The Worst

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
Performed onstage: 1994-95, 2002-03, 2005, 2018

Line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Darryl Jones
Acoustic guitar: Keith Richards
Pedal steel guitar: Ron Wood
Lead vocal: Keith Richards
Background vocals: Mick Jagger
Piano: Chuck Leavell
Violin: Frankie Gavin 


Well I said from the first
I, I'm the worst kind of guy for you to be around
Tear me apart, baby, including this old heart
That is true and never, ever let you down

You shouldn't stick with me
You trust me too much, you'll see

Take all the pain, it's yours anyway
Get out, kid

Who'll put the blame on me?
You ought to pass, you'll see
Somewhere outside I threw love aside
Now it's a tragedy, mm

Said from the first
I am the worst kind of guy for you to be around

 

 

TrackTalk

The Worst (I wrote by myself).

- Keith Richards, June 1994


That's very country, isn't it? Keith sings so pretty on that. I do his backgrounds, and it sounds so Okie. When I listened back to it, I said, Is that really me singing? It's really strange.

- Mick Jagger, 1994


It's funny, but a lot of these songs were written in kitchens. That one I wrote in the kitchen in Barbados, and I thought, That's a pretty melody, but what to do with it, I really didn't know. I guess that's where Ireland comes in, because Ireland has its own traditional music, and it's not country music as such, but it's the roots of it, you know? It's that Irish feel.

- Keith Richards, 1994


(The songs I sing on this album)... they're more or less sort of just a feeling, really. They're little bits of your life that just come back to you, and suddenly you say, Oh, that little situation. Yeah. Now I can finally finish it off, tail it off, because now I can write a song about it. But you don't think about it. It's something that maybe happened maybe 20 years ago, 10 years ago, whatever, just a little incident here or there, or somebody told you something. It's just in a way trying to transmit a certain feeling.

- Keith Richards, June 1994


(The pedal steel guitar) was lying around and I got Woody, and we had The Worst, you know, and we started to get into it: That pedal steel would be nice there.

- Keith Richards, June 1994


(My Gibson Robert Johnson guitar is) the acoustic on The Worst.

- Keith Richards, June 1994


In any new relationship, I tell people, Do you know what you're dealing with? Don't tell me that I didn't say from the first, I'm the worst. It's my riot act. The last time I said it was to my old lady twenty-odd years ago. I say, out front, Take it on, or get out.

- Keith Richards, September 2002



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