Unlike most of his peers, the lead singer of the world’s greatest rock and roll band has never been one for looking back, even at the recent past. There’s a scene in one of the countless Rolling Stones documentaries in which that singer — Mick Jagger — and drummer Charlie Watts are walking into Olympic Studios in London, the incubator of some of their greatest work, and rather than waxing nostalgic, Jagger exclaims, “Old recording sessions — who gives a shit?” before he gamely gets back on the task and shares some memories.
And although there are certainly some videos of him sitting in a studio listening to the band’s music and commenting on it, he has never before done a “Behind the Song”-style dissection and analysis of one of the band’s songs — until now.
Variety captured Jagger and Andrew Watt, producer of the band’s two most recent albums, 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds” and the new “Foreign Tongues,” at London’s Metropolis Studios doing exactly that with “Mr. Charm,” a song from the latter collection. You won’t find it on any greatest-hits compilations (it was released less than a month ago), but it’s in the classic Rolling Stones mold, and this remarkable 15-minute video illuminates, in many ways as never before, the group’s creative process.
Jagger and Watt take us through the creation of the song, from Jagger’s first demo — which began with a guitar riff and rough melody — which was then embellished and enhanced into what it is today. First Keith Richards added some chords that overtook Jagger’s originals as the song’s signature riff, then Ronnie Wood added some riffs of his own in response to Richards’, drummer Steve Jordan contributed the piledriving rhythm and percussion, and guest keyboardist Steve Winwood, who the Stones have known for sixty years, added some majestic B3 organ — and backing singer Naarai Jacobs joins Jagger on the chorus with some powerful wailing that recalls the classic “Gimme Shelter.”
(Incidentally, the interviewer — this writer — was the one to mention “Gimme Shelter,” which got a rather mocking response from Jagger. The reason for that reaction was illuminated later in the day at a press conference, where he said, “Journalists are always comparing your new work to what you’ve done before.”)
It’s an amazing breakdown of the Rolling Stones’ creative process, which obviously has evolved over the decades but remains the same in so many ways — and it is fascinating for deep Stones fans.
Jagger speaks of how counterintuitive it is that he, rather than Richards, is the one who likes punky, slashing guitar chords, as opposed to the more-refined approach of the band’s main guitarists.
“I don’t think Ronnie and Keith really like me doing it,” he says, adding quickly with a laugh, “but I do it anyway!”
Indeed, during one of the video’s most revealing clips, we hear Richards and Wood’s guitars in isolation, responding to each other like birds calling across a forest.
Playing the guitar tracks in isolation, Watt says, “This is my favorite part,” he smiles as it plays. “You can’t overdub that — that’s [playing live] on the floor, looking at the person across from you, smiling, and playing off of each other.”
“Doing my lick!” Jagger adds, and the two collapse into laughter.
The two also elaborate on the embellishments added after the main track was recorded, including a “dirty-sounding, overdriven” acoustic guitar that Richards wanted to add. “ ‘I want to try a ‘Street Fighting Man’ kind of thing,’” Watt recalls him saying.
Likewise, they recall Winwood bringing in a set of congas that longtime Stones producer Jimmy Miller gifted him — in fact, Miller first came onto the Stones radar thanks to his early work with Winwood in both the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. As they play Jordan’s driving drums, embellished with maracas and the congas in question, Jagger talks about the imprtance of a song’s groove.
“It’s connected with dance — the drums, the feet, and also the spitting out of the lyrics on a song like this, where you’ve got a lot of words coming at you very quickly and they’ve got to be in time.”
In the video’s most hilarious moment, he also demonstrates — by grabbing and comically manipulating Watt’s arms — how on a very early Rolling Stones tour with Bo Diddley, the blues legend’s percussionist showed him how to play maracas properly.
You’ll see all that and much more in Variety‘s “Behind the Song.”
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