Composer: "Nanker
Phelge" (Rolling Stones)
Recording date: January
1965
Recording location: RCA Studios, Los
Angeles,
USA
Producer: Andrew
Oldham Engineer:
Dave
Hassinger
Performed onstage: 1965-66,
1989-90, 2017, 2019
Probable line-up:
Zoom bass: Phil
Spector
Acoustic guitar: Keith
Richards
Vocal: Mick
Jagger
Harpsichord: Jack
Nitzsche
Tambourine: Mick
Jagger
Tamtams: Jack
Nitzsche
TrackTalk
It was a classic example of the Stones' ability to absorb different types of sound even when the whole band was not playing on the track. Brian, Bill and Charlie didn't play on Play with Fire. They'd all dropped off to sleep. One could have got them up again but one didn't. So it was Phil Spector on tuned-down guitar and Jack Nitzsche on harpsichord in addition to Richards and Jagger. It was at the end of a session with some old guy sweeping up.
Play with Fire (was made) with Phil
Spector on tuned-down electric guitar, me on acoustic, Jack Nitzsche on
harpsichord, and Mick on tambourine with echo chamber. It was about 7
o'clock
in the morning. Everybody fell asleep.
Play with Fire sounds amazing - when
I heard it last. I mean, it's a very in-your-face kind of sound and
very
clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I'm playing
the
tambourine, the vocal line. You know, it's very pretty... Keith and me
(wrote that). I mean, it just came out... (I)t was just kind of rich
girls'
families - society as you saw it. It's painted in this naive way in
these
songs... I don't know if it was daring. It just hadn't been done.
Ah, the imagination of teenagers! Well, one
always wants to have an affair with one's mother. I mean it's a turn-on.