"Honky Tonk Women" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was released as a non-album single on 4 July 1969 in the United Kingdom, and a week later in the United States (a country version called "Country Honk" was later included on the album Let It Bleed). It topped the charts in both nations.[3] The song was on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Inspiration and recording
The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards while on holiday in Brazil from late December 1968 to early January 1969, inspired by Brazilian "caipiras" (inhabitants of rural, remote areas of parts of Brazil) at the ranch where Jagger and Richards were staying in Matão, São Paulo.[4] Two versions of the song were recorded by the band: the familiar hit which appeared on the 45 single and their collection of late 1960s singles, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), and a honky-tonk version entitled "Country Honk" with slightly different lyrics, which appeared on Let It Bleed (1969).
Thematically, a "honky tonk woman" refers to a dancing girl in a western bar; the setting for the narrative in the first verse of the rock-and-roll version is Memphis, Tennessee: "I met a gin soaked bar-room queen in Memphis", while "Country Honk" sets the first verse in Jackson, Mississippi: "I'm sittin' in a bar, tipplin' a jar in Jackson".[5]
The band initially recorded the track called "Country Honk" in London in early March 1969. Brian Jones was present during these sessions and may have played on the first handful of takes and demos. It was his last recording session with the band.[6][7] The song was transformed into the familiar electric, riff-based hit single "Honky Tonk Women" sometime in the spring of 1969, prior to Mick Taylor joining the group.[2] In an interview in the magazine Crawdaddy!, Richards credits Taylor for influencing the track: "... the song was originally written as a real Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers/1930s country song. And it got turned around to this other thing by Mick Taylor, who got into a completely different feel, throwing it off the wall another way."[8] However, in 1979 Taylor recalled it this way: "I definitely added something to Honky Tonk Women, but it was more or less complete by the time I arrived and did my overdubs."[9]
"Honky Tonk Women" is distinctive as it opens not with a guitar riff but with a beat played on a cowbell by producer Jimmy Miller.
The concert rendition of "Honky Tonk Women" on Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! (1970) differs significantly from the studio hit, with a markedly dissimilar guitar introduction and the first appearance on vinyl of an entirely different second verse.
In the UK, the song remained on the charts for seventeen weeks, peaking at number one for five weeks. It remains the band's last single to reach number one in their home country. The song also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks from 23 August 1969. It was later released on the compilation album Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) in September. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song overall for 1969.
At the time of its release, Rolling Stone magazine hailed "Honky Tonk Women" as "likely the strongest three minutes of rock and roll yet released in 1969".[10]Record World said it was "the Rolling Stones at their funky best."[11] It was ranked number 116 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in April 2010.[12] The song was later put into the track listing for the video game Band Hero. In 2014, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Releases on compilation albums and live recordings
The single version of "Honky Tonk Women" appears on the following Rolling Stones compilation albums:
"Country Honk" is a country version of "Honky Tonk Women", recorded before it but released five months later on the album Let It Bleed (1969). As noted above, the country arrangement was the original concept of "Honky Tonk Women". Richards has maintained that "Country Honk" is how "Honky Tonk Women" was originally written.
"Country Honk" was recorded at Olympic Studios. Byron Berline played the fiddle on the track, and has said that Gram Parsons was responsible for him being chosen for the job (Berline had previously recorded with Parsons' band the Flying Burrito Brothers). Producer Glyn Johns suggested that Berline should record his part on the pavement outside the studio to add ambiance to the number. Sam Cutler, the Rolling Stones' tour manager, performed the car horn at the beginning of the track.[15]Nanette Workman performs backing vocals on this version (although the album sleeve credits actress Nanette Newman). Berline's fiddle and all vocals were recorded at Elektra. There is a bootleg recording in existence that contains neither the fiddle nor Mick Taylor's slide guitar.
Personnel
According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon,[16] except where noted:
^Margotin and Guesdon are uncertain whether Jagger or the Stones' tour manager, Sam Cutler, honked the car's horn.[21] Babiuk and Prevost write the horn was from Cutler's car.[18]
^Marcus, Greil (23 August 1969). "Records". Rolling Stone. No. 40. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. p. 35. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
^Cutler, Sam. You Can't Always Get What You Want - My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful ReprobatesISBN978-1-74166-609-0
Babiuk, Andy; Prevost, Greg (2013). Rolling Stones Gear: All the Stones' Instruments from Stage to Studio. Milwaukee: Backbeat Books. ISBN978-1-61713-092-2.
