How did James Brown inspire Mick Jagger?
Imperative in laying the blueprint for how a rock ‘n’ roll frontperson looks, Mick Jagger has often been lauded for his idiosyncratic performative style. A child of the 1950s blues and a teenager in the freewheelin’ 1960s, Jagger created a style of performance that oozed energy and charisma.
In the mid-1960s, when Jagger was cutting his teeth in the entertainment industry, music titans Little Richard and James Brown were household names. Their ability to translate the sounds of blues, funk and soul to new audiences through their vibrant performances laid the foundations for a more experimental and inhibited performance style that would go on to influence the likes of Jagger.
In October of 1964, the same year in which The Rolling Stones released their first LP, Jagger and co headed to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to play for the ‘The T.A.M.I Show’. That night, Brown was also performing, and in what has become a now infamous tale, he was aggrieved at the fact his opportunity to close the show was derailed by an inexperienced but wildly exciting Stones.
In true James Brown fashion, he responded in performance and gave a show for the ages; raucous, energetic and free-spirited, his powerhouse of a show left a longing impression on Jagger, who watched from the wings.
In his autobiography Life, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards remembers the evening: “It was a fantastic show. Mick’s looking at his foot moves. Mick took more notice than I did that day – lead singer dancing, he calls the shots.”
Jagger’s immediate fascination with the performance was plain to see as in parts of their set, he adopts a sort of limp-fisted attempt at the knee wobbles Brown used to such dizzying effect in the previous set. It’s a loose foray into the world of an eccentric style of performance that would later become a signature for Jagger, but whilst he wasn’t yet sharp enough to hone it into an authentic sense of performance, he was fully aware that to do any more than a semi-shuffle immediately after Brown could have been career suicide.
Whilst Brown’s performance was an obvious point of influence to Jagger, Richards observed more than just a replicating of a performative energy.
“Backstage that night, James wanted to show off to these English folk,” he said. “He’s got the Famous Flames, and he’s sending one out for hamburgers, he’s ordering another to polish his shoes and he’s humiliating his own band. To me, it was the Famous Flames, and James Brown happened to be the lead singer. But the way he lorded over his minions, his minders and the actual band, to Mick was fascinating.”
Regardless of the friction caused by Jagger’s adoration of the enigmatic frontman, the night was undoubtedly formative in the future trajectory of The Rolling Stones and the mania their live shows proceeded to sweep over 60’s America.
As part of the release of Brown’s four part documentary James Brown: Say It Loud earlier this year, Jagger who also took on the role of executive producer for the role, said this about the iconic soul artist.
“He [James] was a brilliant performer who inspired me from the beginning and was deeply committed to the civil rights movement. I’ve always admired James and learned so much from him”.
Whilst Jagger’s moves have gone on to define rock n roll in the decades that followed, there’s no doubt that the memory of following a show-stopping James Brown at the 1964 The T.A.M.I Show lasted long in the memory of Jagger, with every hip shake and foot stomp at a Stones gig thereafter, moving to the beat of James Brown.
