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29 March - April; 15 May - 29 June 1989: Place:
Air Studios, Montserrat; Olympic Sound Studios, London, England.
Producer: Chris Kimsey, The Glimmer Twins.
Engineer: Christopher Marc Potter, Rupert Coulson, Michael H Brauer.
Track status: USA LP STEEL WHEELS: 28 August 1989: No 3 - 20 weeks
UK LP STEEL WHEELS: 29 August 1989: No 2 - 20 weeks
UK CD Single: 13 August 1990
Rolling Stones with Chuck Leavell, Bernard Fowler, Kick Horns, Simon
Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders, Paul Spong.
Sad Sad Sad is a typical Stones' belter. It opens
with a couple of guitars drawing fire from one to the other, then
Mick Jagger spouts the 'now you're down then you're up' lyrics.
Horns were added which enabled parallels to be drawn with other
Stones' garage tunes, Bitch, and Rocks Off. The brass was arranged
by the troupe Kick Horns and the quad brass sound of Simon Clarke,
Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders (all from Dave Gilmour's 1984 band) and
Paul Spong who had appeared with pop duo Wham. Sad Sad Sad was written
by Mick Jagger with the assistance of Charlie Watts. They wanted
to produce a rocker for the album without it falling into a Stones
cliche. Mick played rhythm guitar with good technique, which left
Keith to play the lead guitar and take the spotlight on the solo.
Bill Wyman was absent from the session which produced Sad Sad Sad
- his bass role was taken by Ron Wood. Ron tended to play the bass
in a much more frenzied manner, strumming it as opposed to Bill's
plucking style. Bill's absence was due to having been sent by the
band to Antigua for a press conference following the announcement
of his engagement to Mandy Smith who he planned to marry in June.
Bill's association with Mandy had consistently attracted major press
attention ever since stories circulated of under-age sexual encounters
with her at the time of the DIRTY WORK sessions when she was just
13-years-old. Mick summed up the situation when he shrugged and
said, 'well, that's lurve in the rock and roll world'. Meanwhile,
Bill made some men jealous by confirming that Mandy gave him youth
and made him feel younger.
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