Mother's Little Helper

"Mother's Little Helper"
Single by The Rolling Stones
from the album Aftermath
B-side "Lady Jane"
Released June 1966 (1966-06)
Format 7"
Recorded 3–8 December 1965
Genre Psychedelic pop
Length 2:40
Label London
Writer(s) Jagger/Richards
Producer(s) Andrew Loog Oldham
The Rolling Stones singles chronology
"Paint It Black"
(1966)		 "Mother's Little Helper" / "Lady Jane"
(1966)		 "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"
(1966)
Aftermath track listing

"Mother's Little Helper" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track to the United Kingdom version of their 1966 album Aftermath.

It was released as a single in the United States and peaked at #8 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1966. The B-side "Lady Jane" peaked at #24.[1]

Composition

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Mother's Little Helper" was recorded in Los Angeles from 3–8 December 1965. The song deals with the sudden popularity of diazepam, a mild tranquilizer, among housewives and the ease of obtaining it from their GPs.

The song begins with the line that is also heard as the last line in the repeated bridge section: "What a drag it is getting old".

“ Kids are different today, I hear every mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day[2]		 ”

The bridge section, which is repeated, says the line: "Doctor, Please,/Some more of these,/ Outside the Door,/ She took Four More".

Toward the end of the song, the mothers are warned:

“ And if you take more of those
you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
They just helped you on your way
through your busy dying day[2]		 ”

The song is based around folksy chords and an eastern-flavoured guitar riff sounding like a sitar, but is a slide riff played on an electric 12-string.

Keith Richards stated in 2002: "(The strange guitar sound is) a 12-string with a slide on it. It's played slightly Oriental-ish. The track just needed something to make it twang. Otherwise, the song was quite vaudeville in a way. I wanted to add some nice bite to it. And it was just one of those things where someone walked in and, Look, it's an electric 12-string. It was some gashed-up job. No name on it. God knows where it came from. Or where it went. But I put it together with a bottleneck. Then we had a riff that tied the whole thing together. And I think we overdubbed onto that. Because I played an acoustic guitar as well." Richards also remembers the ending of the song being the idea of Bill Wyman [3]

The song is in the key of E minor, but ends in the key of G major.

Personnel

Cover versions

Los Ovnis (Mexican band from the 1960s) made a version titled "Pequeña Ayuda de Mamá" in 1966.

In 1968 the Chilean band Beat 4 made a version of this song called "Sólo Para Jóvenes" included in Juegos Prohibidos EP.

Mad Parade, punk/rock band from Los Angeles, California, covered the song on their Right Is Right EP, released in 1986.

Over the years the song has been recorded by many notable artists, including Gene Latter, Tesla on their 1990 live acoustic album Five Man Acoustical Jam, Liz Phair for the 2005 soundtrack to the television series Desperate Housewives, and Sum 41 for their acoustic performance on the Sessions@AOL "Sessions Under Cover" series in 2007.

The Go-Go's covered the song on their "Ladies Gone Wild" tour in 2011.

Mary Coughlan covered the song on her 1990 Uncertain Pleasures album.

References

  1. ↑ Joel Whitburn (1985), The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, ISBN 0-8230-7518-4
  2. 1 2 Gilliland, John (1969). "The Rubberization of Soul: The great pop music renaissance" (audio). Pop Chronicles. Digital.library.unt.edu. Track 5.
  3. ↑ http://www.timeisonourside.com/SOMothersLittle.html
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