- “And they came down, they came down, and we were trying to rehearse and they said: "Do you want a song?". And we said: "Yeah we're always really open for songs" because we didn't write our own. And of course The Rutles were always well known for their hit-making potential... ability. And so, they ran round the corner to the pub, to write this song, and came back with it. And played it to us, and... it was horrible. So we never bothered to record it.”
- ―Mick Jagger
Jagger in 1978
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the lead singer and a co-founder of The Rolling Stones. Jagger is credited with being a trailblazer in pop music and with bringing a style and sexiness to rock and roll that have been imitated and proven influential with subsequent generations of musicians.
Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards have written most of the band's songs together; their songwriting partnership is one of the most successful in history, and they continue to collaborate musically. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has been widely described as one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock music. His distinctive voice and energetic live performances, along with Richards' guitar style, have been the Rolling Stones' trademark throughout the band's career.
Jagger was interviewed by Melvin Hall for the Rutles documentary All You Need Is Cash. He also inducted The Rutles into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988. He was a long-time fan of The Rutles without even knowing it, they were a massive influence on his music and The Rolling Stones music.
Music career[]
Jagger was born and grew up in Dartford. He studied at the London School of Economics before abandoning his studies to focus on his career with the Rolling Stones. He and guitarist Keith Richards have written most of the band's songs together; their songwriting partnership is one of the most successful in history, and they continue to collaborate musically. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has been widely described as one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock music. His distinctive voice and energetic live performances, along with Richards' guitar style, have been the Rolling Stones' trademark throughout the band's career.
In the late 1960s, Jagger starred in the films Performance (1970) and Ned Kelly (1970), to mixed receptions. Beginning in the 1980s, he released a number of solo works, including four albums and the single "Dancing in the Street", a 1985 duet with David Bowie that reached No. 1 in the UK and Australia and was a top-ten hit in other countries. In the 2000s, Jagger co-founded a film production company, Jagged Films, and produced feature films through the company beginning with the 2001 historical drama Enigma. He was also a member of the supergroup SuperHeavy from 2009 to 2011. Although relationships with his bandmates, particularly Richards, deteriorated during the 1980s, Jagger has always found more success with the Rolling Stones than with his solo and side projects.
The Rutles[]
Hearing about the Rutles[]
Mick stated that he first heard of The Rutles when he was living in a squalor in London, saw them being chased by girls and thought that being a rock star couldn't be that difficult, so they'd thought they'd have a go at it.
Meeting the Rutles[]
They'd met the band after a show in Richmond. He said the band came down "sort of checking out the opposition". The Stones were considered the South's answer to the Rutles. When they got up to Birmingham, according to him, they were called "London's answer to the Rutles". He originally called The Rolling Stones, The Rutting Stones to show he really liked The Rutles.
Purchasing songs[]
The band met them once while they were rehearsing and asked if they wanted to buy a song. The Stones agreed and Dirk McQuickly and Ron Nasty ran around the corner to write the song "Don't Ask Me What I Say" for them. According to Mick, it was horrible so they never recorded it. But in 1964, The Rolling Stones went up to Ron Nasty and asked Ron to write a song for his group, therefore Ron wrote "This Little Girl Of Mine" for him and The Rolling Stones therefore recorded it. And again in 1966, Dirk and Ron wrote "Three Birds On A Plane" which The Rolling Stones recorded for Aftermath album.
The pair, however, did contribute backing vocals for the Rolling Stones songs "We Loathe You" and "Gandhi-lion" in 1967 as well as "I Can't Help Myself" in 1968.
Their 1967 psychedelic album Their Satanic Majesties Request was compared to the contemporaneous work of the Rutles, particularly their June 1967 release Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band, with the similarities extending to the LP's cover. Looking closely on its cover, one can see the faces of each of the four Rutles, reportedly a response to the Rutles' inclusion of a Shirley Temple doll wearing a "Welcome the Rolling Stones" sweater on the cover of Sgt. Rutter.
On breaking up[]
When asked why he thought the Rutles broke up, he replied "Women. Just women getting in the way. Cherchez la femme you know." He hoped they'd never get back together again. He also said that during a "tea drinking session" in 1967, he told the group to split up so that they can make more profit out of themselves without properly trying. This followed by a statement where he said "The Rutles were meant to break up in the first place even if I didn't tell them to break up for money purposes".