Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Jigsaw Puzzle" is one of the longer songs on the album.
Parts of the recording sessions are available on the bootleg market, and on these recordings, Jagger is on acoustic guitar, Richards on electric slide guitar, Charlie Watts on drums, Bill Wyman on bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano.
The lyrics depict the observations of the singer who finds himself surrounded by "misfits and weirdos"; There's a tramp sittin' on my doorstep, tryin' to waste his time With his methylated[2] sandwich, he's a walking clothesline And here comes the bishop's daughter, on the other side She looks a trifle jealous, she's been an outcast all her life
Me, I'm waiting so patiently, lying on the floor I'm just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle before it rains anymore Of the song, Unterberger concludes, " Like many of the tracks on that album, it drew on country blues for musical inspiration...
'Jigsaw Puzzle' starts a bit stilted before finding its legs by the second verse and definitely by the initial chorus.
[6] Rolling Stone ranked it 69th in its countdown of the band's top 100 songs, calling it "a country-rock blast of Highway 61 Revisited surrealism.