In Another Land

For the Larry Norman album, see In Another Land (album).
"In Another Land"
Single by The Rolling Stones
from the album Their Satanic Majesties Request
B-side "The Lantern"
(by The Rolling Stones)
Released 2 December 1967
Format 7"
Recorded 13 July 1967
Genre Psychedelic rock, acid rock
Length 2:48
Label London 45.907
Writer(s) Bill Wyman
Producer(s) The Rolling Stones
Bill Wyman singles chronology
"In Another Land"
(1967)		 "(Si, Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star"
(1981)
The Rolling Stones chronology
"We Love You / Dandelion"
(1967)		 "In Another Land" / "The Lantern"
(1967)		 "She's a Rainbow"
(1967)
Their Satanic Majesties Request track listing

"In Another Land" is a song by The Rolling Stones, and the third track on their album Their Satanic Majesties Request. It was released as a single a week before the album.

Written by bassist Bill Wyman, "In Another Land" is the only Rolling Stones song to feature Wyman on lead vocals, and one of only three Rolling Stones songs to be written by him (the others being "Downtown Suzie" and the unreleased "Goodbye Girl"). The single was released in December 1967, credited to Bill Wyman, with the Stones' "The Lantern" as the B-side. It peaked at number 87 on the United States pop chart.

Background

The song was recorded on a night when Wyman had shown up to the studio and found that the session had been cancelled. Feeling frustrated that he had potentially wasted time in driving to the studio, engineer Glyn Johns asked him if he had anything that he'd like to record. "...I'd been messing with this song. It was a bit... what I thought was kind of spacy, you know... a bit kind of Satanic Majesties-like. And psychedelic in a way."[1]

Lyrically, Wyman stated that "The idea for the song is about this guy who wakes up from a dream and finds himself in another dream."[1] The song describes events that transpire in a dreamlike state:

We walked across the sand

And the sea and the sky and the castles were blue
I stood and held your hand
And the spray flew high and the feathers floated by
I stood and held your hand

Johns showed the song to singer Mick Jagger, and guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones who all liked it and decided to include it on the record.[1]

The musicians on the song are Wyman on lead vocals and piano, Small Faces vocalist Steve Marriott on 12-string acoustic guitar and backing vocals, Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces on backing vocals, Brian Jones on mellotron and backing vocals, Nicky Hopkins on harpsichord, and Charlie Watts on drums, with Jagger and Richards adding backing vocals at a later stage of the recording. Wyman later overdubbed the bass part. It is unknown who played the organ part; most sources give to either Brian Jones or Nicky Hopkins.

At the conclusion of the track as heard on the album, Wyman himself can be heard snoring. He was unaware this had been tagged onto his song until he first played the completed album. He learned later that one night when he had fallen asleep in the studio, Jagger and Richards miked him up and recorded him snoring, and stuck it onto his track as a joke. This does not appear on the single.

Personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 "In Another Land". Time Is on Our Side. Retrieved 7 October 2006.
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