New Faces

Composers: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
Recording date: September 1993, November 1993-April 1994
Recording locations: Sandymount Studios, Ron Wood's home, St. Kildare, Ireland; Windmill Lane
Recording, Dublin, Ireland; & A&M Recording Studios, Los Angeles, USA
Producers: Don Was & The Glimmer Twins        Chief engineer: Don Smith
Never performed onstage

Line-up:

Bass: Darryl Jones
Acoustic guitars: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (incl. solo)
Lead vocal: Mick Jagger
Harmony vocal: Keith Richards
Harpsichord: Chuck Leavell
Harmonium: Chuck Leavell
Pennywhistle: Frankie Gavin
Tambourine: Charlie Watts
Shaker: Luis Jardim
 

One, two
One, two, three

There's a new guy in town, he's been dragging around
He's the figure of youth
And his eyes are so blue and they're looking at you
So tell me the truth

Well, well, he's got stories to tell
He bites off more than he chews
Well, well, is he ringing your bell?
My heart is breaking in two

And his skin is so fair and it shines like his hair
As he stands so aloof
With an indolent air and an insolent stare
That just shutters the truth

Well, well, is he ringing your bell?
My heart is breaking in two
Well, well, he'll be rotting in hell
For playing the devil with you

Is it already too late?
No point shutting the gate
Have you already swallowed the bait?
And you're gone

As he knocks you down cold, as you lose all control
To this slip of a youth
I see fire in his eyes, I see ice in his smile
And I'm learning the truth

Well, well, he's got stories to tell
Of love that is long overdue
Well, well, who is under his spell
Is paying the devil his dues

Mm-mm, mm-mm-mm-mm-mm


 

TrackTalk

Writing-wise, New Faces is, I think, pretty much all Mick's - maybe a bridge, I'm not quite sure. It gets a little blurred here and there.

                                                           - Keith Richards, June 1994


I used to sing in a madrigal choir, so I'm just as happy singing madrigals instead of blues.

                                                             - Mick Jagger, July 1994


I just wrote the song on guitar. Actually, it's the oldest song on the album, for me anyway. I wrote the song on guitar, and I played guitar on it on the record. I would just play it at home; I had it for a couple of years, actually. I tried to write it a bit more complicated, and in the end I made it simpler - I simplified it. And then when we were in Barbados, Keith started playing keyboards on it. And then I switched to play keyboards, and he played guitar and I played harpsichord. So it gave it a slightly different feel, but it always was a sort of 16th century form. And I was trying to take it away from there a little bit, but then I brought it back. And then Chuck (Leavell) played the harpsichord, and I ended up playing guitar on it again.

                                                             - Mick Jagger, June 1994


(The harpsichord) might have been (my idea). Because at the time, I just thought it was... I guess Lady Jane came somewhere around the back and hit me. There was just something about the melody that suggested it. Sometimes you listen to a song and it says trombone or it says harpsichord. You don't know why; you just suddenly hear this part singing away, and you say, What about trying this? And it kind of fit.

                                                           - Keith Richards, June 1994


(The harpsichord) was Mick's idea. Mick played the song, and he didn't have all the lyrics down. He had a general structure, but we fooled with that and rearranged it somewhat.

                                                           - Chuck Leavell, June 1994


It's an Elizabethan song written from an older man's point of view. Not that I'm an Elizabethan man, but I have that point of view.

                                                             - Mick Jagger, 1994


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