3 Beloved Classic Rock Songs That Were Written by Musicians Who Couldn’t Read Music

Many of the greatest rock musicians of all time started out in music at young ages. Many of them took formal classes or received some form of formal training in terms of musical ability. Others, though, didn’t know a treble clef from a whole note. In fact, some of the greatest rock songs of all time were written by musicians who couldn’t read music at all. Let’s take a look at some surprising examples, shall we?

Videos by American Songwriter

“Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix (1967)

One of the premier guitar gods of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix wrote, recorded, and performed some of the greatest rock songs of the 1960s. And yet, he couldn’t read or write sheet music. Considering he was a self-taught musician from a young age, this isn’t entirely surprising. Many of the blues and soul musicians of his time also didn’t read sheet music. That actually might have played into his talents, as he was so good at improv and using his intuition to create music that formal sheet music likely would have hindered him.

“Yesterday” by The Beatles (1965)

This fact always surprises me, considering Paul McCartney is one of the greatest classic rock songwriters of all time. And yet, he can’t read sheet music. He couldn’t read sheet music when he wrote “Yesterday” and many of The Beatles’ other hits, and he allegedly still can’t read music today. He famously referred to music theory as “dots on a page” and said that he and his bandmates had no problem coming up with fantastic tunes by ear. Though, he did seem to be a little embarrassed by his lack of “formal” music knowledge.

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones (1969)

This legendary classic rock song was put together by the famous songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. However, Richards makes it to our list of rock musicians who couldn’t read music… and he likely still can’t today. Richards is famously a “by ear” musician. He has stated on many occasions in interviews that he relies on intuition and his memory more than anything else and finds formal music theory to be more of an “interference.”

“I don’t need this paper,” Richards wrote in his memoir, Life. “I’m going to play it straight from the ear, straight from here, straight from the heart to the fingers. Nobody has to turn the pages.”

Photo by David Warner Ellis/Redferns