Although many fans think this song is about Keith Richards stealing Anita Pallenberg away from Brian Jones, Richards told a different story in his autobiography Life (2010): "Of 'Coming Down Again,' I said not long ago that I wouldn't have written it without heroin. I don't know if it was ABOUT dope. It was just a mournful song - and you look for that melancholy in yourself. I'm obviously looking for great grooves, great riffs, rock and roll, but there's the other side of the coin that still wants to go where 'As Tears Go By' came from. And by then I'd worked a lot in the country field, especially with Gram Parsons, and that high-lonesome melancholy has a certain pull on the heartstrings. You want to see if you can tug 'em a little harder. Some people think 'Coming Down Again' is about me stealing Anita, but by then that's all water under the f--king bridge."
In 2002, Richards said: "I wonder about the songs I've written: I really like the ones I did when I was on (heroin). I wouldn't have written 'Coming Down Again' without that. I'm this millionaire rock star, but I'm in the gutter with these other sniveling people. It kept me in touch with the street, at the lowest level."
Nicky Hopkins played piano on this track. It also featured Bobby Keys and Jim Horn on saxophones and Pascal on percussion. Pascal contributed to Goats Head Soup on many songs during the mixing sessions in London in 1973.
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