In 2015, the Rolling Stones re-released their classic 1971 album Sticky Fingers along with previously unreleased material and alternative takes of beloved songs.
One such track includes this tender, haunting acoustic version of “Wild Horses.”
“I was definitely very inside this piece emotionally,” Mick Jagger has said of the song.
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In a 2010 Life interview, Keith Richards said, “‘Wild Horses’ almost wrote itself. It was really a lot to do with, once again, fucking around with the tunings. 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 forlorn-ness 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 to translate what Mississippi Fred McDowell was doing — twelve-string slide — into five-string mode, which meant a ten-string guitar.”
Enjoy.
Or lose yourself in some other Throwback Thursday songs here.