(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Wed 5 November 2025 21:01, UK
No one could claim that Mick Jagger was trying to be Pavarotti when he first started his career.
The rock and roll world never specified that frontmen needed to have the best voice in the world, and while Jagger did manage to have a certain nastiness whenever he sang, it was always about him trying to be an electric ball of energy whenever he hit the stage with The Rolling Stones. And judging by the other vocalists he was in competition with, it’s not like Jagger wanted to be roped in with the lounge singers, either.
From day one, The Stones wanted to follow in the footsteps of blues legends, and that didn’t normally mean having the best technique in the world. Howlin’ Wolf never bothered to have the same kind of operatic pipes that the musically-trained singers would, but there’s a certain magic whenever those tunes come on that not even the most musically skilled vocalists could manage to pull off.
For them, it was all about the attitude that came across when you sang, and Jagger was taking notes when he first stepped out onstage. The Beatles may have been the clean-cut version of what the British invasion had to offer, but there was no one else in the world who could strut across the stage like Jagger could or put that natural grit into their voice like he did on ‘Satisfaction’.
And judging by where they were at the time, having someone like Jagger on the charts was a breath of fresh air. The likes of Frank Sinatra had been great to listen to for the last few generations, but Jagger’s gruff voice helped inspire millions of kids that they didn’t need to have the most God-gifted voice in the world. But that didn’t mean rock couldn’t get too squeaky clean, either.
Jagger had already seen the likes of Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell start making a mockery of what rock and roll could be, and when he found those same people coming out of the UK, he knew he wanted to get as far away from that as possible. He could dabble in a few sweet tunes here and there, but he needed to make sure albums like Between the Buttons were far more nasty than anything Scott Walker was putting out at the time.
Walker was far from the worst singer in the world, but seeing how his songs sounded, Jagger knew better than to refine his baroque chops, saying, “The Rolling Stones on stage just isn’t the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra. It’s a load of noise. On record it can be quite musical but when you get to the stage it’s no virtuoso performance. I certainly don’t want to go on stage and just stand there like Scott Walker and be ever so pretentious. The whole thing is a performance of a very basic nature, it’s exciting and that’s what it should be.”
In all fairness, Walker’s voice didn’t have to be saccharine all the time. No one may have expected him to go in bold new directions in the twilight years of his life, but the experimental nature of an album like Bish Bosch or working with bands like Sunn O)))) were absolutely inspired decisions from someone who clearly didn’t need to try anymore if he didn’t want to.
So while Jagger could complain about how pretentious someone like Walker could have been during his prime, the crooner’s later life reads like a redemption story for his artistry. There are plenty of musicians that stick with their gimmick and milk it for all it’s worth once they reach the big time, but it takes a true artist to go in so many strange directions years after being counted out.
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