1972Released
3:46

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Tumbling Dice. By Songfacts®.

This was originally titled "Good Time Woman," with different lyrics. Mick Jagger told the story of the song to The Sun newspaper May 21, 2010: "It started out with a great riff from Keith and we had it down as a completed song called Good Time Women. That take is one of the bonus tracks on the new Exile package; it was quite fast and sounded great but I wasn't happy with the lyrics. Later, I got the title in my head, 'call me the tumbling dice' so I had the theme for it. I didn't know anything about dice playing but I knew lots of jargon used by dice players. I'd heard gamblers in casinos shouting it out. I asked my housekeeper if she played dice. She did and she told me these terms. That was the inspiration."

The Stones recorded this in the musty basement of the Villa Nellcote, a place Keith Richards rented in France so the band could avoid paying taxes in England. They would sleep all day and record at night with whoever showed up. For this track, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards played guitar, and Mick Taylor, ordinarily lead guitarist, played bass.

Jagger played guitar on this, something he rarely did.

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Tumbling Dice.
BKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
111BPM

Album

The album Tumbling Dice is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Tumbling Dice.
Polydor Records
© 2010 Promotone B.V., under exclusive license to Universal International Music B.V.
℗ 1993 Promotone B.V., under exclusive license to Universal International Music B.V.

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