Neighbours

In September 1980, three months after the release of "Emotional Rescue", Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and sound engineer Chris Kimsey entered Island's Basing Street Studios, London to listen to left-overs from previous albums. Chris Kimsey recalls: "I spent three months going through like the last four, five albums finding stuff that had been either forgotten about or at the time rejected. And then I presented it to the band and I said, hey, look guys, you've got all this great stuff sitting in the can, do something with it".

The next month the Rolling Stones also returned to Pathé Marconi Studios to record some new material. In Paris (October 11-November 12, 1980) the band worked on three songs in particular: 'Slave', a left-over jam from the "Black And Blue" sessions, 'Heaven', with Chris Kimsey on alleged piano, and 'Neighbours', an uptempo boogie with Ian Stewart as a natural on piano.

The subject matter of 'Neighbours' was inspired by Keith Richards having been evicted by his landlord for unsociable behaviour. The song ponders the subject by leaps and bounds under the twin thrust of rocky and raucous guitars and saxophone, the latter protagonized by jazz musician Sonny Rollins, which was overdubbed at a later session. On the final take, which appeared on the band's new album "Tattoo You", the song was reduced to a loud-sounding nothing, with Stu's boogie piano buried deep in the mix.

Adapted from the following source: Martin Elliott, The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions 1962-2002, Cherry Red Books, 2002.