No Expectations
Encyclopedia
"No Expectations" is a song by the British
rock and roll
band The Rolling Stones
featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet
. It was first released as the B-side of the "Street Fighting Man
" single in August 1968. Brian Jones' acoustic slide guitar on the recording represents one of his last major contributions before leaving the band.
and Keith Richards
. Bill Janovitz
says, "The loneliness expressed in the song is palpable; all about being left behind, the song is certainly a tribute in musical and lyrical tone to such Robert Johnson blues songs as "Love in Vain
" — a favourite cover of the Rolling Stones — referencing such images as a train leaving the station."
Jagger said in a 1995 interview in Rolling Stone
"That's Brian playing [the slide guitar]. We were sitting around in a circle on the floor, singing and playing, recording with open mikes. That was the last time I remember Brian really being totally involved in something that was really worth doing". Accompanying Jones is Richards on acoustic rhythm guitar, with Janovitz remarking that Richards, "play[s] the same open-tuned rhythm he would later use on 'You Can't Always Get What You Want
', also contributing to that lonely ambience." The song is also noted for its simple claves
-kept beat by Charlie Watts
and Nicky Hopkins
' "building single-chord organ" and piano trills.
DVD
and accompanying live album, which documents Jones' last live performance with the band. The band has since rarely played the song live. The second, and most notable performance, was at the Hyde Park
free concert, July 5, 1969, which was held as a memorial to Jones, who died three days before. The third live performance was at the January 18, 1973 benefit concert at the Los Angeles Forum for victims of the recent 23 December 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua
. They would not play it live again until August 28, 1994 in Cleveland, Ohio
. On the 2002/2003 Licks tour, they played it 11 times in total, and have not played it since.
It is also included on the 1972 Stones compilation album More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies)
. The single version is available on Singles Collection: The London Years
.
Several covers of "No Expectations" have been released. Johnny Cash
recorded a bluegrass
-inspired version, available on his album Gone Girl
and the collection Essential Johnny Cash 1953-83. Waylon Jennings
recorded a version for his 1998 album Closing in on the Fire
. Soulsavers
recorded a piano version accompanied with Screaming Trees
singer Mark Lanegan
on their album It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land
. Joan Baez
also performed a cover on her 1970 album One Day at a Time
.
Beck
also started playing this song in his concerts just after the release of Sea Change. During his first tour after going on hiatus from the Black Crowes in 2002, singer Chris Robinson played the song as an acoustic duo with Paul Stacey
. Jam band
s Yonder Mountain String Band
and Flatlander also often cover this song at their shows.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
band The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet
Beggars Banquet
- Personnel :The Rolling Stones* Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, harmonica on "Parachute Woman"* Keith Richards – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar on "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man", backing vocals, lead vocals on opening of "Salt of the Earth"* Brian...
. It was first released as the B-side of the "Street Fighting Man
Street Fighting Man
"Street Fighting Man" is a song by English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet. Called the band's "most political song", Rolling Stone ranked the song #295 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.-Inspiration:Originally titled and recorded...
" single in August 1968. Brian Jones' acoustic slide guitar on the recording represents one of his last major contributions before leaving the band.
Inspiration and recording
The song slow ballad was written by Mick JaggerMick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
and Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
. Bill Janovitz
Bill Janovitz
Bill Janovitz is best known as the singer and guitarist of the alternative rock band Buffalo Tom.-History:After enrolling at the University of Massachusetts, Janovitz formed Buffalo Tom with fellow students Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis. A friendship with J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr...
says, "The loneliness expressed in the song is palpable; all about being left behind, the song is certainly a tribute in musical and lyrical tone to such Robert Johnson blues songs as "Love in Vain
Love in Vain
"Love in Vain" is a 1937 blues song written by Robert Johnson.The song is noted for its sad lyrics, tone, and style. In the 1991 documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson, John P. Hammond plays Robert's recording of "Love in Vain" for the elderly Willie Mae Powell, the woman for whom it was...
" — a favourite cover of the Rolling Stones — referencing such images as a train leaving the station."
Jagger said in a 1995 interview in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
"That's Brian playing [the slide guitar]. We were sitting around in a circle on the floor, singing and playing, recording with open mikes. That was the last time I remember Brian really being totally involved in something that was really worth doing". Accompanying Jones is Richards on acoustic rhythm guitar, with Janovitz remarking that Richards, "play[s] the same open-tuned rhythm he would later use on 'You Can't Always Get What You Want
You Can't Always Get What You Want
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a song by The Rolling Stones released on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. Written primarily by Mick Jagger with assistance from Keith Richards, it was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone in its 2004 list of "500 Greatest Songs of All...
', also contributing to that lonely ambience." The song is also noted for its simple claves
Claves
Claves are a percussion instrument , consisting of a pair of short Claves (Anglicized pronunciation: clah-vays, IPA:[ˈklαves]) are a percussion instrument (idiophone), consisting of a pair of short Claves (Anglicized pronunciation: clah-vays, IPA:[ˈklαves]) are a percussion instrument (idiophone),...
-kept beat by Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is also the leader of a jazz band, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.-Early life:...
and Nicky Hopkins
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
' "building single-chord organ" and piano trills.
Aftermath
The song's first live performance was filmed for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll CircusThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a film released in 1996 of an 11 December 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The event comprised two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull...
DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and accompanying live album, which documents Jones' last live performance with the band. The band has since rarely played the song live. The second, and most notable performance, was at the Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
free concert, July 5, 1969, which was held as a memorial to Jones, who died three days before. The third live performance was at the January 18, 1973 benefit concert at the Los Angeles Forum for victims of the recent 23 December 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua
1972 Nicaragua earthquake
The 1972 Nicaragua earthquake was an earthquake that occurred at 12:29 a.m. local time on Saturday, December 23, 1972 near Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. It had a magnitude of 6.2 and occurred at a depth of about 5 kilometers beneath the centre of the city. Within an hour after the main...
. They would not play it live again until August 28, 1994 in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. On the 2002/2003 Licks tour, they played it 11 times in total, and have not played it since.
It is also included on the 1972 Stones compilation album More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies)
More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies)
More Hot Rocks is the second compilation album of Rolling Stones music released by former manager Allen Klein's ABKCO Records after the band's departure from Decca and Klein...
. The single version is available on Singles Collection: The London Years
Singles Collection: The London Years
Singles Collection: The London Years is a compilation album of Rolling Stones music released by former manager Allen Klein's ABKCO Records after the band's departure from Decca and Klein....
.
Several covers of "No Expectations" have been released. Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
recorded a bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
-inspired version, available on his album Gone Girl
Gone Girl
Gone Girl is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1978. It features The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet song "No Expectations", the original "It Comes and Goes" and Rodney Crowell's "A Song for the Life", as well as a version of Kenny Rogers' famous...
and the collection Essential Johnny Cash 1953-83. Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
recorded a version for his 1998 album Closing in on the Fire
Closing in on the Fire
Closing In on the Fire is an album by Waylon Jennings, released on the small Ark 21 Records label on June 16, 1998. It features contributions from several celebrities associated with both country and rock music...
. Soulsavers
Soulsavers
Soulsavers are an English production and remix team composed of Rich Machin and Ian Glover. The Soulsavers' downtempo electronica sound incorporates influences of rock, gospel, soul, and country...
recorded a piano version accompanied with Screaming Trees
Screaming Trees
Screaming Trees was an American rock band formed in Ellensburg, Washington in 1985 by vocalist Mark Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bass player Van Conner and drummer Mark Pickerel. Pickerel had been replaced by Barrett Martin by the time the band reached its most successful period...
singer Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan is an American rock musician and songwriter. Lanegan began his music career in the 1980s, forming the grunge group Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band Lanegan would start a low-key solo career...
on their album It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land
It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land
It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land is the second studio album by English production team Soulsavers, released on April 2, 2007 in the UK and October 16, 2007 in the US. The album features American singer Mark Lanegan as primary vocalist...
. Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
also performed a cover on her 1970 album One Day at a Time
(I Live) One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time was a 1970 album by Joan Baez. Recorded in Nashville, the album was a continuation of Baez' experimentation with country music, begun with the previous year's David's Album...
.
Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
also started playing this song in his concerts just after the release of Sea Change. During his first tour after going on hiatus from the Black Crowes in 2002, singer Chris Robinson played the song as an acoustic duo with Paul Stacey
Paul Stacey
Paul Stacey is a British guitarist and producer, best known for his work with Oasis and The Black Crowes.Paul Stacey's early work included the 1990s band, The Lemon Trees and Denzil....
. Jam band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
s Yonder Mountain String Band
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Yonder Mountain String Band is an American progressive bluegrass group from Nederland, Colorado. Composed of Dave Johnston, Jeff Austin, Ben Kaufmann, and Adam Aijala, the band has released five studio albums and several live recordings to date.- History :The band's history stretches back to...
and Flatlander also often cover this song at their shows.