Can't You Hear Me
Knocking
Composers: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
Recording date: June-July 1970
Recording location: Olympic Sound Studios, London, England
Producer: Jimmy Miller Chief
engineers: Glyn
Johns & Andy Johns
Performed
onstage: 2002-03, 2007, 2013, 2015-16, 2022
Line-up:
Drums:
Charlie Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Electric
guitars: Keith Richards
& Mick Taylor (incl. extended solo)
Lead vocal: Mick Jagger
Background
vocals: Mick Jagger
& Keith Richards
Organ: Billy
Preston
Saxophone:
Bobby Keys
Congas: Rocky Dijon
Maracas: Jimmy Miller
Yeah
Yeah, you've got satin shoes
Yeah, you've got
plastic boots
You all got
cocaine eyes
Yeah, you've got
speed freak jive now
Can't you hear
me knocking on your window?
Can't you hear
me knocking on your door?
Can't you hear
me knocking down the dirty street?
Yeah
Help me
baby, ain't no stranger
Help me
baby, ain't no stranger
Help me
baby, ain't no stranger
Can't you
hear me knocking? Are you safe asleep?
Can't you hear
me knocking, yeah, down the gas light street now?
Can't you hear
me knocking? Yeah, throw me down the keys
All right
now
Hear me
ringing big bell toll
Hear me singing
soft and low
I've been
begging on my knees
I've been
kicking, help me please
Hear me
prowling - I'm going to take you down
Hear me growling
- Yes, I've got a fight in me now, now, now
Hear me howling
- I'm all, I'm all around your street now
Hear me knocking
- I'm all, I'm all around your town
TrackTalk
Can't You Hear Me Knocking came
out flying - I just found the tuning and the riff and started to
swing it and Charlie picked up on it just like that, and we're
thinking, hey, this is some groove. So it was smiles all around.
For a guitar player it's no big deal to play, the chopping,
staccato bursts of chords, very direct and spare.
- Keith Richards, Life (2010)
On that song, my fingers just landed in the right place and I
discovered a few things about that tuning (open G) that I'd never
been aware of. I think I realized that even as I was cutting the
track.
- Keith Richards, 2002
We did this at Olympic and the jam at the end
was an afterthought. It comes in two pieces, this rock song with
this added jam. It's slightly Carlos Santana-like, Mick Taylor
plays a bit of that style, I think. I don't think we meant that,
but somehow it added on and I think this was done really quickly,
too. I remember very clearly doing it. It's very high for me, and
I remember saying, Oh, this is
not really my key, but I'll try. I did lots of harmonies
to hide the fact I didn't really hit the notes that great in the
chorus.
- Mick Jagger, 2015
If I can remember
rightly, I was really focused on working on the tuning thing and
different ways of playing the guitar. I think it was at the time
when I was really just balancing between playing with open
tunings and regular tunings, so all kinds of different things
were sort of coming out. That was with Jimmy Miller, who loved
to play around with stuff like that. The track really grew while
we were playing it. It was a good day.
- Keith Richards, 2023
(Keith and I) both played on (the intro) actually, it was one of
the few, well not of the few Stones tracks because lots of tracks
we recorded with the Stones in those days were actually by and
large recorded live the way you would play them onstage, sometimes
even in 1 or 2 takes. Very rarely were guitar solos overdubbed, I
mean other things may have been overdubbed, but very rarely were
guitar solos overdubbed, they were usually sort of done with the
backing track so they were done live.
- Mick Taylor, 1995
Can't You Hear Me Knocking... is one of
my favorites... (The jam at the end) just happened by accident;
that was never planned. Towards the end of the song I just felt
like carrying on playing. Everybody was putting their instruments
down, but the tape was still rolling and it sounded good, so
everybody quickly picked up their instruments again and carried on
playing. It just happened, and it was a one-take thing. A lot of
people seem to really like that part.
- Mick Taylor, 1979
I remember Can't
You Hear Me Knocking. That was all one take. There were a
few takes, but that one got the green light because of the jam at
the end, and where it went with Mick (Taylor)'s playing, which was
exceptional.
- Chris Kimsey (assistant
engineer), 2015
(The jam at the end wasn't inspired by Carlos Santana.) We didn't
even know they were still taping. We thought we'd finished. We
were just rambling and they kept the tape rolling. I figured we'd
just fade it off. It was only when we heard the playback that we
realized, Oh, they kept it going. Basically we realized we
had two bits of music. There's the song and there's the jam.
- Keith Richards, 2002
I used a brown Gibson ES-345 for Dead Flowers and the solo
on Can't You Hear Me Knocking.
- Mick Taylor, 1979
As a lead, virtuoso guitar, Mick (Taylor) was
so lyrical on songs like Can't You Hear Me Knocking, which
was an amazing track because that was a complete jam, one take at
the end. He had such a good ear, and I would help push him along.
- Charlie Watts, 2003
That song had such a fantastic groove going,
they just let the tape runing for my solo at the end. Generally, I
tried to bring my own distinctive sound and style to Sticky Fingers and I like to
think I added some extra spice. I don't want to say
"sophistication" - I think that sounds pretentious. Charlie said I
brought "finesse". That's a better word. I'll go with what Charlie
said.
- Mick Taylor, 2011
The song is not a Mick Taylor song at all.
Mick merely does a, certainly very fine, but nevertheless Carlos
Santana kind of solo part. The whole rough rhythmic characteristic
thing about the song is Keith.
(From the Mick Taylor period,) I love Can't
You
Hear Me Knocking.
- Keith Richards, 2002
I think this track's really interesting. We've
never done anything else like it since.
- Mick Jagger, 2015
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