Melody - The Rolling Stones (1976) video free download

"Melody" was released in the spring of 1976 on The Rolling Stones 13th album, Black And Blue. This album is first in the string of four (also including Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, and Tattoo You) albums by The Rolling Stones that rank as my very favorite by the band. They probably had a few stronger earlier albums (though Some Girls is hard to beat), but these are special mainly because I have very strong memories associated with each from my high school/college years.

This is my 3rd video for a song by The Rolling Stones; also did "Wild Horses" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xmY6sSkHGM and "Dance Parts 1 & 2" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK-xgLzZcI4. There were 2 or three other tracks from the album that I'd loved to have worked with, but "Melody" is one of my favorites....I really love Billy Preston's contributions to the song and the time shifts, horn arrangements make it really shine.

In December 1974, the Rolling Stones returned to Munich, Germany—the recording site of their previous release It's Only Rock 'n' Roll—and began the recording of their new album at Musicland Studios. With a view to releasing it in time for the summer 1975 Tour of the Americas, the band broke for the holidays and returned in January in Rotterdam, Netherlands to continue working—all the while auditioning new guitarists as they recorded. Among the hopefuls were Steve Marriott, Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins, Peter Frampton, and Ronnie Wood. With much work to follow, it was decided to delay the album for the following year and release the Made in the Shade compilation instead. "Cherry Oh Baby" (which was a cover version of Eric Donaldson's 1971 reggae song) would be the only song from the upcoming album sporadically played on the Tour of the Americas.

Following the conclusion of the tour, the band went to Montreux, Switzerland in October for some overdub work, returning to Musicland Studios in Munich in December to perform similar work. After some final touch-ups, Black and Blue was completed in New York City in February 1976.

In February 1976 the Stones flew to Sanibel Island Beach on Sanibel Island, Florida to be photographed by famed fashion photographer Hiro for the album cover art.

Stylistically, Black and Blue embraces funk with "Hot Stuff"; reggae with their cover of "Cherry Oh Baby"; and jazz with "Melody", featuring the talents of Billy Preston - a heavy contributor to the album. Musical and thematic styles were merged on the seven-minute "Memory Motel", with both Jagger and Richards contributing lead vocals to a love song embedded within a life-on-the-road tale.

Released in April 1976—with "Fool to Cry", a worldwide Top 10 hit, as its lead single—Black and Blue reached #2 in the UK and spent an interrupted four week spell at #1 in the US, going platinum there. Critical view was polarized: Lester Bangs wrote in Creem that "the heat's off, because it's all over, they really don't matter anymore or stand for anything" and "This is the first meaningless Rolling Stones album, and thank God";[4] but in the 1976 Creem Consumer Guide Robert Christgau rated the album an A-.

"Melody" lists "Inspiration by Billy Preston". Bill Wyman would later release a version of "Melody" with his Rhythm Kings, crediting Preston as author.

The album was promoted with a controversial billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood that depicted the model Anita Russell, bruised and bound by Jagger, under the phrase "I'm Black and Blue from the Rolling Stones — and I love it!"

Two extra tracks recorded in the Rotterdam sessions were later released on 1981's Tattoo You—"Slave" and "Worried About You".

[Lyrics]

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Came home one morning about quarter to three

I'm banging on my door cause I just lost my key

Open up, baby, you got someone else inside

I'm going to come get you dead or alive

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

I took her out dancing but she drank away my cash

She said, "I'm going to fix my face don't you worry I'll be back"

I'm looking for her high and low like a mustard for a ham

She was crashed out in the bathroom

In the arms of my best friend

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name...

Then one day she left me

She took everything that moved

My car, she took my trailer home

She took my Sunday boots

My nose is on her trail

I'm going to catch her by surprise

Then I'm going to have the pleasure

To roast that child alive

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name

Melody, it was her second name...