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The Rolling Stones — Sweet Virginia
Album: Exile On Main Street
Avg rating:
7.8

Your rating:
Total ratings: 501









Released: 1972
Length: 4:21
Plays (last 30 days): 0
(no lyrics available)
Comments (67)add comment
Long Live                                                                                  Radio Paradise                 
My rating  :                                                                     8 - Most Excellent
Sad that gem is found only on PSD.

Lyrics:

Wadin' through the waste stormy winter,
And there's not a friend to help you through.
Tryin' to stop the waves behind your eyeballs,
Drop your reds, drop your greens and blues.

Thank you for your wine, California,
Thank you for your sweet and bitter fruits.

Yes I got the desert in my toenail
And I hid the speed inside my shoe.

I want you to come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
I want you come on, honey child, I beg of you.
I want you come on, come on down, you got it in you.
(honey child)
Got to scrape the shit right off you shoes.

But Come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
Come on, honey child, I beg of you.
Come on,…


 Proclivities wrote:
Great to hear this actually being "broadcast".  I remember occasionally hearing clumsily censored versions on the radio.

 

What was the chorus on the censored version over the airwaves?

"Got to scrape the "gum" right off your shoes"?
A great example of why this album is by far their best - all kinds of sounds coming from the lads, including this gorgeous song!! {#Biggrin}
As others have noted, this somewhat under-rated Stones song is better many years later on their album Sripped..  Gawd.The Stones. Couple of dozen iconic songs, and many more merely great.  I don't care about the hype or whether they're in it for the money.  I was sixteen when Satisfaction was released.  They have been the soundtrack to my life.
 Diego21 wrote:
Anybody else's Stones favorite album?
 
Does the Pope shit in the woods?


Sounds like Paolo Nutini's grandfather singing in the backround.
 zenhead wrote:
this was performed better (i thought) - rootsy-er - on the "stripped" album. they have a great slouchy sound on it.
 
Yep... they and it sounded as good if not better in 1995 as they/it did in 1972!!

 Diego21 wrote:
Anybody else's Stones favorite album?
 
Yes!  My favorite 'back in the day' album.   I really like the Stripped album from the '90s, which to me represents a return to their basics - I even prefer the Stripped version of Sweet Virginia to the original.


This song feels like they are just sittin' on a deck jamming.  I love it.
One of the few Stones songs I actually like and turn up!
Arguably their best ever, given the timing, certainly one of their top 3 albums, which is saying something.
Anybody else's Stones favorite album?
This is good for my soul, rocks off!
this was performed better (i thought) - rootsy-er - on the "stripped" album. they have a great slouchy sound on it.
this song cracks me up everytime
Killer stuff: there are at least two cds worth of out-tales from this period , at least i have 2 cds worth of it,and the alt versions are very good.....

God, these guys were great when they were in their prime.
 Gotdablues wrote:
The Big Three: Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Street; at their absolute peak!
 
And to complement the trilogy, the live album from the same period, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out!

Along quite different lines, Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967, just before Beggars Banquet) moves me in mysterious ways.

Sticky Fingers, yeah, it's up there too.
 Gotdablues wrote:
The Big Three: Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Street; at their absolute peak!
 
 AuralSects wrote:
Of course, Sticky Fingers certainly had it's moments, probably forty minutes worth. Maybe there could be a Big Four.
 
I agree. You gotta include Sticky Fingers for sure. After that it's up for debate.


Great to hear this actually being "broadcast".  I remember occasionally hearing clumsily censored versions on the radio.
 Gotdablues wrote:
The Big Three: Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Street; at their absolute peak!
 

Of course, Sticky Fingers certainly had it's moments, probably forty minutes worth. Maybe there could be a Big Four.
 Gotdablues wrote:
The Big Three: Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Street; at their absolute peak!
 

You betcha!
This song has particular meaning for me spending my entire life in California except for the last three years in Virginia.
Nice segue from Gomez, who also have a song named "Sweet Virginia" . . . .
It's ok...a little too contrived for me.
It's only bluesy country stomp, but I like it! {#Cowboy}

Perhaps a skilled therapist could explain why I've always like this song so freakin' much. I've dug deep, I've got nuthin'
physicsgenius wrote:
Mick couldn't come out of the bathroom, or at least open the door, before recording the vocals?
This was mastered way before digital, of course; sounds like they used a 4-track system and the vocal mics were dropped a tad bit. If you wanted to you could pull up the vocals and boost them, but who knows where the master is these days. Important, sacred, stuff is lost everyday by incompetent Keepers. NASA has managed to loose all kinds of original stuff from the moon missions; thousands of motion picture masters have been lost or neglected to the point of destruction; indeed thousands of films are no longer existent. Unique recordings made in the 1920's and 30's are long gone, as are thousands of 78 rpm symphonic pieces. The permanence of recording media is a real problem. Remember that when you create something -- even if it is your baby's first words -- preserve the media for future generations. My first words and that of my mother and father were recorded in 1944 on a home disk recorder which cut a plastic 7 inch 78 rpm record. I remember hearing it when I was about 10 years old. It is long gone and how I wish I could play it for my grandchildren. Be careful out there!
The Big Three: Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Street; at their absolute peak!
This is one of their best singles from one of their best albums. Their forte' is R&B and Motown, and they do it better than anyone else I know. Thanks, RP
duke wrote:
Great song. To me, when the Stones were at their peak, whatever genre they attempted (R&B, psychedelic, country, roots, gospel) they ruled the roost. also, one of my favorite beginnings of any song. thanks for playing it!
Pretty damn close to it, anyway! Great album!
They could really do their blues nice and dirty.
Some of my fondest memories are of sitting around with one of my best friends in the world and his guitar, drinking until we forgot who we were and singing this song. "Thank you for your wine, California..." Such sweet and bitter fruit.
The best stones album-love the raw production.
ugh
sorry, this one just doesnt do it for me....
Pure Rolling Stones! You can almost smell the bourbon and cigarettes .
Please don't ever, ever play this song again.
Not feeling this. For once, I agree with the self-proclaimed physicsgenius.
physicsgenius wrote:
Mick couldn't come out of the bathroom, or at least open the door, before recording the vocals?
It must stink if where youre from 90% of everything is crap... But then again, if you havn't left, you must be a fecalfeliac.
Mick couldn't come out of the bathroom, or at least open the door, before recording the vocals?
Mari wrote:
"Drop your reds, drop your greens & blues"...Sweet Virginia, Exile On Main Street... ...
Dammit Beavis!
jbpjayhawk wrote:
Call it hyperbolic, but I think that this is the greatest Rock-n-Roll album of all time.
with Sgt. Pepper, of course.
Some days I can't stand the whining sound of Mick's voice and this is one of them.
Thanks RP! You can never hear this song on reg. radio, and we all know why...and it aint'--- "Drop your reds, drop your greens & blues"
'you got to scrape that shit right off your shoe...' so true. good call, mick jagger. i love the rolling stones.
jbpjayhawk wrote:
Call it hyperbolic, but I think that this is the greatest Rock-n-Roll album of all time.
It's in a class by itself, that's for sure.
Call it hyperbolic, but I think that this is the greatest Rock-n-Roll album of all time.
AC wrote:
OK. Doesn't like that either. How about sh*take mushrooms?
May I suggest: shrap?
am wrote:
It just swings!
That it does.
banana wrote:
that is some obnoxious harmonica playing, stick with your own cultural roots, Mick!
I'm thinkin' if Mick and the British Invasion boys had never played American Blues, we'd have never heard of folks like Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, Howlin' Wolf and the rest of them that were hardly ever played on U.S. radio, until after they had been re-introduced to the U.S. by Cream, the Stones, Peter Green and other early Brit Blues bands... In other words, had it not been for the British invasion, we'd probably still never have heard much about the roots of blues in the USA.
Bitchin_Bob wrote:
How sweet it is! You can you feel the Gram Parsons influence.
Um...so that's why I like it. #-o Just love GP's music! I'm not a Stones fan (at all!) but this is such a great song! It just swings!
Well my memory fails more as I get older. i thought this was a cut from Beggars Banquet. Hey play something from Beggars Banquet will ys Bill? I love the raw funk that the Rolling Stones delivered on these albums.
more exile!
Originally Posted by AC: OK. Doesn't like that either. How about sh*take mushrooms?
Damn. This is fascinating. OK. I'm done hogging bandwidth now.
Originally Posted by AC: Testing: How about "sh*te"? (All you Irish kids, cover your eyes....)
OK. Doesn't like that either. How about sh*take mushrooms?
Originally Posted by AC: Ahhhh.... May well have been the first "dirty" lyric (other than, of course, "Louie Louie" to slip under the regulator radar.
And then the message board software finds it necessary to insert a "*" in the middle of "sh it" in my post. ROTFLMAO Testing: How about "sh*te"? (All you Irish kids, cover your eyes....)
Ahhhh.... "Got to scrape the sh*t right off your shoes." May well have been the first "dirty" lyric (other than, of course, "Louie Louie" to slip under the regulator radar. Geez. Remember when they couldn't air "Don't give a damn about a greenback dollar" without excising the offending usage? (Am I getting old, or what?)
Ahhhhh, this gets me right where I live: SWEET VIRGINIA!
Great song. To me, when the Stones were at their peak, whatever genre they attempted (R&B, psychedelic, country, roots, gospel) they ruled the roost. also, one of my favorite beginnings of any song. thanks for playing it!
How sweet it is! You can you feel the Gram Parsons influence.