New York – Very few musicians can say they want to collaborate with Bono, John Lennon, David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Stewart and Peter Tosh and actually make it happen. Mick Jagger is one.
Jagger’s vacations from Keith Richards and the rest of the Rolling Stones are remembered in a new compilation, “The Very Best of Mick Jagger,” which includes highlights from his four solo albums between 1985 and 2001 along with a handful of curios.
One song, “Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup),” is a rare pairing of a Beatle and Rolling Stone that had never been heard publicly.
During Lennon’s “lost weekend,” a drunken period of separation from Yoko Ono that he spent in Los Angeles, he held Sunday jam sessions at the Record Plant studio. Jagger stopped by when he was in town.
The drill was the same: Lunch was served, along with plenty of other substances, and the musicians would play what struck their fancy. Lennon played guitar on this near-forgotten 1970 cut, then moved behind the console to produce instead.
To a large extent, Jagger’s solo catalog has been forgotten. He was likely victimized by critical hype at the time; some glowing Rolling Stone reviews that Jagger didn’t live up to. Two of his albums were also released during a period of estrangement from Richards in the 1980s, and sniping comments from his partner hurt Jagger’s rock cred.
The best song here is the most recent – “Old Habits Die Hard,” made with Stewart for the “Alfie” soundtrack in 2004 – partly because it’s impossible to tell when it was recorded. “These kind of tunes represent the times they were in,” Jagger said. “You can’t avoid that. You can always do them again, but I don’t see the point in that, to be honest.”
Jagger wanted U2’s Bono for “Joy,” as the song had a spiritual dimension, and some of U2’s work explored that area. He intercepted a U2 tour and set up recording equipment in the dining room of a German country house. Bono added a vocal.
Jagger was looking forward to writing songs with Kravitz. When he arrived at Kravitz’s house in Miami, his host played a near-completed song.
“It’s all him playing,” Jagger said. “All him drumming. There’s no vocals. So I said, ‘Well, I thought we were going to write a song?’ He said, ‘Now you have to write the lyrics for the song.’ He completely finished it, and then we got to write. It was a very odd way of doing it. Actually, it worked out. It was fantastic in the end.”
