Misunderstood Lyrics - Tumbling Dice by The Rolling Stones

Providing a service for those who think they know the lyrics to this 1972 classic by The Rolling Stones, but actually have no clue. Misheard lyrics (also called mondegreens) occur when people misunderstand the lyrics to a song.



Wo Yeah! (Wo, wo)
Ladies think I'm tasty, but they're always tryin' to waste me
And make me burn the candle right down,
But baby, baby, I don't need no jewels in my crown.
Cause all you women is low down gamblers,
Cheatin' like I don't know how,
But baby, baby, there's fever in the funk house now.
This low down bitchin' got my poor feet a itchin',
Don't you know you know the duece is still wild.
Baby, I can't stay, you got to roll me
And call me the tumblin' dice.

Always in a hurry, I never stop to worry,
Don't you see the time flashin' by.
Honey, got no money,
I'm all sixes and sevens and nines.
Say now baby, I'm the rank outsider,
You can be my partner in crime.
But baby, I can't stay,
You got to roll me and call me the tumblin',
Roll me and call me the tumblin' dice.

Oh, my, my, my, I'm the lone crap shooter,
Playin' the field ev'ry night.
But baby, I can't stay,
You got to roll me and call me the tumblin' dice, (Call me the tumblin')

Got to roll me (aaay), Got to roll me, Got to roll me (Oh yeah)
Got to roll me
Got to roll me (yeah)
Got to roll me (Keep on rolling)
Got to roll me (Keep on rolling)
Got to roll me (Keep on rolling)
Got to roll me
My baby, call me the tumblin' dice, yeah
Got to roll me
Baby sweet as sugar (Got to roll me)
Yeah, my, my, my yeah (Got to roll me)
I went down baby, oh
Got to roll me (hit me)
I'm down....

Writer(s): MICK JAGGER / KEITH RICHARDS
Publisher: ABKCO


FACTS, RUMORS AND FUN STUFF

• Tumbling Dice is a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for The Rolling Stones' 1972 double album Exile on Main St., and was the album's first single. The single peaked at number 7 on the US charts and number 5 in the UK.
• An early version of Tumbling Dice, called Good Time Women, was recorded in 1970 during the sessions for Exile on Main Street.
• The song was recorded in the basement of the chateau Villa Nellcôte, near Villefranche-sur-Mer, France. The recording schedule for Exile on Main St. had the band sleeping all day and recording with whoever was around at night. The basic track of the song was recorded on August 3, 1971. Mick Taylor, the Rolling Stones' second guitarist, played bass on the track, due to bassist Bill Wyman's absence that night, and, in a rare instance for a Rolling Stones recording, Mick Jagger played guitar.
• The single was released on April 14, 1972. It was the Rolling Stones' 23rd single in the United States and their 17th in the United Kingdom. The single's B-side was Sweet Black Angel, a song written by Jagger about Black Panther activist Angela Davis.
• In the liner notes to Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones, Richards said, "I remember writing the riff upstairs in the very elegant front room, and we took it downstairs the same evening and we cut it."
• Mick Jagger told the story of the song to The Sun newspaper May 21, 2010: "It started out with a great riff from Keith and we had it down as a completed song called Good Time Women. That take is one of the bonus tracks on the new Exile package; it was quite fast and sounded great but I wasn't happy with the lyrics. Later, I got the title in my head, 'call me the tumbling dice' so I had the theme for it. I didn't know anything about dice playing but I knew lots of jargon used by dice players. I'd heard gamblers in casinos shouting it out." Jagger added, "It's weird where your lyric things come from. On Tumbling Dice, I sat down with the house keeper and talked to her about gambling. She liked to play dice and I really didn't know much about it, but I got it off her and managed to make the song out of that."
• This was the only track from Exile to chart in the Top 20 of the singles chart. Jagger told The Sun: "It's obviously the most accessible and commercial song on the record. After 'Tumbling Dice,' I remember there wasn't really a follow-up single. People said, 'So, what are you going to release now then?'"
• Jagger: "It's like a good guitar-hook tune. It's a bit like Honky Tonk Women in a way, in the way it's set up. But it was done for Exile. It's got a lot more background vocals on it. A very messy mix. But that was the fashion in those days."
• This features Bobby Keys on sax and Jim Price on trumpet. They showed up in France to help with the album, and played with The Stones through the early '70s. Keith Richards and Bobby Keys were born on the same day: December 18, 1943.
• Andy Johns, who engineered the Exile sessions, told Goldmine in 2010: "Obviously it was going to be great but it was a big struggle. Eventually we get a take. Hooray! I thought, 'Let's kick this up a notch and double track Charlie.' 'Oh, we've never done that before.' 'Well, it doesn't mean we can't do it now.' So we double-tracked Charlie but he couldn't play the ending. For some reason he got a mental block about the ending. So Jimmy Miller plays from the breakdown on out that was very easy to punch in. It was a little bit different than some of the others. That song we did more takes than anything else."
• There is some debate about the line "I'm all sixes and sevens and nines." It is not a dice or gambling term. Basically it is the early '70s version of the phrase "a hot mess." In British parlance, "sixes and sevens" refers to a confused mess while "nines" is short for "dressed to the nines" - hence - a hot mess.
• Linda Ronstadt covered this in 1977. Ronstadt's career during the 1970s was based largely on her successful covers of other artists' songs.
• Background vocalists include Vanetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews, and Clydie King.

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