Bill Wyman / 3:15
Musicians
Mick Jagger: backing vocals
Keith Richards: acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Brian Jones: Mellotron
Bill Wyman: lead vocal, bass, organ (?)
Charlie Watts: drums
Nicky Hopkins: harpsichord, piano
Steve Marriott: backing vocals, guitar (?)
Ronnie Lane (?): backing vocals
Recorded
Olympic Sound Studios, London: July 13–?, 1967
Technical Team
Producers: the Rolling Stones
Sound engineer: Glyn Johns
Assistant sound engineer: Eddie Kramer
“In Another Land” occupies a special place in the catalog of the London quintet. This is because it is officially credited to Bill Wyman. The Rolling Stones bassist wrote the number at the beginning of July 1967 on a Thomas organ and then made a demo. Probably it would have progressed no further but for a lucky coincidence that he recounts in his memoirs: “Astrid [Lundström] and I drove to Barnes on 13 July to attend a recording session with the Stones at Olympic with Glyn Johns as engineer. Nobody else turned up except Charlie and pianist Nicky Hopkins. We were thinking of leaving when Glyn said to me, ‘Do you have a song to do?’ I sat at the piano and played ‘In Another Land’ and they all liked it.”6
Science fiction meets psychedelia: Bill Wyman’s song is highly characteristic of the second half of the sixties, in particular the summer of 1967. The story is of a man who wakes up from a dream only to find himself living another dream—a kind of dream within a dream. “In Another Land” was chosen as the A-side of a single released on December 2, 1967 (with “The Lantern” as the B-side), a few days before the album went on sale. It failed to chart in the United Kingdom, and in the United States it got no higher than number 87 on the Billboard pop chart.
Right from the intro, Bill plunges the listener into a medieval, dreamlike world. The track starts with a harpsichord played by Nicky Hopkins and a cello sound possibly created on the Mellotron (Brian Jones?). The surrealistic atmosphere is reinforced by wind effects, in all likelihood obtained from the Olympic Studios sound bank. Bill plays bass and is probably on the organ too, combining perfectly with Nicky’s harpsichord. The choruses give Charlie Watts an opportunity to let rip with an excellent drum part supported by Bill’s melodic and distinctly pop bass line played on his Vox Wyman. They also provide Nicky with scope for some superb rock piano (overdubbed). Having got the rhythmic foundation down, Bill now had to turn his attention to the vocals. Not particularly used to singing, he employed a trick to make himself feel more at ease. His voice can be heard sounding not particularly assured and somewhat somber, but masked by a studio effect. He explains: “It then came time to add the vocals, which worried me. In the end I suggested tremolo on my voice.” This is what gives his vocal (though not on the choruses) its curious quasi-aquatic, quasi-psychedelic timbre. Bill continues: “The Small Faces were recording next door, and Glyn asked Steve Marriott to come in and help me. We sang it together and it worked well. The track was given the working title ‘Acid in the Grass.’” Steve Marriott sang a few lines of counterpoint and added a vocal part in the refrains. (It is sometimes claimed that Ronnie Lane, another member of the Small Faces, was also involved, but this has not been confirmed.) The number was then ready to be submitted to the Glimmer Twins for a verdict: “Next night Glyn told Mick and Keith about the session and played them what we’d done. They liked it, agreeing it was compatible with the rest of the tracks. I’d finally broken the ‘songwriting’ stranglehold of Mick and Keith.”6 The Twins nevertheless insisted on adding some backing vocals of their own in the refrains. Keith also contributed some acoustic guitar on his Gibson Hummingbird and Brian adds his inimitable touch on the Mellotron, selecting what is probably a mandolin sound. All in all, “In Another Land” is a very good number, not far from the sound world of Syd Barrett, who had released “Arnold Layne” with Pink Floyd at the beginning of the year. It lacks a proper ending, however: from 2:54 twenty seconds of loud snoring can be heard! Legend has it that this was Bill, who had grown weary of waiting for Mick and Keith to return and had fallen asleep… Can Bill please confirm this?