The Rolling Stones epic that “just happened by accident”
The Rolling Stones flow like crisp beer on a sunny day. It’s their easy grooving that makes them so mercurial. They might be – as Jeff Beck put it – “three chord wonders”, but they have always had a gorgeous ability to stretch those three chords to their limit, finding untapped power in the nooks and crannies of their possibilities.
In fact, when Keith Richards is assessing other groups, it is often their rigidity that he seemingly loathes. As he said of The Band, “The Band were just too strict. They’ve been playing together for a long, long time, and what I couldn’t understand was their lack of spontaneity.” It’s certainly an interesting take give The Band were the masters of jamming with others, but proving the point of The Stones’ wealth in this area is a track entirely borne from breaking out in song.
In 1971, Mick Taylor was still a relatively new addition to the group, having replaced Brian Jones, who was fired in 1969 and died a matter of weeks later. Nevertheless, Taylor slotted right in, proving to be the perfect foil for Richards. The young guitarist claims there is one track in their extensive discography that showcases this glowing musical alchemy like no other.
“‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ is one of my favourites,” the guitarist said in 1979. The classic track runs at an unusually long seven minutes for the Stones, closing out with a visceral crescendo that simply occurred when the gang got carried away with what they were creating. According to Taylor, the whole “just happened by accident; that was never planned.”
He continued: “Towards the end of the song, I just felt like carrying on playing. Everybody was putting their instruments down, but the tape was still rolling and it sounded good, so everybody quickly picked up their instruments again and carried on playing. It just happened, and it was a one-take thing. A lot of people seem to really like that part.”
In many ways, this jam exemplifies the magic of the band. Mick Jagger couldn’t even recall the lyrics when it came time to copyright the music, which you could either argue is slapdash or simply divine inspiration—many fans would firmly argue the latter and point to the adrenaline surge in even the most cagey listener as proof. The track is a party in is own right, tapping into the exultant power of rock ‘n’ roll and its true purpose to lift you above the humdrum for an electrified minute—or in this case, seven.
As Richards wrote of the band at their best, “There’s something beautifully friendly and elevating about a bunch of guys playing music together. This wonderful little world that is unassailable. It’s really teamwork, one guy supporting the others, and it’s all for one purpose, and there’s no flies in the ointment, for a while. And nobody conducting, it’s all up to you. It’s really jazz__that’s the big secret. Rock and roll ain’t nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.”
No other song in the band’s oeuvre stands up to that sentiment quite like ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’—an anthem that remains one of Taylor’s favourites of all time despite the fact the whole thing was never even written.
