The Rolling Stones gained an occasionally well-earned reputation for being the bad boys of rock and roll. But had they only shown that side of themselves in their music, it’s doubtful they would have captivated as many fans as they have over the years.
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On “No Expectations”, a song from their classic 1968 album Beggars Banquet, they showed their sensitive side. They did so with a folky twang that was somewhat new to their arsenal.
Along Came Jones
As bruising and unapologetic as they liked to portray themselves, The Rolling Stones always possessed a knack for the slower stuff. For a few years in the 60s, they’d often add some baroque instrumentation to their ballads. For example, there’s the recorder-drenched “Ruby Tuesday”.
In 1967, the Stones went a little bit too far into the psychedelic wasteland on their album Their Satanic Majesties Request. To their credit, they quickly realized they were headed off track. Their next single, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, reaffirmed their commitment to the bluesy rock abandon with which they first made their musical mark.
Beggars Banquet took the gains they made with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and built upon them. The classic album included crunching rockers “Street Fighting Man” and “Sympathy For The Devil”. “No Expectations”, which slows down the pace, shows the band getting into folk blues mode for one of the first times in their career.
To help capture the mood, Brian Jones took center stage with his acoustic slide guitar work. Jones’ personal problems were gradually building a wide chasm between himself and the rest of the band. His work on “No Expectations” would be one of his last major contributions to the group before his death in 1969.
Exploring the Lyrics of “No Expectations”
The narrator of “No Expectations“ has reached several different points of termination. He’s at the end of a relationship, the end of a stay in a certain location, and the end of a span of life that he couldn’t quite see through to ultimate fulfillment. Sorrow drips from every word sung by Mick Jagger, and he doles out those words in economic fashion.
He begins the song by asking for a way out of town, and he knows it’s a one-way ticket. “I have no expectations,” Jagger sings. “To pass through here again.” His monetary fluctuations mean little to him compared to the devastating loneliness that now accompanies him. “But never in my sweet short life,” he explains. “Have I felt like this before.”
The narrator briefly lashes out at the person he’s addressing (“You cast your pearls at swine”) before explaining the negative impact she’s left behind. “And as I watch you leaving me,” he says. “You pack my peace of mind.”
In the penultimate verse, he waxes poetic, comparing his fickle relationship to water splashing on a stone. That’s when Jagger blurs the line between the creator and his creation, as the narrator suddenly sounds like he could be a burned-out rock star. “Our love is like our music,” he sings. “It’s here, and then it’s gone.”
The final verse finds him upgrading from a train to a plane, but he’s still begging to leave, lest he continue to be surrounded by loss. “No Expectations” set the template for The Rolling Stones’ ballads, dustier and more desolate than the day-glo slow songs of previous years.
Photo by Mark and Colleen Hayward/Redferns
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