It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) - Remastered

A straightforward celebration of rock 'n' roll, Faces guitarist Ron Wood, who had not yet joined The Rolling Stones, had a big part in it. Wood lived in a London estate called The Wick, which Pete Townshend later bought. It was there that Wood put the song together at a session with Mick Jagger on vocals, David Bowie singing background, the session player Willie Weeks on bass, and Wood's Faces bandmate, Kenney Jones, on drums. When Keith Richards got a hold of the recording, he put his own guitar parts on, but left some of Wood's 12-string. Jones, Weeks and Bowie remained on the final product.

Mick Jagger explained: "The title has been used a lot by journalists, the phrase has become a big thing. That version that's on there is the original version, which was recorded half in Ron Wood's basement, if I remember rightly. It was a demo. It's a very Chuck Berry song, but it's got a different feeling to it than a Chuck Berry song. You can't really do proper imitations of people. You always have to start out by imitating somebody. In painting, some famous artist always starts out by being an impressionist. And then they become the most famous abstract artist. Or an actor starts out by imitating someone else's style. And then you develop your own. And I think that's what happened with this band and all the musicians that have played in it. You start off with one thing, and then you mutate into another, but you still acknowledge the fact that these influences came from here and here and here. Because not everyone knows that. But you make this new amalgam. And out of all this different music, all out these blues, out of all this country music, out of all this jazz and dance music and reggae music, you know, you make something that's your own."

This was the title track to the first album after producer Jimmy Miller left the band. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards did the production work.