The Rolling Stones - Complicated (Letra Ingles // Español)

“She's polite/ She doesn't care about anything, she's underestimated/ She treats me so well/ She does the same thing every day/ But she's dedicated/ To do it her way/ It's very complicated.” These paragraphs, sung passionately by Mick Jagger in “Complicated,” are undoubtedly directed at Marianne Faithfull, who beat out Chrissie Shrimpton as the singer's object of affection.

Very attracted to Marianne, Jagger was however never aware that she could pose a threat to him and also to the other members of the group due to her continued problems with the authorities. “Mick obviously holds me responsible for everything that happened afterward,” Faithfull writes in her autobiography. “He used to say that I talked too much and that the things they said were dangerous.” (Ref. complicated rolling stones)

And the song itself is far from simple. The instrumental track was initially recorded at RCA with Dave Hassinger. Composed of numerous instrumental cuts, it gives the impression of being a strange composition, not completely finished, divided into different sections and not adequately mastered by the Stones. Charlie Watts takes a prominent role, performing the introduction and no less than two other reverb-heavy solos. He is assisted by Mick Jagger (or possibly Jack Nitzsche?) on tambourine, added in London in November.

“Complicated” also gives Keith Richards plenty to do. He can be heard playing his Fender Precision bass in the intro (from 0:03), and then overdubbing Bill's Vox Wyman. He also plays acoustic rhythm on his Gibson Hummingbird and fuzz guitar to accompany the harmonies he shares with Mick, which, by the way, are not always perfectly in tune (heard at 1:47).

The most that can be said about these is that they are reasonably quirky, with a flower power feel that is, however, a little out of place in this context. Brian Jones appears to play electric rhythm guitar (Gibson Firebird VII) in addition to the organ part, probably on a Vox Continental. Also present at the RCA sessions was Jack Nitzsche, whose playing can be recognized on the piano. “Complicated” gives the impression of having been difficult to record because it was too ambitious or too far from the group's musical world. However, it does have a certain charm.