Big Enough

Composers: Keith Richards & Steve Jordan
Recording date: October 1987-May 1988
Recording locations: various studios, New York City, USA; Bermuda Sound Recording Studios, Bermuda;
Air Studios, Montserrat; Atlantic Studios & The Hit Factory, New York City, USA
Producers: Keith Richards & Steve Jordan      Chief engineer: Don Smith


Line-up:

Drums: Steve Jordan
Bass: "Bootsy" Collins
Electric guitars: Keith Richards
Lead vocal: Keith Richards
Background vocals: Keith Richards, Steve Jordan & Sarah Dash
Organ: Bernie Worrell
Alto saxophone: Maceo Parker
Percussion: Keith Richards & Steve Jordan
 

No time for weeping, baby
No tear need flow
Let no one tell you
How you should grow, yeah

Stretched to the limit, honey
Locked in the hole
Hung out to dry
Still on a roll

Ready, willing, able
And big enough

Right out the front door
Run out the back
Wall in your face and
A gun in your back

No time for weeping, baby
No need for tears
Let no one tell you, honey
How you, how you should grow

Big enough

Big enough

Big enough, yeah


Ready, willing, able
And big enough

Ready, willing, able
And big enough

Ready, willing, able
And big enough

Ready, willing, able
And big enough


 

TrackTalk

It's not exactly the first thing (recorded), but it was fairly early on. It was just Steve and myself, just drums and guitar. It was incredibly long, almost a jam. But the groove on it was just so strong and, as you say, the James Brown feel of it was so evident that what happened was, during last winter, James played the Apollo. Steve and I went up there, and we saw Maceo (Parker), and we looked at each other, and we went, Dig it. Maceo. So we got in touch with Maceo to give it that horn thing. The bass end was another problem, because the fact that we cut it with just guitar and drums, we had the drums tuned very low down. There was an awful lot of bass on the drums. And every time we tried to put a bass on it, it would just get in the way. So we thought about it, and once again, Steve, who's got a great ear: Ah, it's got to be Bootsy...

- Keith Richards, 1988


Well Bootsy (Collins) don't fly so he drove up from Ohio. It was great because Bootsy used to work with James Brown and the horn player on the track, Maceo Parker, runs James Brown's band. So it was a little hats off to James Brown. There are a lot of little tributes on this album.

- Keith Richards, 1988


It's kind of a hybrid James Brown-meets-the-Caribbean thing thrown in.

- Keith Richards, 1988


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