Can't You Hear Me Knocking The Rolling Stones

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking Album: Sticky Fingers (1979)
by the Rolling Stones

The track is over seven minutes long, and begins with a Keith Richards open-G tuned guitar intro. The main song lasts for two minutes and 43 seconds, after which it transforms into an extended improvisational jam. The entire track was captured in one take, with the jam being a happy accident; the band had assumed the tape machine had been stopped, and were surprised to find the entire session had been captured. Originally they were going to end the song before the jam started, but were so pleased with the jam that they decided to keep it in. Besides the regular Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Mick Taylor (guitar), Charlie Watts (drum), and Bill Wyman (bass), the track also features conga player Rocky Dijon, saxophonist Bobby Keys, organist Billy Preston and additional percussion by producer Jimmy Miller.

The track featured Rocky Dijon on congas; tenor saxophonist Bobby Keys performs an extended saxophone solo over the guitar work of Richards and Mick Taylor, punctuated by the organ work of Billy Preston. At 4:40 Taylor takes over from Richards and carries the song to its finish with a lengthy guitar solo.

Richards described writing the guitar riff:

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" came out flying – I just found the tuning and the riff and started to swing it and Charlie picked up on it just like that, and we're thinking, hey, this is some groove. So it was smiles all around. For a guitar player it's no big deal to play, the chopping, staccato bursts of chords, very direct and spare.

In 2002, Richards commented on the recording:

The jam at the end wasn't inspired by Carlos Santana. We didn't even know they were still taping. We thought we'd finished. We were just rambling and they kept the tape rolling. I figured we'd just fade it off. It was only when we heard the playback that we realised, Oh, they kept it going. Basically we realised we had two bits of music. There's the song and there's the jam.

Taylor recalled in a 1979 interview:

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" ... is one of my favourites ... [The jam at the end] just happened by accident; that was never planned. Towards the end of the song I just felt like carrying on playing. Everybody was putting their instruments down, but the tape was still rolling and it sounded good, so everybody quickly picked up their instruments again and carried on playing. It just happened, and it was a one-take thing. A lot of people seem to really like that part.

Taylor added, "I used a brown Gibson ES-345 for 'Dead Flowers' and the solo on 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking'."

Jagger noted in the Spotify Landmark interview on the album that the key was too high for his voice and that "I [did] lots of vocals, harmonies to sort of hide the fact that I didn't really hit the notes that great in the chorus bits."

Yeah, you got satin shoes
Yeah, you got plastic boots
Y'all got cocaine eyes
Yeah, you got speed-freak jive now

Can't you hear me knockin' on your window?
Can't you hear me knockin' on your door?
Can't you hear me knockin' down your dirty street, yeah?

Help me baby, ain't no stranger
Help me baby, ain't no stranger
Help me baby, ain't no stranger

Can't you hear me knockin', ah, are you safe asleep?
Can't you hear me knockin', yeah, down the gas light street, now
Can't you hear me knockin', yeah, throw me down the keys
Alright now

Hear me ringing big bell tolls
Hear me singing soft and low
I've been begging on my knees
I've been kickin', help me please

Hear me prowlin'
I'm gonna take you down
Hear me growlin'
Yeah, I've got flatted feet now, now, now, now

Hear me howlin'
And all, all around your street now
Hear me knockin'
And all, all around your town