Keith Richards recalls the genesis of three classic tunes

The Rolling Stones guitarist and style icon discusses the meaning behind some of the legendary band's biggest hits.
As Told To Brooke Mazurek
Oct 26, 2017


Keith Richards, photographed by Peter Lindbergh.

"There are only two kinds of songs, honey,” growls Keith Richards. “The beautifully smooth ones that are plainly obvious when they come to you, and the ones that give you a hard time.” In the more than five decades he has spent churning out some of rock’s most enduring hits, the Rolling Stones guitarist has been unsurprisingly “lucky with the smooth ones.” Armed with a creative compass that guides him whenever the inklings of a new song arise, Richards, 73, explains that he “can almost always imagine where the music is gonna end up once it begins.” As the Stones embarked on their latest European tour, he shared the inspiration behind three legendary tracks.

SWEET BLACK ANGEL

Exile on Main St. (1972) “This one started as an island-lilt sort of thing when we were in Jamaica. After a while the words ‘Sweet Black Angel’ crept into it, and I realized Mick [Jagger] was writing about Angela Davis, the famous activist who was under arrest at the time. We had never met her, but we admired her from afar. Mick and I made the record and said, ‘That’s very nice,’ but it never seemed to really fit into a Stones show. We played it live only once, and it stuck out like a sore thumb. But anything can happen with the Stones. I’ll throw it in during rehearsal and see what happens. It’s still quite relevant, isn’t it? And that’s unfortunate. This stuff has stayed with us for too long.”

GIMME SHELTER

Let It Bleed (1969) “I had been sitting by the window of my friend Robert Fraser’s apartment on Mount Street in London with an acoustic guitar when suddenly the sky went completely black and an incredible monsoon came down. It was just people running about looking for shelter—that was the germ of the idea. But as we went further into, we went further into it until it became, you know, rape and murder are ‘just a shot away.’ I can’t think of a time I ever started a song off saying, ‘This is going to be a duet,’ but somewhere in the process of making the record it suddenly became obvious that we needed a female voice. Mick and I both looked at each other and said, ‘Man, we need a bitch in this!’ So [producer] Jack Nitzsche called up the singer Merry Clayton, and she was at the studio within an hour, and we cut it. Just like that.”

BEAST OF BURDEN

Some Girls (1978) “Those who say it’s about one woman in particular, they’ve got it all wrong. We were trying to write for a slightly broader audience than just Anita Pallenberg or Marianne Faithfull. Although that’s not to say they didn’t have some influence in there somewhere. I mean, what’s close by is close by! I’ve always felt it’s one of my best soul songs. It was another strict collaboration between Mick and me. I think I had the first verse—‘I’ll never be your beast of burden’—along with the hook, and we were still working very much in our traditional way: Here’s the idea, here’s the song, now run away and fill it in! Some of the theories surrounding it are very intriguing, but they’re about as divorced from reality as can be. I find it quite amusing that there are people in the world who spend a lot of their time trying to decode something that is, at the end of the day, completely undecodable. I mean, even I’ve forgotten the code!”

This article originally appears in the November 2017 issue of Harper's Bazaar.

[www.harpersbazaar.com]

What a great photo...he really looks fantastic in a fedora.

Cool stories!!

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"I find it quite amusing that there are people in the world who spend a lot of their time trying to decode something that is, at the end of the day, completely undecodable. I mean, even I’ve forgotten the code!”

And there's the proof they read this forum!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-10-27 00:46 by Koen.

SWEET BLACK ANGEL
“This one started as an island-lilt sort of thing when we were in Jamaica"

When was this?


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Never heard that Beast of Burden story before.
Always read it was about getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore.

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wonderboy
Never heard that Beast of Burden story before.
Always read it was about getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore.

Never read that before.
In fact with lyrics like the following, that thought never even crossed my mind:

"All I want is for you to make love to me"

"So let's go home and draw the curtains"

"Come on baby make sweet love to me"

"Such a pretty, pretty, pretty girl
Come on baby please, please, please"


Seems Keith is correct when saying "Some of the theories surrounding it are very intriguing, but they’re about as divorced from reality as can be".

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing, Cristiano!

I do believe the world has become WAY too PC; and yes it is Keith telling the story, BUT - I don't dig it when women are called 'bitch', just as a noun.

Good stories!

Agree with you Palace about the bitch/noun thing.
Giving Keith the benefit of the doubt in terms of recalling the words they used at the time, vs current day talk.

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Palace Revolution 2000
I do believe the world has become WAY too PC; and yes it is Keith telling the story, BUT - I don't dig it when women are called 'bitch', just as a noun.

I agree too.
For the rest, interesting interview.

He's left out a couple of relevant details about Gimme Shelter, which he stated elsewhere.

- The intro to GS was inspired by the intro to The Twilight Zone.

Twilight Zone

- They had originally booked Bonnie Raitt as the female vocalist, but she was ill so they called Merry Clayton as a replacement.

I didn't know that about Bonnie Raitt. I read how Merry Clayton came in the middle of the night, I think she was pregnant. She was overall pretty un-impressed with the whole Stones thing. I saw a clip where she was talking about Mick and Keith being there, "with their pants and everything"...LOL. Didn't she also have some initial hesitation about the 'rape murder' lines, until Jagger showed her that it resolves in "love sister.."?

I love it very much when we get stories from inside the studio. Or even video. There is an unforgettable sequence in a Clash film where Mick Jones lays down a vocal track. He is standing there with a big spliff in his hand.

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wonderboy
Never heard that Beast of Burden story before.
Always read it was about getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore.

He was on heroin when they recorded Some Girls.

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Palace Revolution 2000
I do believe the world has become WAY too PC; and yes it is Keith telling the story, BUT - I don't dig it when women are called 'bitch', just as a noun.

This is another example of Keith acting like he's black. It's very cringe-worthy.

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Bliss
He's left out a couple of relevant details about Gimme Shelter, which he stated elsewhere.

- The intro to GS was inspired by the intro to The Twilight Zone.

Twilight Zone

- They had originally booked Bonnie Raitt as the female vocalist, but she was ill so they called Merry Clayton as a replacement.

IIRC, he also once stated that it is just a variation on the intro to Under My Thumb.

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Koen

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Bliss
He's left out a couple of relevant details about Gimme Shelter, which he stated elsewhere.

- The intro to GS was inspired by the intro to The Twilight Zone.

Twilight Zone

- They had originally booked Bonnie Raitt as the female vocalist, but she was ill so they called Merry Clayton as a replacement.

IIRC, he also once stated that it is just a variation on the intro to Under My Thumb.

It's the same chord-pattern as UMT and One Hit, but in a different key (and tuning). He might have thought about the chord-pattern if he said that.

Never heard Keith telling the story about Gimme Shelter intro being inspired by the Twilight Zone theme!
Nor had I heard about Bonnie Raitt possibly singing the part...she must have been still relatively unknown as her first album didn't come out until 1971.
Seems her voice would have also been a good fit, but don't think it would have quite the same drama and emotion as Merry Clayton.

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*No doubt this intro was inspired by the Twilight Zone.
OUT OF LIMITS - THE MARKETTS - (ORIGINAL VERSION) 1962




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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-10-27 19:46 by Hairball.

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keefriff99
What a great photo...he really looks fantastic...

... with B&W analog/film. Digital tends to give a "plastic" look to people. The Annie Leibowitz shoot for Vuitton was particularly appaling in that respect.

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dcba

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keefriff99
What a great photo...he really looks fantastic...

... with B&W analog/film. Digital tends to give a "plastic" look to people. The Annie Leibowitz shoot for Vuitton was particularly appaling in that respect.

I think that was more down to some really blatant Photoshopping. They smoothed his features out to such a degree that he looked like a mannequin. Not sure you can pin that on Leibowitz.

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Koen

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Bliss
He's left out a couple of relevant details about Gimme Shelter, which he stated elsewhere.

- The intro to GS was inspired by the intro to The Twilight Zone.

Twilight Zone

- They had originally booked Bonnie Raitt as the female vocalist, but she was ill so they called Merry Clayton as a replacement.

IIRC, he also once stated that it is just a variation on the intro to Under My Thumb.

This somewhat agrees with what Keith tells Paul Shaffer in the video below. Paul informs Keith he likes the chords on UMT, Keith responds with yes, similar to what I used in GS. Start watching at about 1:15 in the video.

[www.youtube.com]

video: [www.youtube.com]

And clearly this 1968 hit. I assume

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Redhotcarpet

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wonderboy
Never heard that Beast of Burden story before.
Always read it was about getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore.

He was on heroin when they recorded Some Girls.

Yes, but he had started the process of getting clean. He'd gotten some treatment but then relapsed. (Again, just based on the memory of what I've read.) Before they make me run is also on that album.

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Hairball

Quote
wonderboy
Never heard that Beast of Burden story before.
Always read it was about getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore.

Never read that before.
In fact with lyrics like the following, that thought never even crossed my mind:

"All I want is for you to make love to me"

"So let's go home and draw the curtains"

"Come on baby make sweet love to me"

"Such a pretty, pretty, pretty girl
Come on baby please, please, please"


Seems Keith is correct when saying "Some of the theories surrounding it are very intriguing, but they’re about as divorced from reality as can be".

Well, it's Keith himself that floated that theory.
From timeisonourside.com:

'Actually, if anything, I was trying to say sorry to Mick for passing on the weight of running this band. We were at the stage where we were getting bigger. The whole music business was getting bigger, and I was basically trying to say to Mick: You don't have to do it on your own... No(, he didn't listen). He very rarely does. That's why I love him.... At the time Mick was getting used to running the band. Charlie was just the drummer. I was just the other guitar player. I was trying to say, OK, I'm back, so let's share a bit more of this power, share the weight, brother.'

I kinda believe that version of the story, with Keith coming up with the title and some phrases and then Mick turning it into a song about a bitch, as Keith would say.

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wonderboy

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Hairball

Quote
wonderboy
Never heard that Beast of Burden story before.
Always read it was about getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore.

Never read that before.
In fact with lyrics like the following, that thought never even crossed my mind:

"All I want is for you to make love to me"

"So let's go home and draw the curtains"

"Come on baby make sweet love to me"

"Such a pretty, pretty, pretty girl
Come on baby please, please, please"


Seems Keith is correct when saying "Some of the theories surrounding it are very intriguing, but they’re about as divorced from reality as can be".

Well, it's Keith himself that floated that theory.
From timeisonourside.com:

'Actually, if anything, I was trying to say sorry to Mick for passing on the weight of running this band. We were at the stage where we were getting bigger. The whole music business was getting bigger, and I was basically trying to say to Mick: You don't have to do it on your own... No(, he didn't listen). He very rarely does. That's why I love him.... At the time Mick was getting used to running the band. Charlie was just the drummer. I was just the other guitar player. I was trying to say, OK, I'm back, so let's share a bit more of this power, share the weight, brother.'

I kinda believe that version of the story, with Keith coming up with the title and some phrases and then Mick turning it into a song about a bitch, as Keith would say.

In Keith's mind, the title itself might have been about him not being a burden, but evidently he only came up with the title and Mick wrote the rest of the lyrics.

From Mick - also via timeisonourside:

"Beast of Burden is a combination (of a real girl and a fantasy)". - 1978

"The song says: I don't need a beast of burden, and I'm not going to be your beast of burden, either. Any woman can see that that's like my saying that I don't want a woman to be on her knees for me. I mean, I get accused of being very anitigirl, right? But people really don't listen, they get it all wrong: they hear Beast of Burden and say Argggh"! - 1978

"That's more like Keith's song. I wrote lyrics". - 2011

"No, (it's not about Keith's heroin situation). I think that's just made up (laughs). I think that's rubbish. But you know, it's so long ago. People, they like to make up stories and whatever, what you believe happened at the time. I could tell you, I could make up all sorts of stuff about how Far Away Eyes was written - it wouldn't be correct, I'm sure, but it might sound good (laughs)". - 2011

And Keith again:

"Beast of Burden, I had no idea how that was going to turn out. To me, it was just a soul song that came out – a part of my heritage. There’s a little bit of blues in there. All I did was throw out the phrase beast of burden to Mick, and I played him the music, and then he took it off by himself and did a beautiful job on it". - 2011

And finally - and this might be a bit contradictory from Keith, but maybe this is where you heard it being about him getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore:

"When I returned to the fold after closing down the laboratory, I came back into the studio with Mick... to say, Thanks, man, for shouldering the burden - that's why I wrote Beast of Burden for him, I realize in retrospect - and the weird thing was that he didn't want to share the burden any more". - 2003

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The truth probably lies somewhere in between the lines of all of those quotes.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Quote
wonderboy

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Redhotcarpet

Quote
wonderboy
Never heard that Beast of Burden story before.
Always read it was about getting clean and not being a burden to Mick anymore.

He was on heroin when they recorded Some Girls.

Yes, but he had started the process of getting clean. He'd gotten some treatment but then relapsed. (Again, just based on the memory of what I've read.) Before they make me run is also on that album.

In Mac's book he's describing how Keith back into the studio with the needle still in his thigh. So, he was definitely still using while recording SG.

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Redhotcarpet
video: [www.youtube.com]

And clearly this 1968 hit. I assume

as an aside...I love both SW's version and The Stones version...perhaps one of Micks best vocal performances...

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Deltics
SWEET BLACK ANGEL
“This one started as an island-lilt sort of thing when we were in Jamaica"

When was this?

It's originally from the Sticky Fingers sessions--right around when she was on the lam and then went to jail, so I'd have thought it would have started as an island-lilt sort of thing at Stargroves. Or did they go to Jamaica in 1970?

"Nice bit of silk, Em."

From a Rolling Stone article published in 1973:

"Jagger and Keith Richards had been to the island once before on holiday. Though the Stones have moved their homes officially from England to the south of France, Jagger said he had not returned to the Mediterranean in nearly a year."

[www.rollingstone.com]

And from Time is on Our Side:

"For Goats Head Soup, Jamaica was one of the few places that would let us all in! By that time about the only country that I was allowed to exist in was Switzerland... Jamaica - oh, the music island! We were hearing intersting sounds coming out of Jamaica, plus they had cheap studios. Dynamic Sound in Kingston was an amazing place: the drum kits and the amps were nailed to the floor. Jamaica's a wonderful place, kind of free and easy. I'd been there on and off in the 1960s, but only for a visit. After Goats Head Soup I've lived there whenever I can. I have family there - villages welcome me with open arms."

Keith Richards, 2003

[www.timeisonourside.com]