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If you think a band of almost octogenarian rock stars shouldn’t be able to predict a global catastrophe in ten minutes, you clearly haven’t been paying attention to The Rolling Stones. While the rest of the world was panicking over sourdough starters and toilet paper hoarding in 2020, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were busy releasing Living in a Ghost Town, a track so eerily prophetic it makes you wonder if they’ve been keeping a crystal ball in their touring trunks all along. It’s a bluesy, reggae-tinted slice of pandemic existentialism that proves even when the world shuts down, the Stones simply turn up the volume.
Preachers were all preachin’/ Charities beseechin’/ Politicians dealin’/ Thieves were happy stealin’…
Written by: Jagger/Richards Recorded: Henson Studios, Los Angeles, Jan-Feb. 2019; RAK Studios, London, spring 2019; Mick Jagger’s home studio, Pocé-sur-Cisse, France, Apr. 2020
Mick Jagger: vocals, harmonica Keith Richards: guitar, backing vocals Ronnie Wood: lead guitar, backing vocals Charlie Watts: drums Guest musicians: Darryl Jones (bass), Matt Clifford (keyboards, French horn, flugelhorn, sax)
More about Living in A Ghost Town by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
The resilience of rock in isolation
The No Filter Tour, which kicked off on September 9, 2017 in Hamburg, faced two major hurdles: Mick Jagger’s urgent heart operation in April 2019 and the subsequent global COVID-19 pandemic. However, these disruptions couldn’t silence the Rolling Stones. During the period of general confinement, the band remained active, contributing a safely distanced, poignant version of You Can’t Always Get What You Want to the One World: Together at Home initiative. Organized by Global Citizen and Lady Gaga to support the World Health Organization (WHO) and frontline health workers, this virtual performance signaled that the band’s creative spirit remained unbroken. More importantly, this forced downtime provided the rare opportunity to finally polish their first original composition since the 2012 tracks Doom and Gloom and One More Shot, proving that their legacy is defined by adaptability.
A prophetic creative spark
Mick Jagger penned Living in a Ghost Town in 2019 during a spontaneous ten-minute session. As he later revealed the song wasn’t originally intended for the pandemic. It captured the melancholy of visiting places once vibrant and alive, now suddenly bereft of humanity. When Jagger and Keith Richards decided the track’s eerie atmosphere was perfect for the lockdown era, Jagger made only minor lyrical adjustments. He found the original jam captured the exact sentiment required: “Life was so beautiful / Then we all got locked down.” Richards noted this intuitive chemistry, observing that their creative alignment happens without overthinking. The haunting relevance of the lyrics served as a stark, somber anthem for a world suddenly forced into stillness and profound social isolation.
Global reach and commercial success
The track debuted via streaming on April 23, 2020 accompanied by a stark video directed by Joe Connor. The footage depicted eerily vacant cityscapes, from Los Angeles and Toronto to London, Osaka, Cape Town, and the quiet seaside streets of Margate. Following the digital launch, the song saw a physical release on CD on May 29, 2020 and a 25 cm. vinyl disc on June 26. It proved to be a global commercial force, securing the number-one spot in France and Germany and climbing to number 3 on the United States Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. While it reached number 61 in the United Kingdom, the song became a definitive touchstone for the band’s four-year gap in original output.
Musical evolution and the ghost of ska
Musically speaking Living in a Ghost Town presents a clever, reggae-infused rock mixture. While the title and ska undertones invite comparisons to the Specials’ 1981 hit Ghost Town the song remains unmistakably anchored in the signature blues-rock style of the Rolling Stones. Recorded partly in Los Angeles following the Blue & Lonesome sessions and finalized at RAK Studios in London, it stands as a testament to the band’s endurance. The late Charlie Watts delivered superbly rhythmic drumming, anchoring the track alongside Darryl Jones’ heavy bass. With Jagger, Richards, and Ronnie Wood layering guitars, and Matt Clifford’s subtle arrangements, the track is defined by Jagger’s ease on vocals and a blistering, bluesy harp solo.
A final, enduring contribution
Beyond the metrics of charts and streaming, this song holds deep historical significance. It stands as the final original studio recording to feature the iconic rhythmic foundation of Charlie Watts before his passing in August 2021. As a creative bridge, the track provided fans with an extremely promising hint of the sonic directions the band would continue to explore. Its legacy was further cemented when it was included as a special bonus track on the Japanese edition of the band’s 2023 studio album, Hackney Diamonds. For listeners everywhere, the song transformed from a pandemic-era curiosity into a timeless, resonant piece of the Rolling Stones’ vast, evolving catalog, demonstrating that even in a ghost town, the music keeps moving forward.
Mick Jagger (2020): “It wasn’t written for now but it was written about being in a place which was full of life, and then now it’s all bereft of life, so to speak. And when I went back to what I’d written originally lyrically, it was all full of plague terms and things like that. I never actually used that, but it was all there. It was very close to the times that we’re living through now. But Keith and I both had the idea that we should release it. But I said, ‘Well I’ve got to rewrite it’. Some of it is not going to work and some of it was a bit weird and a bit too dark. So I slightly rewrote it. I didn’t have to rewrite very much to be honest. It’s very much how I originally did it. I was just jamming. I was just playing a guitar and just wrote it like that. I don’t know what frame of mind I must’ve been in. I mean it was semi-humorous, then it got less humorous and I don’t know. Sometimes these things take a long time to write but, this, I just wrote it really quickly in like 10 minutes.”
Keith Richards (2020): “It’s a strange thing, you know what I mean? But it’s just something that happens between Mick and me without us having to really think about it. Mick had come up with a song and we recorded it over a year ago, I think last February in L.A. It’s sort of eerie when suddenly it’s coming to life, I mean the ghost comes to life. Mick and I have been in touch, but obviously only via the satellite. I had said to Don Was about a month or so ago, I said, ‘Hey, this is a time for the ghost town track’. And then Mick called me and said the same thing and that great minds think alike. And he said, ‘Yeah I need to fix some of the lyrics or the vocal’. So we sort of did it from outer space. But I actually liked the way it turned out.”
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