Mother's Little Helper
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Mother's Little Helper" is a song by the English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track to the UK version of their 1966 album Aftermath.
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Mother's Little Helper" was recorded in Los Angeles from 3 to 8 December 1965. The song deals with the darker perspective of the use of prescription drugs such as Nembutal or a related barbiturate among housewives.
- Life's just much too hard today / I hear ev'ry mother say / The pursuit of happiness just seems a bore / And if you take more of those / you will get an overdose / No more running for the shelter / of a mother's little helper
The song is based around folksy chords and an eastern-flavored guitar riff sounding like a sitar. The riff is actually a heavily compressed 12-string electric guitar played with a slide. The ending of the song was the idea of Bill Wyman.
It was released as a single in the US and peaked at # 8 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1966.
The song was covered in 1981 by the Belgian new wave duet Polyphonic Size and in 2005 by Liz Phair for the soundtrack to the popular television series Desperate Housewives. It was also recorded by rock band Tesla, in their 1990 live acoustic record Five Man Acoustical Jam. The song was performed by Jean-Louis Aubert and Alain Bashung during the January 2007 Les aventuriers d'un autre monde Tour. The song was also covered in 2007 acoustically by Canadian Punk band Sum 41 for their performance on the "AOL Sessions: Under Cover".
Trivia
- The Simpsons episode "Brother's Little Helper" is a pun on the song title. In the episode, Bart Simpson is given Ritalin, which also references the "drugs content" of "Mother's Little Helper".
