Jumpin' Jack Flash

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History

Recorded during the Beggars Banquet sessions but kept off the album and released as a single in May 1968, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was reportedly inspired very late one “morning after” by the noisy boots of Keith Richards’ gardener Jack Dyer. According to Mick Jagger the song is “ just a metaphor for getting out of all the acid things” that were associated with their previous album Their Satanic Majesties Request. Since its release “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” has appeared in every tour and ranks as the Rolling Stones most frequently played song, likely surpassing the number of times Phish have played “YEM” live.

Phish pulled the debut trigger on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” in the midst of a second set “Ghost,” during the most critically acclaimed show (6/27/10 Merriweather) of the first leg of the 2010 summer tour. Fans in attendance “Saw It Again” when Trey teased the “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” riff both before and after the jam in the set-closing “YEM.” This performance of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” continued the trend of new song debuts in the “Summer Under the Covers Redux” which hearkens back to a similar batch of new covers that debuted during summer tour 1998.

The Stones made a short promotional film directed by Michael Lindsey-Hogg for “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” in 1968. This protolith for the modern rock video featured one or more of the Stones in face-paint, makeup, and wigs. This new look allegedly caused the members of Alice Cooper to begin wearing makeup and thereby may have spawned the birth of “glitter rock,” and ultimately inspired the members of Kiss, GWAR, and the Insane Clown Posse to don their respective on-stage persona.

It will undoubtedly be a disappointment to many if this Stones classic turns out to be a one-timer for Phish. For the tune is indeed “a gas, gas, gas!”

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