Mick Jagger - Wandering Spirit
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- 24 hours ago
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Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 09.02.1984
“You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.”
On February 9, 1993, Mick Jagger released his third solo album, “Wandering Spirit”.
The 1980s were not kind to Mick Jagger and "The Rolling Stones". As the decade progressed, the band increasingly struggled to find its place. Internal tensions escalated, particularly between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, eventually reaching a point that was close to a complete breakdown in communication. This strain was clearly reflected in their albums from that era, which delivered fewer and fewer standout moments. The decline was especially noticeable on “Undercover” and “Dirty Work”.
By 1988, with the 1980s nearing their end, a conflicted and frustrated Mick Jagger received a phone call from his bandmate Keith Richards. The two talked and reconciled.“Breathing space is a blessed thing, but I tried to keep the band together,” Richards would later say. Jagger, who had taken several blows to his ego during the 1980s, failed film roles and two solo albums that left only a minor impression, was now in a different place, calmer and more at peace.
Following their reconciliation, “The Rolling Stones” released the album that firmly put them back in control of the wheel in 1989, “Steel Wheels”.
At the same time, “The Rolling Stones” embarked on a massive world tour. After its conclusion, bassist Bill Wyman officially left the band in January 1993. Once the tour was over, the remaining members took a break in order to focus on individual solo projects.
Entering the 1990s, Jagger was already a more mature and grounded artist. He was looking to reestablish himself as a solo performer, and he set his sights on Rick Rubin as the producer for his next album.
Rubin, an American Jewish producer who co founded the record label “Def Jam” in the early 1980s, became a key force in bringing rap and hip hop into the mainstream, working with artists such as “Beastie Boys”, “Public Enemy”, and “Run D.M.C.”. At the time, he had just completed the successful production of “Electric” by “The Cult”, followed by the meteoric success of “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”, the album that transformed “Red Hot Chili Peppers” from a relatively small funk rock band into a major rock act.
During that same period, Rubin was also working on the debut album of the bar band “The Red Devils”, who looked to his label “Def American Recordings” as their home. Rubin persuaded Jagger to sing together with “The Red Devils”, recording thirteen old blues songs, all performed live with Mick singing in real time.
After listening back to the recordings, Rubin realized that Jagger was thriving vocally and sounding especially strong within a blues framework. Although Jagger himself did not enjoy the connection with “The Red Devils”, and none of those recordings made it onto his third solo album “Wandering Spirit”, the direction had been set. Rubin guided Jagger toward an album largely rooted in funk (“Sweet Thing”), blues (“Don’t Tear Me Up”), gospel (“Out of Focus”), country (“Evening Gown”), rockabilly, and straight ahead rock and roll (“Wired All Night”).
Rubin assembled an impressive group of musicians in the studio, elevating the album’s overall sound. Some were well known names, including Lenny Kravitz, who sings alongside Jagger on “Use Me”, a cover of the Bill Withers classic, Flea from “Red Hot Chili Peppers”, and Billy Preston. Alongside them were less widely known players, such as saxophonist Courtney Pine, who delivers several outstanding moments on “Sweet Thing”, “Use Me”, and “Think”, as well as Benmont Tench from “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers”.
Jagger himself sounds as if he had deliberately worked on refining his voice. This is especially noticeable in the vocal acrobatics he displays on the album’s opening single, the groove heavy “Sweet Thing”, where he effortlessly drops down and climbs back up through different registers. The track carries a clear echo of “Miss You” by “The Stones”, both in feel and rhythmic swagger.
The second half of the album shifts into a more intimate space, presenting a lonelier Mick Jagger, searching for love, pleading with his partner, and confessing how deeply he misses her when she is gone. This emotional core is most clearly expressed in the beautiful ballad “Angel in My Heart”. The album then closes on a surprising note with a short, rustic Irish folk tune titled “Handsome Molly”, a piece inspired by a song written by Mike Seeger.
The album’s cover artwork was created by American portrait and celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Her body of work includes iconic album covers for Bruce Springsteen, MC Hammer, and Cyndi Lauper, as well as the deeply intimate photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken on the very day Lennon was murdered.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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