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Whilst out recently I was introduced to some Rolling Stones tunes I’d not really heard before – Always one for their earlier material I’ve always been like, ‘I only like it if its pre-1970 and never strayed far beyond that.
Heaven is a rather slinky, sexy track that appears on their 1981 Tattoo You album. It’s breathy lyrics start with the line “Smell of you baby, my senses, my senses be praised,” whilst a gentle looping melody unfolds into a hypnotic, sinuous amble marrying voice and sound in a union of seductive sonority. The vocal style pegged the track as one of the most psychedelic the Stones ever did and came as a natural progression after the group had been gradually edging from pure blues to hard rock to psychedelic styles throughout the previous decade.
Another interesting fact about the song is that Keith Richards doesn’t play on this track; their bass player Bill Wyman played guitar and also synthesizer and bass. Mick Jagger also played guitar on the track and the only other performer was Charlie Watts on drums.
Tattoo You was the last time The Rolling Stones scored a #1 on the US albums chart, after a full decade of albums this reached the summit…but the is of course still tons of great songs that came after and this, this is something I need to spend more time checking out. Meanwhile I’m going to enjoy some more moments of Heaven…….listen above.
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