Sweet Jane "Intro" history

[MJG196]

I know I posted the link to the whole article, but thought this little snippet deserved its own thread!

Steve Hunter: I had written that in Detroit while I was in Mitch Ryder?s band. I developed it over a couple of years, messin? around with it in front of the fireplace. I tried using it when I was playing with the Chambers Brothers, but it didn?t really work. Then, during the last couple of days of rehearsal for the Lou Reed tour, Lou?s management came in and said, ?We need something to open the show with, so Lou just doesn?t appear on the stage. Can you guys jam on something??

That?s when I said to Dick, ?I?ve got this little thing I wrote. We can try it and if it doesn?t work we?ll just jam on ?Sweet Jane? or something.? I showed everybody the song, and as soon as the band started playing it, it was awesome! It was the first time I?d ever heard it played right. In Europe, we used it to open with ?Vicious,? but it wasn?t a good show opener. Lou decided to change the opener to ?Sweet Jane? by the time the album Rock and Roll Animal was recorded. It just so happens that ?Vicious? is in E minor and ?Sweet Jane? is in E major, so it worked because the last chord is the five of the E.

[lurid_uk]

nice post - thanks. I had forgotten that "Vicious" was the opener for the early dates on the Berlin/Rock'n'Roll Animal tour.