"She's a Rainbow" is a song by the British band The Rolling Stones that was released as a single on December 23, 1967. In addition, this piece of music is included in the album "Their Satanic Majesties Request", eighth commercial album of these guys from London.
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After the departure of producer Andrew L. Oldham, the band had no better idea than to do that task themselves at the controls, and because they were going through a tough time, where sales were going against them and the wide range of British bands had left them somewhat in oblivion, they decided to try their luck with nothing more and nothing less than Psychedelic rock.
It was the year in which their fellow marchers, the tousled The Beatles, had released "Sgt. Pepper's", the album that revolutionized the musical panorama of that year in all its aspects and with which they immediately marked the ground for the new generations that were awakening in the dawn of peace, love and flowers.
The Stones' response was "Their Satanic Majesties Request", an album where they experimented with all kinds of musical styles, invited a wide range of well-known artists and gave free rein to all their ideas that went beyond a simple contract to play the old rock and roll that was already mutating in those days.
One of those salvageable songs of this psychedelic rock project is a wonderful and well arranged ballad written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, titled "She's a Rainbow". This song was the only one that passed through the hands of producer Oldham, who was not very comfortable with these new compositions with "good guys" airs and decided to abandon the band's project. To this we had to add the personal problems that the producer had with the band's manager, Allen Klein.
Finally it was the musicians themselves who took over the production and decided to record this song on May 18, 1967, with the piano accompaniment of their personal friend Nicky Hopkins, who, accompanied by Brian Jones playing the melotron, unleashed a special atmosphere to accompany Jagger's vocal performance.
In the lyrical part, there are praises to the qualities of an elegant and fascinating woman, without that spicy and rebellious touch of yesteryear. Here the lyrics take a positive tone, full of phrases of love, sweetness and without any image that would give misunderstandings with sexuality and the wild power of these rockers who were the opposite image to the innocent Beatles in those years.
An interesting fact about the musical part is that the chorus of this song contains a certain similarity in chords and phrases with the song "She Comes in Colors" that the American band "Love" had published in December 1966, and that had caught the attention of the Stones weeks before entering the recording studio.
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Once the song was finished being recorded and arranged, Jagger had the idea of adding a string section to give a new style to his creation. But the task was not so easy, especially if you did not have the opinion of a producer with experience in this type of arrangement. Finally the band managed to find a young session musician named John Paul Jones, who immediately got down to work and hit the nail on the head with a remarkable string section that to this day is remembered with great enthusiasm by music critics. This young musician would leave anonymity and would enter rock history two years later, when he was part of the powerful band Led Zeppelin, with which he played bass, keyboard and producer, obtaining fame, millions and good rock and roll.
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The song was released as a promotional single of the album only for the United States, in December 1967, and only reached the #25 position in the American charts. But that was not an impediment for it to appear on all the compilations and Greatest Hits that the band has released in their career, and to appear, albeit occasionally, on the 1997 Bridges to Babylon Tour.
A remarkable song, with perfect melodies and spectacular arrangements. Although it did not manage to surpass the acclaimed Sergeant Pepper of The Beatles, with songs like this one it could be said that the furious Rolling Stones could give the surprise with the passing of the years.