I am 73 now. I remember this and other Stones songs at first listen. I can even remember where I was when I heard some of them. It's interesting to watch this fellow hearing it fresh. When I heard this one I had just walked into a diner. The jukebox was loud. It hit me like a brick. Much later, I saw them live in Nashville, mid-70s, on their Hot Licks tour at the old Civic Center. I had seen other acts there and they had been too loud, or the sound was not quite right. The Stones were intelligent enough to make sure the sound was right. Loud but not distorted, not too loud. They made sure the room worked beforehand. This fellow didn't mention Bill Wyman's bass, or I missed it if he did. Bill Wyman gave their songs the greatest basslines possible. They hated for him to leave the band, and if you have listened to them you know why. The song is an icon, as is the band. People who don't like rock and roll, I guess, don't even get this. I have discovered all kinds of music, but I have never stopped listening to the Stones. And I have never gotten tired of their best. Thank the fates we had the Stones.
As a guy who listened to the song in my senior year in high school when it was first released, I only had a vague idea of the lyrics. There was no internet and it would take some pretty good research to find the lyrics of a new song. They probably would not be available at the library, at least not without a lot of searching through magazines. But the song had its own quality. Jagger's singing was basically another musical instrument and if you could not tell what every word was, it didn't too much matter. Even if you knew each word, it didn't too much matter.
What is so amazing about this band is how young they were. They were still in their mid twenties when they created this music. They were all musical geniuses that somehow got together and made the world a better place with their extreme talent. I never get tired of listening to them.
@@dctbass I was late to the game when it comes to good music but dove head first, but the first time I heard this song was for the intro of the movie "Blow" and it literally blew me away.
Great song! I loved the photograph on the single´s sleeve.I must tell I never saw it as the tale of a villain.I always took it as the story of someone that has had to face a hard life since childhood but he´s so Jumpin´Jack Flash enough to overcome.
I love how much better you understand the music than most other reactors on UA-cam. If you want to get a better insight into the Stones see if you can find clips or the whole video of Rock & Roll Circus. Definitely worth watching - not just for the Stones performance but other bands too like Jethro Tull, The Who and Dirty Mac. Such an insight into the era.
I was 13 in 8th grade when this song was released. Every local band that played every school dance or back alley jam HAD to play this. The riff just sticks in your brain.
One of the best of one of the best! Enjoyed your analysis and, as always, I appreciate your enthusiasm for what must go in to crafting, recording, and performing iconic songs. Guess I have seen this live 16 times now as they have never left it out of any of the concerts I attended.
Awesome channel, man! Love how you react emotionally/intellectually to every song. The blues on a basic level is about catharsis through artistic expression but there is also an element of braggadocio and humor similar to hip hop/rap as well as rock. Try going to the source. I suggest Robert Johnson , King of the Delta Blues and the first member of the 27 club. Try Terraplane Blues first then compare Foghat's cover. I'm sure you'll enjoy R.J. since his music is so emotive.
This is my favourite song of all time, I remember hearing the riff as a child, my dad had it on a cassette tape (yes I'm that old!). It's the first piece of music that really made me think wow I like that, what is it, who is it. So glad you like it too 😀👍. Classic song and an awesome riff, saw them play this in Hyde Park a few weeks back ❤
In 1967, while The Beatles were being wined and dined and praised as geniuses, The Rolling Stones were being harassed, raided, arrested, humiliated, and jailed. Finally, after public outcry, support from other bands, and especially a sympathetic editorial in The Times called “Who Breaks a Butterfly On a Wheel?”, the police backed off, Jagger and Richards were released from prison, and the Stones began their classic period, getting back to the blues, and beginning really with this song. The next five years were arguably the best five years and 4 classics albums (‘Beggars Banquet’, ‘Let It Bleed’, ‘Sticky Fingers’, and ‘Exile On Main St’) that any band has ever had. The live version from ‘The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus’ is a little slow, but I love it. It was filmed in 1968, the same year “Jumping Jack Flash” and ‘Beggars Banquet’, featuring “Sympathy For The Devil” were released. ua-cam.com/video/ruTMp4_sy1E/v-deo.html
The story goes that Keith and Mick were hanging out at Keith's farmhouse estate one night during a thunderstorm and watching his gardener named Jack running around outside taking care of stuff and they wrote this one. Pretty funny if true.
Absolutely right. Keith once said "anyone can rock, but it's the "roll" that so hard to pull off" For me, Bill's bass provides the roll. I mean, what in the name of Beelzebub IS he doing underneath those corruscating guitars! 😱😱😱👌
I really love this reaction because you hit everything I love about this song, minus the bass, which your should listen to again just to appreciate it and add it to what you love about this song. Best opening line ever.
On my 10 best all time list! It sounds as good the 5000th listen as the first. Blues Rock! It is unmatched, and what is so sorely missed in todays throwaway pop nonsense made with lifeless computer programs and robotic autotune.
Brian created this group to be a blues band. Things started to shift, Brian's leadership was morphing into that of Mick and Keith... and shifting away from the blues. Brian, the man who could play just about anything, lost himself in drugs as he was searching for the feeling he once had with the group he named and founded...and then have his creation go on without him? What a feeling of loss! Sure Mick Taylor added a dynamic dimension but Brian was the heart and soul that is greatly missed.
Two things..1) Keith’s guitar is an acoustic bled through a cheap tape recorder which produced a unique sound 2) Cross-fire hurricane is a reference to being born in the German bombing of London during WW2.
Sorry I missed stream yesterday, sounds it was a good one. Can't get go wrong with the Stones. I always thought this was about a difficult childhood, but he comes out ok, finds life a gas anyway; despite the vicissitudes of life. Catch ya' this evening. Maybe hear "Wild Horses"?
You talk about the English bands (and yes, as a Scot, I can say it was English bands) and say that they got (ie understood) the Blues in a way that (white) Americans didn't in the 60s, and that's because English bands acknowledged and respected, indeed celebrated, explicitly the black origins of the Blues, whereas white artists in the US couldn't or wouldn't, at least until after the "British Invasion" in the 60s. The English bands therefore sounded much more authentic than the (white) American counterparts of the times.
I appreciate your enthusiasm for the music of the Rolling Stones. Jumpin' Jack Flash is one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever and this song marked the beginning of the Stones career peak from 1968 to 1973. Keith Richards created the stellar riff and the awesome first line to the song, which was inspired by his neighbors' house being bombed by the Germans when Keith was an infant. Keith called his gardener "Jumpin Jack", Mick Jagger added "Flash", and they both wrote the rest of the lyrics. Those propulsive guitars are actually ACOUSTIC guitars, all played by Keith, who also is on bass, backing vocal and even a tom tom when the final verse starts. Bill Wyman plays organ, Brian Jones plays the electric guitar that comes in later, the great Charlie Watts on drums and Mick embodies the song with his singing - he IS Jumpin' Jack Flash. This is a joyous and defiant song about survival, delivered with the Stones trademark swagger. I highly recommend that you experience: Tumbling Dice Rocks Off Honky Tonk Women Miss You Midnight Rambler (from the LIVE album, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out!) I think you'll enjoy them all. P.S. Their album Exile on Main Street is the greatest rock and roll album ever, a bluesy masterpiece that ventures into country music, boogie woogie, gospel and soul. A deep dive will blow you away!
I think these lyrics are less a sister-piece to "Sympathy for the Devil," and more a complete absorption and modernization of the old Delta- and Chicago blues lyrical traditions. Dylan did this earlier as he made the transition to electric instruments (Bringing it all Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, in particular, but this included Blonde on Blonde, as well), but Dylan's lyricism was a much different evolution, to be sure, from what Jagger and Richard's developed here. That being said, I see this as more of a "Born Under a Bad Sign" analog, but with a defiant perseverance in the face of the evil of the world, than the embrace of evil as an ethos, a la "Sympathy for the Devil," as such, although "Sympathy" is a much more mature lyric, in any event, literary, if you will, as I suspect that Jagger may have been inspired by a perusal of Milton's "Paradise Lost," and its original presentation of Satan as a sympathetic character. What I like about "Sympathy," however, is more its condemnation of human societies throughout the ages, for which we blame the devil, as opposed to taking responsibility for the hells unleased ourselves; I never saw that lyric as an embrace of evil (or even devilishness, as it were), although after Altamont, the suggestion certainly stuck!
JJF is one of the most important songs in r'n'r history. Not only is it an amazing riff, but it signaled the dawn of the Stones' golden era (and return to blues/r'n'r roots). JJF never gets old. It's a perfect song.
Loving your channel and Rolling Stones reactions. You should explore Exile on Main Street, SWEET VIRGINIA, lots of analysis in there. Keep up the good work Bro.
The Stones and the Beatles have some of the biggest hits of the 60s with ‘no direction home’. It’s crazy that labels didn’t include some of these singles on the artists’ next album.
If you liked this one, check out Midnight Rambler -- on the album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! -- Live at Madison Square Garden recorded during the autumn of 1969. The studio version sounds very different, it appears on the album Let It Bleed (released late November 1969). The live version is violent, raw, and nasty while the studio version is somewhat bluesy-jazzy in a treacherously haunting and sophisticated way. The sequence for the Stones was studio version first and then the live version performed during the autumn concert tour. Just amazing stuff. You would enjoy each version in the sequence following sequence: 1) Studio - ua-cam.com/video/4V1SvYwkVtk/v-deo.html and 2) Live - ua-cam.com/video/Q99oEvb8ZBs/v-deo.html
I am good at rhythm. Everybody knows that Hendrix is a guitar god. Well, nobody notices that there is another one around, but he isn't a solo guitarist, he is a rhythm guitarist. In my mind Richards is for rhythm guitar what Hendrix is for solo guitar, with rhythm he can, literally, do whatever he wants.
The riff was invented by Bill Wyman, not Keith Richards. One night Bill, Charlie and Brian were jamming in the studio waiting for Mick and Keith to arrive and Bill played the early version of the riff with a piano and Mick and Keith instantly liked it when they got to the studio. According to Bill, they told them to keep playing so they wouldn't forget the tune. Mick wrote the lyrics and Keith joined in and they honed the riff to final version. But in the record the credits state Jagger/Richard instead of Jagger/Richard/Wyman. They should've showed some respect to Bill and include his name because that kickstarted the whole song.
I'm a new subscriber and just love your approach and delivery of these reactions. So many others are just lame for lack of a better word. The historical references in Sympathy for the Devil you got and most don't. Gimme Shelter is by many critics account, top 5 of all time greatest rock songs. Keith Richards has an ability to grab you and draw you in before a single word is spoken. Amazing band in my opinion.
The reason I have always preferred the Stones and Who to the Beatles is summed up by this record. They were dangerous and crazy guys who sang about living life on the edge.
You're absolutely right about the British and the blues. In America, the blues was "race music" and the mainstream radio stations wouldn't play it. It came to England via it's port cities, where sailors returning from the USA brought home records they had heard and bought in the States. In the North, the Beatles heard it in the port city of Liverpool, in the South the Stones heard it in London, the UK's biggest port. The English had no idea, and would not have cared anyway, that the artists were black! They took the music and remade it and took it back to America, where it exploded as the waves of the "British Invasion" crashed ashore. 🇬🇧
When I saw the Stones late last year, my only complaint was that their performance of this song was so amazing that I wished for an extended version. Put simply, this is a great song that is even better live.
Hell yeah. This is on my acid playlist when i tripped out back then... ..let's be realistic tho. You gotta try Pink Floyd- Astronomy Domine. The Piper at the gates at Dawn.
B. Jones the founder of the band and the best musician in the Stones , K .Richards, an under rated guitarist/musician/song writer . Still on top of the world .
@@paulhagger3895 Love Keith Richards Paul, I'm referring more to these polls that come out in the music publications. Hendrix,Page, Santana,Gilmore , Slash, these guy's always seem to win every year . You want to hear a one of the greatest rock guitar solo's in my opinion. In the stones tune "Hand of faith" Keith takes 2 solo's the 2nd solo in the song is one of the most melodic beautifully recorded solo's ever. Most people over look that one, check it out and really listen to what he plays "incredible" ,,dig K. Richards
Recently I saw a doc about BJ on A. Prime that I’d recommend “ Rolling Stone : Life and Death of Brian Jones “. Taught me some things I never knew about him….
Fun fact…..Richards was once asked how this song came about….he said that Mick was at his house one night and right before dawn there was a clatter outside of the window where they were sitting. Mick and I were startled when I saw that it was my gardener . I told Mick that s just my gardener Jack old Jumping Jack…..that spurred us and we sat and wrote the song….great story
In the 1950's and 1960's the Blues was not recognised as a music genre for the majority of the people in America... In fact sometimes the best place for American blues musicians to get a reasonable gig was here in the UK... So the British promoters bought them over. And then of course the the British bands who came out of the skiffle craze in the fifties picked up on the blues going around because that was where the gigs were. There were a huge amount of folk and blues clubs. They then went on to become the world conquering force and showed America what it had ignored for all this time. The great thing about The Stones is that they have always admitted their influences and name checked them whenever they are asked about it.
Riffmeister indeed! That jagged syncopation slashing across Charlie's easy, seemingly effortless swing. They assemble the whole instinctively, feels like. Today's zeitgeist is stormy with a strong likelihood of massive riffage. What do you know of Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter? See/hear his take on this one - 'JJF' -, or 'Highway 61 Revisited', 'Still Alive and Well', or 'Tobacco Road' with brother Edgar. Or Edgar's 'Frankenstein'(live is best, but go studio first if that suits your methodology better), ''Free Ride'. Dunno, hunt and peck.
There's a great story about then-Beatle Paul McCartney riding around London in a limo, hearing the BBC announce, "And now, the new single by the Rolling Stones. "Turn it up!" McCartney said. After it was over, he said, "That's a bit of alright. Hey Tony, phone up the BBC and get them to play it again." Tony Bramwell was friend of the Beatles who single-handedly invented the position of rock publicist/promoter. Pre-cell, so they had to stop the car at a pay phone. Tony had the number, and told the BBC Paul wanted to hear it again. The BBC obliged at once.
Okay according to Keith Richard's in his autobiography him and Mick had partied all night at Keith's Redlands estate and early in the morning Mick heard a thumping sound from Keith's front door area and Mick asked what is that and Keith replied..oh that's my lands keeper Jack..Jumping Jack- thats where Mick got the idea for the song - thank you sir for doing it..Tom Petty ( RIP) said he thought it was one of the greatest rock songs ever 👏👍 I absolutely agree !
No doubt that was the immediate inspiration but jumping jack was also the name of a children's toy going back centuries, and Jack Flash was a cartoon character that started in 1949. So the Stones rather cleverly combined those two names together.
@@roberttaylor5997 did u know that David crosby of crosby stills nash and young said the name Jumping Jack Flash came from these blue pills they sold in the UK at the time called "Jacks" - ✌ take care 🙂
@@antonballard2212 I didn't know that, and I'm tempted to say that he's American so what would he know about it? But he was in the music industry at the right time to have heard it from people who knew what they were talking about. However that doesn't seem to match a story from the Stones members themselves for credibility. OTOH the Beatles swore for years that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds had nothing to do with LSD. I grew up in the UK and I've never heard of these pills, but maybe I'm too young.
Listen to "Exile" - that wall of sound, blues, country. soul tinged - that continuous build up to something huge. Charlie Watts Kills on the album. It is dark and intense.
I'm an American and I first learned of American blues from groups like the Stones and the Yardbirds in the 60s. You're right. The Brits got it in a way the American rockers didn't.
One more thing bf I go to work - Keith said he would always have a tape recorder on incase he came up with something so wouldn't forget it- as much as I love the Stones they in my opinion never gave this song justice live..they never played the opening intro piece in concert...I still love it and the song - wait til you hear Can you hear me knocking - Keith Richard's is the shit - bless you :)
I am 73 now. I remember this and other Stones songs at first listen. I can even remember where I was when I heard some of them. It's interesting to watch this fellow hearing it fresh. When I heard this one I had just walked into a diner. The jukebox was loud. It hit me like a brick. Much later, I saw them live in Nashville, mid-70s, on their Hot Licks tour at the old Civic Center. I had seen other acts there and they had been too loud, or the sound was not quite right. The Stones were intelligent enough to make sure the sound was right. Loud but not distorted, not too loud. They made sure the room worked beforehand. This fellow didn't mention Bill Wyman's bass, or I missed it if he did. Bill Wyman gave their songs the greatest basslines possible. They hated for him to leave the band, and if you have listened to them you know why. The song is an icon, as is the band. People who don't like rock and roll, I guess, don't even get this. I have discovered all kinds of music, but I have never stopped listening to the Stones. And I have never gotten tired of their best. Thank the fates we had the Stones.
They are SO good and their music is absolutely timeless. No band ever came close - and many tried.
This is the epitome of the stones raunch....and skill.
Perfect
As a guy who listened to the song in my senior year in high school when it was first released, I only had a vague idea of the lyrics. There was no internet and it would take some pretty good research to find the lyrics of a new song. They probably would not be available at the library, at least not without a lot of searching through magazines. But the song had its own quality. Jagger's singing was basically another musical instrument and if you could not tell what every word was, it didn't too much matter. Even if you knew each word, it didn't too much matter.
What is so amazing about this band is how young they were. They were still in their mid twenties when they created this music. They were all musical geniuses that somehow got together and made the world a better place with their extreme talent. I never get tired of listening to them.
Well said.. the stones rock.. legends
Love the Stones! Please also do "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "Time Waits For No One."
"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is an absolute beast of a track.
@@firstbornunicorn1545 the outro is the greatest jam ever recorded. Sublime.
@@dctbass I was late to the game when it comes to good music but dove head first, but the first time I heard this song was for the intro of the movie "Blow" and it literally blew me away.
'time waits for no one' one of the most beautiful songs ever written
@@patmacist Yes, it is!
Great song! I loved the photograph on the single´s sleeve.I must tell I never saw it as the tale of a villain.I always took it as the story of someone that has had to face a hard life since childhood but he´s so Jumpin´Jack Flash enough to overcome.
I love how much better you understand the music than most other reactors on UA-cam. If you want to get a better insight into the Stones see if you can find clips or the whole video of Rock & Roll Circus. Definitely worth watching - not just for the Stones performance but other bands too like Jethro Tull, The Who and Dirty Mac. Such an insight into the era.
I was 13 in 8th grade when this song was released. Every local band that played every school dance or back alley jam HAD to play this. The riff just sticks in your brain.
Me too,and it spoiled me for life ,just with Whole lotta love
One of the best of one of the best! Enjoyed your analysis and, as always, I appreciate your enthusiasm for what must go in to crafting, recording, and performing iconic songs. Guess I have seen this live 16 times now as they have never left it out of any of the concerts I attended.
Its one of my top ten favorite songs of alltime too as someone else mentioned ..maybe even top five
These guys were not just a good band..they were and are iconic legends
Best song about a gardener ever recorded!!!!
You got that right 😊
The Stones Are the Literal definition of Rock n Roll... street Fighting Man, Honkey Tonk woman, Give me Shelter are also Big time bangers
Yes, they don't "play" music - they live it. It's who they are. They gave their lives to it.
Awesome channel, man! Love how you react emotionally/intellectually to every song. The blues on a basic level is about catharsis through artistic expression but there is also an element of braggadocio and humor similar to hip hop/rap as well as rock. Try going to the source. I suggest Robert Johnson , King of the Delta Blues and the first member of the 27 club. Try Terraplane Blues first then compare Foghat's cover. I'm sure you'll enjoy R.J. since his music is so emotive.
This is my favourite song of all time, I remember hearing the riff as a child, my dad had it on a cassette tape (yes I'm that old!). It's the first piece of music that really made me think wow I like that, what is it, who is it. So glad you like it too 😀👍. Classic song and an awesome riff, saw them play this in Hyde Park a few weeks back ❤
When I first started listening to them, I realized they are pure geniuses who became monsters of rock.
In 1967, while The Beatles were being wined and dined and praised as geniuses, The Rolling Stones were being harassed, raided, arrested, humiliated, and jailed. Finally, after public outcry, support from other bands, and especially a sympathetic editorial in The Times called “Who Breaks a Butterfly On a Wheel?”, the police backed off, Jagger and Richards were released from prison, and the Stones began their classic period, getting back to the blues, and beginning really with this song. The next five years were arguably the best five years and 4 classics albums (‘Beggars Banquet’, ‘Let It Bleed’, ‘Sticky Fingers’, and ‘Exile On Main St’) that any band has ever had. The live version from ‘The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus’ is a little slow, but I love it. It was filmed in 1968, the same year “Jumping Jack Flash” and ‘Beggars Banquet’, featuring “Sympathy For The Devil” were released.
ua-cam.com/video/ruTMp4_sy1E/v-deo.html
The story goes that Keith and Mick were hanging out at Keith's farmhouse estate one night during a thunderstorm and watching his gardener named Jack running around outside taking care of stuff and they wrote this one. Pretty funny if true.
Bill Wyman on bass doesn't get enough credit . He is driving the bass and harmony line around the bend all the way thriugh the song.
Both Bill and Charlie.
That's because Keith Richards is playing bass as well. Wyman plays mellotron
I'm talking overall. Not during Jumpin' Jack Flash.
Absolutely right. Keith once said "anyone can rock, but it's the "roll" that so hard to pull off" For me, Bill's bass provides the roll. I mean, what in the name of Beelzebub IS he doing underneath those corruscating guitars! 😱😱😱👌
It isn’t Wyman on bass, it’s Richard’s.
I love the lyrics in Jigsaw puzzle 😊from Baggers Banquet Much humor in it
When this came out all the guys in my hood said "Great! Back to "Satisfaction" groove!!!"
I really love this reaction because you hit everything I love about this song, minus the bass, which your should listen to again just to appreciate it and add it to what you love about this song. Best opening line ever.
Paint it Black is a must hear if you haven't heard it before
Keith had gotten into Open Tunings and the change in sound contributes to the menacing feel of the track.
On my 10 best all time list! It sounds as good the 5000th listen as the first.
Blues Rock! It is unmatched, and what is so sorely missed in todays throwaway pop nonsense made with lifeless computer programs and robotic autotune.
Yes, their music is magic that never ages. Kind of like them...
Holy shit my favorite stones song!!! You are a rock star for doing this!! I will tell you after the song how it came about! Rock on brother!
Brian created this group to be a blues band. Things started to shift, Brian's leadership was morphing into that of Mick and Keith... and shifting away from the blues. Brian, the man who could play just about anything, lost himself in drugs as he was searching for the feeling he once had with the group he named and founded...and then have his creation go on without him? What a feeling of loss! Sure Mick Taylor added a dynamic dimension but Brian was the heart and soul that is greatly missed.
Two things..1) Keith’s guitar is an acoustic bled through a cheap tape recorder which produced a unique sound 2) Cross-fire hurricane is a reference to being born in the German bombing of London during WW2.
Oh wow..of course
Your discovery is very satisfying to see. It was the same for us in the 60's. I was about 8, but loved it ever since.
Sorry I missed stream yesterday, sounds it was a good one. Can't get go wrong with the Stones. I always thought this was about a difficult childhood, but he comes out ok, finds life a gas anyway; despite the vicissitudes of life. Catch ya' this evening. Maybe hear "Wild Horses"?
HEY ZIGGY SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN, I'LL ADD WILD HORSES TO TODAYS LIST!
Another Stones favorite of mine. No body does it better
Speaking as a Man of a certain age, this one was a Dancing floor filler back in the 70s!!!!
X
I heard Keith Richards say that his favorite Stones song to play live is this one.
I'm grateful I've seen them JJF 8 times now.
I’m 65 and so glad I was alive to witness all this. The sound track of my life.
One of my favorite guitar intros of all time.
Brett and I turned 8yrs and big brothers turned us on to Rock n Roll. We were cub scouts into the stones and wanted to be a band.
Sir I do appreciate your reaction videos. Pure class. All the best.
You talk about the English bands (and yes, as a Scot, I can say it was English bands) and say that they got (ie understood) the Blues in a way that (white) Americans didn't in the 60s, and that's because English bands acknowledged and respected, indeed celebrated, explicitly the black origins of the Blues, whereas white artists in the US couldn't or wouldn't, at least until after the "British Invasion" in the 60s. The English bands therefore sounded much more authentic than the (white) American counterparts of the times.
You talk to any rock, specially Southern Rock, and they will tell you they are heavily influenced by Blues.
I just love how you reacted to this song. Love the Rolling Stones!!!!❤
Believe it or not, an acoustic rhythm guitar and a super minimal close miked practice drum lit!
I own the same Philips cassette recorder still with the original mic and single earpiece used to get the guitar sound.
Born during war.. raised poor. Then you hear about bread, bleeding feet and spikes in the head. That's Jesus. The Stones are simply gods of sound.
I appreciate your enthusiasm for the music of the Rolling Stones. Jumpin' Jack Flash is one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever and this song marked the beginning of the Stones career peak from 1968 to 1973.
Keith Richards created the stellar riff and the awesome first line to the song, which was inspired by his neighbors' house being bombed by the Germans when Keith was an infant. Keith called his gardener "Jumpin Jack", Mick Jagger added "Flash", and they both wrote the rest of the lyrics.
Those propulsive guitars are actually ACOUSTIC guitars, all played by Keith, who also is on bass, backing vocal and even a tom tom when the final verse starts.
Bill Wyman plays organ, Brian Jones plays the electric guitar that comes in later, the great Charlie Watts on drums and Mick embodies the song with his singing - he IS Jumpin' Jack Flash. This is a joyous and defiant song about survival, delivered with the Stones trademark swagger.
I highly recommend that you experience:
Tumbling Dice
Rocks Off
Honky Tonk Women
Miss You
Midnight Rambler (from the LIVE album, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out!)
I think you'll enjoy them all.
P.S. Their album Exile on Main Street is the greatest rock and roll album ever, a bluesy masterpiece that ventures into country music, boogie woogie, gospel and soul. A deep dive will blow you away!
Superb track. My vinyl 45 is often on the turntable. The flip side "Child Of The Moon" is also worth a listen
I think these lyrics are less a sister-piece to "Sympathy for the Devil," and more a complete absorption and modernization of the old Delta- and Chicago blues lyrical traditions. Dylan did this earlier as he made the transition to electric instruments (Bringing it all Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, in particular, but this included Blonde on Blonde, as well), but Dylan's lyricism was a much different evolution, to be sure, from what Jagger and Richard's developed here.
That being said, I see this as more of a "Born Under a Bad Sign" analog, but with a defiant perseverance in the face of the evil of the world, than the embrace of evil as an ethos, a la "Sympathy for the Devil," as such, although "Sympathy" is a much more mature lyric, in any event, literary, if you will, as I suspect that Jagger may have been inspired by a perusal of Milton's "Paradise Lost," and its original presentation of Satan as a sympathetic character. What I like about "Sympathy," however, is more its condemnation of human societies throughout the ages, for which we blame the devil, as opposed to taking responsibility for the hells unleased ourselves; I never saw that lyric as an embrace of evil (or even devilishness, as it were), although after Altamont, the suggestion certainly stuck!
JJF is one of the most important songs in r'n'r history. Not only is it an amazing riff, but it signaled the dawn of the Stones' golden era (and return to blues/r'n'r roots). JJF never gets old. It's a perfect song.
I've continued to watch this and your reaction- its truly a gas gas gas - bless you 🙏
Imagine this one live, you say - give Flash 1998 in Buenos Aires a Chance! Great reaction, and I like your thoughts about These Songs.
Mick Jagger *IS* Jumping Jack Flash.
Loving your channel and Rolling Stones reactions. You should explore Exile on Main Street, SWEET VIRGINIA, lots of analysis in there. Keep up the good work Bro.
The Stones and the Beatles have some of the biggest hits of the 60s with ‘no direction home’. It’s crazy that labels didn’t include some of these singles on the artists’ next album.
It's irresistible when it starts with an iconic Keef Richards RIFF!!!!!!!
Keith was inspired to write this by his GARDENER who had big footprints.
Search up the scene from Martin Scorsese’s 1973 film, “mean streets”, in which he uses this to the max!
This song obviously talks about traumatic upbringing and growing up rebellious and different.
Richard's autobiography is quite good, well worth a read. He was was quite explicit with his life, and very funny.
First line refers to Keith being born during an air-raid during WWII
If you liked this one, check out Midnight Rambler -- on the album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! -- Live at Madison Square Garden recorded during the autumn of 1969. The studio version sounds very different, it appears on the album Let It Bleed (released late November 1969). The live version is violent, raw, and nasty while the studio version is somewhat bluesy-jazzy in a treacherously haunting and sophisticated way. The sequence for the Stones was studio version first and then the live version performed during the autumn concert tour. Just amazing stuff. You would enjoy each version in the sequence following sequence: 1) Studio - ua-cam.com/video/4V1SvYwkVtk/v-deo.html and 2) Live - ua-cam.com/video/Q99oEvb8ZBs/v-deo.html
Keith fell asleep while creating the RIFF to SATISFACTION and woke up to it playing on his recorder.
I am good at rhythm. Everybody knows that Hendrix is a guitar god. Well, nobody notices that there is another one around, but he isn't a solo guitarist, he is a rhythm guitarist. In my mind Richards is for rhythm guitar what Hendrix is for solo guitar, with rhythm he can, literally, do whatever he wants.
The riff was invented by Bill Wyman, not Keith Richards. One night Bill, Charlie and Brian were jamming in the studio waiting for Mick and Keith to arrive and Bill played the early version of the riff with a piano and Mick and Keith instantly liked it when they got to the studio. According to Bill, they told them to keep playing so they wouldn't forget the tune. Mick wrote the lyrics and Keith joined in and they honed the riff to final version. But in the record the credits state Jagger/Richard instead of Jagger/Richard/Wyman. They should've showed some respect to Bill and include his name because that kickstarted the whole song.
The leanest, meanest riff in rock. That opening line is Mick singing about his own life during WWII.
I'm a new subscriber and just love your approach and delivery of these reactions. So many others are just lame for lack of a better word. The historical references in Sympathy for the Devil you got and most don't. Gimme Shelter is by many critics account, top 5 of all time greatest rock songs. Keith Richards has an ability to grab you and draw you in before a single word is spoken. Amazing band in my opinion.
The reason I have always preferred the Stones and Who to the Beatles is summed up by this record. They were dangerous and crazy guys who sang about living life on the edge.
Jack Flash gets a mention in the song American Pie.
Jack Flash sat on a candle stick 🕯️
Hard to believe that there is someone who hasn't heard this before! This was huge at the time and entered everyone's psyche. Goodbye Mick.
My 11th time to watch this - how awesome you are sir!
I love the fact that you 'get' the Stones!
You're absolutely right about the British and the blues. In America, the blues was "race music" and the mainstream radio stations wouldn't play it. It came to England via it's port cities, where sailors returning from the USA brought home records they had heard and bought in the States. In the North, the Beatles heard it in the port city of Liverpool, in the South the Stones heard it in London, the UK's biggest port. The English had no idea, and would not have cared anyway, that the artists were black! They took the music and remade it and took it back to America, where it exploded as the waves of the "British Invasion" crashed ashore. 🇬🇧
That thick sound you mentioned at 5:15 has a lot of bass in it.
The cross-fire hurricane was WWII and the bombing of London.
AWESOME! DIDNT CATCH THIS AT FIRST
@@SyedRewinds I heard Keith mention it in an interview.
The intro is my ringtone!
You're so right about the Brits being able to reimagine the blues and take it somewhere new is spot on. Led Zeppelin did the same.
When I saw the Stones late last year, my only complaint was that their performance of this song was so amazing that I wished for an extended version. Put simply, this is a great song that is even better live.
I saw the stones as well! In October last year.
Jumping Jack was the name of Keith Richards Gardner. He was stomping around outside wile Mick and Keith were inside. The lyrics came flowing out.
Hell yeah. This is on my acid playlist when i tripped out back then...
..let's be realistic tho. You gotta try Pink Floyd- Astronomy Domine. The Piper at the gates at Dawn.
B. Jones the founder of the band and the best musician in the Stones , K .Richards, an under rated guitarist/musician/song writer . Still on top of the world .
In what sense is Keith Richards underrated? He is widely recognised as one of the greatest rock musicians ever, isn't he?
@@paulhagger3895 Love Keith Richards Paul, I'm referring more to these polls that come out in the music publications. Hendrix,Page, Santana,Gilmore , Slash, these guy's always seem to win every year . You want to hear a one of the greatest rock guitar solo's in my opinion. In the stones tune "Hand of faith" Keith takes 2 solo's the 2nd solo in the song is one of the most melodic beautifully recorded solo's ever. Most people over look that one, check it out and really listen to what he plays "incredible" ,,dig K. Richards
@@Mikeluvdrums "Hand of Fate"?
Recently I saw a doc about BJ on A. Prime that I’d recommend “ Rolling Stone : Life and Death of Brian Jones “. Taught me some things I never knew about him….
Recorded at Muscle Shoals Recording studios in Alabama.
That's Keith on bass too, with regular Stones bassist Bill Wyman playing organ on this one.
There are a few bands that no music collection is complete without, the Stones are definitely one of them.
Fun fact…..Richards was once asked how this song came about….he said that Mick was at his house one night and right before dawn there was a clatter outside of the window where they were sitting. Mick and I were startled when I saw that it was my gardener . I told Mick that s just my gardener Jack old Jumping Jack…..that spurred us and we sat and wrote the song….great story
“I was born in a cross-fire hurricane” was a reference to the German bombing raids of England - what the Stones were born into.
Ditto on the Bill Wyman comments. The bass is driving that band!!
Keith plays bass on JJF, I believe.
In the 1950's and 1960's the Blues was not recognised as a music genre for the majority of the people in America... In fact sometimes the best place for American blues musicians to get a reasonable gig was here in the UK... So the British promoters bought them over. And then of course the the British bands who came out of the skiffle craze in the fifties picked up on the blues going around because that was where the gigs were. There were a huge amount of folk and blues clubs. They then went on to become the world conquering force and showed America what it had ignored for all this time. The great thing about The Stones is that they have always admitted their influences and name checked them whenever they are asked about it.
It's more of a companion to their "Street Fighting Man".
Undercover is an 80s Stones tune and is a great song. That album has good tunes on it also.
Cheers
I need to check out the Gimme Shelter version, thanks !
Riffmeister indeed! That jagged syncopation slashing across Charlie's easy, seemingly effortless swing. They assemble the whole instinctively, feels like. Today's zeitgeist is stormy with a strong likelihood of massive riffage. What do you know of Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter? See/hear his take on this one - 'JJF' -, or 'Highway 61 Revisited', 'Still Alive and Well', or 'Tobacco Road' with brother Edgar. Or Edgar's 'Frankenstein'(live is best, but go studio first if that suits your methodology better), ''Free Ride'. Dunno, hunt and peck.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Monkey Man or Street Fighting Man
If it was autobiographical, the first line should be "I was born in Dartford". We should be thankful for creative licence.
Dig... kids.
There's a great story about then-Beatle Paul McCartney riding around London in a limo, hearing the BBC announce, "And now, the new single by the Rolling Stones. "Turn it up!" McCartney said. After it was over, he said, "That's a bit of alright. Hey Tony, phone up the BBC and get them to play it again." Tony Bramwell was friend of the Beatles who single-handedly invented the position of rock publicist/promoter. Pre-cell, so they had to stop the car at a pay phone. Tony had the number, and told the BBC Paul wanted to hear it again. The BBC obliged at once.
HAHA AWESOME STORY! I guess it is a bit alright lol
Okay according to Keith Richard's in his autobiography him and Mick had partied all night at Keith's Redlands estate and early in the morning Mick heard a thumping sound from Keith's front door area and Mick asked what is that and Keith replied..oh that's my lands keeper Jack..Jumping Jack- thats where Mick got the idea for the song - thank you sir for doing it..Tom Petty ( RIP) said he thought it was one of the greatest rock songs ever 👏👍 I absolutely agree !
No doubt that was the immediate inspiration but jumping jack was also the name of a children's toy going back centuries, and Jack Flash was a cartoon character that started in 1949. So the Stones rather cleverly combined those two names together.
@@roberttaylor5997 thank you for the information- I appreciate that!
@@roberttaylor5997 did u know that David crosby of crosby stills nash and young said the name Jumping Jack Flash came from these blue pills they sold in the UK at the time called "Jacks" - ✌ take care 🙂
@@antonballard2212 I didn't know that, and I'm tempted to say that he's American so what would he know about it? But he was in the music industry at the right time to have heard it from people who knew what they were talking about. However that doesn't seem to match a story from the Stones members themselves for credibility. OTOH the Beatles swore for years that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds had nothing to do with LSD. I grew up in the UK and I've never heard of these pills, but maybe I'm too young.
@@roberttaylor5997 well said sir 👏 thank you 😊
2nd favorite Stones song, behind ANGIE.
Great pick. Cool song.ull like.
This is before Sympathy for the Devil. Probably a precursor on the lyrical Jagger's skills.
Superb break down & thats from a 71 year old scoucer !
Mick jagger vocal.keith Richards lead guitar.charlie watts drums.brian Jones rythum guitar.bill wyman bass.
The first time I seen the Stones they opened with this song.
Listen to "Exile" - that wall of sound, blues, country. soul tinged - that continuous build up to something huge. Charlie Watts Kills on the album. It is dark and intense.
Check out "Spider And The Fly" from the early Stones days.
I'm an American and I first learned of American blues from groups like the Stones and the Yardbirds in the 60s.
You're right. The Brits got it in a way the American rockers didn't.
One more thing bf I go to work - Keith said he would always have a tape recorder on incase he came up with something so wouldn't forget it- as much as I love the Stones they in my opinion never gave this song justice live..they never played the opening intro piece in concert...I still love it and the song - wait til you hear Can you hear me knocking - Keith Richard's is the shit - bless you :)