How to Succeed in Creating Rock and Roll without Getting Credit

1968 was a huge year for music, and one of the biggest and most enduring albums is that of Beggars Banquet by The Rolling Stones released right at the tail end of one of the greatest years of music.

The album would define the band for the next 10 years from its sound, look, attitude, and messages. Before this album there were no Stones as we know them, but if we look a bit closer we find the one major difference between the working process of the previous albums and the one at hand: the singular Anita Pallenberg.

Born in Rome in April of 1942, Pallenberg was always a force to be reckoned with. Beginning her journey as a model in the early 1960s, she was deeply entranced with the growing counterculture and art world around her. After dropping out of college [due to her belief it was “boring”, though she would end up earning her fashion degree in the 1990s], she moved to New York City where she began acting in plays and working with Andy Warhol in The Factory. She gave up modeling because she hated being known just for her looks and knowing she had much more to offer the art world if allowed. This is an important thing to know about Miss Anita Pallenberg: NO ONE holds any dictation over her, her thoughts, or her opinions. 1965 was not the time you’d expect to find a woman so fierce but damn was it the year Pallenberg started her true reign over pop culture, if you could ever believe all said so far to be a starting point.

Due to her involvement in art of the 1960s, she held an obvious love of the music of the times. It was at a 1965 Rolling Stones concert where she would go backstage and offer the band joints, though it was only Brian Jones who accepted her peace offering. This would be the beginning of her involvement of the band, something that would prove to be one of the greatest

collaborations in rock history. It was her that introduced Jones to the greater worlds on fashion and culture that was being offered, something that would become more mainstream as the 60s trudged on, but it was Pallenberg who showed the band what really was out there. Her impact on their music wouldn’t start to become apparent until 1967 though, the year she began her 10 year relationship with Keith Richards. Jones and Pallenberg had always had a turbulent relationship, abuse being a common theme. It was when Richards became aware of this that he revealed his feelings to Pallenberg, and they ended up together. It was after this Richards would pen She’s A Rainbow about his newfound love, and Pallenberg would become a fixture of the band.

1968, as stated, was one of the greatest years for music. It was also one of the most turbulent years of the decade thus far, meaning that Pallenberg’s cultural and artistic knowledge would greatly benefit The Stones if she was listened to. Mick Jagger was playing her a mix of one of Beggars Banquets minor hits, Stray Cat Blues, expecting her to fawn over the song much like everyone else had when being granted access to a Stones song before release.

“Crap.” was the first comment from Pallenberg.

After a moment of shock from Jagger, she continued, telling him the vocals were mixed too high and the bass isn't loud enough. It was changed to her suggestions, and released as such on the album.

It wasn’t here where her impact stopped on the album. On the most popular song of the record, Sympathy for the Devil, not only was it Jagger’s then- girlfriend singer Marianne Faithfull that gave him the book that inspired the idea, but Pallenberg who suggested the idea of the now iconic “woo-woos”. And the cover that was banned? That was her idea, she’d even had a photographer go to take the photo. It was also her who designed the guitar Richards used on most of the album.

Beggars Banquet wasn’t iconic due to The Rolling Stones coming into their own, it was iconic due to their embracement of the culture introduced to them by the woman who ran circles around all.

She held the entire band in the palm of her hand. When she said it was good it was great, when she said it rubbish it sucked, and she held that opinion in a way that was respected by the band unlike many others. Her moniker of “the sixth stone” is an understatement, as if we’re being honest, she was the fifth - as she clearly had more creative input in 15 years than Bill Wyman did in 30. She was beautiful, talented, sharp as a knife and cunning as a snake. She was so damn scary she intimated Mick Jagger, a man who built a career off of intimidation and created a science of manipulating women. An it-girl turned muse turned fashion school graduate turned godmother of Britpop. A “rockstar” girlfriend so powerful she turned the rockstar into an actual rockstar, the woman who would popularize what it meant to live in excess and create The Stones image singlehandedly. Quite frankly, a woman with so much power it’s surprising she isn’t more talked about outside of the classic rock sphere. Whilst creating the most defining album of The Stones career, Pallenberg hadn’t actually stopped her day job. She was still acting and modeling throughout the recording of Beggars Banquet, she wouldn’t stop her day job until her first son, Marlon, was born, yet even then she was instrumental to the music of her boyfriend’s band. She helped Jagger write You Can’t Always Get What You Want on a holiday, inspired the basis of Gimme Shelter, and was the catalyst for Keith’s first full solo song on a Stones record, You Got the Silver. Oh, and did I mention, this was JUST her input on Let it Bleed? She would go onto serve as one of Keith’s main inspirations for his version of Wild Horses [the song was originally penned by Keith to be a lullaby for Marlon, and about how happy he felt being in love with Anita before Jagger took the song and turned it about his breakup with Marianne Faithfull], and let her home in France be the homebase of sessions for what would become The Stones greatest album, Exile on Main Street. She would inspire Angie, Coming Down Again, and once more serve as the catalyst for The Stones inspiration to record in Jamaica for Goat’s Head Soup. Some Girls? Well, Beast of Burden wasn’t just written for any woman. How could it be? All of this without talking of her input on other aspects of their lives, by the way.

Anita and Keith’s relationship would fizzle out, but that would never stop Anita from being important to their work. She would still inspire songs, and would still go see the band. “I prefer the stadium concerts. If you get too close to them they’re ugly and old.” she would remark about going when asked. Oh, and asked why she never pursued music? “Musicians are poor sods, really.” To be quite honest, the question I would adore to ask Miss Pallenberg is how did it feel to be the realest bitch in the game? Because she was. Any woman who created The Rolling Stones as we know them from the ground up and seemingly not caring about that accomplishment compared to every other one she had before and after her relations with the band, is a bad bitch. But would we expect any less from the woman who did it all? I shall reiterate that it was only AFTER creating the iconic rebranding of The Stones in 1968 [the same year this woman wrote a whole movie!!] and inspiring songs from a near decade after that she would get her degree and become revered in the socialite world once more for her fashion during the mid to late 1990s, being a part of the world of Kate Moss. It was before the band that she worked with Andy Warhol, spoke five languages fluently, was an actress and model, and a socialite queen. If anything, her work with the band is the least impressive piece of her resume. Realest bitch in the whole damn game.

The thing here is that Pallenberg was, more or less, The Stones. For everything they did, she did first, better, and helped them get there too. Her impact on their music is bigger than any legitimate members, and they all know that [except Wyman, who remains in blissful denial of many things that are proven true time and time again]. Women have always held this role in rock music, regardless of if that’s acknowledged or not. While Pallenberg is,in my opinion, the more prevalent example for how infamous yet overlooked her impact can seem, women have always held the grip on rock despite its male dominated outer core. While we hail Paul McCartney for his genius during the 70s, we’d have to look at Linda McCartney who not only served as his inspiration but was instrumental to the McCartney song and image. without Linda, there would be no Paul to speak of past 1969, in multiple respects.

Linda McCartney

After the dissolution of The Beatles in 1970, McCartney took it the hardest. He was the one who had worked to keep the band together, his family of 8 years at that point. The breakup,

as we know, was messy and bitter. Arguments, press slander, and, in John Lennon's case, evil letters. Paul would receive letters from John about just how much he was hated. It was Linda who asked him to stop, fearing Paul’s rapidly accelerating alcoholism was gonna drive him to death before 30. She saved Paul's life. Her support towards him in that moment, as a fixture of his writing, and with Wings saved, inspired, and helped Paul McCartney becoming the man we know today. She wrote the iconic hooks and verse of some of his most popular songs [as in the catchy reggae inspired verse of Live and Let Die was ALL Linda]. Linda is credited as a songwriter on nearly every song Wings put on in their ten year run. She has her name on one of the first “indie rock” records as well, with her and Paul’s Ram holding the credit of that title, an album she was instrumental in inspiring, creating, and marketing. Linda was the one who opened Paul’s mind to the ideas that would become synonyms with his image. She has always been credited with this by Paul, a man who to this day has never once claimed credit for a single thing Linda was the creator of.

Yoko Ono

As fight or flight as the name could be, the same could also be said about Yoko Ono. Whilst it’s easy to look towards her unsavory attributes it’s important to remember that she is the one that made John Lennon a peace advocate, got him into experimental art, and opened the broader world to the thinking that John would be famous for showcasing [typical move: 'man gets more credit for idea woman gave him']. Ono is an artist of the highest respect, showcasing the subjectivity that art is laced with down to, well, an art. Without Ono I fear we would’ve been stuck with The Beatles forever, and while that sounds like a good thing I urge you to look at the direction of their lives and work towards their disillusionment. It was nasty, and their music was suffering [Let it Be is a great album, but like… an okay-at-best Beatles album]. Ono encouraged Lennon to look towards different avenues of artistic expression and holds credit to Lennon’s more experimental post-Beatle work. Lennon was the Beatle who went furthest off the beaten path in his solo efforts, using his cushioning of fame as to throw everything at the wall to see what would stick with the public. Ono was who introduced these ideas to him, let him fail again and again till he figured it out, not parenting him like others had the tendency to do with the man. Love her or hate her just know she is the woman behind everything Lennon has been credited to for decades, and that deserves to be known. And, even as terrible and tone deaf as the song is, Ono helped Lennon pen Imagine, just getting her credit on the song in 2017 - 46 years after the song's release. She should be the patron saint of patience if you were to ask me.

Linda Keith

It was Linda Keith who handed Jimi Hendrix a 45 of “Hey, Joe” before it became a song synonymous with his name. She'd seen him when he was going around clubs in London, and saw the brilliance in the young guitarist, one that millions would go on later to see. She, in a way, discovered the greatest guitar player to ever live, all whilst dating another. It was her who would inspire the genre defining ‘Ruby Tuesday’. She was the one who broke Keith Richards' heart so badly he wrote pop’s most beautiful goodbye, a song that would go on to be one of the first mainstream songs to speak about a woman’s departure in a mature, understanding, and feminist way. Both of these songs skyrocketed these artists into unknown levels of fame, both because of a singular woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid of that fact.

There is an interesting epidemic amongst those who indulge in rock music, that being the erasure and denial of how important women have been in the creation of albums, songs, and artists that are beloved. The same people who praise the behavior of Brian Jones are the ones who turn around and call Anita Pallenberg a bitch, who credit Paul McCartney as a genius and Linda as his “bored” wife, credit John Lennon to peace advocacy and hurl some of the worst racism and misogyny ever mustered towards Yoko Ono, and it is these men who will pretend Jimi Hendrix had no help rising to the top, writing off Linda Keith as the woman who only broke hearts. While yes, women are oftentimes the muses for the most infamous rock and roll songs [for better and for worse], it’s often discredited how important women often are to the compositions and work these men are praised for. It’s upsetting how little the respect and credit these women are giving for making some of the most iconic music sound the way they know and love it, living how most women sadly have to: behind the men they make look [and in this case, sound] better. What’s even more shocking is that in most of these cases, these women aren’t looking for the credit they deserve in this work! And they are still written off and told that their contributions weren’t significant enough to get bestowed credit. Insanity.

Always a muse, never a musician, it seems.

If you'd like to check out some songs

inspired by Anita Pallenberg and all the other amazing women behind rock and roll, check the playlist here: