The Rolling Stones came out of the gate as charismatic performers. Their songwriting development took a little bit longer. But once it did improve, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were delivering songs like “Mother’s Little Helper” that put them on a par with any of their British Invasion peers in the writing department.
What is the song about? What made the album that contained the song (Aftermath) so important to the band? And what creates that unique instrumental sound that permeates the track? Here are all the details on “Mother’s Little Helper,” one of the Stones’ finest character sketches.
Stones Alone
The first three Rolling Stones albums in the UK featured a few original compositions here and there. Most notably, there was the massive 1965 hit single “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which helped make the band worldwide superstars. But they still filled out their albums with covers of soul and R&B tracks.
While they did those covers well, the band understood their future lay in their ability to consistently churn out hits of their own making. That’s why the 1966 album Aftermath was such a crucial one for the Stones. It was the first time ever that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards tackled all the songwriting on an album.
To fill up the album, Jagger and Richards took a look and a listen around them to what was going on in both the wider world and the music industry. They were widely influenced by the Eastern and psychedelic sounds that were permeating pop music. And they also started to write lyrics from a different perspective as well.
Perhaps because they were spending so much time in America, Mick Jagger’s lyrics for “Mother’s Little Helper” reflect a very American phenomenon: the harried, unappreciated housewife. Jagger also noted the timely social phenomenon of those wives and mothers using drugs to keep up their energy throughout their busy days.
The band also expanded their sound on “Mother’s Little Helper,” thanks to Keith Richards’ ingenuity. Richards was a bit worried the song, with its social commentary, might come out sounding a bit soft. Luckily, someone brought an electric 12-string guitar to the sessions in Los Angeles where the Stones were putting Aftermath together.
Richards then played the guitar with a slide, which gave him just the kind of jangle he was seeking. It made “Mother’s Little Helper” stand out immediately when people put Aftermath on the turntable, considering it was the first track on the record. It was also released as a single in the U.S., where it soared into the Top 10. It proved the world was ready for a more contemplative version of the Stones.
What is the Meaning of “Mother’s Little Helper”?
You could call “Mother’s Little Helper” a morality play, but that would assume the narrator makes some kind of judgment about the characters, which he never does. Instead, Jagger lays out the details almost like a news story, complete with input from the participants. Note how each verse starts out with a quote from every mother.
Jagger lays out the tale with a kind of relentless inevitability. The mother in the song faces increasing pressure in her efforts to please her husband and take care of her kids. They just don’t appreciate that you get tired, Jagger sings in the guise of the housewife. In the middle eight sections, she makes a direct plea for more pills, and we see how deep she’s into this mess: Outside the door / She took four more.
Throughout the song, the line that ties everything together is What a drag it is getting old. It’s a testament to the songwriting development of Jagger and Richards that they were even thinking about a social group separate from their own. With “Mother’s Little Helper,” The Rolling Stones branched out without letting down.
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