Jagger, Mick
Mick Jagger
Singer, songwriter
Despite Dissension, Stones Rock On
In a career spanning nearly three decades, Mick Jagger has been characterized in many ways—from rock and roll’s most demonic performer to one of its keenest business minds. The snarling, strutting lead singer of the Rolling Stones spent his early life in conventional, middle-class style, working hard in school and participating enthusiastically in sports. In 1962, he went to the London School of Economics to study for a career in business. There he met up with art student and guitarist Keith Richards, whom he had known when the two were five-year-olds attending school in Dartford, England. They discovered a mutual love of rhythm and blues and were quickly caught up in the musical revolution then sweeping England. After moving into a flat in Chelsea with guitarist Brian Jones, they began planning their own rock and roll band while Jagger prudently continued his business courses.
Their first public appearance was a spur-of-the-moment, unpaid show at a tiny jazz club called the Marquee. They had no name for their group, but impulsively decided to call themselves “Brian Jones and
For the Record…
Born Michael Philip Jagger, July 26, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, England; son of Joe (a physical education instructor) and Eva Jagger; married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, May 12, 1971 (divorced, 1980); married Jerry Hall (a model), November 21, 1990; children: (with Marsha Hunt) Karis (daughter); (with de Macias) Jade (daughter); (with Hall) Elizabeth, James, Georgia May Ayeesha. Education: Attended London School of Economics.
Singer and songwriter. Lead singer of the Rolling Stones, 1962—; group signed a $45 million, six-year recording contract with Virgin Records, 1991; concert films include Let’s Spend the Night Together, 1983, and At the Max, 1991. Solo recording artist, 1985—. Actor appearing in motion pictures, including Performance, 1970, Ned Kelly, 1970, and Freejack, 1992.
Addresses: Record company —Atlantic, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.
Mick Jagger and the Rollin’ Stones” after the title of a favorite Muddy Waters song. Jagger, Jones, and Richards were accompanied by drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. For the next year, this line-up struggled through a series of dates in working-class bars, where audiences seemed not to know what to make of the band’s long hair and unkempt appearance, or of Jagger’s sneering and prancing. By 1963, though, they had begun to find their audience, and their popularity grew rapidly; by 1964 two different polls had named them England’s most popular group, outranking even the Beatles.
A Reputation for Rebellion
“In the beginning it was frightening,” Jagger recalled to a Newsweek reporter. “It was dangerous.… We’d only do half an hour and then [the audience would] scream for half an hour and some of them would faint.” By 1965 the Rolling Stones had stopped playing clubs in favor of large concert venues, and Jagger had quit economics school to devote himself full time to life as a Stone. The band’s first recordings drew heavily on the music of their favorite performers, including Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, but Jagger and Richards soon began collaborative songwriting and developed their own sound. Their first international hit, “Satisfaction,” stands today as their signature song. It was considered the perfect expression of the defiant, raunchy image they seemed to be deliberately cultivating, perhaps to differentiate themselves from the comparatively wholesome Beatles and their many imitators.
“I wasn’t trying to be rebellious in those days,” Jagger insisted, as quoted by Stephen Schiff in a 1992 Vanity Fair profile. “I was just being me. I wasn’t trying to push the edge of anything. I’m being me and ordinary, the guy from suburbia who sings in this band, but someone older might have thought it was just the most awful racket, the most terrible thing, and where are we going if this is music?… But all those songs we sang were pretty tame, really. People didn’t think they were, but I thought they were tame.”
On the strength of such albums as December’s Children, Aftermath, and Between the Buttons, Jagger and the Rolling Stones rose to the top, but their unsavory reputation led them into trouble with the law. In 1967 Jagger and two bandmates were arrested for drug offenses and given unusually harsh sentences. Jagger was handed three months for possession of four over-the-counter pep pills he had purchased in Italy. The punishment was eventually reduced, but their legal battles and internal conflicts seemed to leave the Stones demoralized. In 1967 they released Their Satanic Majesties Request, an album many critics dismissed as a flabby, pretentious attempt to copy the psychedelia of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Embarked on Solo Ventures
For the first time, Jagger began to look for creative outlets outside the group, playing lead roles in the films Performance and Ned Kelly. Reviews of his dramatic portrayals were mixed, but several critics expressed a certain fascination with the surly sexuality he projected on the screen, a style that became central to the performer’s unique persona. “Before Mick Jagger,” noted Schiff, “sexual iconography had reached a point that was both apotheosis and dead end.… Perhaps the enormous re-evaluation of sex and sexuality that dominated the sixties and seventies—the long hair, the unisex fashions, the so-called sexual revolution—would have taken place without him, but Mick Jagger’s charged androgyny now looks at the very least hugely influential, and probably catalytic.”
The Rolling Stones remained together, reestablishing their standing in 1968 with Beggar’s Banquet. Let It Bleed, another classic, followed in 1969, the same year the band toured the United States after a three-year absence. They were met in city after city by frantic, hysterical audiences. A free concert was planned near San Francisco, California, as a way of thanking U.S. fans for their support. The ill-organized event turned nightmarish when a gang of Hell’s Angels—hired by the Stones to provide security—attacked the crowd violently, beating one spectator to death. To the further detriment of the band’s reputation, the murder was inadvertently captured on film and released to the general public as part of the documentary Gimme Shelter.
Released First Solo Albums
The Stones stayed away from North America until 1972, but upon their return, they were met with as much enthusiasm as ever. Jack Batten praised Jagger in the Toronto Globe and Mail as “the single most exciting performer at work at this moment. He is charismatic, dynamic, glorious, riveting.” Gradually, the media began to cast the Stones as superstars rather than outlaws. Each album they released was a sure bestseller, if not always a critical success. Though they continued to rock as hard as ever, the rise of the punk rock movement made the Stones’s once outrageous behavior seem comparatively tame. Jagger recalled in Rolling Stone that the band lost “the whole idea of pushing the envelope open a little bit. We became a hard-rock band, and we became very content with it.… We lost a little bit of sensitivity and adventure.”
That loss of adventure brought a sense of boredom and restlessness. Dissension among the Stones became quite intense, and Jagger and Richards began to snipe openly at each other in the rock press. Both eventually turned to solo projects. Jagger released the LP She’s the Boss in 1985 and Primitive Cool in 1987; the albums had disappointing sales and Anthony DeCurtis noted in Rolling Stone that the songs “ranged from bad to ordinary.”
Despite Dissension, Stones Rock On
The Rolling Stones joined again to record Dirty Work in 1986, but Jagger refused to tour to support the album, a decision that infuriated Richards. “I was completely, 100 percent right about not doing that tour,” Jagger avowed in Rolling Stone in 1989. “The band was in no condition to tour.… The album wasn’t that good. It was okay. It certainly wasn’t a great Rolling Stones album. The feeling inside the band was very bad, too. The relationships were terrible. The health was diabolical … so we had this long bad experience of making that record, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend another year with the same people.” Such comments by Jagger had many fans predicting a Rolling Stones breakup.
Yet in May of 1988 Richards and Jagger set aside their differences to discuss the possibility of a new album and tour. Later that year they went to Barbados to begin writing new songs for Steel Wheels. Released in 1989, it was praised as “the best Rolling Stones album in at least a decade” by David Fricke in Rolling Stone. Both the album and the band’s subsequent tour were widely touted as proof that the Stones were still a vital musical force. DeCurtis declared: “All the ambivalence, recriminations, attempted rapprochements and psychological one-upsmanship evident on Steel Wheels testify that the Stones are right in the element that has historically spawned their best music—a murky, dangerously charged environment.… Against all odds, and at this late date, the Stones have once again generated an album that will have the world dancing to deeply troubling, unresolved emotions.”
Starred in Freejack
In February of 1992, after nearly 30 productive years in the music business, Jagger was at work on a third solo album and on the verge of signing a new three-record contract with Atlantic Records. “Doing a solo album, it’s more relaxed than doing the Rolling Stones,” Jagger admitted in to Schiff in Vanity Fair. “With a solo album, no one’s going to get on my case. It’s just free and easy.” The singer also returned to his acting career, starring in Freejack —a science fiction film set in the year 2009—and he expressed an interest in writing and producing motion pictures. Though he has proven himself as a prolific solo performer, Jagger acknowledges the profound influence of his many years with the Rolling Stones. He told Schiff, “You know, I’m still me.… It’s still going to sound like me. I’m the singer of the Rolling Stones. I can’t completely change.”
Selected discography
Solo singles
(With David Bowie) “Dancing in the Streets,” 1985.
Solo albums
She’s the Boss, Columbia, 1985.
Primitive Cool, Columbia, 1987.
With the Rolling Stones; on London Records
England’s Newest Hit Makers —The Rolling Stones, 1964.
12x5, 1964.
The Rolling Stones Now!, 1965.
Out of Our Heads, 1965.
December’s Children (and Everybody’s), 1965.
Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), 1966.
Aftermath, 1966.
Got Live If You Want It!, 1966.
Between the Buttons, 1967.
Flowers, 1967.
Their Satanic Majesties Request, 1967.
Beggar’s Banquet, 1968.
Through the Past Darkly (Big Hits, Vol. 2), 1969.
Let It Bleed, 1969.
Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, 1970.
Hot Rocks: 1964-71, 1972.
More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies), 1972.
With the Rolling Stones; on Rolling Stone Records, except where indicated
Sticky Fingers, 1971.
Stone Age, Decca, 1971.
Gimme Shelter, Decca, 1971.
Milestones, Decca, 1971.
Exile on Main Street, 1972.
Goat’s Head Soup, 1973.
No Stone Unturned, Decca, 1973.
It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, 1974.
Rolled Gold, Decca, 1975.
Metamorphosis, Abkco, 1975.
Made in the Shade, 1975.
Black and Blue, 1976.
Love You Live, 1977.
Some Girls, 1978.
Emotional Rescue, 1980.
Sucking in the Seventies, 1981.
Tattoo You, 1981.
Still Life, 1982.
Undercover, 1983.
Dirty Work, Columbia, 1986.
Steel Wheels, Columbia, 1989.
Also recorded Flashpoint, 1991.
Sources
Entertainment Weekly, January 31, 1992.
Esquire, June 1968.
Globe and Mail (Toronto), August 4, 1967.
Guitar Player, October 1989.
Jet, March 18, 1991.
Life, July 14, 1972.
Newsday, July 23, 1972.
Newsweek, January 4, 1971.
New York Sunday News, July 23, 1972.
New York Times, November 22, 1991; January 18, 1992.
New York Times Magazine, July 16, 1972.
People, March 25, 1985; June 3, 1985; April 28, 1986; November 2, 1987; June 13, 1988; December 18, 1989.
Rolling Stone, December 19, 1985; December 4, 1986; May 7, 1987; November 5, 1987; November 19, 1987; December 17, 1987; September 7, 1989; September 21, 1989; November 16, 1989; December 14, 1989; March 8, 1990; August 23, 1990; May 16, 1991; January 9, 1992.
Time, July 17, 1972; October 25, 1982; March 7, 1983; December 5, 1983; September 4, 1989.
Vanity Fair, February 1992.
Vogue, May 1985; May 1991.
Wall Street Journal, October 28, 1991.
Washington Post, July 5, 1972.
—Joan Goldsworthy
Jagger, Mick
Mick Jagger
Singer, songwriter, producer
In a career spanning more than four decades, Mick Jagger has been characterized in many ways—from rock and roll's most demonic performer to one of its keenest business minds. In addition to his years as front man for what has been called "The World's Greatest Rock Band," Jagger has also recorded several solo projects and also tackled an on-again-off-again acting career as well as started a film and television production company. His personal life has also been in the spotlight—a microscope, if you will.
The snarling, strutting lead singer of the Rolling Stones spent his early life in conventional, middle-class style, working hard in school and participating enthusiastically in sports. In 1962, he went to the London School of Economics to study for a career in business. There he met up with art student and guitarist Keith Richards, whom he had known when the two were 5-year-olds attending school in Dartford, England. They discovered a mutual love of rhythm and blues and were quickly caught up in the musical revolution then sweeping England. After moving into a flat in Chelsea with guitarist Brian Jones, they began planning their own rock and roll band while Jagger prudently continued his business courses.
Their first public appearance was a spur-of-the-moment, unpaid show at a tiny jazz club called the Marquee. They had no name for their group, but impulsively decided to call themselves "Brian Jones and Mick Jagger and the Rollin' Stones" after the title of a favorite Muddy Waters song. Jagger, Jones, and Richards later added drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. By 1963, though, they had begun to find their audience, the lineup solidified, and their popularity grew rapidly; by 1964 two different polls had named them England's most popular group, outranking even the Beatles.
A Reputation for Rebellion
"In the beginning it was frightening," Jagger recalled to a Newsweek reporter. "It was dangerous.... We'd only do half an hour and then [the audience would] scream for half an hour and some of them would faint." By 1965 the Rolling Stones had stopped playing clubs in favor of large concert venues, and Jagger had quit economics school to devote himself full time to life as a Stone. The band's first recordings drew heavily on the music of their favorite performers, including Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, but Jagger and Richards soon began collaborative songwriting and developed their own sound. Their first international hit, "Satisfaction," stands today as their signature song. It was considered the perfect expression of the defiant, raunchy image they seemed to be deliberately cultivating, perhaps to differentiate themselves from the comparatively wholesome Beatles and their many imitators.
"I wasn't trying to be rebellious in those days," Jagger insisted, as quoted by Stephen Schiff in a 1992 VanityFair profile. "I was just being me. I wasn't trying to push the edge of anything. I'm being me and ordinary, the guy from suburbia who sings in this band, but someone older might have thought it was just the most awful racket, the most terrible thing, and where are we going if this is music?... But all those songs we sang were pretty tame, really. People didn't think they were, but I thought they were tame."
On the strength of such albums as December's Children, Aftermath, and Between the Buttons, Jagger and the Rolling Stones rose to the top, but their unsavory reputation led them into trouble with the law. In 1967 Jagger and two bandmates were arrested for drug offenses and given unusually harsh sentences. Jagger was handed three months for possession of four over-the-counter pep pills he had purchased in Italy. The punishment was eventually reduced, but their legal battles and internal conflicts seemed to leave the Stones demoralized. In 1967 they released Their Satanic Majesties Request, an album many critics dismissed as a flabby, pretentious attempt to copy the psychedelia of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Embarked on Solo Ventures
For the first time, Jagger began to look for creative outlets outside the group, playing lead roles in the films Performance and Ned Kelly. Reviews of his dramatic portrayals were mixed, but several critics expressed a certain fascination with the surly sexuality he projected on the screen, a style that became central to the performer's unique persona. "Before Mick Jagger," noted Schiff, "sexual iconography had reached a point that was both apotheosis and dead end.... Perhaps the enormous re-evaluation of sex and sexuality that dominated the sixties and seventies—the long hair, the unisex fashions, the so-called sexual revolution—would have taken place without him, but Mick Jagger's charged androgyny now looks at the very least hugely influential, and probably catalytic."
The Rolling Stones remained together, reestablishing their standing in 1968 with Beggar's Banquet. Let It Bleed, another classic, followed in 1969, the same year the band toured the United States after a three-year absence. They were met in city after city by frantic, hysterical audiences. A free concert was planned near San Francisco, California, as a way of thanking U.S. fans for their support. The ill-organized event turned nightmarish when a gang of Hell's Angels—hired by the Stones to provide security—attacked the crowd violently, beating one spectator to death. To the further detriment of the band's reputation, the murder was inadvertently captured on film and released to the general public as part of the documentary Gimme Shelter.
The Stones stayed away from North America until 1972, but upon their return, they were met with as much enthusiasm as ever. Jack Batten praised Jagger in the Toronto Globe and Mail as "the single most exciting performer at work at this moment. He is charismatic, dynamic, glorious, riveting." Gradually, the media began to cast the Stones as superstars rather than outlaws. Each album they released was a sure bestseller, if not always a critical success. Though they continued to rock as hard as ever, the rise of the punk rock movement made the Stones's once outrageous behavior seem comparatively tame. Jagger recalled in Rolling Stone that the band lost "the whole idea of pushing the envelope open a little bit. We became a hard-rock band, and we became very content with it.... We lost a little bit of sensitivity and adventure."
For the Record . . .
Born Michael Philip Jagger on July 26, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, England; son of Joe (a physical education instructor) and Eva Jagger; married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, May 12, 1971 (divorced, 1980); married Jerry Hall (a model), November 21, 1990 (annulled, July 9, 1999); children: (with Marsha Hunt) Karis (daughter, born 1970); (with de Macias) Jade (daughter, born 1971); (with Hall) Elizabeth Scarlett, James (born 1985), Georgia May Ayeesha (born January 1992), Gabriel Luke Beauregard (born 1997); (with Lucia Morad) Lucas Jagger; two grandchildren. Education: Attended London School of Economics.
Singer and songwriter. Lead singer of the Rolling Stones, 1962 –; group signed a $45 million, six-year recording contract with Virgin Records, 1991; concert films include Let's Spend the Night Together, 1983, and At the Max, 1991. Solo recording artist, 1985–. Actor appearing in motion pictures, including Performance, 1970, Ned Kelly, 1970, Freejack, 1992, The Man From Elysian Fields, 2001.
Awards: Inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (as member of The Rolling Stones), 1989. Knighted, 2003.
Addresses: Record company—Virgin Records Ltd., 553-579 Harrow Rd., London W10 4RH, England, website: http://www.vmg.co.uk. Website—Mick Jagger Official Website: http://www.mickjagger.com.
That loss of adventure brought a sense of boredom and restlessness. Dissension among the Stones became quite intense, and Jagger and Richards began to snipe openly at each other in the rock press. Both eventually turned to solo projects. Jagger released the LP She's the Boss in 1985 and Primitive Cool in 1987; the albums had disappointing sales and Anthony DeCurtis noted in Rolling Stone that the songs "ranged from bad to ordinary."
Despite Dissention, Stones Rocked On
The Rolling Stones joined up again to record Dirty Work in 1986, but Jagger refused to tour to support the album, a decision that infuriated Richards. Many fans predicted a Rolling Stones breakup, yet in May of 1988 Richards and Jagger set aside their differences to discuss the possibility of a new album and tour. Later that year they went to Barbados to begin writing new songs for Steel Wheels. Released in 1989, it was praised as "the best Rolling Stones album in at least a decade" by David Fricke in Rolling Stone. Both the album and the band's subsequent tour were widely touted as proof that the Stones were still a vital musical force. DeCurtis declared: "All the ambivalence, recriminations, attempted rapprochements and psychological one-upmanship evident on Steel Wheels testify that the Stones are right in the element that has historically spawned their best music—a murky, dangerously charged environment.... Against all odds, and at this late date, the Stones have once again generated an album that will have the world dancing to deeply troubling, unresolved emotions."
Starred in Freejack
In February of 1992, after nearly 30 productive years in the music business, Jagger was at work on a third solo album and on the verge of signing a new three-record contract with Atlantic Records. "Doing a solo album, it's more relaxed than doing the Rolling Stones," Jagger admitted in to Schiff in Vanity Fair. "With a solo album, no one's going to get on my case. It's just free and easy." The singer also returned to his acting career, starring in a science fiction film set in the year 2009, called Freejack. Though he has proven himself as a prolific solo performer, Jagger acknowledges the profound influence of his many years with the Rolling Stones. He told Schiff, "You know, I'm still me.... It's still going to sound like me. I'm the singer of the Rolling Stones. I can't completely change."
According to All Music Guide, none of his solo releases have yet "achieved the commercial success of the Stones' less popular releases." But Mick persevered with his own projects when the Stones were not recording or touring.
Wandering Spirit, released in 1993, was produced by Rick Rubin, well known for his production work with Johnny Cash among other artists. To date that album, according to All Music Guide, remains the best received among his solo projects. It also entered the charts at a strong number 11 spot and earned a gold album.
Maclean's Brian D. Johnson described the album as, "a rich, eclectic cabaret of Jagger's talents, the album skips through rock, funk, country and blues. It even includes a sea shanty." Jagger told Johnson he likes the opportunity to do solo work, "It's quite a lot of work. In the end, you either get all the credit or all the blame. ... I think it's good to take on different personas, especially with an album that has a lot of different styles."
Voodoo Lounge, released in 1994, proved that 22 albums later, critics and fans were still no closer to being of like mind as to the merits of The Rolling Stone. Nicholas Jennings, writing in Maclean's opined that the album "will neither silence the band's detractors nor totally excite its fans. A mixed bag of musical black magic and transparent sleights-of-hand, the recording breaks no new ground. But the album does prove that when it comes to raw, sexually charged numbers, the Stones can still rock with the best of them."
Oddly, reviewer Jas Obrecht called Voodoo Lounge "the best Stones LP of the past two decades" and said it "ranks with Exile On Main Street and Beggars Banquet. ... Tremendous," he concluded. The album, which sold over four million copies, won a Grammy as Best Rock Album of the Year.
The follow up project, Stripped was embraced by reviewers more readily. Andrew Abrahams of People said that with it, "The Glimmer Twins have finally stopped trying to prove they're still the leaders of the greatest rock-and-roll band in the world and are merely embracing their gnarled, deeply entrenched R&B roots." The album consisted primarily of revised version of songs released earlier in the group's lengthy career such as "Love in Vain." They followed this in 1997 with Bridges to Babylon, which included a lengthy international tour.
Complicated Family Affairs
Jagger has had a lifetime of affairs, starting in the 1960s with Marianne Faithfull, which ended when she had a miscarriage and drug overdose. With Marsha Hunt, an American actress, he had a daughter Karis. He first became involved with Jerry Hall in 1977. Although Jagger married both Bianca and Jerry, he continued to have affairs (it was said that Hall broke up his relationship with Bianca). He also had well publicized affairs with Italian model Carla Bruni in 1992 and Jana Rajlich, another model, in 1996—both while married to Hall.
The Jagger-Hall relationship confused even the press. Maclean's, for example, reported in October 1996 that the couple were divorcing; months later in December 1996, they reported Hall had "forgiven Jagger's infidelities."
Hall and Jagger finally split when it became public that Lucia Morad, a Brazilian lingerie model, was pregnant with Jagger's child. She filed for divorce in 1999. Attorneys for Jagger questioned the legality of the Indonesian wedding. Hall agreed to an annulment July 9, 1999.
In a 2003 interview with Irish Independent, Hall said, "I really tried for 25 years. I had the patience of a saint but he's an incurable womanizer and not very discreet. He needs help. I still love him and we're best friends, but I no longer have the heartache if he's unfaithful, thank God."
"When not working, Jagger doted on his children, helping them with their schoolwork and teaching them to play ping-pong and pool," according to a 1999 People feature on the couple. Hall reported that Jagger "gets down on the floor and plays silly games. ... I don't think he wants anyone to know about all the softy lullabies he sings to the babies. It might mess up his image." He also reportedly has a close relationship with his parents. He built a home for them connecting to his own in 1995. He rang his mother once a week while on the road until her death in May 2000. Jagger sang at her funeral service.
Mick continued his solo pursuits in his time away from the Rolling Stones. Goddess in the Doorway, released in 2001 by Virgin, was his fourth solo album. The project was reportedly the result of Jagger writing and recording for pleasure at home following the Bridges to Babylon tour.
"I thought, 'I've already done these songs, and I don't need to go in a studio and do them again with other people,'" Jagger told Billboard 's Nigel Williamson. "But it didn't start as a solo record. It started as a songwriting thing because I hadn't written anything since Bridges to Babylon." Jim Keltner, a veteran drummer who had previously recorded with the Stones' Charlie Watts, Pete Townshend of The Who, and Aerosmith's Joe Perry. As well, Lenny Kravitz, Wyclef Jean, and U2's Bono contributed to the effort. Daughters Elizabeth and Georgia May also contribute vocals on one track.
Williamson said Goddess is clearly, "a recording that aims to buck the popular belief among many Stones fans that Jagger and Keith Richards need each other to produce their best work. ... Many of the songs have a stronger pop sensibility than is usually associated with the Jagger/Richards writing team."
Timed to buoy the album sales was a television documentary Being Mick Jagger. The film, which aired in the United Kingdom and United States in late November 2001, included snippets from the making of Goddess in the Doorway as well as showed Jagger in his daily life.
Jagger continued to keep busy with a wide variety of projects, even making a cameo voice over appearance in an episode of the animated television series The Simpsons. In "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" he plays himself teaching stage performance at a rock 'n' roll fantasy camp.
Much has been made of Jagger's milestone birthdays since turning 40, none more so than his 60th birthday in 2003. This was spent on the road with the Rolling Stones during their Forty Licks tour. In Prague, the guests included Vaclav Havel, the dissident writer who eventually became the Czech president.
Knighted by the Queen
Queen Elizabeth announced that same year that Jagger would be knighted for his "services to popular music," making him Sir Mick. As United Press International noted, the honor is odd, for unlike other rock icons who have been given the honor, he has no "known record of charitable work or public services." This included missing the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace that marked her 50 years on the throne.
Charlie Watts, engaging in a bit of hyperbole in According to the Rolling Stones, said "Anybody else would be lynched: 18 wives and 20 children and he's knighted, fantastic!" The ceremony took place in December 2003 with his father and Karis and Elizabeth in attendance.
Jagger reteamed with Dave Stewart to create the soundtrack for a remake of the 1966 film "Alfie." Described by Billboard as "the story of a carefree womanizer for whom sexual conquest brings pleasure and pain," reviewer Christopher Walsh added that, "Jagger deftly captures the duality of the protagonist's persona. He said some of the track "recall recent Rolling Stones offerings, midtempo tunes in which lust and virility are imbued with wistfulness and regret."
"And while this meeting of British pop savants ... won't make you forget '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' or 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),' wrote Chuck Arnold in People, "it produces some vivid blues-rock. The country-tinged first single 'Old Habits Die Hard' and soulful ballads like 'Let's Make It Up' showcase Jagger's distinctive drawl." Vocalists including Joss Stone and Sheryl Crow were featured on the soundtrack as well.
It's fairly obvious that, as Jagger—now a grandfather—approaches what might otherwise be the retirement years, that he is far from relinquishing the spotlight. Whether as a solo musical performer, with the Rolling Stones, in front of or behind a film camera, it's very clear he will never be satisfied to simply fade away.
Select discography
Solo singles
(With David Bowie) "Dancing in the Streets," 1985.
Solo albums
She's the Boss, Columbia, 1985.
Primitive Cool, Columbia, 1987.
Wandering Spirit, Atlantic, 1993.
Goddess in the Doorway, Virgin, 2001.
(As composer, producer and performer)Alfie – Music From the Motion Picture (soundtrack), Virgin, 2004.
With the Rolling Stones
England's Newest Hit Makers–The Rolling Stones, London, 1964.
12 x 5, London, 1964.
The Rolling Stones Now!, London, 1965.
Out of Our Heads, London, 1965.
December's Children (and Everybody's), London, 1965.
Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), London, 1966.
Aftermath, London, 1966.
Got Live If You Want It!, London, 1966.
Between the Buttons, London, 1967.
Flowers, London, 1967.
Their Satanic Majesties Request, London, 1967.
Beggar's Banquet, London, 1968.
Through the Past Darkly (Big Hits, Vol. 2), London, 1969.
Let It Bleed, London, 1969.
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, London, 1970.
Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stone, 1971.
Stone Age, Decca, 1971.
Gimme Shelter, Decca, 1971.
Milestones, Decca, 1971.
Hot Rocks: 1964-71, London, 1972.
More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies), London, 1972.
Exile on Main Street, Rolling Stone, 1972.
Goat's Head Soup, Rolling Stone, 1973.
No Stone Unturned, Decca, 1973.
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, Rolling Stone, 1974.
Rolled Gold, Decca, 1975.
Metamorphosis, Abkco, 1975.
Made in the Shade, Rolling Stone, 1975.
Black and Blue, Rolling Stone, 1976.
Love You Live, Rolling Stone, 1977.
Some Girls, Rolling Stone, 1978.
Emotional Rescue, Rolling Stone, 1980.
Sucking in the Seventies, Rolling Stone, 1981.
Tattoo You, Rolling Stone, 1981.
Still Life, Rolling Stone, 1982.
Undercover, Rolling Stone, 1983.
Dirty Work, Columbia, 1986.
Steel Wheels, Columbia, 1989.
Flashpoint, Virgin, 1991.
Voodoo Lounge, Virgin, 1994.
Stripped (live), Virgin, 1995.
Bridges to Babylon, Virgin, 1997.
No Security (live), Virgin, 1998.
Live Licks, EMI, 2004.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, November 24, 2001; November 6, 2004.
Economist, October 25, 1997, p. 32.
Entertainment Weekly, January 31, 1992; June 18, 1993; July 22, 1994; December 19, 1997; November 8, 2002.
Esquire, June 1968.
Forbes, June 3, 1996.
Globe and Mail (Toronto, ON), August 4, 1967.
Guitar Player, October 1989; October 1994.
Irish Independent, November 18, 2003.
Maclean's, February 15, 1993; August 8, 1994; October 28, 1996; December 16, 1996.
New York Sunday News, July 23, 1972.
New York Times, November 22, 1991; January 18, 1992.
New York Times Magazine, July 16, 1972.
Newsday, July 23, 1972.
Newsweek, January 4, 1971.
People, March 25, 1985; June 3, 1985; April 28, 1986; November 2, 1987; June 13, 1988; December 18, 1989; August 17, 1992; November 27, 1995; February 1, 1999; July 26, 1999; June 12, 2000; December 15, 2003; November 1, 2004.
PR Newswire, November 7, 2000.
Rolling Stone, December 19, 1985; December 4, 1986; May 7, 1987; November 5, 1987; November 19, 1987; December 17, 1987; September 7, 1989; September 21, 1989; November 16, 1989; December 14, 1989; March 8, 1990; August 23, 1990; May 16, 1991; January 9, 1992.
San Jose Mercury News, October 3, 2002.
Time, July 17, 1972; October 25, 1982; March 7, 1983; December 5, 1983; September 4, 1989; December 10, 1990.
Time International, (Europe Edition), December 22, 2003.
United Press International, June 17, 2002; July 28, 2003; December 4, 2003; December 17, 2004.
Vanity Fair, February 1992.
Vogue, May 1985; May 1991.
Wall Street Journal, October 28, 1991.
Washington Post, July 5, 1972.
Online
"Mick Jagger," All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com (December 24, 2004).
"Mick Jagger," Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com (December 24, 2004).
"Rolling Stones," All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com (December 24, 2004).
—Joan Goldsworthy andLinda Dailey Paulson
Jagger, Mick 1943–
Jagger, Mick 1943–
(Michael Philip Jagger)
PERSONAL
Full name, Michael Philip Jagger; born July 26, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, England; son of Joe and Eva Jagger; married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, May 12, 1971 (divorced November, 1979); married Jerry Hall (a model and actress), 1990 (marriage annulled August 13, 1999); children: (with Marsha Hunt) Karis Hunt; (first marriage) Jade; (second marriage) Elizabeth Scarlett, James Leroy Augustine, Georgia May Ayeesha, Gabriel Luke Beauregard; (with Luciana Giminez Mo-rad, a model) Lucas Morad. Education: Attended London School of Economics and Political Science, London, 1962–64.
Addresses: Agent—International Creative Management, 8942 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211; Special Artists Agency, 9465 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 890, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Manager—The Firm, 9465 Wilshire Blvd., 6th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Publicist—Rogers & Cowan Public Relations, Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., 7th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
Career: Singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Lead singer and occasional guitarist of the music group, the Rolling Stones, 1962–; appeared with the Rolling Stones in numerous concert tours, in the United States and abroad, 1970–. Jagged Films, founder, 1996.
Awards, Honors: Awards with the Rolling Stones from Rolling Stone Magazine Music Awards include Critics' Picks, best album, 1978, for Some Girls, and 1981, for Tattoo You, best artist, 1978, 1981, and 1989, best single, 1981, for "Start Me Up," best male singer, 1981, and best tour, 1989; Grammy Award nominations (with the Rolling Stones), National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, best video album, 1984, for Let's Spend the Night Together, and best male rock vocal, 1985, for "Just Another Night of You"; Lifetime Achievement Award, The Recording Academy Awards, 1986; Lifetime Achievement Award (with the Rolling Stones), National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, 1986; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with the Rolling Stones), 1989; awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 2002; Golden Globe Award (with David A. Stewart), best original song—motion picture, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award (with Stewart), best song, World Soundtrack Award (with Stewart), best original song written for film, Golden Satellite Award nominations, best original song (with Stewart), and best original score (with others), Sierra Award (with Stewart), best song, Las Vegas Film Critics Society, 2005, all for Alfie.
CREDITS
Film Appearances:
(With the Rolling Stones) The T.A.M.I. Show (also known as Teen Age Command Performance), 1964.
Himself, Charlie Is My Darling (documentary), Video Warehouse, 1966.
Himself, Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (also known as The London Scene), 1967.
Himself, Sympathy for the Devil (documentary; also known as One Plus One), New Line Cinema, 1968.
(Uncredited) Himself, Invocation of My Demon Brother, 1969.
Himself, Popcorn (also known as Popcorn: An Audio-Visual Rock Thing), 1969.
Himself, The Stones in the Park, 1969.
Turner, Performance (also known as The Performers), Warner Bros., 1970.
Title role, Ned Kelly (also known as Ned Kelly, Outlaw), United Artists, 1970.
(With the Rolling Stones) Gimme Shelter (documentary), Maysles Films, 1970.
Superstars in Film Concert, 1971.
Himself, Cocksucker Blues (also known as CS Blues), 1972.
Umano non umano, 1972.
Himself, The London Rock 'n' Roll Show (also known as The London Rock and Roll Show), Pleasant Pastures, 1973.
Himself, Jimi Hendrix, 1973.
Himself, Rock-a-bye, 1973.
(With the Rolling Stones) Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones, Dragon Aire Ltd./Musicfilm/ChesscoBingo/Butterfly, 1974.
(With the Rolling Stones) The Best of the Rolling Stones, 1977.
Antonin Artaud, Wings of Ash: Pilot from a Dramatization of the Life of Antonin Artaud, 1978.
(In archival footage) Sound of the City: London 1964–73 (also known as Rock City), 1981.
Himself, Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol, 1982.
Himself, Burden of Dreams (documentary), Flower Films, 1982.
Himself, Let's Spend the Night Together (also known as Time Is on Our Side and Rocks Off), 1982.
(With the Rolling Stones) Ready Steady Go, Volume 1, 1983.
Blame It on the Night, TriStar, 1984.
Himself, Running out of Luck, CBS Records Group, 1985.
(With the Rolling Stones) Ready Steady Go, Volume 2, 1985.
Himself, Jimmy Plays Monterey, 1986.
Mick, Running Out of Luck, 1987.
Himself, Moonwalker (also known as Michael Jackson: Moonwalker), 1988.
At the Max (also known as Rolling Stones: Live at the Max), IMAX Corporation, 1991.
Victor Vacendak, Freejack, Warner Bros., 1992.
Greta/George, Bent, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1997.
Donald Cammell: The Ultimate Performance (documentary), 1998.
Actor, Mein liebster Feind—Klaus Kinski (documentary), New Yorker Films, 1999.
Himself, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (documentary), 2000.
(Uncreditd) Soldier in bar, Enigma (also known as Enigma—Das geheimnis), Miramax, 2001.
Himself, Reflections of Evil (documentary), Pookie Films, 2002.
Himself, A Decade Under the Influence (documentary), IFC Films, 2003.
Himself, Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (documentary), Image Entertainment, 2003.
Himself, Licks Around the World, Warner Music Vision, 2003.
Himself, Mayor of the Sunset Strip (documentary), 2003.
Himself, The Howlin' Wolf Story (documentary), BMG Distribution, 2003.
Himself, Memoria del saqueo (documentary), 2004.
Cameo, The Papal Chase (documentary), Films Transit International, 2004.
Film Work:
Executive producer, Running out of Luck, CBS Records Group, 1985.
Production design: Steel Wheel tour, At the Max (also known as Rolling Stones: Live at the Max), Imax Corporation, 1991.
Executive producer, Tania, Warner Bros., 1998.
Producer, Enigma (also known as Enigma—Das geheimnis), Miramax, 2001.
Producer, The Women (short), New Line Cinema, 2006.
Television Appearances; Miniseries:
(Uncredited) Himself, The Beatles Anthology, 1995.
Television Appearances; Movies:
Himself, All You Need Is Cash (also known as The Rutles), 1978.
(Uncredited) Himself, Hendrix, Showtime, 2000.
Television Appearances; Specials:
(With the Rolling Stones), Big Beat '64, 1964.
(With the Rolling Stones) The Glad Rag Ball, 1964.
Himself, Our World, 1967.
(Uncredited) Himself, Cucumber Castle, 1970.
(Uncredited) Himself, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (also known as All You Need Is Cash), NBC, 1978.
The Heroes of Rock and Roll, 1979.
Rolling Stone Magazine's 20 Years of Rock 'n' Roll (also known as Rolling Stone Magazine's 20th Anniversary Special and Rolling Stone Presents 20 Years of Rock 'n' Roll), ABC, 1987.
Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (also known as This Is Rock 'n' Roll: Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary), HBO, 1988.
Freedomfest: Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Celebration, Fox, 1988.
Rolling Stones: Terrifying (also known as The Rolling Stones and Rolling Stones: The Steel Wheels Concert), Showtime and Fox, 1989.
The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones, 1989.
Queen: The Days of Our Lives, syndicated, 1991.
Living in America, VH1, 1991.
Rolling Stone 25: The MTV Special, MTV, 1992.
The Rolling Stones: A Musical History, The Disney Channel, 1993.
Continuing Adventures of The Rolling Stones: 25 × 5, PBS, 1993.
The 2nd Annual Saturday Night Live Mother's Day Special, NBC, 1993.
Hoodoo U Voodoo: The Rolling Stones Live, pay per view, 1994.
Conversations with The Rolling Stones, VH1, 1994.
The Atlantic Records Story, Arts and Entertainment, 1994.
Rolling Stones: Stripped, 1995.
(With the Rolling Stones) The History of Rock 'N' Roll, Vol. 3 (documentary; also known as Britain Invades, America Fights Back), syndicated, 1995.
Himself, Rock & Roll (documentary), PBS, 1995.
(With the Rolling Stones) The Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge, 1995.
(With the Rolling Stones) The History of Rock 'n' Roll, Vol. 5 (documentary; also known as The Sounds of Soul), syndicated, 1995.
(With the Rolling Stones) The History of Rock 'n' Roll, Vol. 6 (documentary; also known as My Generation), syndicated, 1995.
(With the Rolling Stones) The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (documentary), 1996.
(With the Rolling Stones) Rolling Stones: Bridges to Babylon Tour, '97-98, VH1, 1998.
Tina Turner: Girl from Nutbush, PBS, 1998.
Himself, Freddie Mercury, the Untold Story (documentary), 2000.
(With the Rolling Stones) "Atlantic Crossing," Walk On By: The Story of the Popular Song (documentary), BBC and ABC, 2001.
Performer, America: A Tribute to Heroes, 2001.
Performer, The Concert for New York City, VH1, 2001.
Himself, Being Mick (documentary), ABC, 2001.
Stars 2001—Die Aids-Gala, 2001.
VH1 News Special: Islamabad Rock City, VH1, 2001.
Rock and Roll: Super Star Artists and Groups, The Learning Channel, 2001.
Andy Warhol: The Complete Picture (documentary; also known as The Whole Warhol), 2002.
Heroes of Comedy: Women on Top, Comedy Central, 2003.
It's the Number One Party, 2003.
(With the Rolling Stones) Performer, Toronto Rocks, 2003.
(With the Rolling Stones) Rolling Stones: Forty Licks World Tour Live at Madison Square Garden, 2003.
The Rise of the Celebrity Class (documentary), BBC, 2004.
Why I Hate the 60s: The Decade That Was Too Good to Be True, BBC, 2004.
Keith Richards, 101 Most Unforgettable SNL Moments, E! Entertainment Television, 2004.
Presenter, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony 2004, VH1, 2004.
Live from New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live, NBC, 2005.
Super Bowl XL Pre-Game Show, 2006.
Television Appearances; Awards Presentations:
Presenter, 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, MTV and syndicated, 1992.
VH1 Fashion Awards, VH1, 1997.
Presenter, The 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards, MTV, 1999.
Presenter, MTV Video Music Awards 2001, MTV, 2001.
Performer, My VH1 Music Awards, VH1, 2001.
The 2001 Radio Music Awards, ABC, 2001.
Presenter, The 2001 MT Video Music Awards, MTV, 2001.
My VH1 Music Awards '01, VH1, 2001.
The 29th Annual American Music Awards, ABC, 2002.
The 62nd Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC, 2005.
Television Appearances; Episodic:
The Mike Douglas Show, 1964.
Guest panelist, Juke Box Jury, 1964.
(With the Rolling Stones) Top of the Pops (also known as TOTP), BBC, 1964, 1965.
Thank Your Lucky Stars, 1965.
Ready, Steady, Go!, 1965, 1966.
(With the Rolling Stones) The Ed Sullivan Show (also known as Toast of the Town), 1966, 1967.
The London Palladium Show, 1967.
The David Frost Show, 1969.
Host, Saturday Night Live (also known as SNL, NBC's Saturday Night, and Saturday Night), NBC, 1978, 1993.
Musical guest, Saturday Night Live (also known as SNL, NBC's Saturday Night, and Saturday Night), NBC, 1978, 1993, 2001.
Voice of Emperor, "The Nightingale," Faerie Tale Theater (animated; also known as Shelley Duvall's "Faerie Tale Theatre"), Showtime, 1983.
(Uncredited) Himself, Saturday Night Live (also known as SNL, NBC's Saturday Night, and Saturday Night), NBC, 1986.
Top of the Pops, BBC, 1987.
Ready, Steady, Go!, The Disney Channel, 1989.
Live from the 10 Spot, MTV, 1997.
Himself, "Gareth and Norman Design a Collection," Jobs for the Boys, 1997.
"Jagger-Clinton-S:Club," Pas the Mac, BBC, 2000.
Himself, "Wetten, dass …? aus Braunschweig," Wetten, dass …?, 2002.
Voice of himself, "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation," The Simpsons (animated), Fox, 2002.
Entertainment Tonight, syndicated, 2003, 2005.
Himself, "Ronnie Wood," The South Bank Show, ITV, 2004.
Himself, GMTV, ITV, 2004.
Himself, "Lo veraniego," La tierra de las 1000 musicas, 2005.
Himself, "Lo Pop," La tierra de las 1000 musicas, 2005.
Himself, 80s, TV3, 2005.
Corazon de …, 2005.
Also appeared in Rutland Weekend Television; "Stones in Austria," and "Rolling Stones Story," X-Large.
Television Work; Specials:
Executive producer, Being Mick, ABC, 2001.
RECORDINGS
Albums (with the Rolling Stones):
The Rolling Stones, ABKO, 1964.
12 × 5, ABKO, 1964.
The Rolling Stones Now!, ABKO, 1965.
December's Children (And Everybody's), ABKO, 1965.
Out of Our Heads, ABKO, 1965.
Aftermath, ABKO, 1966.
High Tide & Green Grass (compilation), ABKO, 1966.
Got Live If You Want It, ABKO, 1966.
Between the Buttons, ABKO, 1967.
Flowers, ABKO, 1967.
Their Satanic Majesty's Request, ABKO, 1967.
Beggar's Banquet, ABKO, 1968.
Let It Bleed, ABKO, 1969.
Through the Past, Darkly (compilation), ABKO, 1969.
Get Yer Ya Yas Out, ABKO, 1970.
Stone Age, Decca, 1971.
Gimme Shelter (compilation), Decca, 1971.
Milestones, Decca, 1971.
Sticky Fingers, Virgin, 1971.
Hot Rocks: 1964–1971, ABKO, 1972.
More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies), ABKO, 1972.
Exile on Main Street, Virgin, 1972.
No Stone Unturned, Decca, 1973.
Goat's Head Soup, Virgin, 1973.
It's Only Rock and Roll, Virgin, 1974.
Metamorphosis, ABKO, 1975.
Rolled Gold: The Very Best of The Rolling Stones, Decca, 1975.
Made in the Shade (compilation), Rolling Stones, 1975.
Black and Blue, Virgin, 1976.
Love You Live, Rolling Stones, 1977.
Some Girls, Virgin, 1978.
Emotional Rescue, Virgin, 1980.
Sucking in the Seventies, Rolling Stones, 1981.
Tattoo You, Virgin, 1981.
Still Life, Rolling Stones, 1982.
Under Cover, Virgin, 1983.
Dirty Work, Virgin, 1986.
(And producer) Steel Wheels, Virgin, 1989.
The Singles Collection, ABKO, 1989.
Flashpoint, Rolling Stones, 1991.
Voodoo Lounge, Capitol, 1994.
Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones, Virgin, 1994.
Stripped, Virgin, 1995.
Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, ABKO, 1996.
Bridges to Babylon, Virgin, 1997.
No Security, Virgin, 1998.
Live Licks, EMI, 2004.
Albums (as a solo artist):
She's the Boss, Columbia, 1985.
Primitive Cool, Rolling Stones, 1987.
Wandering Spirit, Atlantic, 1993.
Goddess in the Doorway, Virgin, 2001.
Single recordings include "Just Another Night of You," "Let's Work," and (with David Bowie) "Dancin' in the Streets."
Videos:
(In archival footage) Himself, The Compleat Beatles, 1982.
Video Rewind: The Rolling Stones' Greatest Video Hits, 1984.
Himself, "Dancing in the Streets," Bowie: The Video Collection, Picture Music International, 1993.
Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge, 1994.
(Uncredited) Keith Richards, Saturday Night Live: The Best of Mike Myers, 1998.
Rolling Stones Video Anthology Volume 4, 1998.
Himself, "Dancing in the Street," Best of Bowie, Ventura Distribution, 2002.
(With the Rolling Stones) The Rolling Stones: Just for the Record (documentary), Passport International, 2002.
(With the Rolling Stones) "Like a Rolling Stone," The Works of Director Michel Gondry, Palm Pictures, 2003.
Himself and executive producer, Rolling Stones: Tip of the Tongue (documentary), TGA, 2003.
Himself, "God Gave Me Everything," The Work of Director Mark Romanek, Palm Pictures, 2005.
WRITINGS
Screenplays:
(As Michael Philip Jagger; story only) Blame It on the Night, TriStar, 1984.
Running Out of Luck, 1987.
Film Music:
Made in U.S.A., 1966.
Sympathy for the Devil (also known as One Plus One), New Line Cinema, 1968.
Invocation of My Demon Brother, 1969.
Gimme Shelter (documentary), Maysles Films, 1970.
Mean Streets, 1973.
Lucifer Rising, 1973.
Let's Spend the Night Together (also known as Time Is on Our Side), 1982.
At the Max (also known as Rolling Stones: Live at the Max), Imax Corporation, 1991.
(With David A. Stewart) "Old Habits Die Hard," Alfie, 2004.
Stage Music:
(With Buzzy Linhart, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono) The Trials of Oz, Anderson Theatre, New York City, 1972.
Songs:
Composer of numerous songs (with Keith Richards), including "As Tears Go By," "Baby (Standing in the Shadows)," "Brown Sugar," "The Citadel," "Fool to Cry," "Get Off of My Cloud," "Honky Tonk Woman," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Lady Jane," "Mother's Little Helper," "Paint It Black," "Ruby Tuesday," "She's So Cold," "Start Me Up," "Sympathy for the Devil," "2,000 Light Years from Home," "Wild Horses," and "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
Books:
(With Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood) According to the Rolling Stones (autobiography), Chronicle, 2003.
OTHER SOURCES
Books:
Andersen, Christopher, Jagger Unauthorized, Delacorte Press, 1993.
Contemporary Musicians, Vol. 53, Thomson Gale, 2005.
Davis, Stephen, Our Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones, Broadway, 2001.
Jackson, Laura, Heart of Stone: The Unauthorized Life of Mick Jagger, John Blake Publishing, 1998.
Sanford, Christopher, Mick Jagger, Cooper Square Press, 1999.
Seay, Davin, Mick Jagger: The Story Behind the Rolling Stones, 1993.
Periodicals:
Economist, October 25, 1997, p. 32.
Entertainment Weekly November 1, 1996, p. 16.
Fortune, September 30, 2002, p. 58.
Forbes, June 3, 1996, p. 18.
Jagger, Mick 1943–
Jagger, Mick 1943–
(Michael Philip Jagger)
PERSONAL: Born July 26, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, England; married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, May 12, 1971 (divorced November, 1979); married Jerry Hall (a model and actress), 1990 (divorced 1999); children: (first marriage) Jade; (second marriage) Elizabeth Scarlett, James Leroy Augustine, Georgia May Ayeesha, Gabriel Luke Beauregard; (with Marsha Hunt) Karis Hunt. Education: Attended London School of Economics, 1962–64.
ADDRESSES: Office—Rolling Stones, P.O. Box 6152, New York, NY 10128.
CAREER: Cofounder and lead singer of rock band Rolling Stones, 1962–; actor, 1970–; founder, Jagged Films, 1995–. Performer on numerous record albums and CDs, including (with Rolling Stones): The Rolling Stones, ABKO, 1964; 12 × 5, ABKO, 1964; The Rolling Stones Now!, ABKO, 1965; December's Children (and Everybody's), ABKO, 1965; Aftermath, ABKO, 1966; High Tide & Green Grass, ABKO, 1966; Got Love If You Want It, ABKO, 1966; Between the Buttons, ABKO, 1967; Flowers, ABKO, 1967; Their Satanic Majesty's Request, ABKO, 1967; Beggar's Banquet, ABKO, 1968; Let It Bleed, ABKO, 1969; Through the Past, Darkly, ABKO, 1969; Get Yer Ya Yas Out, ABKO, 1970; Stone Age, Decca, 1971; Gimme Shelter, 1971; Milestones, Decca, 1971; Sticky Fingers, Virgin, 1971; Hot Rocks: 1964–1971, ABKO, 1971; More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies), ABKO, 1972; Exile on Main Street, Virgin, 1972; No Stone Unturned, Decca, 1973; Goat's Head Soup, Virgin, 1973; It's Only Rock and Roll, Virgin, 1974; Metamorphosis, ABKO, 1975; Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones, Decca, 1975; Made in the Shade, Rolling Stones, 1975; Black and Blue, Virgin, 1976; Love You Live, Rolling Stones, 1977; Some Girls, Virgin, 1978; Emotional Rescue, Virgin, 1980; Sucking in the Seventies, Rolling Stones, 1981; Tattoo You, Virgin, 1981; Still Life, Rolling Stones, 1982; Under Cover, Virgin, 1983; Dirty Work, Virgin, 1986; Steel Wheels, Virgin, 1989; The Singles Collection, ABKO, 1989; Flashpoint, Rolling Stones, 1991; Voodoo Lounge, Capitol, 1994; Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones, Virgin, 1994; Stripped, Virgin, 1995; Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, ABKO, 1996; and Bridges to Babylon, Virgin, 1997. Solo albums include: She's the Boss, Columbia, 1985; Primitive Cool, Rolling Stones, 1987; Wandering Spirit, Atlantic, 1993; and Goddess in the Doorway, EMD/Virgin, 2001. Executive producer of films Running out of Luck, 1987, and Rolling Stones: Tip of the Tongue, 2003; producer of Enigma, 2001. Appears as himself in numerous concert and documentary films, including Sympathy for the Devil, New Line Cinema, 1968; Gimme Shelter, 1970; Let's Spend the Night Together, 1982; At the Max, Imax Corp., 1991; Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge, 1994; and Mayor of the Sunset Strip, 2003; also appears as himself in various television productions, including History of Rock 'n' Roll, Volumes 3, 5, 6, 1995; It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, 2000; and Rolling Stones: Forty Licks World Tour Live at Madison Square Garden, 2003; appeared in guest roles in television series, including Saturday Night Live, Faerie Tale Theatre, The Simpsons, and Entertainment Tonight. Actor in films, including Ned Kelly, United Artists, 1970; Performance, Warner Bros., 1970; Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol, 1982; Burden of Dreams, Flower Films, 1982; Blame It on the Night, TriStar, 1984; Freejack, Warner Bros., 1992; Bent, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1997; Enigma, 2001; and The Man from Elysian Fields, 2001.
AWARDS, HONORS: With the Rolling Stones: Rolling Stone magazine Music Awards Critics' Picks for best album, 1978, for Some Girls, and 1981, for Tattoo You; for best artist, 1978, 1981, and 1989, for best single, 1981, for "Start Me Up;" and for best tour, 1989; Lifetime Achievement Award, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, 1986; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1989. Solo awards: Rolling Stone magazine Music Awards Critics' Picks for best singer—male, 1985, for "Just Another Night of You"; knighted by the queen of England, 2002.
WRITINGS:
(Author of story) Blame It on the Night (film), 1984.
Running out of Luck (video screenplay), 1987.
Author of numerous song lyrics.
SIDELIGHTS: From the first time he took the stage as lead singer for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger has been one of the most distinctive figures in popular music. Arguably, while others have had better voices or sharper dance moves, few could ever match Jagger's manic flamboyance and sinister charisma, qualities that many fans and critics have considered the quintessence of rock and roll since the 1960s.
Jagger was born into a suburban, middle-class family in Dartford, Kent, England, in 1943. At the age of nineteen he enrolled in the London School of Economics to prepare for a career in business. There he reunited with childhood friend Keith Richards, and after discovering their mutual love for African-American rhythm-and-blues music, the two moved into an apartment with friend Brian Jones and began rehearsing as a rock-and-roll band. By 1963, as the Rolling Stones, their versions of songs by artists such as Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters had begun to attract paying audiences, and the following year found them at the top of two different newspaper polls as England's most popular group. Soon, Jagger was contributing lyrics to original music by Richards, and the two had their first American hit with "Satisfaction." Jagger's lyrics, as much as the driving music to which they were set, soon became a hallmark of the Rolling Stones' primal sound. "Just when parents were on the brink of accepting the Beatles as cute and tolerable," wrote Bruce Pollock in his book In Their Own Words, "along came the Rolling Stones to confirm that rock 'n' roll was still despicable, was still as full of lust as ever." Critic Ellen Sander put it more succinctly in the Saturday Review when she wrote in 1969 that "Jagger, a prancing, lascivious satyr, is the prototypical sex symbol of rock."
Critical enthusiasm went hand in hand with popular adulation, and despite several major set-backs—the death of Jones, drug arrests in England, a disastrous free concert in California during which a fan was murdered by a Hell's Angel gang member hired to be a security guard—it was generally accepted by the mid-1970s that the Rolling Stones deserved their self-bestowed title of "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." Success weighed heavily on Jagger, however. He began to set aside his overtly rebellious lyrics and, instead, adopted a more detached, ironic, yet still impassioned and often humorous viewpoint. As Crawdaddy critic Jon Pareles wrote, "Jagger's attitude, vaguely cynical yet vaguely involved … gives each song some authority."
Throughout the rest of the 1970s, and, indeed, through the rest of the century, the Rolling Stones remained critically and popularly viable. Fallow periods were always followed by creative ones, and various temporary break-ups were followed by triumphant returns, including the 1997 album and tour of Bridges to Babylon. During those periods when the Rolling Stones were inactive, Jagger found time to pursue an on-again/off-again film career, beginning with a starring role in 1970's Ned Kelly, the story of a legendary Australian outlaw. His involvement in movie-making accelerated after he founded Jagged Films in 1995. Having already worked as the executive producer of the film Running out of Luck in 1987, as well as writing the story concept for 1984's Blame It on the Night and the screenplay for Running out of Luck in 1987, the first film he produced for Jagged Films was 2001's Enigma, in which he also had an acting role. The film, starring Kate Winslet, received five London Film Critics nominations. Despite such success, however, Jagger continued to vigorously pursue his music career, releasing another solo album, Goddess in the Doorway, in 2001. Another solo achievement came for the rocker the next year when Jagger was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Jagger's solo albums have all proven to be less successful than the band's accomplishments, and despite his occasional fallings out with Richards, it is as the voice of the Rolling Stones that Jagger finds the most artistic and commercial fulfillment. With the 2002 tour marking the band's fortieth anniversary, the Rolling Stones' persona was still largely the work of Jagger. Nik Cohn, writing in the New York Magazine, concluded, "They were delinquents in excelsis; God's own punks. They were arrogant, boorish, in every sense unsavory. And if you loved rock, they were simply magnificent."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 17, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1985.
Contemporary Musicians, Volume 7, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1992.
Dalton, David, and Lenny Kay, Rock 100, Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 1977.
Jahn, Mike, Rock: From Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones, Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company (New York, NY), 1973.
Marcus, Greil, editor, Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), 1974.
Miller, Jim, editor, The Rolling Stones Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, Rolling Stone Press/Random House (New York, NY), 1976.
Pollock, Bruce, In Their Own Words, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1975.
PERIODICALS
Circus, August 26, 1980, David Fricke, "Longplayers: 'Emotional Rescue,'" p. 54.
Crawdaddy, November, 1974, Paul Williams, "It Wasn't Only Rock 'n' Roll (and I Liked It)," pp. 47-53; August, 1978, Jon Pareles, "Got What They Need," p. 74.
Creem, January, 1973, Robert Christgau, "Can't Get No Satisfaction," pp. 30, 32-35, and Lester Bangs, "I Only Get My Rocks off when I'm Dreaming," pp. 86-87.
High Fidelity, March, 1969, John Gabree, "The Beatles' Ninety-Minute Bore, and the Rolling Stones' 'Beggars Banquet,'" pp. 84-85.
Jazz and Pop, April, 1968, Frank Kofsky, "The Rolling Stones, 'Their Satanic Majesties Request': An Exegesis," pp. 12-15.
Melody Maker, June 10, 1978, Chris Brazier, "More Beef from the Stones," p. 18; June 28, 1980, Michael Watts, "An Institution Strikes Back," p. 13.
New York, June 2, 1975, Nik Cohn, "The Obsolescence of God's Own Punks," pp. 72-74.
Rolling Stone, January 4, 1969, Jon Landau, "Beggar's Banquet," pp. 10-13; July 6, 1972, Lenny Kaye, "Records: 'Exile on Main Street,'" pp. 54-55; February 17, 1973, Lester Bangs, "'Hot Rocks,'" p. 50; November 8, 1973, Bud Scoppa, "Records: 'Goat's Head Soup,'" pp. 66-67; December 19, 1974, Landau, "But I Love It, Love It, Love It!," pp. 79-80; September 11, 1975, Jonathan Cott, "Back to a Shadow in the Night," pp. 34-35.
Saturday Review, January 25, 1969, Ellen Sander, "The Rolling Stones: Beggars' Triumph," p. 48.
Stereo Review, January, 1975, Noel Coppage, "The Rolling Stones," pp. 84-85.
ONLINE
Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (April 2, 2004), "Mick Jagger."
Mick Jagger Home Page, http://www.mickjagger.com (June 4, 2004).
Rolling Stones Web site, http://www.rollingstones.com/ (June 4, 2004).
Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/ (March 4, 2002), Douglas Cruickshank, "'Sympathy for the Devil': Mick Jagger's Mad, Erudite Incantation Strutted '60s Rock toward the Dark Side of History."