“I thought of him”: The song Mick Jagger wrote with Bono in mind
Although gospel and rock often intertwine, it’s an incredibly difficult feat to do well, and even then, it’s tough for such songs to yield longevity. The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger has always been the exception, however, considering that most of his career is built on injecting rock ‘n’ roll with gospel sensibilities and themes of spirituality and religion.
During the 1960s, The Beatles introduced a new form of innovation into the rock ‘n’ roll landscape by marrying technological advancements and production with the band’s inherent creativity. At the same time, The Rolling Stones ensured the genre maintained its gritter, less polished edge, where rock could be a mess of everything instead of a carefully crafted bundle of rock-adjacent qualities.
Throughout the Stones’ immense evolution in the 1970s, gospel was clearly a huge influencing factor, particularly for Jagger, who worked alongside Keith Richards to incorporate the genre into their own well-established sound. Although many of their songs overtly presented typical gospel elements, the pair often executed them with a more contemporary spin.
One example of this was their song ‘The Last Time’, which has a chorus identical to the traditional 1950s gospel song ‘This May Be the Last Time’ by the Staple Singers. Although some called it a direct rip-off, Richards once justified their decision by acknowledging the way their version “goes back into the mists of time”. This isn’t the only time they infused their music with such influences, and it went far beyond Jagger’s work within the Stones.
As he once said, “If it’s part of your life, then it should be part of your expression.”
Even during much of his solo work, gospel music became a large foundation, and it enhanced his rock ‘n’ roll style by elevating the sound in ways that only the expressiveness of gospel music could. ‘Joy’, for instance, which sits on his fourth solo album Goddess in the Doorway, was the perfect amalgamation of rock and gospel, incorporating a trio of experts who might just be the only ones fit for the job.
With Bono on backing vocals and Pete Townsend on guitar, ‘Joy’ became the perfect ode to generic eclecticism made possible by the convergence of gospel and rock. It’s precisely this fact that led Jagger to Bono, not only as a musical partner but as someone who could deliver the song exactly the way it was written. “That’s why I thought of him to be on it,” Jagger told Paul Du Noyer in 2001, the year Goddess in the Doorway was released.
In fact, when Jagger wrote the song, he “thought this could be something [Bono] could do really well,” a suspicion confirmed when the U2 singer took “it on very quickly.” Discussing the inclusion of Townsend, Jagger noted their likemindedness, saying, “He’s another guy that’s spiritually inspired,” which enabled them to craft ‘Joy’ in a way that combined gospel and rock “without being beholden to a gospel form.”
Although he admitted to never creating a purely gospel song, he said the genre has always naturally inspired him. This, in turn, continues to transform his rock music into a style with a bunch of endearing layers, each with the perfect amount of passion that sees his creativity come to life.
