David Gilmour on how Mick Jagger lost his sincerity: “He’s been a Rolling Stone for so long”
The one thing that everyone looks for out of their favourite artists is authenticity. It’s one thing to be able to have raw musicianship to get the pop fans in seats, but to get them to relate to your music on a deeper level only comes from when someone opens themselves up and dares to be loved in return. It took Pink Floyd years to crack the code on being sentimental, but David Gilmour knew Mick Jagger had a far greater struggle being honest these days.
At the same time, it’s not like it’s easy trying to hold onto credibility for the rest of your days once you hit the big time. The whole idea of playing music audiences can relate to comes from living the same lives they have, so when you’re stuck in a mansion counting your millions and being waited on by people, it’s much harder to relate to a blue-collar style worker who is still punching away at a nine-to-five job.
Then again, Pink Floyd’s core essence had nothing to do with people’s everyday lives. Their songs preached about the universal truths of life, and even if someone didn’t like the music, they had to admit that the core ethos of a track like ‘Time’ could resonate with them no matter what age they were.
As far as Mick Jagger was concerned, though, he was bound to steer The Stones into whatever hot new trend he could find. Whether it was disco on ‘Miss You’ or whatever kind of dance music that he was doing with David Bowie on their cover of ‘Dancing in the Street’, Jagger played the pinup star to a tee most of the time, much to the dismay of Keith Richards who wanted to play rough-and-tumble rock and roll until the day he died.
Although the results have normally been fantastic, it’s not hard to see why Keef had a problem with what Jagger was doing. He still had his vocal chops intact, but even when singing country-leaning tunes like ‘Dead Flowers’, it was hard to take him seriously when he was doing a half-joking impression of what he thought a Southerner was supposed to sound like.
Despite Gilmour reaching the same heights The Stones had in their prime, he admitted that Jagger was off in his own world compared to what they were doing, telling The Telegraph, “[Mick] doesn’t know how to open up and be honest anymore. He’s been a Rolling Stone for so long. He’s been Mick Jagger for so long. Pink Floyd aren’t quite the same.”
Part of the reason Gilmour has avoided that kind of star power is how faceless Pink Floyd has been over the years. No matter how many times they made classics, all of the members were better equipped to fade into the background and let the music do the talking for them.
So, when looking at the appeal of The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, just remember that they are two completely different mindsets. The Stones were the typical blues rock act that are still going to this day, but Pink Floyd sought to use their music to help open up their audience’s collective third eye.
