{"id":406709,"date":"2026-01-11T18:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406709\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T18:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:19:13","slug":"the-song-that-defines-ronnie-wood-and-keith-richards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406709\/","title":{"rendered":"The song that defines Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Keith<\/p>\n

(Credit: Miss Sophie)<\/p>\n

Sat 10 January 2026 21:07, UK <\/p>\n

While Keith Richards may forever be remembered as the beating heart of\u00a0The Rolling Stones\u2019<\/a>\u00a0ever-changing guitar lineup, he didn\u2019t ever have a partner as good as Ronnie Wood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brian Jones was, of course, integral to the foundation of the band in the 1960s, providing the technician-like safety required for them to perfect their catalogue of\u00a0blues rock covers<\/a>. But as his drug use spiralled and his creative grip on the band loosened, his artistic chemistry with Richards began to wane.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mick Taylor<\/a>\u00a0was similarly brilliant but notoriously difficult to work with, and so despite laying down the parts for some of the band\u2019s most iconic original works, he never felt like a true sustainable partner for Richards. While he may have been understandably fatigued when yet another guitarist walked through the door in 1975, a quick rehearsal with Wood would have confirmed that in an instant, he received his lifelong musical partner.<\/p>\n

The pair had a sort of musical symbiosis that all great bands do, communicating with each other solely through music and telepathically following their respective ideas. It was a chemistry showcased best on the 1978 record Some Girls and more particularly the track \u2018Beast Of Burden\u2019. <\/p>\n

While it was later the source of lyrical intrigue<\/a> and a sort of creative friction between Richards and Mick Jagger, the soul of the track is inherently representative of Richards and Wood\u2019s symbiosis. There\u2019s an ease to the groove that Wood lays down, which subsequently allows for Richards\u2019 licks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s another one that just came very naturally in the studio,\u201d Wood explained. \u201cAnd I slipped into my part and Keith had his going. It may have appeared as though it was planned. We can pick it up today and it will just naturally slip into the groove again with the guitars weaving in a special way. It\u2019s quite amazing really.\u201d <\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cEver since Keith and I first started to trade licks, it was a very natural thing that, for some unknown reason, if he\u2019s playing up high, I\u2019m down low and the other way around. We cross over very naturally. We call it an ancient form of weaving \u2013 which we still are impressed by it to this day. Unexplainable, wonderful things happen with the guitar weaving. There\u2019s no plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did the song bring out the best in each other, but it pushed Jagger into new vocal realms. It was a deeply rhythmic guitar performance from the pair and so Jagger had to follow suit, providing a sense of performative depth that differed from the more traditional rock and roll style songs the band prided themselves on. <\/p>\n

Ironically, while the finished performance is oozing with emotion, the sentiment is sorely lacking. While many have speculated who the subject is, the band have regularly diffused any rumours, which Jagger even saying: \u201cLyrically, this wasn\u2019t particularly heartfelt in a personal way. It\u2019s a soul begging song, an attitude song. It was one of those where you get one melodic lick, break it down and work it up; there are two parts here which are basically the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credit: Miss Sophie) Sat 10 January 2026 21:07, UK While Keith Richards may forever be remembered as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,96603,136,23944,36486],"class_list":{"0":"post-406709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-keith-richards","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-ronnie-wood","14":"tag-the-rolling-stones"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}