“Beast of Burden” by The Rolling Stones

"Beast of Burden" is the slow one on the Rolling Stones' 1978 album Some Girls, and after all the record's faster numbers it lands like a long exhale. Keith Richards wrote the music and a good share of the words, and Mick Jagger filled in the verses; as Richards told it, the band simply settled down and enjoyed playing something slow for a change.

It's a lazy two-guitar conversation, Richards and Ronnie Wood weaving acoustic and electric parts around each other while Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts keep it loose, and Jagger pleading on lead with Richards behind him. Jagger himself called it an attitude song rather than a personal confession. The Glimmer Twins produced, Chris Kimsey recorded and mixed, and in 2004 Rolling Stone ranked it No. 435 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.