TT 472: "She's A Rainbow"
The Rolling Stones and TED LASSO
This past summer I went to see The Rolling Stones on tour, and ended up writing up the experience for The Nation with an emphasis on the new drummer, Steve Jordan: “In Search of the Backbeat.”
During the concert, Mick Jagger informed the audience that online fans voted on one piece to hear at every venue on the 2024 tour, and tonight it would be “She’s A Rainbow.” Chuck Leavell began the piano riff, and soon the whole Lincoln Field stadium was singing along.
Everyone has heard “She’s a Rainbow” at one time or another, and it’s a great piece of music, but I actually didn’t know it was by the Rolling Stones until the band was literally playing it front of me. (Don’t laugh! The song is heavy on piano melody, stops/starts the tempo, and is generally very 1967 “flower power,” all details reasonably uncommon for the Stones.)
After the concert “She’s a Rainbow” stayed in my mind, and eventually I decided I must have seen it in a Wes Anderson movie. To my further surprise, it is not in any Wes Anderson movie, although why the heck not? (To my point, plenty of other people have googled “she’s a rainbow wes anderson.”)
However, the song does seem to be more popular than ever thanks to varied 21st century commercial uses. “How the Rolling Stones’ ‘She’s a Rainbow’ Got a Seven-Figure Synch Renaissance” is an interesting article by Andrew Hamp for Variety.
As far as Rolling Stones chart hits go, “She’s a Rainbow” is more of a cult favorite in the band’s canon, just missing the Top 40 of Mick Jagger’s biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits of all time. But by 2018 standards, it’s suddenly become a smash — based on how many high-profile sync placements the song has received in the fourth quarter alone.
My wife Sarah Deming looked at all of Ted Lasso and told me to get aboard when she started a rewatch. I’m so glad I did. The first season of ten 25-minute episodes is literally perfect comic television.
People will be inside in close quarters this coming holiday week, and for those looking for something lighthearted and uplifting to watch with gloomy relatives, I sincerely recommend the first season of Ted Lasso. (At heart the show couldn’t be more wholesome, but for those with children, there is occasional heavy swearing and a few explicit sex references, although there is no nudity or actual sex.)
The second season is also good, if not quite as effortless and effervescent as the first. A highlight of the second season is the episode “Rainbow,” which uses The Rolling Stones’s “She’s A Rainbow” as a kind of leitmotif. The needle drop for Roy Kent’s change of heart is one of most powerful and thematically unified combinations of music and story I’ve ever seen.
Ethan, you may know that the song is on the Their Satanic Majesties Request which was released six months after Sgt. Pepper and is their only foray into psychedelia. Also, the Stones probably copped the lyric "She comes in colors" from the song with that title by Arthur Lee and Love.
Ethan, I am enjoying your substack.
When I saw your reference to She’s A Rainbow”, I expected some commentary on Nicky Hopkins, the British session musician who played piano on the studio recording.
I believe She’s A Rainbow is the only Stones song that primarily features a non-Stones member. It is guitar-lite with only a rhythm acoustic guitar mixed with the drums. The strings were produced by John Paul Jones, also a session musician in the mid-1960s before linking up with Led Zeppelin.
For most listeners, She’s A Rainbow is probably the only memorable song from Their Santanic Majesty’s Request. (2000 Light Years From Home the other notable tune, mellotron-heavy.)
Happy Holidays!