The famous laugh lines on Mick Jagger’s face are now huge ditches. His lips aren’t as prominent and full as they were back when it was thought his mouth influenced his Rolling Stones’ famous lip logo.
That being said, Sir Michael Philip Jagger hasn’t changed in the way one might expect of a rock idol after six decades in the music business. On July 26, the legendary singer will be 80 years old.
“Mick Jagger is Mick Jagger. He’s the best frontman in the business,” says Stones guitarist Keith Richards of his friend and longtime bandmate. With his unmistakable voice and his stage presence, which captivates audiences of 100,000 at concerts, Jagger was a role model for countless artists. He embodies the rock frontman like no other.
His voice is probably the most important instrument of the “Rolling Stones”. When the Briton, born on July 26, 1943 in Dartford in the county of Kent, sings, you recognize him immediately. Jagger recently found in a BBC documentary that he doesn’t even have a good voice. “I’m lucky that I can still sing more or less the same notes as when I was 19,” he said. “I don’t have a great voice. But it’s okay. It does the job.”
His dance style, which could be described as an ecstatic rooster dance, is legendary. It’s a fascinating, wild mix of springy steps, swinging hips, wriggling arms and hands. His movement seems improvised and on the verge of losing control, but it happens in complete synchronization with the music.
In fact, there is hard work behind it. Even before the “Rolling Stones” made their first TV appearances – such as on the influential Friday night show “Ready Steady Go” – the frontman planned everything carefully. “I figured out how the camera angles work. I figured out what we were going to do. And I practiced my moves at home. I was prepared.”
As the main lyricist for the Rolling Stones, Jagger wrote countless hits, including classics like “Paint It, Black”, “Angie” and “Sympathy For The Devil”. “If you look at all the popular songs ten years ago, very few had any meaning or relation to what people were really doing,” said the young Jagger in a TV interview in the mid-’60s — and he did it differently from then on .
For example, the megahit “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” revolves around dissatisfaction with modern life. “Street Fighting Man” makes reference to working-class protests and anti-war demonstrations. Many personal experiences have also flowed into his texts over the decades. Jagger never ran out of ideas. He has released 25 studio albums with the “Rolling Stones” so far, with the last one, “Blue And Lonesome”, only containing cover versions.
With the “Rolling Stones”, Mick Jagger is not only the lyricist, singer and frontman, but also the boss, the “leader and organizer”, as band colleague Ronnie Wood put it. In the 1970s, Jagger also assumed financial control. “The band had a say in everything,” he said in the BBC interview. “And if they didn’t want to make a decision on something, I made it up and said to them, ‘This is how we do it. Agreed?'”
Having studied at the London School of Economics before becoming a musician, albeit without a degree, proved extremely useful. “Somebody has to run a company like this,” says Jagger, who took on the role rather unintentionally. “I don’t like doing business very much. I’d rather just be a performer and not deal with the business. I’d rather do shows.”
But he arranged the deals when the “Rolling Stones” founded their own sub-label at Atlantic Records. And he made the Stones a global brand. He commissioned the development of the band’s logo, which is now recognized worldwide without the name. Art student John Pasche designed the red lips with the outstretched tongue – not based on Jagger’s mouth, by the way, but on a statue of the Hindu goddess Kali. Jagger’s full lips would have influenced him “at least unconsciously”, Pasche later clarified.
A gigantic playroom
Mick Jagger also designed the spectacular stages for the band’s gigantic concerts. The Stones are among the first to design their own stages and take them on tour. “I just designed a giant playroom for myself,” Jagger joked in the documentary My Life As A Rolling Stone. The “Steel Wheels” tour, on which the “Rolling Stones” played almost exclusively in stadiums, is considered a milestone in this regard.
What is sometimes forgotten is that Jagger’s work goes far beyond the Stones. He released several solo albums and was in the studio with many stars. He recorded a cover of the Temptation song “Don’t Look Back” with reggae musician Peter Tosh in 1978, well before such cross-genre collaborations became popular in music. His backing vocals on Carly Simon’s catchy tune “You’re So Vain” are unmistakable. He was on stage with Tina Turner. He sang “State Of Shock” with the Jacksons in 1984. A year later, his duet “Dancing In The Streets” with David Bowie became a hit. The list is long.
Equally extensive is the list of his affairs and ex-wives, including Marianne Faithful, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger (married 1971-1978) and Jerry Hall (1990-1999). The singer, who is now a great-grandfather, has eight children from his relationships. His youngest son Deveraux is six years old, two years younger than his great-grandson Ezra. The rock grandfather has been in a relationship with Deveraux’s mother, the choreographer Melanie Hamrick, since 2014. Rumors of an alleged engagement have not yet been confirmed.
Another “Rolling Stones” album, however, is considered likely. Keith Richards hinted at that. And the tour for the 60th band anniversary last year was not declared as a farewell tour.
So it’s quite possible that Mick Jagger will continue to do what he thinks he can do best in his 80s. “I guess it’s my job to make people feel good for two hours,” said Jagger. “I think that’s my role.”
Read the archive at stern: Rock star dreams, accolades and secret weddings: On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Rolling Stones, stern presents 60 exciting and curious facts about the longest-serving rock band in the world.
