The Rolling Stones songs Mick Jagger couldn’t go legit with: “I find it very hard to take it seriously”
No one could deny that Mick Jagger understood rock and roll inside and out. His sly attitude helped define the genre’s “bad boy” image, from his iconic stage strut to his sharp lyrics—even his tongue became a symbol of the band’s visual identity. But The Rolling Stones explored more than just rock and roll, and not every musical direction fit naturally with Jagger’s persona.
If there’s one common thread that links every one of the band’s songs, it’s the blues. The whole point behind the band even getting together was to mix rock and roll with the bluesmen of old, but by the time The Beatles started to make their own dent into rock and roll history, they needed to delve deeper to get something that made parents want to leap out of their skin the minute that they heard them.
And it’s not like that mentality didn’t work. ‘Satisfaction’ may have been a bluesy take on the kind of rock and roll the Fab Four rode in on, but Keith Richards wasn’t looking to play the same few Chuck Berry chords for the rest of his life. That was a firm foundation, but there was everything from soul to funk to world music to cover when they started making their masterpieces. If there was one genre that Richards had close to his heart, though, it was Americana music.
In reality, the sounds of lowdown country songs weren’t usually that far away from their ballads. The Stones had their moments of making rock and roll tearjerkers. Still, since many of the best balladeers had taken from country music, like The Everly Brothers, it wasn’t that hard for Richards to dive into that style of writing when he started to hang out with Gram Parsons during the Exile on Main St period.
Then again, that sound was bound to be an uncomfortable fit with Jagger’s shout behind it. He could always change up his style when he wanted to, but trying to channel his inner Hank Williams was always going to sound strange coming from someone born and raised in London. The Mississippi Delta blues was already pushing it, but Jagger thought this was one step too far.
Compared to their rock and roll tunes, Jagger thought he could never take their country numbers all that seriously, saying, “The ‘country’ songs we recorded later, like ‘Dead Flowers’ on Sticky Fingers or ‘Far Away Eyes’ on Some Girls, are slightly different (than our earlier ones). The actual music is played completely straight, but it’s me who’s not going legit with the whole thing because I think I’m a blues singer, not a country singer.”
‘Dear Doctor’ is a decent facsimile of what Jagger can do, however, I’m inclined to believe him being insincere. Richards’s voice was always rougher around the edges, so hearing him play something as desolate as ‘Coming Down Again’ sounds like he lived every minute of the tune before he even played a single note.
Granted, the Stones frontman was never safe from a few embarrassing moments when he was acting sincere. The band were always more than a straight-up blues act, but was there anyone who felt like Jagger could actually be a disco king on ‘Miss You’ or do justice to ‘Dancing in The Streets’ with David Bowie?
