Thief
in the Night
Composers: Mick
Jagger, Keith Richards & Pierre
de Beauport
Recording date:
March-July 1997
Recording location: Ocean
Way Recording Studios, Los Angeles, USA
Producers: Don
Was & The Glimmer Twins
Chief engineers:
Rob
Fraboni & Dan Bosworth
Mixers: Rob
Fraboni & Pierre de Beauport
Performed onstage: 1998-99,
2003

Line-up:
Drums: Charlie
Watts
Bass: Darryl
Jones
Acoustic guitar:
Keith Richards
Electric guitars:
Keith Richards, Ron Wood & Waddy
Wachtel
Lead vocal: Keith
Richards
Background vocals: Bernard
Fowler & Blondie Chaplin
Piano: Keith
Richards
Electric piano:
Pierre de Beauport
Wurlitzer piano:
Pierre de Beauport
Saxophone: Joe
Sublett
Trumpet: Darrell
Leonard
Tambourine: Blondie
Chaplin
Percussion: Jim
Keltner
All the way, all the way
I miss your touch baby, yeah
Like a thief in the night
It can't be right (Like a thief)
I know where your place is, yeah, yeah
And it's not with him
I'm the one who's out here, baby
Out here, just looking in
He ain't going to like it at all, no, no - that's good
I know the feeling
(Just you wait there in the dark) In the dark, baby
Yeah, how his dog can bark
Like a thief in the night
(Like a thief in the night)
Like a thief in the night
You're going to steal what's mine
Ah, I'm going break the laws (Ooh, ooh-ooh)
Oh but I'll get through your door (Ooh, ooh-ooh)
But you wait and see (Ooh, ooh-ooh)
Yeah, I'm going to get you, get you free (Ooh, ooh-ooh) (Set you free)
(Like a thief)
I found out where he keeps you, mm-mm
I've even been inside
You check under your pillow, baby
Yeah, you'll get the message
If I see you at your window, mm-mm
Well then I'll know (No one)
Can separate us - separate us (Separate us, separate us)
Like a thief in the night
(Like a thief in the night)
Like a thief in the night
Yeah, you can set me up (Ooh, ooh-ooh)
You can turn me in or burn me, baby (Ooh, ooh-ooh)
Well but you are in my skin (Ooh, ooh-ooh)
The only reason I'm breaking in - I'm coming in, yeah, I'm breaking in (Ooh, ooh-ooh) (Breaking in)
(Like a thief)
Like a thief in the night
Come on - yeah, oh yeah (Come on)
Like a thief in the night (Come on, come on)
Oh baby, you know what I'm talking about
(Come on) Come on
(Like a thief now) You can call the police on me, baby
Set me up and bust me
(Like a thief) Come on
(Come on, come on) I dare you, baby, come on, come on - I'm going to take the drop for you
(Like a thief now)
Ooh soften the blow
(Come on, come on) Yeah
(Like a thief) Baby, baby, baby, baby
(Come on, come on) Baby, you know what I mean
(Like a thief now)
Nothing I can do
(Come on, come on) About it
(Like a thief)
(Come on, come on)
(Like a thief now)
It's the power of it
(Come on, come on) Come on
(Like a thief)
Like a thief
(Come on, come on)
(Like a thief now)
(Come on, come on)
(Like a thief)
TrackTalk
That was a riff that Pierre (de Beauport, Keith's
guitar technician) had for a while. He was playing it with Charlie in the
studio and Keith came and said - Hey, what's that? And Pierre said,
Oh,
it's something that I've been working on... Keith added a lot of stuff
to it. But that basic riff came from Pierre, which is great, and it's nice
that he got credit for it.
-
Rob Fraboni, 1997
I got the title from the Bible, which I
read quite often; some very good phrases in there. It's a song about
several women and actually starts when I was a teenager. I knew where
she lived and I knew where her boyfriend lived, and I would stand
outside a semi-detached house in Dartford. Basically the story goes on
from there. Then it was about Ronnie Spector, then it was
about Patti and it was also about Anita.
-
Keith Richards, Life (2010)
I worked a lot on (Thief in the Night
and How Can I Stop) with Bernard Fowler and Blondie Chaplin, building
the backing vocals from the ground up so they were an integral part and
not just wedged in.
-
Keith Richards, September 1997
Mick put a vocal on the song, but he
couldn't feel it, he couldn't get it, and the track sounded terrible.
Rob couldn't mix it with this vocal, so we tried to fix it one night
with Blondie and Bernard, barely able to stand from fatigue, snatching
sleep in turns. We came back and found the tape had been sabotaged in
the meantime. All kinds of skulduggery went on. Eventually Rob and
I had to steal the two-inch master tapes of the half mixes of Thief in the Night
from Ocean Way studios in LA, where we'd recorded it, and fly them to
the East Coast, where I had now returned homewards to Connecticut.
Pierre found a studio in the north shore of Long Island where we mixed
it to my liking for two days and two nights, with my vocal.
-
Keith Richards, Life (2010)
Back to TrackTalk
Menu.
Back to Bridges to Babylon.
Back to Main Page.