Can't You Hear Me Knocking


"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. The song is over seven minutes long, and begins with a Keith Richards open-G tuned guitar intro. At two minutes and forty-three seconds, an instrumental break begins, with 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.

Composition and recording

Richards described writing the guitar riff:
In 2002, Richards commented on the recording:
Taylor recalled in a 1979 interview:
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 lots of vocals, harmonies to sort of hide the fact that I didn't really hit the notes that great in the chorus bits."
An early alternate take of the song was released in June 2015 on the Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions of the reissued Sticky Fingers album.

Accolades

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine listed it at number 25 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time."

The Rolling Stones live performances

The number was part of the Rolling Stones' concert repertoire during their Licks Tour in 2002–2003 and A Bigger Bang Tour in 2005–2007. In these renditions, Jagger played a harmonica solo after Keys' sax solo, and Ronnie Wood performed the extended guitar solo. A live recording was released on the band's 2003 DVD set Four Flicks and on the 2004 concert album Live Licks. It was also performed live during shows in 2013, with Mick Taylor appearing as a special guest with the band. Another live version was published on the release Sticky Fingers Live - From The Vault, recorded on 20 May 2015 at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, California, where the band played the entire Sticky Fingers album.

Personnel

''Sticky Fingers''

The Rolling Stones
Additional musicians
The Rolling Stones
Additional musicians