Brian Jones’s Marimba on ‘Under My Thumb’ and the Story Behind the Song

The marimba part on “Under My Thumb” is Brian Jones’s doing, and it’s one of those moments where a band member’s curiosity with exotic instruments completely reshaped a hit. Jones picked up the marimba during the Aftermath sessions in 1966, probably because he was bored of standard guitar and wanted something that sounded like “a xylophone but deeper.” That percussive, almost playful riff runs through the entire track and gives the song its signature tension — it sounds light, but the lyrics are anything but.

The inspiration came from a real shift in Mick Jagger’s personal life. He wrote the words after feeling tired of being pushed around in a relationship, flipping the power dynamic so that now he was the one in control. Jagger later described it as a “nasty” song, but the marimba keeps it from sounding purely cruel. It’s a perfect example of how the Stones turned bitterness into something catchy, and how Jones’s restless ear for unusual sounds helped define their mid‑60s identity.