"Wild Horses" is a song by the Rolling Stones from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. It was also released on June 12, 1971 as a single, with "Sway" as its B-side. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 334 in its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list in 2004.

In the liner notes to the 1993 Rolling Stones compilation album Jump Back, Jagger states, "I remember we sat around originally doing this with Gram Parsons, and I think his version came out slightly before ours. Everyone always says this was written about Marianne but I don't think it was; that was all well over by then. But I was definitely very inside this piece emotionally." Richards says, "If there is a classic way of Mick and me working together this is it. I had the riff and chorus line, Mick got stuck into the verses. Just like "Satisfaction", "Wild Horses" was about the usual thing of not wanting to be on the road, being a million miles from where you want to be."

Lyrics

Childhood living is easy to do

The things you wanted I bought them for you

Graceless lady you know who I am

You know I can't let you slide through my hands

Wild horses couldn't drag me away

Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain

Now you decided to show me the same

No sweeping exits or offstage lines

Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild horses couldn't drag me away

Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away

I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie

I have my freedom but I don't have much time

Faith has been broken, tears must be cried

Let's do some living after we die

Wild horses couldn't drag me away

Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day

Wild horses couldn't drag me away

Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day