From the Nanker Phelge Catalog: The Story Behind “Play with Fire” by The Rolling Stones

When The Rolling Stones began recording, they performed songs by their blues heroes. Inspired by The Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards began trying their hand at songwriting. If they deemed a composition to have been written by the full band, they would credit the song to a pseudonym rather than list each band member’s name. Nanker Phelge was the fictitious name representing Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham. In the early days, it also included keyboardist Ian Stewart.

The origin of the name came from an Edith Grove flatmate of the band named Jimmy Phelge. He wasn’t a songwriter; they just chose his surname. Nanker came from the combination of the words nob and wanker. When guitarist Brian Jones would pull a funny face, they referred to it as a “nanker.” Some of the songs credited to the fabricated title include “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man,” “The Spider and the Fly,” “Off the Hook,” “2120 South Michigan Avenue,” and “Stoned.” Let’s take a look at the story behind another one of those songs, “Play with Fire” by The Rolling Stones.

A Unique Lineup

“Play with Fire” was the flip side of the smash hit “The Last Time.” The B-side also made the British charts. Both sides were recorded in Los Angeles’s RCA Studios. In 2010, Richards wrote in his memoir, Life, “After we finished ‘The Last Time,’ the only Stones left standing were me and Mick. [Producer] Phil Spector was there—Andrew had asked him to come down and listen to the track—and so was [arranger] Jack Nitzsche. A janitor had come to clean up, this silent sweeping in the corner of this huge studio, while this remaining group picked up instruments. Spector picked up Bill Wyman’s bass, Nitzsche went to the harpsichord, and the B-side, ‘Play with Fire,’ was cut with half the Rolling Stones and this unique lineup.”

Well, you’ve got your diamonds, and you’ve got your pretty clothes
And the chauffeur drives your car
You let everybody know
But don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire

Jack Nitzsche

Los Angeles arranger Jack Nitzsche played keyboards on many Rolling Stones albums and arranged the choir on “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” He also scored the films The Exorcist and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Said Richards of Nitzsche, “Jack was the genius, not Phil. Rather, Phil took on Jack’s eccentric persona and sucked his insides out. But Jack Nitzsche was an almost silent—and unpaid for reasons still not clear except he did it for fun—arranger, musician, gluer-together of the talent, a man of enormous importance for us in that period. He came to our sessions to relax and would throw in some ideas. He’d play when the mood took him. He’s on ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together,’ when he took over my piano part while I took over bass. This is just one example of his input. I loved the man.”

Your mother, she’s an heiress, owns a block in Saint John’s Wood
And your father’d be there with her
If he only could
But don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire

My Mother, My Daughter

The moody song ultimately lays down an ultimatum. As Jagger sings, he reveals quite a lot. In 1968, Jonathan Cott of Rolling Stone magazine asked Jagger specifically about “Play with Fire.” “There are lines about getting your kicks in Knightsbridge and Stepney and a rich girl, and her father’s away, and there is a suggestion that the guy in the song is having an affair not only with the daughter but with the mother,” posited Cott.

Replied Jagger, “Ah, the imagination of teenagers! Well, one always wants to have an affair with one’s mother. I mean, it’s a turn-on.”

Your old man took her diamonds and tiaras by the score
Now she gets her kicks in Stepney
Not in Knightsbridge anymore
So don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire

Retired for Decades

After performing the song regularly during 1965 and 1966, the Stones retired it until their 1989 Steel Wheels Tour. “Play with Fire” was not played live by the band again for almost another 30 years. Guitarist Ron Wood urged his bandmates to revive the song, but this didn’t happen until the 2018 tour. Jagger was fond of the song. In 1995, he told Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, “‘Play with Fire’ sounds amazing—when I heard it last. I mean, it’s a very in-your-face kind of sound and very clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I’m playing the tambourines, the vocal line. You know, it’s very pretty. … I mean, it just came out. It was just kind of rich girls’ families—society as you saw it. It’s painted in this naive way in these songs. I don’t know if it was daring. It just hadn’t been done.”

Now you’ve got some diamonds, and you will have some others
But you’d better watch your step, girl
Or start living with your mother
So don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire
So don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire

Lil Wayne Lawsuit

In 2008, Abkco Music, Inc., owner of the rights to the early Rolling Stones catalog, filed a lawsuit against Lil Wayne for copyright infringement and unfair competition, referring to a song called “Playing with Fire.” Abkco claimed the song was derived from “Play with Fire.” The rapper later removed the song from his album The Carter III and replaced it with a song called “P–sy Monster.”

Now you’ve got some diamonds, and you will have some others
But you’d better watch your step, girl
Or start living with your mother
So don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire
So don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire

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Photo by David Redfern/Redferns