Rolling Stones - Waiting On A Friend (glamour slideshow)

Waiting On A Friend from ne033x on Vimeo.

It was first played as early as 1970, when Mick Taylor first joined the group and was recording with Jagger in London. Recording on "Waiting on a Friend" began in late 1972 through early 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica, during the Goats Head Soup sessions when the band still had Taylor as a member. His guitar piece made it to the overdubbing sessions in April 1981 when the song was selected by Tattoo You producer Chris Kimsey as one the band could re-work for the album.
96-98 St. Mark's Place

In the liner notes to 1993's compilation album Jump Back, Jagger said, "We all liked it at the time but it didn't have any lyrics, so there we were... The lyric I added is very gentle and loving, about friendships in the band." Jagger also had stated that the 1981 lyrics were contemplated for a future possible video, making the song the first Rolling Stones single to be packaged as a possible video for the emerging MTV channel.

The video, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who also directed their 1968 special The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus), became very popular on MTV and featured reggae artist Peter Tosh sitting on a stoop with Jagger who is seen waiting on Richards. The building is found at 96-98 St. Mark's Place in Manhattan, which is the same building featured on the album cover of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti. The video also features Ronnie Wood playing Mick Taylor's part (similar to the videos for "Hot Stuff" and "Worried About You," in which Wood is imitating the guitar playing of Harvey Mandel and Wayne Perkins respectively).

The lyrics see a more mature side of singer Mick Jagger represented. He speaks of setting aside women and vices in favor of making some sense of his life and finding the virtues inherent in true friendship:
" Don't need a whore, I don't need no booze, don't need a virgin priest. But I need someone I can cry to, I need someone to protect "

The song is noted for its dreamy qualities brought on by the soft guitars, smooth rhythm, and Jagger's lilting refrain of "doo-doo-doo"'s. The song contains a guitar intro with one bar in 7/4 at the very beginning, staying in 4/4 for the rest of the song. Stones-recording veteran Nicky Hopkins performs the track's running piano. The Rolling Stones hired jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins to perform the solo on this song, as well as two others on the album. On his addition to the track, Jagger said in 1985; "I had a lot of trepidation about working with Sonny Rollins. This guy's a giant of the saxophone. Charlie said, 'He's never going to want to play on a Rolling Stones record!' I said, 'Yes he is going to want to.' And he did and he was wonderful. I said, 'Would you like me to stay out there in the studio?' He said, 'Yeah, you tell me where you want me to play and DANCE the part out.' So I did that. And that's very important: communication in hand, dance, whatever. You don't have to do a whole ballet, but sometimes that movement of the shoulder tells the guy to kick in on the beat.