagger’s pointed delivery as he interrogates the wreckage of a deteriorated relationship. The track also leans more heavily on vocal harmonies than the typical Stones number, giving it a pop sheen without sacrificing its bite.
Behind the Sound: A Studio Experiment That Didn’t Fully Ignite
Despite its tightly constructed framework, Think never quite ascended to the level of the Stones’ strongest material from the period, in part because its energy feels slightly restrained. The production, however, is a fascinating snapshot of the band’s sonic evolution. Keith Richards dusts off the Maestro Fuzz-Tone that had electrified (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, using it here not as a bombastic effect but as a stand-in for the horn arrangements he often heard in his head. Alongside the fuzzed lines, Keith weaves in 6-string acoustic guitar—its opening notes later mirrored by George Harrison’s Wah-Wah—while also taking the song’s brief lead break. Brian Jones holds down the rhythm on his Gibson Firebird, Bill Wyman threads an agile bassline through the arrangement, and Charlie Watts delivers a grounded, unflashy groove on his Ludwig kit. Jagger’s performance glides between pop clarity and R&B phrasing, helped by Keith’s harmonies. Everything works; yet everything stops just short of greatness.
A Song Reimagined: Chris Farlowe’s Bid for a Hit
In the mid-sixties, the Stones weren’t just writing for themselves; they were also feeding songs to other artists, and Think became one of their more notable handoffs. Chris Farlowe—already admired within the British R&B circuit—was captivated by the melody and asked Jagger, Richards, and Andrew Loog Oldham to produce his version. Released on January 2, 1966, it reached number 49 in the charts, climbing again to 37 the following month. Farlowe’s interpretation was more flamboyant than the Stones’ own later recording, featuring pronounced soul-rock elements and brass arrangements that amplified its dramatic tension. Despite its stronger pop ambition, the single stalled commercially, perhaps confirming why the Stones themselves seemed hesitant to push their own rendition as a major release. Still, Farlowe’s version underlined the song’s adaptability, revealing a melodic backbone sturdy enough to support multiple stylistic identities.
The Collectors’ Angle and a Legacy in the Shadows
For Stones completists, the story doesn’t end with official releases. A slightly remixed version of Think surfaced on the bootleg Necrophilia, featuring what sounds like an added horn or organ solo—an intriguing “what-if” peek into sonic directions the band might have explored. Although Think never secured a place among the Stones’ iconic tracks, it offers a revealing cross-section of a group still sharpening its songwriting instincts and pushing its sonic palette. The song’s emotional coldness, musical experimentation, and chart-side detours all speak to a band on the verge of transformation. And while it sits in the long shadow cast by the giants of Aftermath, Think remains one of the most compelling glimpses into the moment when the Jagger-Richards partnership began the climb from promising to formidable.
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