How the Rolling Stones' 'Salt of the Earth' Turned a Toast Into a Sneer

The most interesting thing about “Salt of the Earth” is that it’s a hymn to the working class written by two art-school kids who didn’t mean a word of it. Mick Jagger later admitted the lyrics were deliberately sarcastic—a pat on the head to the “hard working people” that undercuts itself with phrases like “who come from the salt of the earth.” The song closes Beggars Banquet with a faux-ringing chorus and a gospel choir, making the satire land even harder because it sounds sincere at first.

Jagger and Richards wrote it during the sessions for Beggars Banquet in 1968, a year of global protest and class tension. The idea came from Jagger, who said he was thinking about the “awful, smug” way the upper classes talk about the common man. Musically, it’s a slow, almost weary country hymn—Keith Richards plays acoustic, and the choir (a group of session singers) delivers the refrain like they’re in church. The bridge throws in a rare moment of directness: “I hope we’re not too messianic / Or a trifle too satanic,” which is Jagger winking at the audience.