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Rolling Stones Quotes: Mick Jagger on discovering ‘jungle music’
“When I was 13 the first person I really admired was Little Richard. I wasn’t particularly fond of Elvis or Bill Haley… they were really good but for some reason they didn’t appeal to me. I was more into Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and a bit later Buddy Holly. I was crazy over Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters and Fats Domino, not knowing what it meant, just that it was beautiful. My father used to call it jungle music and I used to say, Yeah, that’s right, jungle music, that’s a very good description. Every time I heard it, I just wanted to hear more. It seemed like the most real thing I’d ever known.”
Picture a young Mick Jagger, barely a teenager, caught in the thrall of a sound so untamed it felt like the earth itself was growling. When he spoke of “jungle music,” he wasn’t chasing some exotic mirage—he was naming the raw, soul-shaking pulse of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and their unruly offspring. In a candid interview, he peeled back the curtain on his 13-year-old self, a kid from Dartford who worshipped at the altar of Little Richard’s feral howls. Elvis and Bill Haley?
Mick Jagger’s Jungle Symphony: The Roots of a Rock Revolution
They were fine for some, but Jagger’s heart beat for the rougher edges—Chuck Berry’s razor-sharp riffs, Bo Diddley’s primal strut, Muddy Waters’ deep Delta growl, and Fats Domino’s rollicking keys. This was his “jungle,” a sonic wilderness that called to him louder than any polished crooner ever could. According to Jagger, his father used to describe this music as “jungle music,” a term that resonated with him, finding it to be a “very good description.”
That early obsession wasn’t just a phase—it was the bedrock of The Rolling Stones’ jagged legacy. Those gritty pioneers shaped Jagger’s voice into a weapon, a blend of swagger and snarl that carried echoes of Berry’s wit, Diddley’s rhythm, and Waters’ blues-soaked soul. Little Richard’s wild abandon taught him to leap beyond the ordinary, while Domino’s bounce added a spark of joy to the brew. By the time the Stones roared onto the scene, that “jungle music” had seeped into their bones, fueling a sound that was less about polish and more about instinct—a primal thread weaving through every riff and shout. For Jagger, it was authenticity in its rawest form, a call from the wild he answered with a career that redefined rock’s frontiers, proving that sometimes the roughest roots grow the tallest trees.
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