{"id":756527,"date":"2026-07-11T10:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/756527\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T10:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:46:19","slug":"7-rolling-stones-songs-inspired-by-real-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/756527\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Rolling Stones Songs Inspired By Real People"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">Back in the early 1960s, when the Rolling Stones were just starting out, no one could have predicted they would still be making music in 2026, but the definitive rock band has, astoundingly, kept going.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">Their sound draws on elements from rock and blues to country and folk, and their songwriting largely relies on the team of Keith Richards and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalfloss.com\/entertainment\/music\/mick-jagger-favorite-least-favorite-rolling-stones-songs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mick Jagger<\/a>. Like all writers, the duo has often taken inspiration from true tales and real people. Here are some famous Stones&#8217; tracks you may not realize fall into the latter group.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#inline-text-3\">&#8220;Lady Jane&#8221;<\/a><a href=\"#inline-text-7\">\u201cMidnight Rambler\u201d<\/a><a href=\"#inline-text-11\">\u201cStupid Girl\u201d<\/a><a href=\"#inline-text-16\">\u201cGimme Shelter\u201d<\/a><a href=\"#inline-text-20\">\u201cRuby Tuesday\u201d<\/a><a href=\"#inline-text-24\">\u201cToo Much Blood\u201d<\/a><a href=\"#inline-text-28\">\u201cAngie\u201d \/ \u201cWild Horses\u201d \/ \u201cI Got the Blues\u201d<\/a>&#8220;Lady Jane&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">This track first appeared on the Stones&#8217; fourth album, Aftermath (1966), and marks a time when Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were solidifying themselves as the band&#8217;s principal songwriters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">There&#8217;s some debate as to the song&#8217;s inspiration. Brian Jones&#8217; use of the dulcimer, an ancient, fretted string instrument that features strongly on this number and lends the music a baroque feel, seems to back the argument that King Henry VIII\u2019s wife <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalfloss.com\/history\/royalty\/henry-viii-wives-guide\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jane Seymour<\/a> may well be the &#8216;Jane&#8217; in question. Seymour was Henry&#8217;s third wife, and the only one to receive a queen&#8217;s funeral.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMidnight Rambler\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7y\">Jagger and Richards wrote this whilst<a href=\"https:\/\/www.udiscovermusic.com\/stories\/the-rolling-stones-midnight-rambler-song\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> sojourning<\/a> in the beautiful Italian town of Positano \u2014a strange setting in which to pen such a dark song. It takes its inspiration from Albert DeSalvo, also known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/g2\/story\/0,3604,371006,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Boston Strangler<\/a>\u2014a serial killer who terrorized that city between 1962 and 1964, murdering 13 women.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\">DeSalvo died in 1973, six years into a life sentence in prison. The song debuted on the Stones&#8217; seminal 1969 LP, Let It Bleed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStupid Girl\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">Jagger\u2019s lyrics could often be abrasive and mocking, especially, it has been pointed out, when it came to women. \u201cStupid Girl\u201d is a case in point. Originally featured on the group&#8217;s 1966 LP, Aftermath, the song, like others on that album, is rumored to have been aimed at Jagger\u2019s former girlfriend, Chrissie Shrimpton.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8e\">The younger sister of the model <a href=\"https:\/\/nostalgiacentral.com\/pop-culture\/people\/jean-shrimpton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jean Shrimpton<\/a>, Chrissie dated Jagger between 1963 and 1966, before Jagger left her for singer Marianne Faithfull.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8h\">Speaking to Rolling Stone, <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20071002121248\/http:\/www.rollingstone.com\/news\/coverstory\/mick_jagger_remembers\/page\/2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jagger said of the song<\/a>: \u201cObviously, I was having a bit of trouble. I wasn&#8217;t in a good relationship. Or I was in too many bad relationships. I had so many girlfriends at that point. None of them seemed to care they weren&#8217;t pleasing me very much. I was obviously in with the wrong group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGimme Shelter\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8r\">It&#8217;s very common for songs to evolve and change direction during their writing. This was certainly the case for \u201cGimme Shelter.\u201d One of the group&#8217;s most celebrated numbers, this track also stems from the band&#8217;s 1969 album Let It Bleed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-19\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8u\">Speaking to Harper&#8217;s Bazaar, <a href=\"https:\/\/ultimateclassicrock.com\/keith-richards-making-gimme-shelter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Richards explained<\/a>: \u201cI had been sitting by the window of my friend Robert Fraser\u2019s apartment on Mount Street in London with an acoustic guitar when suddenly the sky went completely black, and an incredible monsoon came down. It was just people running about looking for shelter\u2014that was the germ of the idea.\u201d That idea grew to encompass themes of violence and warfare, becoming one of the Stones&#8217; definitive musical statements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRuby Tuesday\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-22\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"94\">Released as a single in 1967, with \u201cLet&#8217;s Spend the Night Together\u201d on the flip side, \u201cRuby Tuesday\u201d topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song was written mostly by Keith Richards and appeared on the American version of the album Between the Buttons.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-23\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"97\">It&#8217;s a love song inspired by the guitarist&#8217;s relationship with the model <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2013\/sep\/14\/jimi-hendrix-linda-keith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Linda Keith<\/a>. Richards had met Keith at the same party where Jagger had first encountered Marianne Faithfull. Linda and Richards fell madly in love, but two years down the line things fell apart, leaving Richards distraught.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo Much Blood\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-26\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9h\">It&#8217;s a testament to the Stones&#8217; longevity that they have kept going long past the point at which many of their peers faded away. This 1983 song marks a new period in the band&#8217;s life, with a fresh decade well underway.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-27\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9k\">\u201cToo Much Blood\u201d took inspiration from a strange and brutal real-life murder case: that of Japanese student <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1111\/j.0022-3840.1997.3103_55.x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Issei Sagawa<\/a>, who murdered classmate Ren\u00e9e Hartevelt. <a href=\"http:\/\/timeisonourside.com\/SOTooMuch.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Says Jagger<\/a>: &#8220;\u2026there was this scandalous, murderous story in France\u2014it was a true story\u2014about this Japanese guy who murdered this girl and it sort of captured the imagination of the French public, and the Japanese&#8230;it came out as a sort of anti-gratuitous cinema of violence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngie\u201d \/ \u201cWild Horses\u201d \/ \u201cI Got the Blues\u201d<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01kx3wtw25wr0b8sn8vr.jpg\" alt=\"Mick Jagger And Marianne Faithfull In Australia\" title=\"Mick Jagger And Marianne Faithfull In Australia\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"9x\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mick Jagger And Marianne Faithfull In Australia | The Sydney Morning Herald\/GettyImages<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-30\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a1\">Many fans have theorized that all three of these songs revolve around one person\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c9dynd605x0o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marianne Faithfull<\/a>. Jagger and Faithfull were together from 1966 until 1970. At the time, they personified the celebrity couple\u2014two young, attractive stars caught up in a tempestuous romance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-31\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a4\">Things began to unravel in February 1967, when Faithfull and the Stones were caught in a <a href=\"https:\/\/westsussexrecordofficeblog.com\/2024\/09\/13\/the-rolling-stones-redlands-drugs-bust\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">drug raid at Keith Richards&#8217; home<\/a>. The UK press poured its collective ire on Faithfull in particular, adding a strain to an already difficult relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-32\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a7\">The two eventually split, with Faithfull&#8217;s drug addiction spiraling out of control. \u201cWild Horses\u201d (1971), \u201cI Got the Blues\u201d (1971), and \u201cAngie\u201d (1973) are widely believed to reflect Jagger&#8217;s conflicting emotions during the aftermath, though Jagger has <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/why-keith-richards-mick-jagger-disagree-on-wild-horses-meaning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">denied that \u201cWild Horses,\u201d<\/a> in particular, directly references Faithfull.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in the early 1960s, when the Rolling Stones were just starting out, no one could have predicted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-756527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}