The 1967 song that became Keith Richards’s favourite to play: “There was a wisdom in it”
Keith Richards didn’t really need to be the most eclectic rock and roll musician to be happy.
Mick Jagger may have liked the idea of The Rolling Stones keeping themselves fresh on every single record, but as long as the central riff was a bit bluesy, that was all it took to get Richards’s seal of approval on nearly all of their records. But sometimes Richards could find himself making something that was steeped more in Americana than anything that he was hearing out of people like Chuck Berry or Robert Johnson.
The first wave of rock and roll had hit him like a freight train, but the blues, as always, were where everything started for him. Artists like Muddy Waters were taking the basis of the blues and putting a bit more swagger into it, and even when you look at Richards onstage today, he’s still doing the same sort of thing that his heroes were doing when they made their renditions of the blues classics.
But once Richards reached the early 1970s, he was much more willing to see what the world of country music had to offer. Gram Parsons had already begun introducing him to that world, and even if Roy Rogers was someone that Richards could appreciate from back in the day, there was a lot more interesting music coming out of Bakersville than he had initially realised when he was strumming along to his favourite tunes.
Because when looking at some of the biggest names in country, the ones that Richards fell in love with all had that outlaw spirit about them. The obvious standout of the genre is someone like Johnny Cash, but when you look at how everyone from Hank Williams to Waylon Jennings lived their lives, it was all about trying to give off the impression of being a hardened country boy that still had a heart of gold.
Were all of their stories true? Hell no. Nashville and Bakersville have had their fair share of rhinestone cowboys for decades when rock and roll was finding its feet, but Richards felt that whatever Merle Haggard was talking about felt real when he heard him. It was almost like he was singing with a teardrop in his voice, and the song ‘Sing Me Back Home’ was the kind of tune that Richards could never get enough of every single time he played it.
The song isn’t necessarily intended for a Stones crowd, but Richards felt that everything that a good tune needed could be found in those few minutes, saying, “When Merle broke through, he was akin to Johnny Cash in the starkness of the sound. But it was more melodic. You felt like this guy knew shit. There was a wisdom in it. I still sing and play ‘Sing Me Back Home’ on the piano. That’s my party piece, baby. It’s just so real, so touching. There’s a guy on death row. You know when this song finishes, it’s all over. That’s it, pal.”
And that kind of emotional honesty is something that The Stones are still striving to make whenever they create one of their ballads. They have had their fair share of brokenhearted tunes, but when you look through the deeper cuts like their version of ‘Love in Vain’ or ‘No Expectations’ from Beggars Banquet, they had been living the same kinds of lives that their heroes had been through.
So while the tune is a bit more downtempo than what everyone was used to, Richards didn’t always need to have a roaring guitar to leave an impression on someone. He was just as willing to give people a tale of heartbreak that they would remember, and even if Jagger wasn’t always keen on their country material, that didn’t stop Richards from shoehorning it in whenever he saw fit.
