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Rolling Stones unreleased: Deep Love

*Click for MORE STONES UNRELEASED TRACKS

In the middle of the turbulent Dirty Work sessions in Paris, The Rolling Stones were still capable of stumbling onto raw, electric ideas that never quite made the final album but refused to stay forgotten. One of these is Deep Love, a bootleg favourite built on a gritty, driving riff and tight guitar interplay between Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. It feels less like a finished song and more like a band caught in motion, testing chemistry at full volume. At one stage even linked to the working concept 19 Stitches, the track hovered close to the album’s tracklist before being cut, leaving behind a rough but compelling snapshot of the Stones still finding groove inside chaos, tension, and unfinished studio experiments that defined this Paris era.

Written by: Jagger/Richards
Recorded: EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, April-June 1985 (Dirty Work sessions)
Guest musicians: Chuck Leavell (keyboards)

From Martin Elliott’s book The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions 1962-2012:
The riff is strong and the two guitars mesh well, it was a very passable outtake. In fact at one point it was scheduled to be on the Dirty Work album, loosely titled 19 Stitches.

More about Deep Love by The Rolling Stones

*By Marcelo Sonaglioni

A hidden Paris groove from the Dirty Work sessions

During the 1985 Dirty Work sessions in Paris the Rolling Stones stumbled into something that never quite made it to the finish line, but still carries the unmistakable stamp of their raw studio chemistry. The track known among collectors as Deep Love (circulating through various bootlegs) stands out for its driving, gritty riff and tightly interlocked guitars, likely Keith Richards on rhythm and Ronnie Wood on lead. Even in unfinished form, it feels alive—more jam than product, but with real structural weight. There’s a looseness in the performance that somehow sharpens the groove rather than weakening it, as if the band were testing ideas at full volume without worrying about polish. At one point, the song was even considered for inclusion on Dirty Work, originally planned under the working title 19 Stitches, but it was ultimately left behind, surviving only as a rough sketch of what might have been.

Album ideas and what was left behind

The decision to leave the track off the final Dirty Work lineup reflects how selective the band became during a period marked by tension and fractured relationships. Even though Deep Love had the kind of raw, infectious energy that could have fitted comfortably within the album’s harder-edged identity, it was ultimately dismissed as a “passable outtake” by those close to the sessions. Still, its existence reveals how much material was circulating beneath the surface of the final release.

What makes these Paris recordings especially compelling is how they capture The Rolling Stones under pressure yet still creatively instinctive. Despite internal conflicts and a difficult working environment, the core interplay between Richards and Wood remained sharp and responsive. Even fragments like this outtake demonstrate how the band could still lock into a compelling groove, hinting at cohesion even when the broader situation was unstable.

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