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Oct. 2, 2007
 Watch interview: "Songwriting"
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"I think you just learn as you go along," says Mick Jagger, "whether you're playing with the Rolling Stones or playing with other musicians." If it's a
little hard for most of us to imagine that distinction, it only gets more
difficult when you consider the "other musicians" with whom Jagger has worked:
David Bowie, Bono, Peter Tosh and Pete Townshend, among many others.
These collaborations make up the core of a new collection titled "The Very
Best of Mick Jagger" comprising 17 tracks taken from the music he has created
away from the Stones through the years. In addition to selections from his four
solo albums -- "She's the Boss" (1985), "Primitive Cool" (1987), "Wandering Spirit" (1993) and "Goddess in the Doorway" (2001) -- the compilation includes
songs from several soundtracks, dating back to 1970's "Performance," plus various one-off singles and unissued
recordings. Most newsworthy is a previously unreleased, broiling funk cover
titled "Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)." John Lennon produced this all-star session in 1973 during his
infamous "Lost Weekend" phase in Los Angeles when the ex-Beatle caroused in local clubs between studio jams.
In a hotel suite high above midtown Manhattan, Jagger, 64, is dressed
casually in a striped oxford shirt that's open at the collar and the cuffs,
light-colored slacks, rainbow-striped socks and black sneakers. The Stones'
marathon "A Bigger Bang" tour, which ran for more than two full years, wrapped
up just a few weeks earlier, but Jagger looks remarkably fit and rested. He is
in New York following a quick trip to Boston to check in on "The Women," a movie he is producing that stars Annette Bening, Meg Ryan and Debra Messing.
The "Very Best" compilation is a reminder that somehow, in addition to
fronting the longest-running rock-'n'-roll show on earth, Jagger has also
squeezed in a distinguished career of his own. He acknowledges that his solo
albums haven't all been critical favorites but notes that some listeners find it
hard to hear his voice away from the Stones; he recalls one French journalist
who said he initially didn't like the solo work simply because he thought it
meant the band was breaking up. "There is a lot of baggage," Jagger says, "but I
think now, on this album, it's easier to listen to."
MSN Music: What do the solo projects allow you to do that you can't
do in the context of the Rolling Stones?
Mick Jagger: First of all, I learn a lot. If you're recording with a band,
you work up a lot of the material in the studio as you go along -- not that the
working methods are the same for each Rolling Stones recording, but they tend to
have a way of going, and you want to involve everyone. Whereas if you're doing
records on your own, it's better to have a lot of the songs already written
first, rehearse them with different people, and then it's much more down to you,
to one person -- though not completely, of course.
How about as a songwriter?
I do write on my own, but it's nice to write with people, to have sounding
boards and to do it different ways. Working with these writers, you learn an
awful lot about how to make music, how to record music and how to write songs.
And having said all that, really in many ways it's the same thing, because
when you've done all the music and all the musicians have gone home, you're
still the singer, singing, usually on your own, to a track that you've recorded.
It could be the Rolling Stones or the Men in the Moon, to be honest -- at that
point, you're you, singing a song, and you just do it and that's your job.
What's different about working with these collaborators after working
alongside Keith Richards for so many
years?
Well, Keith and I don't always have the same way of writing songs. There's
lots and lots of ways of doing it. Oftentimes, we put them down as
Jagger-Richards, but we've written them on our own. Not all -- by all means, not
all! But sometimes that's one way. And then sometimes I write the lyrics and
Keith writes the melody, or I write the melody and he writes the lyrics, and all
these permutations, all these different ways of doing it.
I do prefer to write with people I know already, because I find it really
weird if someone would come in the room now, some famous person, and you go,
"OK, here we are!" So it's much better to do it with someone that you know a bit
socially.
And then you get into the process. I always ask songwriters, "How do you
write? Do you write on piano, do you write on guitar?" Some people say, "I don't
write on an instrument at all; I just sing things and people write them down,"
and I say, "Hmm, well, there you go." Keith likes to have a drummer, but more
recently, we just do simple drum programs. (Story Continues On Next Page...) |
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