“I wasn’t really passionate about it”: The 1994 Rolling Stones album that suffers from chronic apathy
The early foundations of rock were built on rebellion.
Sticking it to the man through music meant rejecting societal norms and adopting an apathetic attitude to everything and anything around them. Ultimately, it’s what made The Rolling Stones so beloved, for they served as the rather uninterested antidote to The Beatles, who in those days were the golden boys of rock and roll.
It meant that the Stones were less bothered about time in the studio and focused a little more intently on creating wild and charismatic live shows. Cover songs laid the foundations for one of Britain’s best bands, and with it, the chance to emulate their onstage heroes. But did this foster something of a throwaway attitude to songwriting?
At the beginning, you could very much say that was the case. But continued time in the spotlight developed a yearning for artistic appreciation, and it didn’t take long for the songwriting duo of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger to start stepping up and delivering rock hits. ‘Paint It Black’, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ all came in, and suddenly The Stones’ shows had an added bite.
A career through the decades then beckoned, and a chance to outlive The Beatles and evolve their band through the changing era of rock. That brought an opportunity to explore disco with Some Girls, which was a record that could have only really existed at the tail end of the 1970s. But at that point, their musical nous was still sharp, whereas the ‘90s represented a confrontation with their expiry date, expedited by the booming popularity of a new generation of Britpop bands.
So how did they respond? With a limp-wristed attempt at modern rock and a bloated tracklist that served as a wasteful attempt to conjure up nostalgia. “I don’t want to trash it because I think it’s got some good-sounding things,” Jagger began, when self-reviewing the record, “I wasn’t really passionate about it. I tried to be at the time, but in retrospect…”
He resolved the musing by simply labelling it as sub-par. He called Voodoo Lounge “pretty savagely eclectic. But right from the get-go, I said to everyone, ‘Well, it’s not long since we did the last studio album and we’ve had another album since’, which is called Stripped, which was, of course, a very retro album. There’s nothing wrong with that. That was the whole intention. It was a live, y’know…”
Jagger had cracked that music had to evolve with the times. After the band had hired producer Don Was specifically to recreate the raw bluesy sounds of the band’s past hit, namely Exile on Main St, the frontman had kicked up a fuss. It wasn’t about looking backwards, it was about looking forwards, he rightly realised.
With Britpop engaging the masses, the world fostered a collective sense of appreciation for the present day, and the rugged rock sound felt antiquated. It largely went to prove that even a band as established and beloved as The Rolling Stones couldn’t simply rely on arrogant apathy, trusting the world would love them no matter what; they had to feel what they were making, like they did in the good old days.
