McCartney and the Stones share producer wunderkind Andrew Watt, 35, whose wide-eyed enthusiasm for good old-fashioned rock\u2019n\u2019roll is clearly catching, but where Macca and Madge are using new material to reflect on their younger years, the Stones have their gaze fixed firmly on the now. So while the drink that Jagger howls about is evidently a play on the foot-stomping blues legend Muddy Waters, whom he idolised as a kid, he has a bad taste in his mouth as he finds himself in a \u201cflyblown town\/ In the back of nowhere\u201d, having been lured there on false pretences. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you take me,\u201d he snarls, \u201cto where I wanna go?\u201d He\u2019s sick of being dragged down a bad road by the people in charge \u2013 and so he snaps against \u201cMad Mogul Mr Musk\u201d on \u201cMr Charm\u201d with a punkish bite. <\/p>\n
He ups the ante on \u201cRinging Hollow\u201d, a squelchy, slurring honky tonk ballad in which he emulates a drunk sprawled across the bar. Dartford-born Jagger grew up with silver-screen visions of America \u2013 \u201cI was madly in love with you\/ Before we ever met\/ I saw all your movies\/ I smoked your cigarettes\u201d \u2013 but is jaded by what he sees today: \u201cLady Liberty don\u2019t look so good when there\u2019s a tear in her gown,\u201d he mourns. But rather than seek comfort in childish nostalgia, he again turns his ire to the leaders who got us into this mess. The Cure\u2019s Robert Smith is an unlikely collaborator on blistering boogie \u201cDivine Intervention\u201d, tussling and tangling with Ronnie Wood<\/a> and Keith Richards<\/a> on the guitar while Jagger rails against the \u201cbillionaires all scuttling, scrambling to their bolt holes in the sky\u201d. In case you were wondering\u2026 no, they haven\u2019t mellowed an inch.<\/p>\n Macca himself pops up on \u201cCovered in You\u201d as their session bassist, bringing the funk while Jagger writhes around in punk mode, spit flying as he aims his wrath at the \u201cautocrats\/ You know, they seem to be breeding like a swarm of dirty rats with their missiles on parade\u201d. In a recent interview, Wood observed that the frontman expresses himself on harmonica \u201ceven better than as a vocalist\u201d. You hear it on their bawdy cover of Amy Winehouse\u2019s \u201cYou Know I\u2019m No Good\u201d, Jagger honouring the late Camden star \u2013 whom they famously brought out for a duet at the 2007 Isle of Wight Festival <\/a>\u2013 with the same level of respect he\u2019d pay to Howlin\u2019 Wolf or Little Richard. He takes on Winehouse\u2019s role of guilty lover with brilliant conviction, a chorus of judgemental howls at his back.<\/p>\n![\"Haven\u2019t](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2274703848...jpeg\")
Haven\u2019t mellowed an inch: Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood (Getty)<\/p>\n