The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, & Two Iconic Songs Of Heartbreak
How two ethereal pop songs from the ’60s reconciled and made peace with heartbreak while also defining an archetype
Rock stars — particularly from the 60s — would fall in love with their “muse” (more times than not, they were beautiful models). A romantic period would begin, the customary drugs would be taken, drama would ensue, hearts would be broken. And just like that, as Keith Richards put it so bluntly:
“All you’ve got left is the piano and the guitar and a pair of panties. And it’s goodbye you know.”
While I am not justifying this method of toxic courting, in many ways one wouldn’t expect any less from these rugged, predominantly male, wayfaring libertines — assuming it was even the rock star who did the heartbreaking in the first place.
In both cases involving two of the most iconic songs of the ’60s — “Ruby Tuesday” by The Rolling Stones and “Norwegian Wood” by the Beatles — both red muses had left the songwriter; as a result breaking both their ever so fragile, “poetic hearts” (yes, that was meant as tongue in cheek).
What is not as common is when the songwriter elevates these kinds of transgressions and dresses them up into beautiful, timeless melodies and lyrics — to the point where one is fooled into thinking they are songs of innocence, perhaps a coming of age story.
I remember the first time I heard “Ruby Tuesday”. It was around the time I was 17. I would borrow (sometimes secretly) my mom’s iPod and listen to all the classics she had on it. I was performing my nightly duty of walking my family’s dog (a perfect opportunity to start smoking by the way-not condoning it, but it goes well with discovering rock n’ roll) around my suburban neighborhood; the juxtaposition between the blandness of my homogenous neighborhood and the beauty of what I was listening to never escaped me. I could only interpret this sensation as a feeling of loss and wanting to be elsewhere-other places where life seemed to be. The use of the recorder by Brian Jones, the descending melodies( which both the songs mentioned in this article, have in common by the way); the overall mood of the song established through the folk-like tonalities-all of this helped paint the perfect picture of a mysterious woman. A woman that is immortalized-not just through song-but through exotic objects (rubies) and time (Tuesday). Both of which are either rare, intangible, or expensive, therefore suggesting that the main character is elusive.
It is well documented that Keith Richards wrote the song about his then-girlfriend, Linda Keith, who eventually left him for Jimi Hendrix. According to Richards, Linda never actually listened to the Stones, even when they were together. She would only put on the original bluesmen from the 50s. I suppose Keith was not “hipster” enough for her.
Years later — while I had listened to the song before — I heard “Norwegian Wood” for the first time in my life. It is the first song on which The Beatles had made use of a sitar-thanks to George Harrison. The unfamiliar sound of the sitar in western pop music, coupled with Lennon’s foray into new songwriting territory (allegedly inspired by Bob Dylan), created an allure and suspension that is otherworldly-conjuring a landscape of fairytale while also ever so subtly admitting to his wife, Cynthia, that he had cheated on her. Such gall slyness on Lennon’s part. However, Lennon never confessed as to who the song was about; apparently, he had multiple affairs. Paul McCartney later explained that after Lennon’s “bird flew away”, and Lennon proceeded to “light a fire”, he wasn’t referring to lighting a nice, quaint fireplace. Norwegian wood refers to cheap wood paneling that many at the time in England installed within their homes. In other words, great wood for smoldering revenge.
Although I was at a very different point in my life, the impression the song gave me was very similar to that of which Ruby Tuesday gave me. The sensation of longing; the feeling of wanting to be at the center of all things, while simultaneously believing the music could elevate me to an unknown location-a place that was made of dreams.
In both “Ruby Tuesday” and “Norwegian Wood”, the narrator celebrates his subject as the quintessential hippie and the bohemian archetype — not unlike the Penny Lane character in Cameron’s Crowe’s film, “Almost Famous”.
This “bird” that has flown, or the enigmatic “Ruby Tuesday” who cannot ever be tied down, are the embodiments of the free-love spirit of the ’60s. It was a strange and somewhat paradoxical zeitgeist for the era. During a time of heavy protest against mainstream society; and consequently, the foreign policy of the United States-the archetype was straining to break free from the chains of previous generations-striving desperately to find its inner-identity through peace while threatening to break down the external environment-hence the paradox.
The Stones and the Beatles did inevitably share a lot of the same roots (Rhythm and Blues that originated in places like Chicago and New Orleans) and both groups continuously voiced their indebted influence to the black musicians who created the foundation of rock n’ roll. These two songs represent a time in which both bands made a shift in musical direction towards more psychedelic music, and away from the more rhythm and blues-based influences. They continued to challenge and define popular music of the time, as they explored other avenues of popular music; to this day they both remain seminal influences.
