Tune Tuesday – Doom and Gloom – Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

If you made a list of bands that helped define the 60’s and 70’s, the Rolling Stones would surely be on that list. From the moment they hit the scene, they continued to make records and tour and did so for decades afterward.

On this day in 2012, they released GRRR! another hits compilation album. It was intended to commemorate the band’s 50th anniversary. The album features two new songs titled One More Shot and Doom and Gloom. Both new songs were released as singles.

When Doom and Gloom was recorded, it marked the first time that Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts, and Keith Richards had been in the studio together for seven years, since 2005. It didn’t exactly burn up the charts, but it did do well in some parts of the world.

Despite poor chart performance, Billboard magazine named “Doom and Gloom” the eighteenth best song of 2012.

In an interview with Esquire magazine Keith Richards said this was laid down very quickly. “I don’t think the Stones have ever cut a track so fast,” he said. “It was like three takes and – boom! We were like looking at each other and going, ‘Got anything else?’ It was amazingly quick. The Stones are amazing that way, their chemistry and their energy when they get together. The hard bit with the Stones is getting them together.”

He went on to say, “At first I said, Hey Mick, ‘Doom and Gloom’ is a kind of weird title for a 50-year celebration, you know? But you know what the Stones are like, it’s always against the grain. But he came up with it and it’s a great track and a really quite ‘funny’ song, actually – there are some great lyrics.”

For me, this sounds like a classic Stones song. Jagger is actually playing the guitar lick on it.