No. 31: ‘Dead Flowers’ – Top 100 Rolling Stones Songs

Sounding very much like a song that the Eagles might have loved to have had their hands on, ‘Dead Flowers’ is one of several brief but very welcome detours intro country music which the Rolling Stones have taken through the years.

At the time that ‘Dead Flowers’ emerged in 1971, Stones guitarist Keith Richards had gotten chummy with Gram Parsons, a friendship that slipped noticeable influences into the songwriting that he was doing at that point. The effect goes even further; witness the upright barroom piano-like tinklings from Ian Stewart and the twangy feel of Mick Jagger’s vocals -- something which the singer was reportedly was not comfortable with.

Hear the Rolling Stones Perform 'Dead Flowers'