Released October 18, 1974 Label Rolling Stones/Virgin | Length 4:37 Writer(s) Jagger/Richards | |
Recorded November 1973,
January / May 1974 Genre Roots rock, blues rock, country rock | ||
"Till the Next Goodbye" is a song by The Rolling Stones, featured on its 1974 album It's Only Rock 'n Roll.
Credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards recording on "Till the Next Goodbye" began at Munich's Musicland Studios in November 1973. The song is a traditional ballad from the Stones' middle period, with slight country music influences. It opens with an acoustic guitar which leads into Jagger's performance. The lyrics deal with the "illicit meetings between two lovers";
The song's chorus is notable as the title is elongated into the phrase "Till the next time we say goodbye."
In his review of the song, Bill Janovitz says, "In the mid-'70s, a 42nd Street movie theater would have been a place of questionable repute and not a very romantic rendezvous. The lyric is unexpectedly complex; the point of view, Jagger as narrator, speaks to the mistress apologetically and with a guilty conscience... In one line on the bridge, Jagger manages to convey empathy, culpability, and frustration: 'I can't go on like this/Can you? Can you?' On paper it seems clear, the narrator is asking out of the relationship (paraphrasing): 'I can't do this, can you?' But the way Jagger sings it, it sounds like he's asking, 'You can't do this anymore, can you?' He's conveying a different meaning altogether, almost as if he is playing both parts in one line."
Recording continued at Jagger's home in Newbury with the use of the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio and finished at Island Recording Studios in London. Jagger, Richards and Mick Taylor each perform acoustic guitar for the piece. Taylor also contributes electric slide guitar to the recording. Nicky Hopkins performs the song's piano. Bill Wyman performs bass while Charlie Watts performs drums.
An overlooked song from the Stones canon of work, "Till the Next Goodbye" has never been performed live by the Stones and is not included on any compilation albums.
The song was rehearsed on February 11, 2014, in Paris in preparation for the Rolling Stones "14 On Fire" Asia Pacific Tour, which started in Abu Dhabi on February 21, 2014. In attendance was special guest Mick Taylor.