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This song is about a housewife who abuses prescription drugs to "get her through the day." It turns around the image of a suburban housewife, who is usually portrayed as cooking and caring for her family, by showing her as a drug abuser. The Stones could get away with this because their image was that of cynical, somewhat dangerous rockers.
Mick Jagger: "It's about drug dependence, but in a sort of like spoofy way. As a songwriter, I didn't really think about addressing things like that. It was just every day stuff that you I'd observe and write about. It's what writing is for really. There is a sort of naivety, but there's also a lot of humor in those songs. They're a lot based on humor. It was almost like a different band, a different world, a different view when we wrote them."
Keith Richards: "The strange guitar sound is a 12-string with a slide on it. It's played slightly Oriental-ish. The track just needed something to make it twang. Otherwise, the song was quite vaudeville in a way. I wanted to add some nice bite to it. And it was just one of those things where someone walked in and, Look, it's an electric 12-string. It was some gashed-up job. No name on it. God knows where it came from. Or where it went. But I put it together with a bottleneck. Then we had a riff that tied the whole thing together. And I think we overdubbed onto that. Because I played an acoustic guitar as well."
Jagger: "I get inspiration from things that are happening around me - everyday life as I see it. People say I'm always singing about pills and breakdowns, therefore I must be an addict - this is ridiculous. Some people are so narrow-minded they won't admit to themselves that this really does happen to other people beside pop stars." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 3)
Stones guitarist Brian Jones played the Sitar on this. It was one of the first pop songs to use the instrument. The Beatles "
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," which came out the year before, was the first.
This condemns the many women in England who were abusing prescription drugs, even though The Stones were becoming heavy drug users themselves. The band wanted to make the point that housewives popping pills what not that much different than rock stars taking smack, even though drug laws in England strongly favored the housewives.
This was the first track on Aftermath, the first Stones album with all original songs. Their earlier albums were full of Blues covers.
In England, this wasn't released as a single.
The Stones recorded this in Los Angeles in a custom built studio. It had no windows, because The Stones did not want to know if it was day or night.
Stones drummer Charlie Watts said of this song in In the 2003 book
According to the Rolling Stones: "We've often tried to perform 'Mother's Little Helper' and it's never been any good, never gelled for some reason - it's either me not playing it right or Keith not wanting to do it like that. It's never worked. It's just one of those songs. We used to try it live but it's a bloody hard record to play, although we did perform it live on
Ed Sullivan."
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Drinamyl both of these were in Use in Britain in the Early Sixties
Ludes Quaaludes were not generally Prescribed by General Practicioners The Above two were
It does not matter what Drugs ere available in America it is a Social Commentary upon British Society The Drugs are only part of the problem it`s also referencing The Start of Supermarkets, Instant Cakes, Frozen Steaks, all quantify as "Mothers Little Helpers"
I love this song and think it is funny...and true...and still is previlent in todays world..I was six years old when it came out...what a gas!!! Ha!!
The song itself is still up to date as medication addiction is a growing problem.
Now you gotta love that.
however since the song reference to a "little yellow pill" i would have to put my guess at valium since miltown is usually a 200 mg pill or more where as valium is a 2-10mg pill.