Memo from Turner

"Memo from Turner"
Single by Mick Jagger
from the album Performance
B-side	"Natural Magic"
Released	23 October 1970
Format	7", 45rpm
Recorded	September 1968, Olympic Studios, London
Genre	Rock
Length	4:09
Label	Decca Records
Writer(s)	Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
Producer	Jack Nitzsche

"Memo from Turner"
Song by The Rolling Stones from the album Metamorphosis
Released	6 June 1975
Recorded	August 1968, Olympic Studios, London
Length	2:45
Writer	Jagger/Richards
Producer	Jimmy Miller

"Memo from Turner" is a solo record by Mick Jagger, featuring a guitar solo by Ry Cooder, from the soundtrack of Performance, where Jagger played a major part. It was re-released in October 2007 on a seventeen-song retrospective compilation album The Very Best of Mick Jagger, making a re-appearance as a Jagger solo effort. After its original release in 1970, it had been included on Rolling Stones compilations, such as Singles Collection: The London Years as a track credited to the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership. "Memo from Turner" was ranked #92 in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs list of Rolling Stone.^[1]

Versions

Two different versions of "Memo from Turner" have been released. The first released version of the song, typified by its slide guitar, was the one recorded for the soundtrack to the movie Performance, starring Mick Jagger as the song title's "Turner". It is featured prominently in the movie, with Mick Jagger, as Turner, lip-synching it. This is the more well-known version of the song, as it was released as a solo single by Jagger in England in 1970 and is featured on the later Singles Collection: The London Years. Ry Cooder plays the slide guitar part on this version, which was probably recorded in late 1968, near the time the film was being shot. The identity of the other musicians is not known, though they were likely session players chosen by soundtrack producer Jack Nitzsche.

The second version, released on Metamorphosis in 1975 on the Allen Klein Decca/London pre-existing legacy contracts of the Stones 1960s recordings, was a different version recorded in November 1968, and has a looser feel than the released version. This version features Al Kooper on guitar, and perhaps Brian Jones and Stevie Winwood of Traffic as well. Either Charlie Watts or Jim Capaldi (also of Traffic) plays drums on this recording. Credited to "Jagger/Richards", it is not clear how many of the Rolling Stones besides Jagger played on it.

Besides the differing lineup between the two versions, there are also slight changes to the lyrics. The track was reviewed as Jagger:

...puts on his best drawling speak-sing voice for the lyrics, spinning bizarre mini-snapshots of decadent, cruel gangster behavior... The music isn't grim, though; it's more in a sly, ironic happy-go-lucky vein, as if to illustrate the callous, carefree glee gangsters take in such antics. It's not a celebration of the gangster mentality, though, so much as a subtle, mocking look at its decadence, with hints of repressed homosexuality and almost gruesome imagery of dog-eat-dog behavior." ^[2]

The lyric about "the man who works the soft machine" may be a reference to the William S. Burroughs novel The Soft Machine. Burroughs and writer Robert Palmer assume this connection in a 1972 Rolling Stone magazine interview, and strong Burroughsian themes are contained in the film the song was written for.

Ronnie Wood performed "Memo from Turner" live at various club gigs in 1987-88, including some of his shows with Bo Diddley. Martin Scorsese uses the track in a scene from Goodfellas where Ray Liotta's character Henry emerges from the house during the daylight on a cocaine binge.

Notes

1. ^ Rolling Stone - The Greatest Guitar Songs. Retrieved 2011-01-24. "Guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder, who played on the Stones' Let It Bleed, accused Keith Richards of stealing his open-G tuning technique on singles like 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Gimme Shelter'. Cooder's jittery slide guitar defines Jagger's first solo recording, which was written for his film role as a decadent rock star in 1970's Performance."
2. ^ Unterberger, Richie. The Rolling Stones "Memo from Turner". allmusic. 2007 (accessed 16 June 2007).