Thru and Thru: The Stones Single that Never Was

1994's Voodoo Lounge marked the first flop of a Stones album on American charts, if you count a number two album on the Billboard charts and the highest grossing tour of the 1990s to be a flop. The "flop" of the album came from it's distinct lack of singles that permeated the mainstream singles charts, each Stones album to date had at least one (or more) high charting singles - Voodoo Lounge escaped this. Love is Strong did well, You Got Me Rocking became a live staple, and Out of Tears is just one of the best ballads the band has ever done (featuring what may just be the best guitar solo Ronnie Wood has ever laid down for this band) but only one song has become truly canonized in the history of the band. Aided by a needle drop in The Soprano's season two finale Funhouse nearly 10 years after it's initial release, Thru and Thru became an understated classic for an album that was lacking such a piece.

The song was written early during the Voodoo Lounge sessions, with Keith Richards saying he wrote all by himself. The song follows the similar structure of most of his compositions, non-descript within it's themeing and words it's a moody piece unlike anything one would expect from the band. It was never released as a single, be that do to it's length or Richards status as the lead singer is up for debate. Keith would say on the songs sudden peak in fame: "There are songs that people won't get for 10 years... and then suddenly they realise what I've been doing. Thru and Thru was exactly like that. It took off when it was put on the soundtrack of The Sopranos... Suddenly everybody was saying What's that wonderful record and I'd say, Well, it's the last track on Voodoo Lounge." back in 2003. The 2002-3 Licks tour was the first (and last - as of right now) time the song had been added to the setlist of a Stones tour, despite being the one of most beloved late-era Stones cuts.

You know that we do take away/ We deliver too / 
Open 24 hours babe / Just waiting on a call from you / 
Waiting on a call from you

The motif of a delivery service for love showcases the idea that the love being described is transactional. It's forbidden in some way, something to be snuck away and called for not to be out in the open. The narrator plays the part of one being called away, flipping a bit of the preconceived notion of the typical transactional love on it's head. He waits for his calling, never being too busy to answer it. The delivery service is a unique description of love, it paints the picture of these people without crowding the song with detail. You visulize a disoritenting night, a phone call snuck away to be had, a note with a time and place - yet not one of these things is mentioned. It creates an atmosphere in four lines, a story that's lived in, while giving no details. It's a genius use of phrasing here - a more is less approach.

Well, I'm in the yellow page/ You just take a look / 
Look me up under services/ You know it's just an open book /
Babe, it's just an open book / It's just an open book / Well baby
Any minute, any hour / I'm waiting on a call from you

The yellow pages being a book where you look by category rather than name further showcases the divide between the two characters.  One is using the love, the other is happy to be in it. The narrator seems to understand his place, knowing he's just a service at this point, that the fact is an open book in their in relationship. He's knows it'll only hurt, being used, but can't seem to shut himself off from the well of love he's given. Going back to the transaction aspect of the relationship first explored in the first verse, it's heightened here. The use of the narrator being that of a service to the object of his affections is a small but important detail: it examines his view of the relationship without admitting it's obvious flaws and self serving nature. It's selfish from the go - only called when needed, unable to break it off because of love - but here you feel that selfishness. The situation begins to reveal it's true colors at this point in the song, the instrumental breaks become long and disorienting, placing the listener in the same hazy and unaware state the narrator soon inhabits.

And you know this heart is constant / I'm your lover, baby, 
through and through / Lover baby, through and through /  

Even when beaten down, the narrator can't deny the love he still feels. He doesn't seem ashamed of the fact, that the sensitivity he wears is one of his drawing points in his mind. It's an interesting turn of the phrases "the heart wants what it wants" or "a heart with a mind of it's own", taking the idea of a constant longing and love and cutting out middle men. The heart is constant, and the love and pain it feels are as well. No matter circumstance, love won't break. Or, the narrators love won't break.

 I only found out yesterday / I heard it on the news / What I heard really pissed me off /'Cause now I got those fucking blues / He ain't got those awesome blues / Babe, I got those nothing blues / Any minute, any hour / I'm waiting on a call from you/ And you know this heart is constant baby / I'm in love with you, baby, through and through

Death is often never the end of love. The bitterness showcased feels realistic - how his love was "wasted" on someone who would ultimately leave without a goodbye. How impersonal the means of which he found out were, the anger, sadness, and fustrtation that go through the verse showcase the seven stages of grief. It goes from anger and sadness, to the denial of the pain with the "awesome", to then calling the pain "nothing". The denial follows through, that even with the understanding the lover is gone, there feels no reason to show there will be no reason to halt waiting to hear from them. How so many of the days were stacking up to waiting for the lover that there feels an impossiblity to stop. The definition of insanity is repeating the same action countless times in hopes there will be a different answer. To wait by a phone for a call of someone who is gone, never to come back, is in it's own way, the definiton of insanity. Grief manifests in different ways for different people, in the narrators case there's a certain sense of denial that can be felt. How all those days of waiting for a call, only to be met with the information that who you've been waiting for has been dead could mentally toll on someone. After so long, how do you stop? At what point does the final pain of a relationship of selfishness finally set in? There's also the change from "lover" to "in love with" showcasing the bond truly had on at least on side of the relationship. It's a moment of clearity before the song's refrain, that despite the display there was always a deeper love than what was displayed outwardly.

Lover baby, through and through / You know that we do take-away / That we deliver, too/ We're open 24 hours, baby / We're waiting on a call from you/ Waiting on a call from you / But any minute, baby, any hour/ I'm waiting on a call from you

The song slowly descends into an flurry of madness, the repetition of phrases and swelling music showcase this kind of detachment from reality. It captures the listener in the eye of the storm, the indirectness of the whole song adds to the confusion layered here. The whole thing becomes much grander than it had seemed before, there insanity seems to hijack the song - the instrumentation leaves the listener feeling like they are in the same insane feelings as the narrator they attempt to follow through the rambling, the story concludes inconclusive in many ways. What's real, what's not? It's undetermined, no definitive answers giving as the narrator had never recieved.

Thru and Thru is a masterclass in storytelling through song: it gives all the details to be unique whilst vauge enough to be universally enjoyed. It's such a great example of how engaging Richards is as a writer as well, and how well his calloused voice lends itself to the stories he writes. While Voodoo Lounge may have missed charting singles success, it's sleeper hit is one of the best of the bands catalog.

Thru and Thru performed live on the Licks tour in 2003: