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Rolling Stones Quotes: Mick Jagger on the ‘Satanic Majesties’ album
“It’s just another album. It’s different from the others we’ve done and it’s different from the next we will do. But it’s still just an album. The work on this album is not a landmark or a milestone or anything pretentious like that. All we have tried to do is make an album we like, with some sounds that haven’t been done before.”
Their Satanic Majesties Request: No Milestones, Just Music
For Mick Jagger, Their Satanic Majesties Request was never meant to be a grand statement or a revolutionary turning point. Reflecting on the 1967 album, he made it clear that the band wasn’t chasing history or trying to craft a milestone. It was, quite simply, another chapter in the Rolling Stones’ ever-evolving journey—a collection of tracks they personally enjoyed making. Experimenting with unfamiliar sounds was part of the fun, not a blueprint for redefining rock and roll.
Sounds Before Statements
At a time when psychedelia was sweeping through popular music, the Stones dabbled in the surreal and the sonic unknown. But Jagger downplayed the album’s ambitions, stating that it wasn’t “a landmark or a milestone or anything pretentious like that.” Instead, Satanic Majesties was an honest attempt at doing something different, free from any grand concept. “All we have tried to do is make an album we like,” Jagger explained, emphasizing creativity over critical reception.
This no-nonsense perspective reveals much about Jagger’s approach to music: restlessly forward-looking, dismissive of labels, and rooted in personal taste rather than public expectation. The band knew they were veering into new territory—layers of swirling effects, strange arrangements, and studio experimentation—but they did it on their own terms. For them, the album was just part of the process: different from what came before, and different from what would follow.
Even decades later, the singer’s words remind us that sometimes an album doesn’t need to be a revolution. Sometimes, it’s just a snapshot of where the band was at that moment—curious, unafraid, and eager to explore the unknown.
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