The Rolling Stones classic that history has forgotten: “Virtually ignored”
There was something of a formula to a good song by The Rolling Stones in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In that era, when the band were slowly shifting from blues rock cover stars to masters of their own material, the success generally existed around the power of Keith Richards’ riff writing. Knowing that Mick Jagger was one of the most confident orators in music, Richards delivered guitar lines that chomped at the rhythm sections set out by Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, giving Jagger a rebellious platform to operate on.
This method was the sound of a band operating at their own tempo, working within the limitations of their own talents. Jagger may not have been the most gifted vocalist, but he was undoubtedly the most charming, and in their early material, they wrote songs that facilitated that.
These songs were instantly successful for that reason, for audiences wasted no time in interpreting the hidden meanings and instead focused on the blissful ignorance of rocking out with one of the world’s most raucous rock bands.
But slowly but surely, they crafted their ability to write more heartfelt ballads, where Jagger could harness another side of his voice. And while Exile On Main St, was largely an energetic, full blooded rock album, there was a song on the record that showcased their ballad-writing potential, even if they didn’t believe it.
Jagger remembered, “On the Forty Licks tour, when we were preparing the set list for a show in Yokohama, Chuck Leavell suggested we play ‘Loving Cup’, the ballad from Exile on Main St... I didn’t want to play the tune, and I said, ‘Chuck, this is going to die a death in Yokohama.’”
He added, “I can’t even remember the bloody song, and no one likes it, I’ve done it loads of times in America, it doesn’t go down that well, it’s a very difficult song to sing, and I’m fed up with it! Chuck went, ‘Stick in the mud!’ so I gave in and put it in the set-list. Lo and behold, we went out, started the song, and they all began applauding. Which just proves how, over time, some of these songs acquire a certain existence, or value, that they never had when they first came out. People will say, ‘what a wonderful song that was’, when it was virtually ignored at the time it was released.”
The pivot in attitude sparked a very important change for The Rolling Stones in 1971. Trusting the vision of ‘Loving Cup’ allowed the creation of later hits, ‘Wild Horses’ and ‘Angie’, to be crafted with much more focus than before. From that giant leap of faith came a movement that allowed The Rolling Stones to be a much more dimensional band, and more importantly, Jagger became an adaptable frontman.
The two aforementioned tracks have perhaps overshadowed ‘Loving Cup’ when it comes to discussing the legacy of The Rolling Stones’ career, and those Yokohama applauses have fizzled out, removing it from any recent set lists. But that’s not to say it was one of the most important songs in the changing career of the band.
