10 Greatest Love Songs In Rock

The start of the '70s really showed the Rolling Stones getting more in tune with their influences. As opposed to the early days of just working out the bugs of their Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley fantasies, the sound of records like Exile On Main St. and Beggars Banquet showed Rock and Roll's Most Enduring Band settling into their classic style of songwriting. Compared to the rest of the Stones' catalog, they would find their purest love song in the realm of country.

After sitting around at home listening to a bunch of old country records he picked up while on tour in America, Keith Richards started to lay down the basics for what would become Wild Horses on his Open-G guitar. At the time, the Stones were also hanging around with Gram Parsons of the Byrds, who's knowledge of country really rubbed off when it came time for Mick Jagger to write the lyrics.

Though he has always been somewhat coy about what the lyrics are actually about, this type of love is a lot more morbid than a lot of people may think. Tracing a relationship from the middle stages to the end of life, much of this tune focuses on looking more towards the future, going so far as to suggest that Mick and his beloved actually do some living after they die. Rather than the usual love songs of the old, the Stones turned in something somber, loving, and dripping with heartache, like all good country ballads should.