东西战争 (1968)

"Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones released as a non-album single in 1968, which reached the number 1 position in the UK singles chart and US Cash Box Top Singles. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by Rolling Stone magazine, the song was seen as the band's return to their blues rock roots after the baroque pop and psychedelia heard on their preceding albums Aftermath (1966), Between the Buttons (1967) and especially Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967).

"Jumpin' Jack Flash" was ranked number 144 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list in 2021.

Inspiration and recording

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, recording on "Jumpin' Jack Flash" began during the Beggars Banquet sessions of 1968. Regarding the song's distinctive sound, guitarist Richards has said:

I used a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic tuned to open D, six string. Open D or open E, which is the same thing – same intervals – but it would be slackened down some for D. Then there was a capo on it, to get that really tight sound. And there was another guitar over the top of that, but tuned to Nashville tuning. I learned that from somebody in George Jones' band in San Antonio in 1964. The high-strung guitar was an acoustic, too. Both acoustics were put through a Philips cassette recorder. Just jam the mic right in the guitar and play it back through an extension speaker.

Richards has stated that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards' country house, when they were awoken one morning by the clumping footsteps of his gardener Jack Dyer walking past the window. Surprised, Jagger asked what it was, and Richards responded: "Oh, that's Jack – that's jumpin' Jack." The lyrics evolved from there. The main riff is similar to their song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", as well the song "Mr. Soul" released the previous year by Buffalo Springfield.

Jagger said in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone that the song arose "out of all the acid of Satanic Majesties. It's about having a hard time and getting out. Just a metaphor for getting out of all the acid things." And in a 1968 interview, Brian Jones described it as "getting back to ... the funky, essential essence" following the psychedelia of Their Satanic Majesties Request.

In his autobiography Stone Alone (1990), Bill Wyman has said that he came up with the song's distinctive main guitar riff, working on it with Brian Jones and Charlie Watts before it was ultimately credited to Jagger and Richards. In Rolling with the Stones (2002), Wyman credits Jagger with vocals, Richards with guitar and bass guitar, Jones with guitar, Watts with drums and himself with organ on the track with producer Jimmy Miller adding backing vocals.

According to the book Keith Richards: The Biography by Victor Bockris, the line "I was born in a crossfire hurricane", was written by Richards, and refers to his being born amid the bombing and air raid sirens of Dartford, England, in 1943 during World War II.

Two promotional videos were made that May: one of a live performance and another of the band lip syncing in makeup.

Release and aftermath

Released on 24 May 1968 in the UK by Decca Records and on 31 May in the US by London Records, "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (backed with "Child of the Moon") was the band's first UK release in five and a half months – this marked the group's longest gap between releases in the country up to that point. A major commercial success, it reached the top of the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number three in the United States. It topped the US Cashbox chart for one week and the WLS 890 Hit Parade for four weeks. Some early London Records US pressings and Decca single in the UK of the single had a technical flaw in them: at about 1:37 about halfway through the song's instrumental bridge, the speed of the master tape slows down for a moment, before coming back to speed. The first Rolling Stones album on which the song appeared was their 1969 compilation album, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), one year after the single was released. Since then, it has appeared on numerous other Stones compilations, including Hot Rocks 1964–1971 (1971), Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (1975), Singles Collection: The London Years (1989), Forty Licks (2002), GRRR! (2012), and Stray Cats, a collection of singles and rarities included as part of The Rolling Stones in Mono box set (2016).