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Torn and Frayed Lyrics
Hey let him follow you down,
Way underground wind and he's bound.
Bound to follow you down,
Just a dead beat right off the street.
Bound to follow you down.
Well the ballrooms and smelly bordellos
And dressing rooms filled with parasites.
On stage the band has got problems,
They're a bag of nerves on first nights.
He ain't tied down to no home town,
Yeah, and he thought he was wreckless.
You think he's bad, he thinks you're mad,
Yeah, and the guitar player gets restless.
And his coat is torn and frayed,
It's seen much better days.
Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away,
Let it steal your heart away.
Joe's got a cough, sounds kind a rough,
Yeah, and the codeine to fix it.
Doctor prescribes, drug store supplies,
Who's gonna help him to kick it
Well his coat is torn and frayed,
It`s seen much better days.
Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away,
Let it steal your heart away.
Way underground wind and he's bound.
Bound to follow you down,
Just a dead beat right off the street.
Bound to follow you down.
Well the ballrooms and smelly bordellos
And dressing rooms filled with parasites.
On stage the band has got problems,
They're a bag of nerves on first nights.
He ain't tied down to no home town,
Yeah, and he thought he was wreckless.
You think he's bad, he thinks you're mad,
Yeah, and the guitar player gets restless.
It's seen much better days.
Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away,
Let it steal your heart away.
Yeah, and the codeine to fix it.
Doctor prescribes, drug store supplies,
Who's gonna help him to kick it
It`s seen much better days.
Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away,
Let it steal your heart away.
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That sounds pretty accurate, especially since Keith was known for wearing his favorite jackets and shirts until they literally fell off his body. I love the verse about Joe. How very true those words are.
Keith Vs. Mick is all opinion.
Mick held the band together for a good part of the 70's and always wrote a bulk of the lyrics.....the best musician was Mick Taylor (check out the up grade on Ya-ya's on the old material)
Boot leg stuff from 73 shows even more so how Taylor was By FAR the best musican.....and that's why the stones will never release cock sucker blues and other live material from 70-73.
O the song? I though it said his "arm" is torn and Frayed. i.e. junkie's shot up arm.....if in fact that is the line, it's pretty sick.
either way a hell of a song on the greatest album ever.
i think mick wrote this about keith. i think he is basically saying: 'things are going to get worse, but until they do, just enjoy things.'
That's not right. Mick and Bianca have tried to take credit for helping Keith kick heroin but in truth they did very little. In fact, after Keith got his act together, he says that Mick privately wished he was a junkie again because Mick had gotten used to being the sole leader of the band and resented Keith's new input. And why wouldn't he resent it? After all he knows deep down that Keith is a much better pure musician than himself. Keith has more emotion and "realness" in his pinky toe than Mick has in his entire body.
@JumpyJack I don’t understand why people split off into “Keith’s camp” or “Mick’s Camp”, and idk why anyone who likes the Stones would elevate one over the other - they are EQUALLY important to the story of the Stones. And just cuz Mick doesn’t (usually) play an instrument doesn’t mean he’s not a fabulous musician.
@JumpyJack I don’t understand why people split off into “Keith’s camp” or “Mick’s Camp”, and idk why anyone who likes the Stones would elevate one over the other - they are EQUALLY important to the story of the Stones. And just cuz Mick doesn’t (usually) play an instrument doesn’t mean he’s not a fabulous musician.
Definitely about Keef.
pt? are you Mick Taylor in disguise?? If you are youre an ace guitarist. Maybe its just a bluesy made up lyric?
How can there be no comment on this? A beautiful song, down-home, bar-room give-me-the-beat-boy type stuff talking about a torn and frayed musician. The stones don't have any of those, do they?
beautiful song, definately my favorite on the album, it sounds so holy and graceful.
yeah a very nice song.love jaggers wierd accent.this album is their best for sure!as for song meaning...uh, i think its maybe how the stones saw themselves at the time - sort of outlaws or whatever
this song makes a lot of sense if you watch the movie Cocksucker Blues. You see them dealing with lots of drugs and dressing rooms filles with parasites.
i think most of the takes on it are spot-on. i always too the line "Just as long as the guitar plays" to mean that Mick was hoping that Keith wouldn't die or eel over in the middle of a performance.