“Every song a knock out”: The 1999 album Mick Jagger considered perfect
The blues is the only genre there has ever been in Mick Jagger‘s blue eyes.
The Rolling Stones frontman might be the epitome of modern pop culture, but he’s never truly swayed too far from its roots. It was, in fact, the blues that brought the Stones together in the first place. As Keith Richards reflected on the matter, “I loved rock’n’roll but there’s got to be something behind the rock’n’roll. There had to be. We found, of course, that it was the blues.”
In an act of fated kismet akin to Robert Johnson bumping into a burning buddy at the crossroads, Richards was drawn back into Jagger’s circle years after the childhood friends had ventured to different schools at the age of 11, thanks to that sacred genre humbly lingering in the shadows of rock ‘n’ roll.
As Richards told Rolling Stone: “This is a true story – we met at the train station. And I had these rhythm and blues records, which were very prized possessions because they weren’t available in England then. And he said, ‘Oh, yeah, these are really interesting.’ That kind of did it. That’s how it started, really”. A shared passion became the Stones.
The duo loved the drama, mysticism and soul of the blues. Shortly, their only aim in life was to be the best blues cover band in London. That was the extent of their vision, and they would’ve been more than happy to have simply achieved it. Soon, however, their style began to mutate and evolve, in part because they knew that they couldn’t fully compete with some American blues at its purest.
Nevertheless, these pure blues records are the albums that Jagger has continued to adore. The cherishes the rare gems where technical prowess and soaring soul collide. Albums like In Session saw Albert King join Stevie Ray Vaughan for a jam, for instance.
“They did a duet album which they recorded in Canada. So, every track is just a knockout, I think,” Jagger said on Planet Rock radio when playing his favourite records.
The strange story of one of Mick Jagger’s favourite blues albums
The fabled collision of blues kings was recorded live for television back in 1983, at the rather nondescript CHCH-TV studios in Hamilton, Ontario. At the time, Vaughan was 29 and King was 60. They were at different ends of their career and esteem, but both, clearly, were brimming with mutual respect.
The magic they mustered was blustered over by blues fanatics for years as yet another mythical act of fateful kismet in the genre until it was eventually officially released in 1999 bt Stax. Jagger was one of the first to snap-up this oft-talked-about but rarely heard record, and he was blown away.
The album is a simplistic thing of beauty, marked by spontaneity, flow, and creative freedom. King and Vaughan barely seem to think about the notes they’re playing, unburdened by typical concerns like keys and modes, they pluck notes from the air and weave them together effortlessly. When the Stones are at their best, they talk about a certain “magic” in their playing. Here, that force is undeniable. It is more obvious than a trick at a Penn and Teller show or the killer in Columbo.
Jagger picks out ‘Pride and Joy’, a “Stevie Ray Vaughan tune”, as his favourite cut on the record. It exemplifies the blend of chops and class that he loves about it. Despite the differing ages of the two performers, they both seem firmly on the same page, with King’s more weathered ways elevating the younger guitarist’s original effort.
As it happens, the first time Jagger ever encountered Vaughan at a small show in Texas, he was sent into a frenzy. “It was the first time I met him,” Vaughan later recalled. He was blinded by the lights on a little stage, but he says he ‘attacked’ the concert with all his might “and kept seeing somebody I thought I recognised from Texas. This guy, jumping up and down, acting like he was playing with us. Come to find out about an hour later that it was Jagger I’d been staring at. Every time we’d stop, Jagger would scream, ‘Keep playing! Hell with it, I’ll buy this place!‘”
It is far from a bad first impression, and Jagger has scrutinised his lauded work ever since.
