Wild Horses (song)
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| “Wild Horses” | |||||
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| Single by Rolling Stones from the album Sticky Fingers |
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| B-side | "Sway" | ||||
| Released | 12 June 1971 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | December 1969 - February 1970 | ||||
| Genre | Rock, Roots rock | ||||
| Length | 5:42 | ||||
| Label | Rolling Stones/Virgin Records | ||||
| Writer(s) | Jagger/Richards | ||||
| Producer | Jimmy Miller | ||||
| Rolling Stones singles chronology | |||||
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| Sticky Fingers track listing | |||||
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"Wild Horses" is a song by the Rolling Stones from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Rolling Stone ranked it at #334 in its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list in 2004.
[edit] Inspiration and recording
Recorded between December of 1969 and February of 1970 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL, "Wild Horses" is said to have been originally written by Richards in response to having to leave his then-infant son Marlon to go on tour with the band. Although it is said Jagger re-wrote most of this song to reflect the end of his relationship with Marianne Faithfull, Jagger himself said in the liner notes to the 1993 Stones collection Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones, "Everyone always says this was written about Marianne but I don't think it was; that was all well over by then. But I was definitely very inside this piece emotionally."
| “ | I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie; I have my freedom but I don't have much time; Faith has been broken, tears must be cried; Let's do some living after we die | ” |
The Flying Burrito Brothers first recorded a version of the song that was released in 1970. Gram Parsons had befriended Jagger and (particularly) Richards the previous year, and this was said to be one of his favorite songs.[citation needed] (Alternatively, there was a disagreement between Parsons and Jagger over songwriting credits.) The Stones recorded this (along with other songs off of Sticky Fingers) at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama in early December of 1969 without the assistance of producer Jimmy Miller. Several bootlegs exist of Richards and Parsons jamming in the studio with the solo and chorus of the song. The pianos on this song are of note as they are not played by Stones regular Ian Stewart, but by session man Jim Dickinson.
[edit] Release and aftermath
Released as the second (U.S.-only) single in June of 1971, "Wild Horses" reached #28 on the singles chart. Although popular at the Stones' live shows, "Wild Horses" has only been released in a reworked version on the 1995 acoustic/live album Stripped.
It has proven to be a popular cover song for other artists, eventually leading the Rolling Stones to re-release it as a single in 1996. "Wild Horses" has been covered by The Cranberries, Old and in the Way, The Sundays, Guns N' Roses, Bush, Labelle, The Lovemongers with Chris Cornell, Dave Matthews, Garbage, Charlotte Martin, Chantal Kreviazuk, and most recently Alicia Keys ft. Adam Levine, Tre Lux, Iron and Wine, Stonesour, Honeytribe, Deacon Blue, and Elisa. The Sundays' version was used in a long-running Budweiser beer commercial in the early 1990s, featuring slow-motion footage of galloping Clydesdale horses. The version was also featured in the 1996 thriller Fear. Also American singer Beth Hart and Danish singer Jesper Binzer have made a cover version together.
On April 8, 2006, Chinese rock star Cui Jian sang this with Jagger when The Stones played a concert in Shanghai.
Eva Avila of Canadian Idol sang this song publicly for Rolling Stones night in the Top 9 night.
The end credits of the film Shine a Light feature a version of the song without lyrics.
