Mother's Little Helper
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| “Mother's Little Helper” | |||||
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| Single by Rolling Stones from the album Aftermath |
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| Released | July 2, 1966 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | December 3-December 8, 1965 | ||||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock | ||||
| Length | 2 min 45 s | ||||
| Label | Decca/ABKCO | ||||
| Writer(s) | Jagger/Richards | ||||
| Producer | Andrew Loog Oldham | ||||
| Rolling Stones singles chronology | |||||
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Alternate Cover
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"Mother's Little Helper" is a song by the English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track to the UK version of their 1966 album Aftermath.
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Mother's Little Helper" was recorded in Los Angeles from 3 to 8 December 1965. The song deals with the widespread use of the prescription drug Nembutal, a popular drug among rock musicians in England as well as managers at the time with a narrow therapeutic index, or a related barbiturate (This is implied by the suggestion in the song of an overdose, which is remarkably difficult with Valium compared to non-Benzodiazapine sedatives). The song sheds a light on the darker perspective of its use among housewives, intoning:
| “ | Life's just much too hard today / I hear ev'ry mother say / The pursuit of happiness just seems a bore / And if you take more of those / you will get an overdose / No more running for the shelter / of a mother's little helper | ” |
The song is based around folksy chords and an eastern-flavored guitar riff often mistaken[citation needed] for a sitar riff. The riff is actually a heavily compressed 12-string electric guitar played with a slide.[citation needed] The ending of the song was the idea of Bill Wyman.[citation needed]
It was released as a single in the US and peaked at # 8 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1966.[1]
The song was covered in 1981 by the belgian new wave duet Polyphonic Size and in 2005 by Liz Phair for the soundtrack to the popular television series Desperate Housewives. The song was performed by Jean-Louis Aubert and Alain Bashung during the January 2007 Les aventuriers d'un autre monde Tour. The song was also covered in 2007 acoustically by Canadian Punk band Sum 41 for their performance on the "AOL Sessions: Under Cover".
- ^ Joel Whitburn (1985), The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, ISBN 0-8230-7518-4
[edit] Trivia
- The Simpsons episode Brother's Little Helper is a pun on the song title. In the episode Bart Simpson is given Ritalin, which also references the "drugs content" of "Mother's Little Helper".
[edit] References
- Joel Whitburn (1985), The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, ISBN 0-8230-7518-4
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