"Winter" is a song by the English

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

band

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

featured on their 1973 album ''

Goats Head Soup ''Goats Head Soup'' is the 11th British and 13th American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was released on 31 August 1973 by Rolling Stones Records. Like its predecessor '' Exile on Main St.'', the band composed and ...

''. Credited to singer

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

and guitarist

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

, "Winter" is actually the work of Jagger and the Stones' lead guitarist at the time,

Mick Taylor Michael Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, he appeared on: ''Let It Bleed'' ...

. It was the first song recorded for the album and does not feature Richards.

Background

About the song,

Bill Janovitz Bill Janovitz (born June 3, 1966) is an American musician and writer. He is the singer, guitarist, and songwriter of alternative rock band Buffalo Tom, and has also released three solo albums. Janovitz has written extensively for Allmusic, author ...

says in his review, "Here they were in sunny

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, and the Stones were writing and recording an entirely convincing and evocative picture of a Northern Hemisphere winter. Perhaps they were so happy to be escaping the season they felt that starting the sessions with 'Winter' could transition them out of the old and into the new climate. Though it bemoans many of the negatives of the season n thelyrics ... tseems to simultaneously celebrate the season as something inherently beautiful, with other evocations of holiday scenes and wanting to wrap a coat and keep a lover warm." Recording began at Kingston's

Dynamic Sounds West Indies Records Limited (WIRL) was a recording studio in Kingston, Jamaica established by future Prime Minister Edward Seaga in 1958. Seaga recruited and recorded many artists such as Higgs and Wilson, and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. As Sea ...

studio in November and continued into December 1972. Jagger opens the song with the rhythm guitar piece and is accompanied by Taylor's "country-like licks" on lead. Taylor also plays slide guitar.

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

performs the song's accompanying piano while Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts perform bass and drums, respectively. The strings were arranged by Nicky Harrison. Despite his considerable contribution to the song, Taylor never received official credit from Jagger or Richards.

Reception

In 2004, British actor

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with '' The Illuminatus!'' in 1977. There he ...

picked "Winter" as his favourite track on the BBC's radio show, ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

''.

In popular culture

The song was featured in the series finale of the CBS drama ''

Cold Case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or r ...

'' on 2 May 2010.

Personnel

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar *

– lead guitar, slide guitar * Bill Wyman – bass guitar * Charlie Watts – drums *

– piano *Nicky Harrison – string arrangement

Other recordings

Carla Olson and Mick Taylor recorded two versions of "Winter". One is on Olson's ''The Ring of Truth'' album and the other appears on ''Too Hot For Snakes Plus''. (One disc was a re-release of the Olson/Taylor ''Too Hot for Snakes'' live album and the second was thirteen studio tracks featuring the two from Olson's various solo albums plus one song from the Barry Goldberg album ''Stoned Again'' which she produced).

References

External links

Complete Official Lyrics
{{Authority control The Rolling Stones songs 1973 songs Songs written by Jagger–Richards Song recordings produced by Jimmy Miller