Is this a druggie song or a love song or just a sad song?

Esky

It's a song that Keith and Mick cooperated on. A sad one, not a druggie-song. The story is this: Marlon was only 3 months old when Keith had to leave him and him mum, Anita, to go on tour with his band in the us. So he wrote his sore feelings down. When Mick was filming"Ned Kelley" in Australia and MArianne took too many pills/tried to commit suicide, he sat at her side, Marianne pale in her Hospital bed. _|Were you trying to leave me? Her answer: Wild horses, couldn't drag me away... So the glimmers sat down, played guitar, sang, talkt about what was on their minds, like friends do, and there you are: A true PEARL. One of my favourite songs, ever!

Yes, the song is an absolute gem. maybe that is why the twins both insist on radically different stories. Marianne faithful in her book agrees with Jagger's version. That is was his song for her. When he had her back after her suicide attempt he took her home , sat her down and played her the tune on a recording. And she cried.
Keith tells the version that shidoobee lists.
And there are several different stories about the origin of the lyrix for the chorus. Did Marianne sya them, or did Keith come up with them in the studio bathroom?

Both Keith and Mick told the same story many times: Keith had written it about not wanting to go on tour after Marlon was born. He had the title phrase and some lines, and Jagger wrote the rest at the muscle shoals sessions. The story about Marianne Faithfull is absolute nonsense.

Mathijs

Mathijs, quit it! Come on man. What is this "the story about Marianne is absolute nonsense" kind of statement? You read a book by Keith saying it his way. Good books.
The there is a pretty good book by Marianne telling her version, which IMO sounds pretty @#$%& believable too. Now you choose to believe Keith's version. I think many of us know that Keith likes to embellish a tale himself a bit.
The cozmik truth surely floats somewhere in the middle. I heard Bill Wyman says he wrote it after he was done with Jumping Jacks. LOL

Thanks guys.

I did think it was more about Keith touring without his son & Anita rather than Mick & Marianne...

I just had a feeling it may have had some drug connotations (as most of Sticky Fingers is) rather than a 100% sincere sad/love song....

ChelseaDrugstore Wrote:
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> Mathijs, quit it! Come on man. What is this "the
> story about Marianne is absolute nonsense" kind of
> statement? You read a book by Keith saying it his
> way. Good books.
> The there is a pretty good book by Marianne
> telling her version, which IMO sounds pretty @#$%&
> believable too. Now you choose to believe Keith's
> version. I think many of us know that Keith likes
> to embellish a tale himself a bit.
> The cozmik truth surely floats somewhere in the
> middle. I heard Bill Wyman says he wrote it after
> he was done with Jumping Jacks. LOL

I hardly ever read books about the Stones, as they are most of the times written by journalists who know nothing about the Stones. Books are for the photographs only to me. What I do like are interviews of the Stones (pre-1986, before Keith started to talk out of his ass), and even more interviews with people around the Stones. Most people worked for a rather short period with the Stones, and normally were amazed they worked with them, so they absorbed all kind of details the Stones never tell or remember. Thinks like "I watched Keith for three days trying to work up the intro of Tumbling Dice" by Andy Johns (and I believe this over Keith's story about an antenna picking up three chords and an @#$%& and bla bla bla), or the quote by Jim Dickinson that he watched Jagger in the loo writing the lyrics for Wild Horses on the spot while Keith was showing the rest how the song went at Muscle Shoals. I believe Dickinson's story over Marianne's stories.

There's great stories to be found by Jimmy Miller, Andy Johns (give him a drink and he talks for days), Ian McLagan, Chris Kimsey, Sam Cutler, Chip Monck and those kind of people.

Mathijs

Santa does exist after all!
Rock on, M!

I thought Gram Parsons wrote the song, almost entirely on his own with some help from Mick and Keith?? That's the story I thought to be the real story.

No no.....I WROTE IT! It's about me and my inablity to tear myself away from this board during work hours

gram released his version with the flying burritos one year before it came out
on Sticky Fingers

In the liner notes to a recently released Best Of The Flying Burrito Bros., Parsons thought the song was written for him! It states that Keith gave an early copy to "Sneaky" Pete, their guitarist. He wanted him to do a guitar solo on it. It goes on to say that he gave the Burrito's permission to record the song so that's how it came out before the Stones version. Let It Bleed album was pretty much finished and ready to be released so they had to wait for their next studio album, Sticky Fingers in 71.
As far as the origins of the song, it's probably a bit of everything that's been mentioned here. I think Mick wrote most of the lyrics. If you watch the Gimme Shelter DVD during the playback of the song, they show Keith for a bit and he's singing along to the song, but he doesn't know the lyrics very good.
In Tony Sanchez's book Up and Down with the Rolling Stones, he mentions the situation with Marianne Faithful and that's how they came up with the chorus.

So I guess I was right but WHO did Graham Parsons write it for?? It is my #1` favorite Stones that I want played non-stop at my funeral.

Parsons thought the song was written about him by Keith about their friendship so he (Parsons) had nothing to do with the actual songwriting.

The version with Pete Kleinow is availabe on bootleg, and outshines the original in my humble opinion.

Mathijs

keith's electric guitar outtakes on wild horses are real bad its amazing how
clean and melodic he nailed it after I guess practice,

how come keith never played the electric guitar solo again live all these
years?

You might remember openG that in 75 when Keith and Ron Wood would play "Wild Horses" they played it on electric. Maybe it was because it was still in the early days of the "weaving' but often they turned it into needless mush. Instead of one guy taking the leads and one playing chords. The version from Knebworth is very pretty if I recall though.
You know openG, I know you love Taylor, and hats off to you and him, but Keith DID every once in a while play a decent song. He also wrote a few rocking little numbers here and there. Songs that Taylor liked soloing on.

He had a great chance on STRIPPED to play again an electric solo but choose
only to change the INTRO and let Woody handle the few licks.just so you know
keith is my fav all around guitar player with his songwriting etc the rock rebel etc.

Like I said openG :Hats off.

<how come keith never played the electric guitar solo again live all these
years?>

Live he uses open tuning, so there are some limitations there. Don't know about stripped - Ronnie has to do something?

In fact, nobody plays as dominant rhtyhm guitar as Keith, and it may be too much with the lead as well...

Debra Wrote:
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> I thought Gram Parsons wrote the song, almost
> entirely on his own with some help from Mick and
> Keith?? That's the story I thought to be the real
> story.


This is the never-ending myth, saga or truth.
Fact is Keith & Gram was so close in late 69 & early 70
they hardly could distinct the other from theirself.

I just listened to Wild Horses from "Stripped". What a wonderful version. One of the few times I like Leavell. The orgen in the beginning is subdued. Very pretty. And Keith's intonations are beautiful. there is that constant ringing note on the high E that he carries into the Am chord ( probably a D note that actually doens't figure in a straight Am chord and is great here; I'm not at an instrument right now)) Ronnie is excellent, Charlie is using some HUGE cymbal. Jagger sings the song the way he probably envisioned it all along.

I taped those studio sessions on video of Stripped from an VHI MTV special they had here in the USA and also footage of some tour dates in amerstdam - thats the
gig where they did shine a light and ouch woody's solo

Haha LOL OpenG, I wonder if on your PC you already have "Ouch" programmed before the words "Ronnie's solo"
Its just a joke!!! let's not start firing yet. It's early over here...

i've always prefered the Flying Burrito Bros. version

But openG is right here - the original solo by Ronnie on this one really was a stinker

It was Keith´s lyrics from the start, the rough sketch.
Mick made it his own.
Otherwise I´m afraid I´m with ADRIAN_L on this one.

So Baboo, where did Parsons come into the mix? What do you think his contribution was? Certainly it is not entirely myth that Parsons wrote or contributed something to WILD HORSES!

i was rereading Stanley Booth's biography of Keith last night. Stanley was friends with both Gram and Keith, and he spends a page or so debunking the myth that Gram contributed to Wild Horses. he attributes the music, the title and the lyrics of the refrain to Keith, and the rest of the lyrics to Mick; he says Gram's role was simply loving it enough to want to record it.

the myth could easily have arisen simply because Gram recorded the song. after all, there are people who believe Chuck Berry wrote Down the Road Apiece, even that Otis Redding wrote Satisfaction.




"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

Esky you idiot - the song is quite obviously about anal sex.
I thought I'd made this clear.

Winnie the Pooh outlines this very clearly in his autoboi titled "Where the pooh comes from", and how he wrote it in a drug addled stupor in between rogering his honey pot and drinking heavily.

Ignore all the "Keith wrote this and Mick wrote that" rubbish. In future come straight to me.
Leave you alone for a bit and you forget everything.



kyle m

Have you ever lent somebody $20 and never seen them again? It was probably worth it.