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Rolling Stones quotes:Mick Jagger on the making of Blue & Lonesome
If you assumed The Rolling Stones spent their later years solely chasing stadium-sized egos, Blue & Lonesome is the rude awakening you probably didn’t ask for. Forget the overproduced, arena-ready polish; this is the band stripping away the armor to obsess over the same gritty Chicago blues that obsessed them in 1962. Mick Jagger isn’t just singing; he’s essentially conducting a séance for the architects of the genre, proving that while most acts their age are busy selling insurance or performing glorified karaoke, the Stones are still perfectly capable of making the blues sound dangerous, sweat-soaked, and refreshingly unhinged.
“It was an exercise in sprezzatura. You’ve got to concentrate, but it can’t sound like it’s difficult. And it doesn’t… It’s not like rock music or programmed drum music. It pulsates in a very weird way, where each bar is different. And that’s what’s interesting about this kind of music when it’s played properly. It has a swerve, and it has a dynamism about it. I just looked back at the original records, and we wanted some of these moods. Every track is different. We all thought it was going to be easy but it wasn’t. Sounds have changed. What makes you excited now is not the same. In music, everything’s different…
…But the blues still have something about them that’s really good. I love all kinds of music, and I still listen to the blues. This album is a homage to our favourite musicians, people who kicked us off in playing music. That was the reason we started a band. For my generation it’s the equivalent of suburban white kids doing rap. It’s so culturally far away from your own experience. We were proselytisers of blues music. In the end that’s what we’re still doing.”
When the Stones set out to record Blue & Lonesome in 2016, Mick Jagger knew it wasn’t going to be just another studio session. He called it “an exercise in sprezzatura”—the art of making something look effortless while demanding intense focus. Unlike rock or programmed beats, blues pulses in unpredictable ways: each bar carries its own subtle swing, a dynamism that keeps the music alive. Listening back to the originals, the band tried to capture those moods, but what seemed simple at first quickly revealed itself as deceptively tricky. The goal was to respect the sound, keep it raw, and let every track breathe differently, even as technology and musical tastes had shifted since the Stones first discovered the genre.
Homage and Cultural Rebellion
Beyond the technical challenge, the album was a love letter. For Jagger, the blues were the music that kick-started the band’s career—like suburban kids discovering rap decades later, finding something culturally distant and thrilling. Every track nods to the musicians who inspired them, a mix of respect and youthful obsession. “We were proselytisers of blues music,” Jagger says, and that mission hasn’t changed. The album captures the Stones still learning, still paying tribute, and still having fun translating their influences into something uniquely their own. In the end, Blue & Lonesome isn’t just an album—it’s a statement: blues still matter, and these guys are still spreading the gospel, one swerve and pulse at a time.
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