We Love You
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| "We Love You" | |||||
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| Single by The Rolling Stones | |||||
| B-side | "Dandelion" | ||||
| Released | August 18, 1967 (UK) September 2, 1967 (US) |
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| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | June 12, 1967 | ||||
| Genre | Rock, Psychedelic rock | ||||
| Length | 4:35 | ||||
| Label | Decca F.12654 (UK) London 45.905 (US) |
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| Writer(s) | Jagger/Richards | ||||
| Producer | Andrew Loog Oldham | ||||
| The Rolling Stones singles chronology | |||||
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"We Love You" is a rock song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, first released as Decca single F12654 in the UK by The Rolling Stones on August 18, 1967, with a B-side of "Dandelion". It went top ten in Britain, peaking at #8, but only made it to #50 in the United States where "Dandelion" (reaching #14) was promoted as the A-side.
This single's two tracks would be the final Stones recordings receiving a production credit for band manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
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[edit] Recording
The song is a droning Moroccan influenced anthem of defiance. Outwardly, it was a message from the band to its fans, expressing appreciation for support in the wake of their recent drug busts. It was also an ironic, tongue in cheek slap in the faces of the police harassing them and the Stones' true feelings about it, putting on a cooperative and friendly face while inside they were seething with anger and indignation (as is represented by Brian Jones' unforgettably surreal Mellotron in the background). "We Love You" is a psychedelic collage of jail sounds, Nicky Hopkins' foreboding piano riff, and otherworldly tape-delayed vocal effects, featuring a visiting John Lennon and Paul McCartney on high harmonies.
[edit] History
Allen Ginsberg was in London for a pro-marijuana rally in Hyde Park. He met Mick at Paul McCartney's house, and Mick invited the Beat poet to that night's session with Paul and John to record uncredited backing vocals for "We Love You". Ginsberg, waving his Shiva beads and a Tibetan oracle ring, conducted the singers from the other side of the studio glass to the tempo of the stuttering Mellotron track. "They looked like little angels," he wrote later of the Stones and the Beatles, "like Botticelli Graces singing together for the first time."
Written in the aftermath of the drugs arrests faced by Jagger and Richards at the Redlands country home of the latter in Sussex that year, the single opens with the sounds of entry into jail, and a cell door clanging shut. The draconian nature of the sentences handed down to the two Stones relative to the charges prompted a stern editorial by The Times in protest. The song's lyric, seemingly an echo of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" (which Lennon, in his famous 1970 Rolling Stone interview, insisted it was) broadcast from earlier in the summer, on closer examination espouses a strong anti-establishment posture, proclaiming "we don't care if you hound we and lock the doors around we" and "you will never win we, your uniforms don't fit we."
[edit] Video
The band produced an accompanying promotional film for the single (such shorts at this time not yet called videos ), re-enacting the 1895 indecency trial of Oscar Wilde. Firmly connecting the past scandal with the present circumstance, the film had Jagger and Richards, along with Marianne Faithfull, respectively portraying Wilde, the Marquess of Queensbury, and Lord Alfred Douglas. In the video, Stones guitarist Brian Jones also appears heavily under the influence of drugs, likely Mandrax. In this footage from the rehearsals, Jones is shown with his eyes drooping and unfocused, struggling to stay awake.
[edit] Versions
The single was included on the UK version of Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) but was not on the US version (B-side "Dandelion" is present on both versions) so is not on the version currently available on CD. It is however available on three other compilations; More Hot Rocks, the Singles Collection: The London Years and Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones. The remastered version of this track released on the More Hot Rocks collection omits the snippet of "Dandelion", but instead we are treated to the voice of John Lennon saying "your health!".
[edit] Personnel
- Mick Jagger - Vocals, Backing vocals
- Keith Richards - Electric guitars, Backing vocals
- Brian Jones - Mellotron
- Bill Wyman - Bass
- Charlie Watts - Drums, percussion
- Nicky Hopkins - Piano
- John Lennon and Paul McCartney - Backing vocals
