Mick Jagger Interview: New Rolling Stones Songs and the Sexuality of 'Some Girls'

The release of the deluxe edition of the Rolling Stones' 1978 album 'Some Girls' includes a smattering of outtakes that are actually new tracks, not just songs that were written but left by the wayside. As Mick Jagger tells Spinner, he actually had to go back and write new lyrics for many of the songs, including the country tune 'No Spare Parts' and the rocker 'Do You Think I Really Care.' In the following Q&A, Jagger tells us all about the reissue, its New York and disco influences, the lies and rumors about their songs and how the hit track 'When the Whip Comes Down' -- about a gay man living in the city -- surprisingly never led anyone to question his sexuality.

There are a lot of blues and country songs on the 'Some Girls' outtakes. How far along were these songs?

Yeah, there's three blues and two countries. I guess we didn't want to finish the blues or they were just sitting there. They didn't really have any lyrics or anything, the blues ones. They were in different states. Some of them were almost done, like 'So Young,' and then others were really not done at all, like 'When You've Gone' and 'Don't Be a Stranger' didn't have anything. 'Keep Up Blues,' that didn't have anything.

There was a few really done. I'm talking about vocals now. 'Claudine,' that was done, more or less. 'Do You Think I Really Care' was like half done, so I had to write some verses because I just had the same verse repeated a lot. And the country song called 'No Spare Parts' had sort of an idea but was just a few words, so I had to sort of put my head down and write the song about driving from L.A. to San Antonio.

Why did you decide to do this album? It wasn't an anniversary or anything.

No, no, it wasn't an anniversary, nor was 'Exile on Main St.' I think people like the album. I didn't know if there were any outtakes for it, anything worth looking, and then I found there were a few things. I've always liked the album. It's very different from 'Exile' because it's so focused. It's 10 tracks and it doesn't have tons of horn parts or backing vocalists or anything like that. It's sort of a very group-focused piece and stripped down and to the point.

A lot of that was influenced by punk music that was getting popular at the time, right?

Not really. When you look at the original album and even if you want to look at the outtakes, it sort of is but that's an easy kind of tag you can always put on it. 'Miss You' isn't really punk and 'Far Away Eyes' isn't. 'Some Girls' is kind of a blues. It's with harmonica and slide guitar and all. It's got that kind of attitude to it but it's not that music, except in a couple of places. Those songs really didn't call for a lot of background stuff and horns and the album before this didn't really have that either. The thing about it is, just doing it after I focused in on the 'Exile' things, it's like six years' difference and it's just a different kind of vibe.
And you have 'Miss You,' which was something really different. Do you remember how much the band either accepted or resisted that track and its dance groove when you brought it in?

I don't think anyone resisted it at all, not to my knowledge. Whether they did mentally or not, I don't think anyone can really remember that. If they say they remember, they probably don't. They're probably lying [laughs]. I mean, I think Charlie [Watts] particularly loved it and Bill [Wyman] loved it because he came up with a really nice bass line. So I think that it was instantly accepted, in my view.

It was only really different as far as the rhythm section was concerned. The rest of the instrumentation is very much a kind of blues-rock instrumentation. You just play what you would play. It's just the beat that's different. It's a sloppy version of the beat of six months before in New York, and not played quite so exactly as you would have played it if you were playing in a session band doing those kind of tunes for a dance record. It's quite strict tempo, it doesn't move around, but it's got a nice loose feel to it compared to some of those records. It's very danceable and that's what we were trying to achieve there.

What was it like having Ronnie on as a full member for this album? How did it affect this recording?

Obviously, it affected it, the fact that you didn't have a revolving door of guitarists, which we probably did on the previous record, so that was a kind of like an audition. Having to deal with that was a bit dull, really. I mean, it was interesting but it was another thing you had to do.

The thing that makes this record very focused, it's a limited amount of people in the same place doing just 10 tracks and zeroing in on them. It's not two years' work in three different studios and all this sort of stuff. Songs came very quickly. You're not going to have 18 songs. You're only going to have 10, bang bang bang, and the rest you leave by the wayside and pick them up 30, 40 years later. I remember it being a very enjoyable experience because you got something at the end that was exciting.

Keith was dealing with his heroin problems at the time, especially his bust in Toronto. Did it influence the sessions at all?

I don't really remember. I don't really recall that pressure being in the studio. I think we just got on with it. In the run-up to it, it was a hassle, and I remember working on some of the songs while Keith was actually in prison or working on his defense or whatever, but I remember in the studio it didn't seem to affect anyone particularly. It was good to put it out of your mind, sort of forget it.

Was the chorus of 'Beast of Burden' written about that?

No, I don't think so. I think that's just made up [laughs loudly]. I think that's rubbish. But you know, it's so long ago. People, they like to make up stories and whatever, what you believe happened at the time. I could tell you, I could make up all sorts of stuff about how 'Far Away Eyes' was written -- it wouldn't be correct, I'm sure, but it might sound good [laughs]. But that's a really good song. It's really like a soul song, you know what I mean? I find that's a really great song to sing.

It does have that sort of emotional vibe of Sam Cooke's 'Bring It on Home.'

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a song you can kind of emote to and it's just very repetitive, around around around, so you can just do what you like to it. And then people say "it's a punk record" and I'm going [sarcastically] "Yeah, right." But the thing about this record is that it's just got that feeling, that even in 'Beast of Burden,' it's got that attitude but it's really a soul song, so that's kind of interesting.


Were you surprised that you ended up writing about New York so much even though you recorded it in France?

Obviously it was all influenced by New York feeling and the French never got ... there was no accordions used. More obviously I'd say in 'Shattered,' when I was writing that I was thinking, "God, I'm really nowhere near there but I'm just reliving it all." I'd been living there for the two years previously on and off, and it was a big interesting time for the city: The place falling to bits, going broke and Son of Sam and all that. It loomed large as an object in your imagination.

People still seem to be fascinated by 1977 in the city. The politics, the society, Studio 54, CBGB.

Yeah, there's all that. So much going on, a lot going on musically then. You've got punk and dance and the beginnings of hip-hop. And there's also some really quite interesting documentaries of the city of that time, some really fascinating ones. And the art scene as well. It was very vibrant and very quick-changing so there's really a lot on amidst the kind of squalor of the whole thing, the fiscal uncertainty of it all.

And there was a lot of cultural changes in the attitudes towards gay people. Is that where 'When the Whip Comes Down' came from?

I guess. There was a lot of clubs, a lot of mixed clubs and so on at that time, that was the first time there had been mixed gay and straight dance nights. Normally it had been very segregated and then you started to get these mixed nights where you find yourself line dancing and that sort of thing. It was very amusing, trying to do these dances I've never been able to do very well [laughs] but I tried. That was really funny.

Read Spinner's Interview With Keith Richards
Did that song lead to press speculation about your personal life?

About my personal life? I don't really remember. I think everyone took it, I don't know. You're the only person that's ever asked me [laughs].

Really?

[Laughs] Nobody sort of either listened to the lyrics or just took it with a pinch of salt, put it down to the New York experience of one summer, I suppose. But it was, no, it was very much part of the burgeoning lifestyle at that moment.

Right. So, it never led to you having to field questions about, like, "Is Mick Jagger gay?"

No, I never had to, really. I think people never bothered asking me those questions. They either assumed I was straight or assumed I wasn't [laughs].

Not to be offensive but that didn't even come up with all those tabloid rumors about you and David Bowie?

[Laughs] Please don't be offensive and bring those things up. [Laughs] That wasn't 1976, I don't think.