Mick Jagger Reflects on Rolling Stones’ ‘Weak Period’: ‘We Didn’t Care’

via Hi Tones Record Store / YouTube
A Time When the Band Lost Focus
Mick Jagger looked back on what he called a “weak period” for The Rolling Stones, saying it happened because the band simply “didn’t care.” In a revealing talk with Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, Jagger explained how a mix of issues led the band to lose their focus.
He said the problems weren’t just about drug use, even though Keith Richards was heavily using at the time. Instead, business struggles played a big role. Disputes with former manager Allen Klein and issues with British taxes caused stress that made the band lose interest in their work. Jagger said this all led to a scattered mindset. Wenner pointed to the era between Goats Head Soup and Black and Blue as the band’s low point.
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“We Cared, But Not Like Before”
Jagger admitted the band was distracted. “Yeah, I think so. I find it so hard to remember, though, I don’t want to commit myself to saying something. I mean, everyone was using drugs, Keith particularly. So I think it suffered a bit from all that. General malaise. I think we got a bit carried away with our own popularity and so on. It was a bit of a holiday period,” he said.
He continued, “I mean, we cared, but we didn’t care as much as we had. Not really concentrating on the creative process, and we had such money problems. We had been so messed around by Allen Klein and the British Revenue. We were really in a very bad way. So we had to move. And it sort of destabilised us a bit. We flew off all edges.”
Albums From a Troubled Time
The albums Jagger and Wenner discussed likely included Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock ’n Roll, Black and Blue, and Some Girls. While Some Girls (1978) marked a strong comeback, the stretch before it showed the band struggling to stay on track. Still, the group managed to push forward into their next projects.
Even after that rough time, the band’s return continued with albums like Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. But Tattoo You stood out because it wasn’t made from fresh material—it was created from songs the band had previously left unfinished.
Making an Album From Scraps
Jagger explained how Tattoo You came together: “Yeah, that’s an old record. It’s all a lot of old tracks that I dug out. And it was very strange circumstances. [Producer] Chris Kimsey and I went through all the tracks from those two previous records. It wasn’t all outtakes; some of it was old songs. And then I went back and found previous ones like Waiting on a Friend from Goats Head Soup.”
He added, “They’re all from different periods. Then I had to write lyrics and melodies. A lot of them didn’t have anything, which is why they weren’t used at the time, because they weren’t complete. They were just bits, or they were from early takes. And then I put them all together in an incredibly cheap fashion.”
No Band, No Studio—Just a Broom Cupboard
Describing how low-budget the process was, Jagger said, “I recorded in this place in Paris in the middle of the winter. And then I recorded some of it in a broom cupboard, literally, where we did the vocals. The rest of the band were hardly involved. And then I took it to [producer] Bob Clearmountain, who did this great job of mixing so that it doesn’t sound like it’s from different periods.”