Honky Tonk Women - Country Honk

Country Honk

"Country Honk" is a country version of "Honky Tonk Women", released five months after on the album Let It Bleed. As noted above the country arrangement was the original concept of "Honky Tonk Women".

According to some sources "Country Honk" was recorded at the Elektra recording studio in Los Angeles. Byron Berline played the fiddle on the track, and has said that Gram Parsons was responsible for him being chosen for the job (Berline had previously recorded with Parsons' band The Flying Burrito Brothers). Producer Glyn Johns suggested that Berline should record his part on the pavement outside the studio to add ambience to the number. Sam Cutler, the Rolling Stones' tour manager, performed the car horn at the beginning of the track. Nanette Workman performs backing vocals on this version (although the album sleeve credits actress Nanette Newman). Other sources state that "Country Honk" was recorded at Olympic Studios right after "Honky Tonk Women," with only Berline's fiddle part overdubbed at Elektra Studios; this might be supported by the existence of a bootleg recording that contains neither the fiddle nor Mick Taylor's slide guitar. Richards has repeatedly stated that "Country Honk" is how "Honky Tonk Women" was originally written.

It was this version of the song that was played by Ricky Nelson at the Rock 'n Roll Revival concert at Madison Square Garden on 15 October 1971. As the crowd were expecting traditional rock 'n roll (such as Nelson's older numbers, which he also played at the concert, Hello Mary Lou and She Belongs to Me, and the music of others at the concert such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Bobby Rydell), they began to boo. While some reports say that the booing was caused by police action in the back of the audience, Nelson took it personally and left the stage. He watched the rest of the concert backstage and did not reappear on stage for the finale. This event was the stimulus for the song "Garden Party", which appeared on the 1972 album of the same name. This is evidenced by the line "then I sang a song about a honky-tonk, and it was time to leave."