The Rolling Stones song Mick Jagger wrote when he was sick of the band
Not every band is destined to be the best of friends once they step offstage. While bandmates may feel like musical siblings when a song comes together, they are, in many ways, still co-workers—often dealing with commitments that most would prefer to avoid. Though The Rolling Stones have experienced nearly everything together, Mick Jagger hasn’t always loved every single thing he created with the band.
Because looking back at the slew of hits they had back in the 1960s, there were bound to be a few that were complete duds. After all, Jagger and Keith Richards had only begun to work together as songwriters after being locked in a room by Andrew Loog Oldham, and once they started to find their groove a little more, they hit upon a formula that actually worked when tunes like ‘Satisfaction’ started moving up the charts.
When it came time to move outside their blues rock wheelhouse, that’s when things started going awry. Jagger normally had no problem saying that he hated Their Satanic Majesties Request, and while Between the Buttons was an important record for the group to move forward, it’s hard not to see them taking the model The Beatles had and copying them outright when working on their ballads.
Although the band got into a certain rhythm throughout the 1970s, things started to drastically change in the MTV generation. Outside of scoring a hit right out of the gate with ‘Start Me Up’, the age of neon colours and spandex didn’t cater to the band, joining the ranks of artists like Neil Young who got swallowed up by the 1980s. They were still capable of great work, but none of it’s going to be found on Dirty Work.
Considering how only a few tunes on the record were credited to Jagger, the album feels like a record made because they needed to fulfil a contract rather than anything sincere. And while Richards does come through with some biting jabs at Jagger for not taking everything seriously on ‘Had It With You,’ tunes like ‘Back to Zero’ from the same album are a pretty firm indication of how much the frontman wanted to be anywhere else but with The Stones.
While Jagger has been no stranger to lyrics about frustration, it’s hard not to see the monkey on his back in this song being the rest of the band. Since he had been working on different projects for his solo career, hearing him talk about wanting to go back into the jungle was practically his way of saying that the spark he had for creating was gone.
Granted, it’s not like he was making anything bold and innovative as a solo star at the time. There were moments that were more adventurous compared to The Stones’ usual sound, but anyone who was trying to make a breakout success off of Jagger and David Bowie’s version of ‘Dancing in the Street’ is fighting a losing battle, especially looking back on that unfortunately hilarious video.
But if Voodoo Lounge is any indication, that tense period didn’t last too long, with ‘The Glimmer Twins’ getting back on the same page and having the tunes that most people had been asking for since 1978. If all it took was a few years to bring them back together, though, Dirty Work showed that the band needed a break from each other.
