1981Released
6:32

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Slave. By Songfacts®.

This rocker is a musical showcase for the band, with a blues feel and a saxophone solo by the jazz great Sonny Rollins. Lyrically, there's not much to it, with Mick Jagger repeating "do it" and "don't wanna be your slave" over and over. There is a short spoken part where he asks the lady to steal something for him at the supermarket, but that's as far as the story develops.

Originally recorded at the Black And Blue sessions in 1974, this song went on for a while and was called "The Black And Blue Jam" before being reworked for the 1981 album Tattoo You. It runs 4:55 on most versions of the vinyl album, but on CD and in digital forms of the album, a longer version running 6:34 was used.

Pete Townshend from The Who sang backup. Some connections between Townshend and The Stones: Townshend claims he stole his legendary windmill arm swing from Keith Richards. The Who played at The Stones Rock And Roll Circus concert event in 1968. The film wasn't released until 1996. In 1976, Townshend contributed to Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane's Mahoney's Last Stand project. In 1982, following the end of the Stones' European tour, Mick Jagger accompanied The Who for parts of their farewell tour. The following year, on Mick's 40th birthday, Townshend wrote an unflattering letter in the London Times commenting on the significance of this event.

Townshend played on Mick Jaggers first solo album in 1984. In February 1986, Townshend was one of those present when the Stones gave their London club performance in honor of Ian Stewart, joining the band onstage for some Blues numbers. In January 1989, he inducted The Stones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2001, he played on the songs "Gun" and "Joy" for Jagger's Goddess In The Doorway album.

Top Listeners

No top listeners in this time frame.

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Slave.
AKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
133BPM

Album

The album Slave is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Slave.
Polydor Records
© 2008 Promotone B.V., Under Exclusiv Licence to Universal Music B.V
℗ 2008 Promotone B.V., Under Exclusiv Licence to Universal Music B.V

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

6MArtists
75.4MSongs
12.8MAlbums
6.5KGenres
2.6MLabels
495.5KPlaylists