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The worship of the Rolling Stones for Blues and Country is just as well known as Keith Richard’s preference for scarves. But with Zydeco – the French sung, syncopied folk dance music from Louisiana – the band may not be connected immediately. LHowever, they are also fans of this genre.
Stones interpret Chenier classic in the studio
“We never heard the blues,” Richards told the Rolling Stone. “Zydeco was always part of it, just like the Mississippi Blues-and from there it is not far to Louisiana. We always heard things from there. When you listen to American music, it doesn’t matter where it comes from-even if it is in French.”
The proof of this fascination has now been in the first studio recording of the band since “Hackney Diamonds” (2023): her version of “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés”, a classic of the late cydeco master Clifton Chenier.
According to contributions by Lucinda Williams and Taj Mahal, the Stones recording is the latest preview of the tribute album a tribute to the King of Zydeco, which Chenier honors-singer and accordion player, the blues, R&B and even laundry bretted into the zydeco. The album appears this Friday and contains contributions from veterans such as David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), John Heat and Steve Earle as well as newcomers such as Charley Crockett and Molly Tuttle-all together with musicians from Louisiana in new interpretations of Chenier pieces.
Jagger sings in French – and Richards hardly recognizes him
As the Rolling Stone reports, the Stones version of “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés” (“The Green Beans are not salty”) began with the fact that producer CC Adcock Mick Jagger asked if he wanted to contribute to the album. Jagger received a rather reduced version of the song with accordion player Steve Riley, to which he added harmonica and sang the title in French-Creole. Since the version that Jagger heard only had two stanzas, he searched for other versions to expand the text.
“I looked around and took over a few stanzas from older versions,” he told the Rolling Stone.
Afterwards Richards and Ron Wood took guitar parts independently – although Richards confesses that he initially didn’t even know who played everything on the almost finished track.
“I had no idea that Ronnie and Mick was on it. I was the last. It all happened quite independently. I heard the track and thought: ‘I know the harmonica player.'”
Despite their love of cydeco, the Stones found it challenging to cover the song. Richards had to get used to the typical rhythms as well as Jagger. “The difficult thing is the clock length,” he says. “This is a bit tricky because it is not a straight twelve -stroke – but that is also the attraction of it.”
Mixing of tradition and electric shock
The combination of musicians from Louisiana and the Stones created a kind of high-voltage version of “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés”, which meets Chenier’s cross-genre approach and increases Zydeco in the literal sense.
“It was quite old -fashioned and folkloristic when I took it,” says Jagger about the original playback he heard. “Now it sounds very different. I like the original version too, but both are interesting. It’s fun to do things like that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it sounds like garbage. But this sounds somehow different and interesting.” (To the producers: can we maybe hear the other version at some point?)
Meanwhile, the Stones apparently continue to work on a new album in London – again with producer Andrew Watt, with whom they have already worked at Hackney Diamonds. Richards tells the Rolling Stone:
“We are currently putting a few things together and seeing what comes out. We are constantly taking up, so whenever we can get together is accepted.”