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Relevancy is always fleeting within the music industry; one band might be the centre of the universe for a few months or years, but eventually the industry moves on without them. The Rolling Stones, in stark contrast, have managed to stay at the summit of the rock and roll pyramid for over six decades at this point. A key part of the band’s seemingly unwavering ability to retain relevance lies within their endlessly diverse repertoire of sounds, having explored everything from mind-expanding psychedelic rock to country music over the years.
When The Rolling Stones first banded together back in 1962, under the leadership of Brian Jones, the band were dedicated almost entirely to the stylings of American blues music. Finding an audience for performing covers of tracks by legendary blues figures like Muddy Waters or Howlin’ Wolf, it was only a few years later that the band started to carve out their own unique sound within rock and roll.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were pushed to begin writing their own material by manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and the pair of rock reprobates soon began experimenting with the parameters of the genre. Although the blues remained at the heart of the band’s existence, they expanded to adopt the traits of country, hard rock, and even elements of folk. Thanks to their ever-expanding experiments with drugs, the band even had a brief flirt with 1960s psychedelia during the peak of the hippie age.
One of the band’s most ambitious and sonically diverse albums, Black and Blue, arrived in 1976, long after the hippie experimentation of the 1960s had passed. It is a notable release in their discography for a number of reasons, including the fact that it is the first of the band’s albums to feature Ronnie Wood, who replaced Mick Taylor during the recording process. However, the album is perhaps most notable for its wide range of influences and sounds.
Drawing upon styles like disco, funk, soul, and even reggae, in addition to their usual blues stylings, the album saw The Stones perform in ways which had never been heard before. An undeniable stand-out on the record is the track ‘Fool To Cry’, recorded in 1974 shortly after Mick Taylor’s departure from the group. Taking on a laid-back, funk atmosphere, the song was a colossal departure from the band’s previous material, but therein lies its vast appeal.
Written by Jagger and Richards, the song’s unique atmosphere was bolstered by its personnel, featuring session guitarist Wayne Perkins along with Nicky Hopkins on piano and string synthesiser. These recruits were essential in creating the funk ballad style of the track but, in truth, the band could have easily rendered the song in virtually any musial style they saw fit. In fact, during a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger theorised, “Yeah, it could be country.”
“I wonder why we didn’t do it like that,” the ethereal frontman exclaimed. The song’s lyrical content does bear resemblance to the broad landscape of country ballads, and the Stones certainly had their fair share of country tracks: “‘Dead Flowers’ was country,” Jagger continued, referencing the band’s Sticky Fingers track. Still, the frontman didn’t seem utterly heartbroken by the band’s decision not to take ‘Fool To Cry’ down a country route. “This is quite good the way it is, though,” he said.
While it is difficult to disagree with Jagger or denounce the ballad brilliance of ‘Fool To Cry,’ it is interesting to envision the band creating a country-centric reworking of the 1976 track. Stranger things have certainly happened, particularly within the chaotic history of The Rolling Stones.
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