SO YOUNG
Mick Jagger / Keith Richards / 3:20
SINGLE (CD)
Love Is Strong* / The Storm / So Young / Love Is Strong**
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: July 4, 1994
Record number: Virgin Records VSCDT 1503
* LOVE IS STRONG
** BOB CLEARMOUNTAIN REMIX
Musicians
Mick Jagger: vocals, Dobro, harmonica
Keith Richards: rhythm and lead (?) guitar, backing vocals
Bill Wyman: bass
Charlie Watts: drums
Ian Stewart: piano
Ron Wood: rhythm guitar
Chuck Leavell: piano solo
Recorded
EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Boulogne-Billancourt, France: January 5–March 2, 1978
A&M Studios, Los Angeles: January 15–April 1994
Technical Team
Producers: Chris Kimsey, the Glimmer Twins
Sound engineers: Bobby Sage, Don Smith (?)
Genesis
The narrator has met a girl in a movie theater who is so young that he appeals to the Lord for help not give in to temptation. At first glance, however, she is not particularly seductive: she has zits on her face, and is incapable of walking straight. Everything changes rapidly, however, when the narrator buys her a pair of boots. He has to calm his excitement and prepare to beat a quick retreat. “So Young” dates back to the Some Girls sessions at the Pathé Marconi Studios in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the suburbs of Paris, at the beginning of 1978. There are a number of versions. The one used for the single “Love Is Strong” and later included in the box set The Singles 1971—2006 (2011), is the 1978 recording produced by Chris Kimsey and enhanced in 1994 with some piano from Chuck Leavell. There is also the 2011 version on the Some Girls bonus disc, which has vocal additions from Mick Jagger. Finally, there is a piano version that was made available as a download in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2011.
Production
When the Stones stop trying to keep up with the latest musical trends, they revert to their natural inclination for rock ’n’ roll. This fabulous rock number resuscitated some sixteen years after it was originally cut, in Boulogne-Billancourt, proves the point. When the British band is cruising—there is no way anything can overtake it! Mick Jagger sings with a passion and sensuality that make him a one-off in the genre. Keith and Ronnie are well coordinated on the guitar, each of them playing a killer rhythm part, and it seems to be Keith who takes the solo at 1:53. Charlie smacks his skins with power, and Bill, whom we encounter once again on this track, reminds us what a fantastic bassist he was and what an extraordinary rhythm section he formed with Charlie. Similarly, the late lamented Stu is also to be heard on “So Young,” although it has to be said that the high point on the track is Chuck Leavell’s superb boogie-woogie piano solo added at the A&M Studios in Los Angeles.