Comment of the Moment: Mick Jagger on Politics in Music

Mick Jagger
 (Click photo to enlarge)
Something a little different here.

Our Comment of the Moment is from thread "Neil Young Patron ZOOM Call Update: Archives Volume 4 Release + More" by Knowledge Nomad:

There's a really good interview with Mick Jagger in the New York Times that was posted this week (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/magazine/mick-jagger-interview.html) Definitely worth a listen. But, for the purposes of Neil Young fans, there's a few times when he mentions that getting political in your songs is probably best dropping hints at and being tangential to your writing because the public doesn't want to hear it.

"Interviewer: I want to put the question in slightly different terms. There’s a movie performance of yours that I love, in “The Man From Elysian Fields.” You play a middle-aged man who runs an escort service. That performance has a lot of regret in it, and I assume that you wouldn’t have been able to give a performance like that earlier in your life. So, similarly, are there things that you can do in a song or did on the new album that make you think, Oh, I wasn’t capable of inhabiting that lyric earlier?

Mick: That’s a good question. It requires a lot of thought to give a good answer. I wouldn’t have written any of these songs when I was 30, honestly. And I’ve also gotten into this habit of doing songs that are about personal relationships and then I throw a verse about politics in there. That’s a trick that I’ve learned from other songwriters, because nobody wants to hear a whole song about politics or social comment. A blues song like “Rough and Twisted,” you talk about women and everything, but then you throw in stuff that’s obviously political: “The only club was called conspiracy.” “What they wanted was tyranny.” So you find yourself using these tricks."

And again:

"Interview: There are a handful of political lines sprinkled throughout the new record. You sing about scuttling billionaires “scrambling to their bolt-holes in the sky,” about dirty rat autocrats and rubber-stamping judges. I find it heartening to know that Mick Jagger sees the same problems as the rest of us. Can you tell me more about what you’re seeing when you look around the world?

Mick: It’s not the first time I’ve done songs with social comment. I like doing it, but in small doses. It’s pop music, you know. “Ringing Hollow” is completely social comment. But even then, I had two songs that were on the same subject, which is my love of America."

So, clearly Neil takes a different approach. As do many other great musicians both contemporary and historically. But, does Mick have a point? Certainly the formula that has worked for the Stones is to eschew much social commentary, and Mick, at least, is aware enough [how many rock stars have attended the London School of Economics and Political Science and read Kant?] that he most certainly could do more social commentary.

My own take is, which isn't particularly deep, there is indeed an audience for music with social commentary, but also that it's understandable that even those with a taste for social commentary in their music also like music that doesn't fit that description. I've got room in my collection for the Stones, Neil, Nina, Jesse Welles, Shinyribs, etc.

Thanks for the comment Knowledge Nomad. That's two CotM's in the past week, so congratulations. We very appreciate the thoughtful observations here on TW. Especially on one of our long running topics -- Politics in Music.

We watched the interview, as well and encourage others to as well.  Mick gets a bit into Bruce Springsteen and his audience.  Essentially, Mick says The Stones "don't lecture their audiences."

Good advice Mick. While we here @ TW may have lectured our audiences on occasion in the past, we feel that temptation has been squashed more recently -- for better or worse -- depending on your perspective.  That is, if you're picking up on what we're putting down.

Also, see: 

• The Politics of Music or the Music of Politics?
• Why is our protest music stuck in the past?

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