"Too Much Blood" is a song by the Rolling Stones featured on their 1983 album '' Undercover''. Credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Too Much Blood" is largely a Jagger composition. The song is a reflection of the many influences the Stones had during their career in the mid-1980s. Jagger said at the time of its release, "I had made out a very honest burden of mind before everyone had arrived one night. It was just Charlie attsand Bill yman And one of our roadies called Jim Barber, he was playing guitar on it too. And I just started playing this riff I had, with this middle part, I didn't have any words to it and then I just suddenly started rapping out these words which are the ones you hear." Barber remarked that "Mick asked me if I could do an ' Andy Summers' on the track." The song itself deals with the growing depictions of violence in the media at the time and the case of Issei Sagawa, with Jagger saying, "Well there was this scandalous, murderous story in France - it was a true story - about this Japanese guy who murdered this girl and it sort of captured the imagination of the French public, and the Japanese. The Russians wanted to make a movie out of it. So that was the first bit and then I started becoming more light-hearted about it, movies and all. ...it came out as a sort of anti-gratuitous cinema of violence. And it's a kind of anti-violent thing." Jagger uses a half-hearted rap delivery for some lines, saying at the time, "I'm not a great rapper... It's just made up on the spot as well. It's completely extemporized, as well, most of it. A couple words I cleaned up. I don't mean clean up, just made better sounds. That was just rap off the top of my head. I didn't write it down, even." Recording took place at Paris' Pathé Marconi Studios and New York City's Hit Factory between October and November 1982. With Jagger on lead vocals, he also performs electric guitars with Barber and Wood. Horns are provided by Chops and percussion by

Sly Dunbar Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie. Biography Dunbar began playing at 15 in a band called ...

. A dance version of "Too Much Blood," remixed by Arthur Baker, was released as a twelve-inch single in December 1984. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said that "heavy percussion fills and an almost tribal groove marks this Arthur Baker mix, yet even his bag full of tricks can not turn this fundamentally soul-less tune into a party stopper." A music video, directed by

Julien Temple Julien Temple (born 26 November 1953) is a British film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll ...

, was produced in support showing the band performing the song as well as Richards and guitarist Ron Wood chasing Jagger with chainsaws. The trio also appear, without chainsaws but still in character, on the record sleeve for the single. The video opens with an excerpt from the first movement of the String Quartet Number 3 by

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

. "Too Much Blood" has never been performed live by the Stones and appears on no compilations albums.

References

{{Authority control The Rolling Stones songs 1983 songs Songs based on actual events Songs about cannibalism Songs written by Jagger–Richards Song recordings produced by Jagger–Richards Song recordings produced by Chris Kimsey Music videos directed by Julien Temple Virgin Records singles