Jigsaw Puzzle (song)

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Jigsaw Puzzle" is one of the longer songs on the album. It comes in just ten seconds shorter than "Sympathy for the Devil" to which it is stylistically similar.

Recording began at Olympic Sound Studios on March 25, 1968. Parts of the recording sessions are available on the bootleg market, and on these recordings Mick Jagger is on acoustic guitar, Keith Richards on electric slide guitar, Charlie Watts on drums, Bill Wyman on bass and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Brian Jones is not present on these sessions. The released version has Richards on overdubbed acoustic guitar, and Brian Jones added the distinctive "whine" at the end of the song with the mellotron. "Jigsaw Puzzle" has never been performed live by the Rolling Stones.

[edit] Critics' Opinions

Musical opinions have divereged widely on the merits of "Jigsaw Puzzle". Music journalist Steve Knopper quoted on Amazon considers it inexplicable that it never became a hit in its own right. ^[1]. However, journalist Richie Unterberger describes it unenthusiastically as a mere "album filler".

Unterberger draws comparisons to the mid-to-late 1960s work of Bob Dylan saying "...the similarity to some of Dylan's long, wordy surreal songs of the mid-'60s is close enough that it's a little surprising 'Jigsaw Puzzle' hasn't been singled out by more listeners as being a Dylan imitation, particularly since it frankly sounds a little hackneyed in its approximation of Dylanesque weirdness."^[2] The lyrics depict the observations of the singer who finds himself surrounded by "misfits and weirdos";

“

There's a tramp sittin' on my doorstep, Tryin' to waste his time; With his methylated sandwich, He's a walking clothesline; And here comes the bishop's daughter, On the other side; She looks a trifle jealous, She's been an outcast all her life

”

“

Me, I'm waiting so patiently, Lying on the floor; I'm just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle, Before it rains anymore

”

Of the song, Unterberger concludes, " Like many of the tracks on that album, it drew on country blues for musical inspiration... The lyrics, however, are not the sort that would be heard on actual rural Delta blues records... More of a drawback to the song, however, is its lack of melodic development, just keeping on the same basic monotonous stock blues tune for a good six minutes or so. For album filler such as this, some other creative touches were needed to make it stand out more."^[2]