Mick Jagger Weighs In On New Rolling Stones Album

It doesn’t matter what’s happening, the Rolling Stones make the world a better place.  That’s just a fact.  

While these past fifteen years have been nothing more than live tours, that was ok.  Fans were content to just love on them and appreciate the fact they’re still able to climb on stage, fire up the amps and be that live musical jukebox that has defined over a half century of rock n roll. After all, what more could we ask for? Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts are well into their mid-late 70’s.  Hell, Ronnie Wood is the baby of the group and he turns 73 in June. 

None of that matters though.  At least not with the Stones.

Fifty-six years after their introduction, the boys have a new song for the world. Unleashed last week, “Living in A Ghost Town” is the band’s first breath of new, original music since their 2005 album A Bigger Bang.

Lyrics like “You can look for me, but I can’t be found, you can search for me, I had to go underground. Life was so beautiful then we all got locked down, feel like a ghost living in a ghost town” give the impression “Living in A Ghost Town” was written to encapsulate the time we’re living in. The reality is, that’s just not the case.

“It wasn’t written for now, it was just one of those odd things,” Mick Jagger told Zane Lowe of Apple Music, which you can watch below.  “It was written about being in a place which was full of life and then now, is all bereft of life so to speak. When I went back to what I had written originally, lyrically…I didn’t use them in the lyrics, (but) it was all full of plague terms and things like that.  I never actually used that, but it was all there.

“Keith and I both had the idea that we should release it, but I said well I‘ve got to rewrite it because some of it is not going to work.  Some of it was a bit weird and a bit too dark. I didn’t have to rewrite very much to be honest. It’s very much how I really did it.”

While the song paints a dark picture of the desolate times we’re living, it’s almost unthinkable how dark it could have been had they gone with the initial lyrics Jagger had penned.

“I was just jamming, just playing a guitar and wrote it like that. It was semi-humorous and then it got less humorous.”

Having been starved for new Stones music and now with this recent virus-inspired reminder of all that can be lost in a moment, Stones fans are already wanting more.  One song is great, but an album would be better. Surely as soon its possible, we’ll be clamoring for another tour as well.  When the possibility of an entire batch of new music is posed, Jagger acknowledges the band is indeed working some up and is cautiously encouraging.

“I don’t want it to just be a good album, I want it to be great. I’m very hard on myself if I write something or do something with Keith. It’s gotta be great, it can’t just be good. We’ve been recording and we’ve got some really great stuff, but don’t hold your breath”. 

Richards however is a bit more forthcoming with information.

“We’ve got 5 or 6 tracks, and there’s a real soul feel about it for some reason without anybody intending to.”