The Afghan Whigs' 'Moonlight Mile': Stripping the Strings, Keeping the Loneliness

The Afghan Whigs closed their 1993 masterpiece Gentlemen with a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Moonlight Mile” that completely reimagined the original’s most distinctive feature. Where Mick Jagger and co. leaned on Paul Buckmaster’s lush, cinematic orchestral arrangement—strings climbing over acoustic guitars and a sleepy slide—Greg Dulli’s version replaces the entire string section with a single tense guitar riff and a piano that sounds like it’s being played in an empty bar at 4 a