In the early 1960s, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first met on platform two of Dartford Railway Station. Aged 18 and 17, respectively, the pair found common ground in their mutual appreciation of American blues music, especially that of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Howlin’ Wolf. Within a few years, they had formed The Rolling Stones with Brian Jones, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman.
Early on, Jones primarily steered the band, remaining loyal to the blues with setlists and studio sessions dominated by covers. However, over time, Jagger and Richards developed their songwriting talents to rival their contemporary pop groups, including The Beatles. By 1965, hits like ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, ‘The Last Time’ and ‘Get Off of My Cloud’ had proven this talent, but they were only just getting started.
Following Brian Jones’ departure and subsequent death in 1969, the Stones entered their most popular and critically acclaimed phase, with Mick Taylor accompanying Richards on guitar duties. This post-Beatles era was highlighted by two seismic releases: 1971’s Sticky Fingers and 1972’s Exile on Main St.
The former of these two essential albums benefitted from a concise yet balanced set of tracks spanning from the head-bopping rock-out that is ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ to the sentimental ballad, ‘Wild Horses’. The latter was released as the album’s second single, sharing an A-side with ‘Sway’. Over the years, ‘Wild Horses has become cherished as one of the Stones’ greatest down-tempo hits and has been treated to innumerable covers. But what’s the song about?
The central line of the song, “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” has been credited to two different stories over the years. Richards claims that he wrote the line in 1969 following the birth of his first child, Marlon. An early draft of the song was written about his regret over leaving his son to go on tour. Jagger allegedly reworked the draft, keeping just that one chorus line, attributing the lyrics to his relationship with Marianne Faithfull.
These two stories are not mutually exclusive; however, at the time, Faithfull claimed that she had said, “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” to Jagger as she awoke from a drug-induced coma in 1969, thus incepting the song.
Jerry Hall, another significant partner of Jagger’s, once suggested that the song was written about Bianca Jagger. “‘Wild Horses’ is my favourite Stones song. It’s so beautiful. I don’t mind that it was written for Bianca,” she told The Observer in 2007. Alas, this suggestion is highly improbable, given that the song was recorded in 1969, a year before Jagger met Bianca.
With much more certainty, we can say that the song’s instrumental composition was conceived by Richards. In his 2010 autobiography Life, Richards said, “‘Wild Horses’ almost wrote itself.” Indeed, the lyrics did, courtesy of Jagger, after Richrds supplied the chorus refrain, but the guitarist is referring to the music here.
“It was really a lot to do with, once again, fucking around with the tunings,” Richards continued. “I found these chords, especially doing it on a twelve-string to start with, which gave the song this character and sound. There’s a certain forlornness that can come out of a twelve-string. I started off, I think, on a regular six-string open E, and it sounded very nice, but sometimes you just get these ideas. What if I open-tuned a twelve-string? All it meant was translate what Mississippi Fred McDowell was doing – twelve-string slide – into five-string mode, which meant a ten-string guitar.”
Listen to The Rolling Stones’ ‘Wild Horses’ below.
