(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
It was impossible for any American band to ignore the British invasion, no matter if they tried. As much as The Beach Boys may have been making their own symphonies at the same time The Beatles were rocketing up the charts, there’s a reason why Brian Wilson made sure to keep up to date on everything the Fab Four were doing during the making of Pet Sounds. Then again, The Rolling Stones were never shy about being completely open to all forms of American music.
If you look at any great Stones record, everything is buried knee-deep in the blues. The originators of rock and roll all had that same 12-bar progression under their belt, and even if Keith Richards learned some of his bluesy licks secondhand from Chuck Berry, the sky was the limit once he heard what everyone from Muddy Waters to Robert Johnson was doing decades before him.
But the blues was only one tool in their arsenal. Granted, it was one that they could abuse pretty frequently, but when they started to become interested in the roots of American music, there was a lot more than the Mississippi Delta and those Chicago bluesmen. Everyone was willing to explore, and while there might have been pieces of everything from jazz to old-time rock and roll, it wasn’t long before The Stones felt a hankering for country music.
Although Mick Jagger was the one selling nearly every country song that the band wrote, Richards was the one willing to do his homework. He was already studying under one of the best country artists, Gram Parsons, when making Exile On Main St, but despite them flirting with a touch of twang here and there, what would a Stones album have sounded like if they decided to make it purely acoustic?
Granted, there would have to be some parameters around it. Not every country song they wrote had to have people strumming away on acoustics, but thumbing through their classic period, there were always points where Jagger and Richards had just the right melody that could break someone’s heart on the same level as an old George Jones tune or something from the likes of Merle Haggard.
But there has to be more than simple sing-along tunes. After all, the band never settled with one type of blues music, so for every tearjerker tune, there would be some where Jagger breaks out the harmonica, moments where Richards shows off his country-rock bends, and even the occasional cut where Jagger seems to be taking the piss, like the mid-section of ‘Far Away Eyes’.
And let’s not forget about Richards’s turn behind the microphone. Jagger might be the frontman who’s able to sell half of the band’s tunes, but all great country music comes from believing the person singing every track, and whenever Keef opened his mouth, he never minced words for a second, which makes him perfect for this kind of record.
Would this kind of record have done as well as their straight-ahead rockers? It’s hard to say, but even with such a massive genre twist, it would have been interesting to hear what The Stones would have been like had they settled into a groove in the 1970s rather than switching things up. It’s one thing to be able to keep up with the times, but had they played their cards right, they would have earned themselves a spot right next to the Eagles as the British equivalent of country-rockers.
More than anything, this would be an opportunity to show people a different side of what The Stones were about. They had their moments when they could seem like the most devilish artists to ever walk the Earth, but underneath that rough exterior was always a frail heart, and they were more than happy to open themselves up if their fans were willing to hear their tales of sorrow.
Related Topics
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.
