‘Country Honk’: The original version of a Rolling Stones classic
The Rolling Stones’ songs have been reworked time and time again over the decades. Walk into a venue in any city around the world, and you probably won’t have to wait there long before you hear a cover of one of their many timeless classics. But in 1969, the band gave it a go themselves when they released ‘Country Honk’, a redone version of one of their own songs.
There is always the slight feeling that The Rolling Stones couldn’t quite decide what band they wanted to be. When they first started, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards bonded over a love of American rhythm and blues. “You know I was keen on Chuck Berry, and I thought I was the only fan for miles but one mornin’ on Dartford Stn. (that’s so I don’t have to write a long word like station) I was holding one of Chuck’s records when a guy I knew at primary school 7-11 yrs y’know came up to me,” Richards wrote excitedly to his aunt when he reunited with Jagger, building a new friendship over their shared musical loves.
But then they met Brian Jones hovering around London’s jazz scene, and Charlie Watts was undeniably a student of that school of playing. Already, the worlds of rock and roll, blues, and jazz were a lot of ingredients in the mix, but then, when the band hit the big time and began spending time in America, Jagger and Richards especially seemed to fall in love with another sound: country.
While Jagger’s drawl has always had a kind of Americana flare to it, there are certain songs where he seems to get taken over by a kind of alter ego. Call him Rootin’ Tootin’ Mc’Jagger because on songs like ‘Wild Horses’, ‘Far Away Eyes’, ‘Sweet Virginia’ and countless others, the boy from Dartford is nowhere to be seen. Instead, he’s possessed by a cowboy from the deep south as London’s favourite rock and roll band fully transformed into a country troupe.
It’s an itch that they had to scratch, and when it came to the song ‘Honky Tonk Woman’, they clearly didn’t satisfy the urge as they felt the need to rip it up and rebuild it with Jagger’s cowboy self at the helm.
While the original undeniably has country elements, from Keith Richards’ guitar solos roaring through the track, primed to lead a line dance, to Watt’s more skiffle band inspire drumline. It clearly wasn’t enough for them. Three months later, they released Let It Bleed featuring ‘Country Honk’, the all-out country version of the track where the instruments were limited to only the kind you might find in a farmer’s barn.
But that’s how it was supposed to sound. “On Let It Bleed, we put that other version of ‘Honky Tonk Women’ on because that’s how the song was originally written, as a real Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers, ’30s country song,” Richards explained. It turns out that ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ was actually the redone version, as the guitarist said, “It got turned around to this other song by Mick Taylor, who got into a completely different feel, throwing it off the wall completely.” But by November 1969, Cowboy Jagger regained control to bring his vision to life.
