Cops and Robbers

Composer: Kent Harris           Original performers: Kent Harris (1956), Bo Diddley (1956)
First release: GRRR! special edition box set, November 2012
Recording date: March 1964        Recording location: Camden Theatre, London, England
Performed onstage: 1963-64


Probable line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Electric guitar: Keith Richards
Vocal: Mick Jagger
Harmonica: Brian Jones
 

As I was driving home along the boulevard late one night
I saw a guy in the corner, bumming all alone
As I passed him by, I heard him holler out "Hey!"

I slowed down to see what he said
He said "By any chance, are you going my way?"
I said "Sure, baby, hop on in and give me a cigarette"
Then he reached out in his pocket and that was the moment I regret

"Well now, boy, reach for the sky"
Y'all said "I don't understand, sir"
"Don't you try no monkey business, I got a stopper in my hand"

And then he said, "You see this rock out in my hand?
This is a .38 pistol built on a .45 frame
It shoots tombstone bullets and a ball and chain"

He said "I ain't trying to shake you up, but I just want you to know
If the cops start to crowd me in, you're going to be the first to go
So you just drive on like there's nothing happening"
That's what he told me, he wouldn't let me look back or nothing

And he said "When you get to that red light
I want you all to jump back to your left and then switch back to your right"

He said, um, "I want you to park in the alley
Ah, not that, that one over there
And... behind that liquor store
And keep a sharp lookout at all times when I sneak in that back door"
That's what he told me

He said "Keep your foot on the gas and always be on guard
'Cause when I come running out the liquor store with all that money, he wanted me to mash on it real hard
He said "Now don't you come out of there and try me a double-cross
Because it's murder when the heat's on"

"Well now, boy, reach for the sky"
Yeah but I said "I don't understand, sir"
"Don't you try no monkey business, I got a stopper in my hand"

Oo-wee, well I was sitting there just trembling
A spotlight hit me dead in the face
The customer behind us said "Move up a bit, man, we want to take your place"
And then the guy come running out of the store with the money in his hand and said "Oh, there you are"
He made a mistake in the dark and ran and leaped in the police car

As they put the handcuffs on him, I said "Child, your crime must outgrow him"
And they said "Yeah, we gonna put him so far back in jail this time
That they're gonna have to pump air into him"

"Well now, boy, reach for the sky"
Yeah but I said "I don't understand, sir"
"Don't you try no monkey business, I got a stopper in my hand"

Oh yes

  
 

TrackTalk

American music is what we loved. Cops and Robbers, Down the Road Apiece, they were staples of our Richmond club days, blues but sped up.

                                                            - Mick Jagger, 2017




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