Lyrically Speaking: The Rolling Stones’ homage to São Paulo in ‘Honky Tonk Women’
“We really thought we were like real cowboys,” said Keith Richards, explaining the genesis of The Rolling Stones ‘Honky Tonk Women’, the idea that strumming an old Hank Williams song on the porch of a Brazillian ranch house not distracting from the fact that at that moment they really were everything they thought they believed to be true.
The guitarist was vacationing in Brazil with Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, and Anita Pallenberg when he was inspired by the country scenery and horses. A couple of months later, what started as a reimagining of Williams’ ‘Honky Tonk Blues’ soon became its own thing, with country grooves replaced by blues rhythms and lyrics borne out of Richards’ love for the women he met back in Brazil.
Like many songs by the Stones, ‘Honky Tonk Women’ took on the lyrical shape that you might expect, with enough provocative lines but not too many to be banned from airplay. While staying at the ranch in Matão, São Paulo, Richards and Jagger came across many women, which they conceptualised down to two types in two Western settings: Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi.
The first is described by Jagger in the opening line: “I met a gin-soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis.” It’s theorised that this woman is a sex worker who “tried to take me upstairs for a ride.” However, after having seemingly had too much alcohol, she “had to heave me across her right shoulder” because he couldn’t “drink you off my mind.”
Aside from the obvious promiscuity at play, this verse—and the song in a broader sense—displays the Stones’ roots in American rhythm and blues as they pay homage to two distinctive parts of southern America. Although they travel to various parts of the world, these “Honky Tonk Women” will not leave their minds no matter what they do to stop it, even if they have to drink themselves into oblivion.
The second verse is when the song becomes a little more suggestive, as Jagger sings about sleeping with “a divorcée in New York City” despite putting “up some kind of fight.” He then says she “blew my nose and then she blew my mind”, referring to cocaine and sex in typical Stones fashion. Jagger and Richards were known as being rather raucous in their endeavours, but this demonstrated their ability to scoot around broadcasting rules and write about whatever they wanted to without consequence.
The final verse tackles the singer’s inability to forget the women, even as he strolls “on the boulevards of Paris” while “naked as the day that I will die” among people “so charming there in Paris.” After everything, they make it clear that there is nothing they can do to “sail you off my mind.” Although the song captures a series of explicit images, whether about sex, drugs, or nudity, there’s also a certain poeticism to the unavoidable entrapment they find themselves in as the “blues” end up following them wherever they go.
The lyrical style is also categorical of both its country edge and contemporary blues reimagination, creating the perfect intersection for a song about woeful romantic endeavours. By the end of the song, it’s clear that the narrator has been chasing something he isn’t sure even exists over his side of the pond, despite the fact that the “Honky Tonk Women” seem to follow him everywhere he goes.
