V03-T01a Sound effect of jail doors

.....Today begins the second cassette. As it happens, we open with a closing. Slam, slam, go the jail guitar doors, alright, but this isn't a Clash song.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 1a

• 00:09 [excerpt from "WE LOVE YOU" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards)]
• performed by The Rolling Stones
• original source: A-side, 7" Decca F12654 (UK) 08/18/67
• and my source: 3CD THE ROLLING STONES SINGLES COLLECTION* THE LONDON YEARS Abkco 1218-2 (US) 08/15/89

.....On February 12th, 1967, Chief Inspector Gordon Dinely led a raid on Keith Richards' country home while numerous guests were there. An American from the West Coast was allowed to leave carrying a suitcase filled to the gills with LSD and a bit of everything else. He was apparently a wannabe dealer planted there by a Murdoch-style scandal paper that was being sued by the Stones for libel and likely to lose the case. They alerted the police that there would be a drug fueled party at the address, and had a man on the inside to make sure that there was. Unfortunately for them he disappeared with most of it. All that was found was a small amount of heroin on an art gallery owner and a few amphetamine pills for which Jagger may or may not have had a prescription. When the Stones failed to drop the libel suit, another well-publicized raid occurred at Brian Jones' house (this time with no set up necessary) in May. (Jones readily admitted to having a small amount of hash, but not the panoply of addictive substances the police seemed to expect would be there.) In June, when Jagger and Richards were sentenced, Richards was given a year in prison simply for owning that house the police chose to target. The sentences were overturned after review (with the reasoning that, if you're going to put someone in jail for a crime, it would be nice to produce tangible evidence), but only after widespread public outcry, including an editorial from the staunchly conservative London Times. Editor William Rees-Mogg was appalled that police powers and resources were so blatantly abused and that Judge Block (who handed out the original sentences) would use his position to indulge his cultural bigotries.

.....In June the Stones recorded this single at Olympic Studios with Lennon and McCartney providing backing vocals for release in August. In the meantime, the Who rush released a cover single ("Under My Thumb" b/w "The Last Time") in July as a show of support. But it was the slamming of the doors that opens the song (excerpted here) more than the sarcastic chorus that set the tone for rebellion and outsider culture that permeates much of side three.