The Rolling Stones haven’t released an original studio album in nearly twenty years. That blew my mind. I guess I was surprised since it feels like they’re always out on tour. But the septuagenarians (and as of July one octo, Happy Bday Mick!) have finally stopped slacking off and are getting ready to launch a new release. Aside from being momentous for being the first studio album in decades, Hackney Diamonds also marks a sentimental milestone as it has the final recordings from their beloved drummer Charlie Watts, who passed away in August 2021. YouTube hosted a livestream event on Wednesday where the band chatted up their new music from London’s Hackney neighborhood:
For the Rolling Stones’ faithful fans, a very long wait is over: The seminal rock band is back with Hackney Diamonds, their first original studio album since 2005’s A Bigger Bang.
The LP is set to debut worldwide on Wednesday with an exclusive YouTube livestream. The same event will feature Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood chatting on stage with Jimmy Fallon from the London borough of Hackney — a neighborhood “at the heart of” the new album, per the band’s official press release — about the new music and new era ahead.
The announcement follows a teaser campaign along with a sneak preview of a song, “Don’t Get Angry With Me.” Ironically, that promotion did make a few people angry, since the website where you could supposedly hear a snippet of the tune kept crashing. But YouTube, one imagines, is prepared to handle heavy demand.
Richards told Rolling Stone last year that the group’s forthcoming project would include final recordings from longtime drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, and that Steve Jordan, Watts’ live replacement, was filling in elsewhere. Prior to that, the Stones had released a surprise track, “Living in a Ghost Town,” in April 2020, as Covid-19 gripped the planet. Jagger later said that the pandemic had interrupted progress toward finishing a full album.
Hackney Diamonds may also feature a guest appearance from Paul McCartney, though reports that Ringo Starr sat in on recording sessions were not substantiated.
The Rolling Stones toured Europe last summer to celebrate their 60th anniversary, and with another record around the corner, they show no sign of slowing down, despite Richards and Wood being in their late 70s and Jagger turning 80 in July. Keep an eye out for them to hit the road once more next year to support their latest release — while revisiting the classics, of course.
I mean, if you’ve still got it, flaunt it, right? I only wish to be as vital — not to mention spry and nimble — when I reach my 70s (or as Stevie Nicks calls it, the last youthful years). I’ll be honest, my first response to the debut event in Hackney was “Ugh, why Jimmy Fallon?” (I saw all your comments on the Strike Force Five post and thus feel emboldened to speak freely.) But then I remembered Jimmy landed that great cameo in Almost Famous where he says “If you think Mick Jagger will still be out there trying to be a rock star at 50, you’re sadly, sadly mistaken,” and it made more sense. I remember seeing Almost Famous in the movie theater with my mother and her getting a very good chuckle out of that line, and that was when Mick was a wee babe of 57. As for Paul McCartney featuring on the new album, I wonder if his bit was recorded before or after he called the Stones “a blues cover band.”
Photos credit Hannah Meadows for Avalon/RETNA
I just like that old clip of a reporter- in the typical British berating way- mockingly asks Mick when he was in his early 20s, if he’ll stillbe doing this when he’s 70 (like hes just being silly by being a performer).
Mick is still dancing and I bet that reporter is long retired.
Paul McCartney was not wrong in calling the Stones a “blues cover band.” They’ve “used (without permission)” a lot of Black music. Hopefully they’ve now taken a couple decades to write and perform music that is authentically their own.
‘A blues cover band’. Spot on. Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin etc owe so much to black artists.
I saw a clip of the video for the new song on tv yesterday and it’s a very young blond woman with plenty of cleavage writhing in the back of a convertible. So original.
Blues cover band. I love it.
That’s Sydney Sweeney, an actress from Euphoria who always wears ill fitting clothes around the chest area. I guess she just loves that part of her body. Good for her.
I’m prepared for the backlash. I have never thought mick jagger was a good singer or a sex symbol. He can play a harmonic. He can give a good interview when cornered.
Well, many people (my dad included) believe that Brian Jones was the only Stone with musical and creative genius, so with their fall out and eventual death of Brian, the band lost what made it great.
As for the blues cover band, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they always credit the musicians that influenced and worked with them? Keith Richard’s autobiography details that aspect and mentions a lot musicians he admired and tried to emulate.