As the old saying goes, ‘practice makes perfect’. Although some artists may look like they are born with natural talent that would be impossible for anyone to equal, there’s usually a lot more that goes into their performance than just sheer talent, often spending years working at their craft until they reach their peak. While The Rolling Stones may have had years of practice when working out of London clubs before they had a record deal, they were not equipped to record one of their classics.
For the back half of the 1960s, though, nothing was off the table for the British Invasion bad boys to cover. Throughout their formative years, the group were known to indulge in various styles of rock music, touching on the sounds of baroque pop on Between the Buttons before diving headfirst into psychedelia on Their Satanic Majesties Request.
Even though they may have pulled off various genres reasonably well, it didn’t take them long to figure out that their best material always circled back to the blues. Emulating their heroes from the first time they stepped onstage, The Stones would return to their favourite genre on albums like Beggars Banquet, kicking off a storm of records where they could practically do no wrong like Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed.
While this era ultimately led the band to part ways with founding member Brian Jones, they were about to embark on the most stunning recording sessions they had ever completed. Living as tax exiles throughout the recording, Exile on Main St would become one of the most elaborate productions the group had ever made, covering every genre that they thought would suit them.
Although blues is the common thread throughout every number, tracks like ‘Sweet Virginia’ boast the band’s stunning aptitude for country music, while songs like ‘Turd on the Run’ and ‘Rip This Joint’ helped predict the punk movement years before it would start. Across every song on the double album, though, nothing cut to the core greater than ‘Tumbling Dice’.
Featuring a steady rhythm through the tune, Mick Jagger delivers this ballad with the same gravitas that he would for a traditional rocker as Keith Richards wails away in the background. The tune sounds seamless when heard on its own, however, their producer remembered how much they struggled trying to get the final take.
Discussing the recording of the track, producer Jimmy Miller remembered spending days on end trying to find the right sounds to use for the record, saying, “That was a marathon tracking date. That went on for about two weeks. They would sit and play the intro riff over and over for hours and hours, trying to get the groove right. We must have done 150 or 200 takes”.
Although the band may have had to go the extra mile trying to establish the groove, the result feels almost effortless, featuring the band locking in and playing the song as if it’s second nature. This wouldn’t be the last time the band would have that problem, though, eventually running into a few hangups when crafting the song ‘Start Me Up’ a few years later. Many artists may think that writing is a walk in the park, but the massive amount of takes done of ‘Tumbling Dice’ is one of the greatest examples of the phrase ‘suffer for your art’.
