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Sister Morphine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Sister Morphine" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Song by The Rolling Stones | ||
| from the album Sticky Fingers | ||
| Released | April 23, 1971 | |
| Recorded | May - June, 1969 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 5m:31s | |
| Label | Rolling Stones/Virgin | |
| Writer(s) | Jagger/Richards/Faithfull | |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Miller | |
| Sticky Fingers track listing | ||
| "I Got the Blues" (7) |
"Sister Morphine" (8) |
"Dead Flowers" (9) |
"Sister Morphine" is a song originally released as a single by British singer Marianne Faithfull and later popularized by rock and roll band the Rolling Stones, found on their 1971 album release Sticky Fingers.
The song, with lyrics by Marianne Faithfull and music by her former boyfriend Mick Jagger, was written in Rome in 1968. The song is said to be about a dying man's harrowing pleas for morphine:
| “ | The scream of the ambulance is sounding in my ears. Tell me, Sister Morphine, how long have I been lying here? What am I doing in this place? Why does the doctor have no face? Oh, I can't crawl across the floor. Ah, can't you see, Sister Morphine, I'm trying to score. | ” |
Faithfull was a frequent user of drugs at the time, but would become a full-blown addict by the time this song appeared on Sticky Fingers. She also released a version of the song as a single in 1969. However due to the contentious lyrics (namely drug references) it was banned, and therefore sold poorly.
The Stones' version, recorded in May and June of 1969, was released two years later, but not as a single. With Jagger singing, the song features Ry Cooder on bottleneck guitar, Keith Richards on acoustic, and Jack Nitzsche on piano.
The song was initially credited to Jagger and Richards for contractual reasons. Faithfull still received a third share of the relevant royalties, however. She wrote in her 1994 memoir that "I lived off the royalties from "Sister Morphine" for several lean years". Faithfull's name finally appeared on the 1994 remastered release of Sticky Fingers.
The song was performed during the Rolling Stones' 1997/1998 Bridges to Babylon Tour. A live recording was captured and released on the 1999 live album No Security.