“Torn And Frayed” by The Rolling Stones

"Torn and Frayed" lives on side two of Exile on Main St., the Rolling Stones' 1972 album, the side given over to acoustic folk and country, and it may be the most openly Gram Parsons-influenced thing the Stones ever cut. Parsons was around for the Exile sessions at Nellcôte, the song's country-soul feel calls up the Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin, and Al Perkins, his friend and collaborator, plays the pedal steel.

Mick Jagger sings lead with Keith Richards backing him, and Richards lays the foundation on acoustic guitar and an electric Telecaster, with Mick Taylor on bass and Jim Price on organ. Jimmy Miller produced. Critic Bill Janovitz called it honky-tonk with a twang and only three chords, yet not country in the usual sense, and heard gospel in the way the chords move.

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