The fleeting incarceration of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards after their drug convictions of 1967 was one of many largest tales of what grew to become identified – mockingly, of their case – because the Summer season of Love.
This extraordinary entry within the historical past of the Rolling Stones was quickly illustrated by the band’s personal memorable single impressed by the affair, “We Love You.” At a nighttime recording session at Olympic Studios on July 19 that yr, backing vocals and percussion for the upcoming Decca launch had been laid down by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
The gesture by the 2 Beatles was a present of solidarity for his or her associates and a measure of the outrage felt about Jagger and Richards’ imprisonment. Even because the case was ongoing, an earlier such gesture had been made by The Who, once they recorded swiftly-convened covers of “The Last Time” and “Under My Thumb.”
Defiance and disdain
The Stones had been at Olympic recording what grew to become Their Satanic Majesties Request, their sixth British album, which adopted in December. “We Love You” wasn’t on it, which supplies it an much more distinct place within the occasions of that yr. Opening to the sound of jail doorways banging shut, it then featured an imposing piano riff by Nicky Hopkins. Defiant Jagger-Richards lyrics confirmed each appreciation for his or her followers’ help in the course of the ordeal, and disdain for the institution that, of their eyes, condoned it. To make the purpose much more powerfully, there was a placing promotional movie directed by Peter Whitehead.
“We Love You” was launched on August 18 within the UK, and two weeks later in America. It entered the UK charts on the twenty sixth, and spent most of September within the British High 10, with a No.8 peak. Within the US, “Dandelion” was promoted because the A-side of the only and reached No.14, however curiosity and airplay for “We Love You” was sufficient to earn it a No.50 peak of its personal.
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