The Rolling Stones’ Lyric That Allowed Mick Jagger to Channel His Inner Dylan

You’d be hard-pressed to find many significant pop and rock artists from the 1960s who weren’t in some way influenced by the work of Bob Dylan. Dylan cleared a path of lyrical freedom for all artists in his wake with his songs.

The Rolling Stones didn’t overtly reveal their own debt to Dylan all that often. But on the 1968 song “Jigsaw Puzzle” from the classic album Beggars Banquet, it’s pretty clear Mick Jagger had listened to a Dylan song or two, lest he might not have been able to pen the verbose lyrics to this epic track.

A Banquet of the Blues

The Rolling Stones tried on the multicolored musical clothes of the psychedelic era, and found the garb didn’t fit them all too well. They were much better suited to the blues (in terms of their musical influences) and the grays (as in the gray areas of their subject matter).

After their 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties’ Request found them awkwardly attempting their own Sgt. Pepper’s, they quickly entered into a period of artistic retrenchment. It began with the bruising single “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and continued on into the making of their 1968 album Beggars Banquet.

Beggars Banquet found them returning to their bluesy roots in defiant fashion. Even when they expanded their musical palette on songs like the rhythmically relentless “Sympathy for the Devil,” the lyrical outlook was mostly gloomy and dire. The wild musical juxtapositions of “Jigsaw Puzzle” make this an ideal addition to the record. Keith Richards’ slide guitar juts out at askew angles and Brian Jones’ Mellotron howls at the moon, while Nicky Hopkins plays boogie-woogie piano and Bill Wyman’s bass bobs and weaves in the background.

In terms of the lyrics, the surreal imagery and fallback vibe of someone shrugging their shoulders at apocalyptic events is very much in keeping with Bob Dylan sagas like “Desolation Row.” It’s certainly one of the wordiest Stones songs, as Mick Jagger surveys the rich tapestry of the human race and struggles to find any bright futures.

Behind the Lyrics of “Jigsaw Puzzle”

Jagger takes us through a series of rapid-fire character sketches in “Jigsaw Puzzle.” The title is both a metaphor for willy-nilly existence and the narrator’s getaway from it all: I’m just trying to do this jigsaw puzzle / Before it rains anymore.

The one thing that unites all the characters assembled here is they all see themselves as an outcast or outlaw. They don’t realize everybody else is walking around feeling the same way, nor do they reach out to try and connect. That’s why, for all its downcast descriptions, there’s a subtle strain of empathy running through Jagger’s words.

His descriptions are sometimes chillingly astute. He’s a walking clothesline, he sings of the tramp outside his home. Note also the counterintuitive descriptions. While detailing the gangster’s violent tendencies, he also notes how he’s a family man and that, Yes, he really looks quite religious.

Jagger also spends a verse describing a rock band, one that sounds suspiciously like his own (although it’s hard to imagine the implacable Charlie Watts as shattered). The final verse is reserved for a standoff between disaffected pensioners and the Queen, with the latter settling all in the end: With a blood-curdling “Tally-ho” / She charged into the ranks / And blessed all those grandmas who / With their dying breaths screamed, Thanks!

Interesting note about “Jigsaw Puzzle”: The Rolling Stones have never played it live. Were they to try it these days, Mick Jagger would likely need the teleprompter rolling to remember all those words. That’s one of the pitfalls of getting a little Dylanesque.

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