In Foreign Tonguesthe album they will release on July 10, the Rolling Stones have included a cover of You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse, with Mick Jagger on harmonica. It's not unusual for them to cover soul and R&B, but they're usually ultra-vintage songs, not a relatively recent (in the history of popular music) song like the one from Back to Black.
“We decided to cover a female artist,” Jagger told ad Uncut. «We reviewed many soul songs from the 60s and 70s and then we said to ourselves: we are recording in England, let's do a song by an English artist. Back to Black it's a great record and I don't think anyone else has ever done that song again. Making a cover is a very different thing from making your own song. You want to change the piece a little, not stay too faithful to the original. I enjoyed playing the harmonica that plays the horn part” (for the record, Richards has been saying for years that “Jagger is a great harmonica player, but he shrugs. He has his own unique style”).
Apparently the singer, who died on July 23rd 15 years ago, was particularly close to Ronnie Wood, who explained it in an interview granted to Sunday Times. «He said to me: “Oh, Ronnie, what should I do?”. And I replied: “Look, everyone knows that you have vodka in the water bottle. Get yourself together and get on stage.”
According to Wood, the singer's personal problems didn't affect her performances (which wasn't exactly true): “If you could get her on stage and she stayed there, she was extraordinary.” And again: «It saddens me because he couldn't live his whole life. It was like saying goodbye to Billie Holiday again.”
The Stones and Winehouse performed together at the Isle of Wight festival in 2007. She and Mick Jagger duetted on Ain't Too Proud To Begthe Temptations classic which is part of the Stones' repertoire (it was on It's Only Rock 'n' Roll) and inevitably of the pop star's musical background.
“I always thought, 'Sometime I'll meet her again down the road,'” Keith Richards said. «You expect certain things to happen and, unfortunately, that wasn't the case. But that's what records are for. I am happy and honored to have played with her at least once.”
In 2007, after that show, Mick Jagger confessed to Sun his fears. «Amy is a brilliant artist and makes fantastic music, she has class, but I fear she might die if she continues down that path», Jagger said, praising Winehouse and comparing her to the great soul singers of the past. “If only he could get himself together… but it's difficult because you have to make a big mental change.” He did it years ago: «I always heard a voice in my head telling me to stop. I didn't want to die young.”
