THE STONES HIT the ground running at the beginning of 1967 with a two-fisted, two-sided, almost “too” controversial forty-five-rpm single called “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” backed with “Ruby Tuesday.” The former was yet another hard-rocking, lewd, rude, and crude invitation by the Stones to cast off the pretenses and conventions of World War II era parents, and acknowledge that young people all over the world were engaging in all kinds of sexual relationships without the benefit of marriage. Well, once again, the Stones were a little bit ahead of their time, but a little bit behind the archconservatism of Big American Media.
As a result, the Stones ran into a thick brick wall of censorship when they tried to peddle the song on The Ed Sullivan Show (see chapter 13). And they also ran headlong into the same problem with the self-appointed guardians of culture and mores on the nation’s airwaves. (Just a note to point out here that while all of this was going on, a young Howard Stern, who had just turned thirteen years of age, was attending Roosevelt Junior High School on Long Island!)
“Let’s Spend the Night Together” was summarily banned on most of American radio, except for the new, more adventurous rock radio stations that had begun popping up on the FM dial in 1966—specifically WOR-FM in New York. But the law of supply and demand came into play, and the Stones were definitely in demand. Solution to the dilemma? “Let’s see what’s on the other side of ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together.’”
As it turned out, the flip side—“Ruby Tuesday”—was yet another soon-to-be legendary Rolling Stones ballad in the vein of “As Tears Go By” and “Lady Jane.” No string quartet, but a very engaging recorder solo contributed by Brian Jones AND a very real-life love connection for Keith Richards. The song (mostly written by Keith and Brian, with not much input from Mick) was about a woman described by Andrew Loog Oldham as Keith’s very first serious girlfriend, an English model named Linda Keith. Their relationship was coming to an end.
KEITH RICHARDS: It was probably written about Linda Keith not being there (laughs). I don’t know, she had pissed off somewhere. It was very mournful, very, VERY Ruby Tuesday and it was a Tuesday.
That’s one of those things—some chick you’ve broken up with. And all you’ve got left is the piano and the guitar and a pair of panties. And it’s goodbye you know. And so it just comes out of that. And after that you just build on it. It’s one of those songs that are easiest to write because you’re really right there, and you really sort of mean it. And for a songwriter, hey, break his heart and he’ll come up with a good song.
Good song? How about a GREAT song? And it not only captured the imagination of listeners all over the world, but also became the Stones’ fourth number one single in America. (Without comparable airplay, “Let’s Spend the Night Together” stalled at number fifty-five on the US charts.)