Even before Hackney Diamonds hits the streets – this Friday the 20th – the overwhelming verdict from the world's media is that the Rolling Stones have just recorded their best album in many decades, produced by the young Andrew Watt , 32 years old. The irony, for the band that has spent its life shaping rock music to its own bohemian rhythm, is that it turns out all they needed was a deadline.
That doesn't mean they haven't created the most lively and cohesive collection of songs to appear on a Stones album since Some Girls, 45 years ago. Nor can one ignore the tangible transfusion of energy and ideas provided by its new producer, the thirty-something New Yorker Andrew Watt, winner of a Grammy. But the other element was the ticking of the clock.
After years of studio meetings in which nothing was ever finished, the Stones reunited, fueled by the good taste of last year's Sixty tour. It was at Henson Studios in Los Angeles last December, and they produced one great song after another as if it were 1965. “We had a lot of fun doing it,” Mick Jagger remembers. “In a short time we already knew that we were going somewhere, and we were also going fast, we did at least two songs a day, and sometimes we would rehearse the next one!”
“When you go fast, you don't have to stop. You know you have a lot of things, maybe not everything is going to make it into the album, but you see that a lot of good things are happening, that you are on a roll,” says the Stones leader. “We were very fast, I think we were only recording for three weeks.”
From those sessions not only did the 12 Hackney Diamonds songs come out, but another eleven. The Stones' studio sessions have always produced cuts of varying quality, but this time there is serious talk that the leftover material, although unfinished, is so good that they have what Jagger calls a "nice jump" on a possible continuation.
“It's kind of weird, right?” says Keith Richards. “You work your whole life to say ‘No more deadlines! But no, you need them, I would have called the damn album Deadline. “Mick brought up Valentine’s Day for some reason, and so we did.”
“I have to take my hat off to Mick for this push. He said, 'Come on, we have to make a record.' I said: 'Okay. Let's not beat around the bush. You have what you want to sing, let's go.'”
“Mick had a lot of material stored away, it was a pleasure to put it together, as was working with Andrew Watt, he added the drive and kept things going,” Keith continues. “Probably the most important thing is that there was a lot of energy, it was a blitzkrieg, you either made it to the end or you didn't make it.”
If we take a look at the album credits, we see a band that collaborates and goes with the flow of the studio, whether it be Keith, Ronnie Wood contributing bass on some songs, the rookie Watt as bassist on others, or the delightful to hear the Glimmer Twins harmonizing together again: Keith sings under Mick on the effusive, irresistible title track Angry and the condescending Dreamy Skies, and Mick is Keith's vocal shadow on the charmingly vulnerable Tell Me Straight.
As these new collaborations describe, the “friendly” spirit is unmistakable. Of Dreamy Skies, Jagger explains how “I started playing it just on slide guitar and Keith said to me, 'What is that?', and I said, 'Well, that's it so far.' ‘You should get on with it,’ Keith replied, so I did. “Ronnie took over my slide part, and he added a really nice part.”
Recalling the Los Angeles sessions, Jagger recounts how he brought some of these songs “and Keith worked on them with me, improving the guitar parts that I had brought. We took other songs from some of the previous sessions, but they were unfinished, like Driving Me Too Hard. We revived the riff and the idea, and then Keith and I finished it in the studio late in the day. It was fun".
Wood highlights that the carefree attitude even extended to the discussion of the track list. “I left the choice of topics up to Mick and Keith, and I thought, ‘Oh dear, here comes the discussion,’ but there were very diplomatic solutions, they got along very well and reached an agreement. Okay, you can use this one if you use this one.”
Another element of the adventure is the list of collaborators on the album, from Paul McCartney and Elton John to Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder. The band emphasizes that everyone was there to do a specific job. “We didn't invite them just because,” Jagger points out, “they really fit together, they are the perfect musicians for each particular thing.”
Regarding McCartney's contribution, he adds: "I didn't know what song to suggest he play on, and when Andy said Do bite your head off I thought maybe it wasn't to Paul's taste." “But it turned out that he played wonderfully,” Keith adds with a laugh: “We were missing a bassist, guess what you're going to do, Paul... It's so much fun playing with Paul, he's a survivor.”
These cameos were done the old-fashioned way, in person. Richards calls it “the only way to form a band.” That's what happened with the additions of Gaga and Stevie to the seven-minute gospel-soul celebration Sweet Sounds of Heaven. “She was sitting on the floor, humming,” says Wood. “We were improvising when Mick said: 'Sounds good, do you want to finish the job?' So they sang it together, it was wonderful.” Richards chimes in: “It's a piece of work, man, she's so talented, and of course there's Stevie, no more needs to be said. We have known each other since the early seventies, we spent a lot of time together on the road,” he remarks. “It wasn't a prepared session, it grew on its own, and that's why I like the subject so much. “It wasn't planned for anyone to be there, but in Los Angeles those things happen.”
Ronnie laughs: “I spoke to Elton on Zoom and he said, 'I've got to play on some songs, Ron!', and I said, 'Well, get in line!' “Andrew was already with him, because they are very close friends.” Elton plays piano on two songs, including the upbeat Live by the Sword, one of two tracks that also feature drum parts from 2019 by the late and lamented Charlie Watts, while Sword features bass from Bill Wyman.
“We asked Bill to come,” says Mick. "I said, 'It's an old thing with Charlie, not one we just did recently.' I think that song has a slightly different rhythm, because Bill and Charlie are the original rhythm section. I like the fact that Charlie is on it, and we have some really good songs with him that we recorded in that period, so who knows, we may release some more.
With the prior approval of Watts himself, his old friend Steve Jordan has taken the potentially unenviable role of succeeding the beloved drummer, who passed away in 2021. “After Charlie passed the baton to Steve, the ship continued sailing,” he explains. Wood. “We just kept the wind in our sails, said, ‘Charlie wouldn’t want us to stop,’ and bang, we continued with a huge explosion from Steve.”
“Charlie is right there behind us,” says Richards. “I now work for Ian Stewart [the original road manager] and Charlie Watts. Now they are both my bosses and I have to move on.”
The improbable last chapter in the history of the Rolling Stones points to the possibility of continuing on the road in 2024, after an album about which they speak with modest satisfaction. “I realized we couldn't let it drift any further, and we had to do it right and fast, with someone who was really focused on it, and that's what we did,” reflects Mick. “I'm glad it happened, that's all I can say.”
