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"Beast of Burden" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones, featured on the 1978 album Some Girls. It is a quintessential example of guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood's playing style, the so-called "ancient form of weaving". In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song #435 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The music and some lyrics were primarily written by Keith Richards. In the linernotes to the 1993 compilation disc Jump Back, Richards said, "['Beast of Burden'] was another one where Mick [Jagger] just filled in the verses. With the Stones, you take a long song, play it and see if there are any takers. Sometimes they ignore it, sometimes they grab it and record it. In those same notes, Jagger says, "Lyrically, this wasn't particularly heartfelt in a personal way. It's a soul begging song, an attitude song. It was one of those where you get one melodic lick, break it down and work it up; there are two parts here which are basically the same." The song can be seen as allegorical, with Richards saying in 2003, "When I returned to the fold after closing down the laboratory [referring to his drug problems throughout the 1970s], I came back into the studio with Mick... to say, 'Thanks, man, for shouldering the burden' - that's why I wrote "Beast of Burden" for him, I realise in retrospect."