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Richard from Canada
I always figured 'High & Dry' to be country.
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Elmo Lewis
Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On"? Or am I just imagining this?
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dadrob
prodigal son is a gospel song....Rev Robert Wilkins
country tonk is the first one they did countrified I think but they may have played blued up versions of some country stuff back with Brian.
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tomcasagranda
Some clarity is needed on this.
The cover of I'm Movin' On was learnt, not from Hank Snow, but rather from Ray Charles, who recorded it as one of his final Atlantic sides. I think it is the B side to I Believe To My Soul, if memory serves. Certainly Keith has stated that the Stones all loved Ray Charles: Mick, Keith, Brian, and Bill were fans of his Atlantic soul/blues stuff, yet Charlie was deeply appreciative of his Quincy Jones/Ralph Bass produced effort Genius + Soul = Jazz which first was released on Impulse.
Secondly, Arthur Alexander was familiar as an R n B artist: A Shot of Rhythm & Blues was a regular cover amongst Beat Boom artists. So too, Sally Sue Brown. I think You Better Move On and Every Day I Have to Cry were covered by British artists: Dusty Springfield did Every Day. The Beatles did Anna, and much later, Bob Dylan, in 1987, did Sally Sue Brown. Ry Cooder did Go On Home, Girl, and Nick Lowe did Lonely Just Like Me. So Arthur Alexander was very familiar to artists of a certain vintage. However, he wasn't really country, as he comes from that rich vein of southern soul, i.e. Muscle Shoals.
The first Stones country number: if we take rockabilly as a country sub genre, encompassing Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee, Charlie Rich, Billy Lee Riley, Johnny Carroll, Glen Glenn, and from Lubbock Texas, Buddy Holly - then Not Fade Away was the first country/rockabilly number they did, albeit in the style of Bo Diddley.
Flight 505 and High & Dry are country pastiches, as is Dear Doctor, so too Country Honk. Dead Flowers seems to be the first attempt to write something in a Bakersfield style, a la Buck Owens. It was later covered by country artists Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Sweet Virginia was also covered, albeit sanitised, by Jerry Lee Lewis, duetting with Keith Richards. Faraway Eyes can be construed as a country pastiche, but We Had It All is pure country soul, written by Donnie Fritts, a contemporary of Arthur Alexander's at Muscle Shoals, and writer of the awesome Breakfast In Bed, as covered by Dusty Springfield and Baby Washington. We Had It All was also down with serious grits by Ray Charles.
This leads me to where does country meet soul ? Obviously under the aegis of Rich Hall at Muscle Shoals, but many a black musician has strayed into country with amazing results: Bobby Womack a case in point. Ditto He Called Me Baby by Ella Washington. Likewise Clarence Gatemouth Brown's country recordings in the early 70s, such as Mama Mambo and Dark End of The Hallway: Etta James doing Almost Persuaded: James & Bobby Purify doing 16 tonnes: Ray Charles' country albums: Solomon Burke doing Just Out of Reach: Candi Staton doing In The Ghetto. The list is endless, and excellent.
Ergo, the Stones would hear country music by black artists and thus decide to do it their way. Also, as fans of Sun rockabilly, such as Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, they would also hear some pure country. Keith has said on interview that nothing improves on I'm Left You're Right She's Gone's guitar solo by Scotty Moore: a pure country number by Elvis. Likewise the b side to Great Balls of Fire was You Win Again, and High School Confidential's b side was Fools Like Me: thus Jerry Lee had a country element to him prior to Another Place, Another Time in 1968.
Also, when Keith met Johnny Cash, albeit at a urinal during the rock n roll hall of fame, he burst into Loading Coal - a Merle Travis tune, covered by Johnny Cash on an early album called Ride This Train from 1960. So, the Stones were familiar with country, but so were the Beatles with Act Naturally, and Dusty Springfield with Silver Threads & Golden Needles as a member of the Springfields. Britain in the early 60s must have been a right set of hillbilly cats, but it's all great music.
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StonesTod
someone would argue that high and dry is country...
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mitchflorida1
Not the first, but the best.
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tomcasagranda
Some clarity is needed on this.
The cover of I'm Movin' On was learnt, not from Hank Snow, but rather from Ray Charles, who recorded it as one of his final Atlantic sides. I think it is the B side to I Believe To My Soul, if memory serves. Certainly Keith has stated that the Stones all loved Ray Charles: Mick, Keith, Brian, and Bill were fans of his Atlantic soul/blues stuff, yet Charlie was deeply appreciative of his Quincy Jones/Ralph Bass produced effort Genius + Soul = Jazz which first was released on Impulse.
Secondly, Arthur Alexander was familiar as an R n B artist: A Shot of Rhythm & Blues was a regular cover amongst Beat Boom artists. So too, Sally Sue Brown. I think You Better Move On and Every Day I Have to Cry were covered by British artists: Dusty Springfield did Every Day. The Beatles did Anna, and much later, Bob Dylan, in 1987, did Sally Sue Brown. Ry Cooder did Go On Home, Girl, and Nick Lowe did Lonely Just Like Me. So Arthur Alexander was very familiar to artists of a certain vintage. However, he wasn't really country, as he comes from that rich vein of southern soul, i.e. Muscle Shoals...
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chrisvw
i would suggest that "down home girl" (one of my faves) and "down the road apiece" on the "now" album were the first country songs recorded by the stones.