The Rolling Stones: She's A Rainbow (Drum and Percussion Cover)

Released in the end of 1967, The Rolling Stones’ sixth UK album (eighth US) Their Satanic Majesties Request has often been seen as a poor attempt at outdoing The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from earlier in the year, right down to the similar album covers. Did you know that hidden in the album's cover you can spot The Beatles’ faces? John’s face can be seen right above the camel next to Brian Jones while George can be seen right next to Charlie Watts. If you have the CD release, Paul and Ringo are unfortunately cropped out, but if you have the vinyl, Paul can be seen not too far from George and Ringo is right next to Bill Wyman. (Pause at 1:35 if you want to see them all) Upon release, the album received mixed reviews but still went to number three in the UK and number two in the US. Mick Jagger has said the album is “not that good” and Keith Richards has called it “a load of crap.” Recently, the album was listed on a Rolling Stone magazine as the second most disappointing album in music history. However, despite how band members feel about the album, and how some may find it a disappointment, Satanic Majesties is and will always be my favorite Stones album and is one of my favorite albums of all time.

One song that has been signaled out by both Jagger and Richards is “She’s A Rainbow”, the opening song on the album’s second side. Described as one of the prettiest songs Jagger and Richards wrote, the song was released as the album’s second single backed with “2000 Light Years From Home”, my favorite Stones song. The song features a stellar piano performance from session man Nicky Hopkins and a string arrangement from future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.

With a working title of “Flowers In Your Bonnet”, the song was recorded in May of 1967 in London’s Olympic studios. The song follows the group's usual lineup of Jagger on vocals, Richards on acoustic and electric guitar, Wyman on bass, and Watts on drums. Rather than playing a guitar, Brian Jones is playing the song’s distinctive Mellotron part showcasing Jones’ ability as a multi-instrumentalist. Jagger also provides the song’s tambourine part. Every member, except Charlie, sings backing vocals and there is an uncredited hand drum part that is first heard after Hopkins’ piano break and is played for the rest of the song.

Charlie’s drumming on this song, and in this period of The Stones in general, is phenomenal. There are fills all over the place that are very “Ringo-esque” but done in a way only Charlie would do. The groove is your typical eighth note hi-hat groove with the occasional ghost note on the snare. I’ve always enjoyed the drum sound on this album, very big and boomy with a good amount of compression on the cymbals. In addition to Charlie’s drums, I have included Mick’s tambourine part and the uncredited hand drum part. I say handdrum because I'm not sure if they are bongos or tablas. As I don't have tablas, I used my set of Pearl bongos that were given to me by my good friend Jacob K! During the final instrumental section at 3:15, I heard this snapping sound which I believe to be finger snaps most likely done by one of the band members while doing the backing vocals. This can be heard at 3:28. For this video, I removed the spoken introduction that is heard on the album and the piano introduction only until the tambourine comes in.

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy!