"Midnight Rambler" is a song by English rock band

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...

, released on their 1969 album '' Let It Bleed''. The song is a loose biography of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to being the

Boston Strangler The Boston Strangler is the name given to the murderer of 13 women in the Boston, Massachusetts, area during the early 1960s. The crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo based on his confession, details revealed in court during a separate case, ...

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

has called the number "a blues opera" and the quintessential Jagger-Richards song, stating in the 2012 documentary '' Crossfire Hurricane'' that "nobody else could have written that song."

Composition and recordings

On the composing of the song,

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

said in a 1995 interview with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'', When asked about the song in a 1971 interview with ''Rolling Stone'', Richards said: The song's lyrics include the verse: The studio version of the track (which runs six minutes and fifty-three seconds) was recorded during the spring of 1969 at London's

Olympic Sound Studios Olympic Studios was a renowned British independent commercial recording studio based in Barnes, London. It is best known for its recordings of many artists throughout the late 1960s to the first decade of the 21st century, including Jimi Hendr ...

and

Trident Studios Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...

. Jagger performs vocals and harmonica, while Richards plays all the guitars on the track, using standard tuning for the main guitars and

open E tuning Open E tuning is a tuning for guitar: low to high, E-B-E-G-B-E. Compared to standard tuning, two strings are two semitones higher and one string is one semitone higher. The intervals are identical to those found in open D tuning. In fact, it i ...

for the slide.

Bill Wyman William George Wyman (né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who achieved international fame as the bassist for the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1993. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member ...

plays bass and

Charlie Watts Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021. Originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts developed an i ...

drums, while multi-instrumentalist

Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...

is credited with playing the

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest) ...

s. The song bears similarity to "The Boudoir Stomp" and "Edward's Thrump Up", recorded in April 1969 by the band minus Keith Richards and Brian Jones, featuring

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, a ...

on guitar and

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

on piano. The sessions were released on the 1972 LP '' Jamming With Edward''. Jones' congas are audible during the middle part of the track, playing on the downbeats and following the guitar responding to the lead vocals. It starts at around the 4:30 mark. The Rolling Stones debuted "Midnight Rambler" on stage on 5 July 1969 and performed it regularly in concert through 1976; performances frequently included Jagger crawling around and lashing the stage with his belt. One notable 1969 performance (running just over nine minutes) was captured for the 1970 album '' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!'' and was re-released on the 1971 compilation album '' Hot Rocks 1964-1971''. This rendition features Mick Taylor on lead guitar, in addition to Jagger, Richards, Wyman and Watts. The bootleg '' Live'r Than You'll Ever Be'' includes a performance in Oakland, California, in November 1969. Versions from 1975 following the departure of Taylor from the band feature

Ronnie Wood Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as an official member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, playing guitar with a ...

instead of Taylor. Some of the 1975 versions are the longest live renditions ever, clocking in at almost 15 minutes. "Midnight Rambler" returned to the Rolling Stones' repertoire in 1989 and has remained a powerful concert favourite ever since. The January 2003 rendition featured in the Stones' concert collection '' Four Flicks'' runs about twelve minutes, while a briefer July 1995 performance appears on '' Totally Stripped'' (2016). The Stones with special guest former band member Mick Taylor played the song at all the concerts of the 50 & Counting... tour, including 12-minute versions of "Midnight Rambler" during their 25 November 2012 concert at London's O2 Arena, at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival, and during their July 2013 Hyde Park concerts, as seen in '' Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live''.

Personnel

lead vocals, harmonica *

guitar *

congas *

bass *

drums

Controversy

In his book ''

The Better Angels of Our Nature ''The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined'' is a 2011 book by Steven Pinker, in which the author argues that violence in the world has declined both in the long run and in the short run and suggests explanations as to why this ...

'',

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ...

discusses the song as an illustration of his thesis that the 1960s counterculture "pushed against" the Civilizing Process (identified by

Norbert Elias Norbert Elias (; 22 June 1897 – 1 August 1990) was a German sociologist who later became a British citizen. He is especially famous for his theory of civilizing/decivilizing processes. Biography Elias was born on 22 June 1897 in Bresla ...

), which, Pinker argues, had been reducing violence over many centuries, and that the counterculture's "glorification of dissoluteness shaded into indulgence of violence.... Personal violence was sometimes celebrated in song, as if it were just another form of antiestablishment protest." He says the song "acted out a rape-murder by the

..." and he sees this as an example of how in the 1960s counterculture "the control of women's sexuality was seen as a perquisite" of men.Steven Pinker, ''The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined'' (Viking Books, 2011), Chapter 3,

Notes

{{authority control Songs about criminals Songs about Boston Songs based on actual events Cultural depictions of Albert DeSalvo The Rolling Stones songs 1969 songs Songs written by Jagger–Richards Song recordings produced by Jimmy Miller