Education
A good student, Mick attended grammar school and then won a place at the prestigious London School of Economics.
A good student, Mick attended grammar school and then won a place at the prestigious London School of Economics.
As has been well documented, he was a childhood friend of future Stones bandmate, guitarist and co-writer Keith Richards, with whom he lost touch during adolescence, before a chance meeting on the platform of the local railway station in 1960 brought them back together in their late teens. Discovering a shared passion for American rhythm and blues and rock’n'roll, they started hanging out, playing records and then making music.
They were playing drop-in, walk-on, pick-up parts in the British blues boom of the early sixties, as part of blues legend Alexis Korner’s scene, when they fell in with guitarist Brian Jones and keyboardist Ian Stewart, joining the former’s band The Rolling Stones in June 1962, where they were soon to be joined by Charlie Wats and Bill Wyman. The rest wasn’t silence.
As Stones front man, Mick Jagger became one of the faces and voices of the 1960s. As co-songwriter with Keith Richards, he was responsible for an extraordinary series of hit singles and albums, from ‘Get Off My Cloud’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, to Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Streest. The Rolling Stones matched The Beatles for musical virtuosity and star quality, playing the dark side Yin to the Fab Four’s Yang, with Jagger the high profile representative of this exalted role.
Mick was also prime mover behind the band’s move towards independence from the music industry, with the launch of their own Rolling Stones Records label in 1971and subsequent move into arena and stadium concerts. This perspicacious anticipation of changing taste in the music public helped turn The Rolling Stones into the world’s top concert attraction, leading to a series of record-breaking tour over the last four decades.
As a collaborator, Mick has duetted with Tina Turner, Peter Tosh, David Bowie, The Jacksons and Bono, and worked with a vast host of other musicians including Carly Simon, Ry Cooder, Living Colour, Lenny Kravitz, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Who’s Pete Townshend and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame. The Jagger-Stewart composition ‘Old Habits Die Hard’, which originally appeared on the soundtrack of the 2004 remake of Alfie, starring Jude Law and directed by Charles Syer, won the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
Mick Jagger has released 15 solo singles and 5 solo albums, including She's The Boss in 1985, Wandering Spirit in 1993 and Goddess In The Doorway in 2001. His vocal work, like his songwriting, defies categorisation. From menace, excitement, and dangerone moment, to soulful balladeering the next, Mick has always been about the songs and the music first, the style and genre second. The blues are and always have been his first love; but there have been many other affairs along the way.
He has brought a similar range and intensity to his film work. Performance, directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg in 1968, is probably the standout reference, but his performances in the title role of Tony Richardson’s Ned Kelly, in 1970, and in Geoff Murphy’s sci-fi film Freejack in 1992, are also attention-worthy.
Jagger’s filmography also includes cameos in Bent, Sean Mathias’ 1997 film adaptation of the controversial Martin Sherman play, and The Man From Elysian Fields, directed by George Hickenlooper in 2002, as well as the World War II drama Enigma, directed by Michael Apted, which he co-produced in 2001. The same year, his Jagged Films company produced Being Mick, a revealing documentary about the singer.
Acknowledged for his business acumen and success in developing and exploiting the Rolling Stones brand, Mick Jagger is also a noted sports fan, particularly cricket. He was knighted in 2003 styled Sir Michael Jagger, appropriately enough for Services to Music.
Mick Jager as a Singer:
(albums with The Rolling Stones) England's Newest Hitmakers: The Rolling Stones, 1964, 12 X 5, 1964, The Rolling Stones, Now!, 1965, Out of Our Heads, 1965, December's Children (And Everybody's), 1965, Big Hits, High Tide, & Green Grass, 1966, Aftermath, 1966, Got Live if You Want It!, 1966, Between the Buttons, 1967, Flowers, 1967, Their Satanic Majesties Request, 1967, Beggars Banquet, 1968, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), 1969, Let It Bleed, 1969, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!: The Rolling Stones in Concert, 1970, Hot Rocks, 1964-1971, 1971, Sticky Fingers, 1971, More Hot Rocks: Big Hits and Fazed Cookies, 1972, Exile on Main Street, 1972, Goats Head Soup, 1973, It's Only Rock and Roll, 1974, Metamorphosis, 1975, Made in the Shade, 1975, Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones, 1975, Black and Blue, 1976, Love You Live, 1977, Some Girls, 1978, Emotional Rescue, 1980, Sucking in the Seventies, 1981, Tattoo You, 1981, "Still Life" (American Concert, 1981), 1982, Undercover, 1983, Rewind (1971-1984), 1984, Dirty Work, 1986, Singles Collection: The London Years, 1989, Steel Wheels, 1989, Flashpoint, 1990, Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones, 1993, Voodoo Lounge, 1994 (Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, 1994), Stripped, 1995, Bridges to Babylon, 1997, No Security, 1999, Forty Licks, 2002, Singles: 1965-1967, 2004, Live Licks, 2004, A Bigger Bang, 2005, Rarities 1971-2003, 2005, (soundtracks) Shine a Light, 2008, (albums with The Rolling Stones & other artists) Jamming With Edward, 1972, The Rolling Stones Rock 'N' Roll Circus, 1996, (solo albums) She's The Boss, 1985, Primitive Cool, 1987, Wandering Spirit, 1993, Goddess In the Doorway, 2001, The Very Best of Mick Jagger, 2007, (soundtracks) Alfie, 2004 (with David A. Stewart) Golden Globe award for best original song "Old Habits Die Hard", 2005) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); performer: (films) Gimme Shelter, 1970, Sympathy for the Devil, 1970, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones, 1974, Let's Spend the Night Together, 1983, Rolling Stones: Live At the Max, 1991, Voodoo Lounge, 1995, The Rolling Stones Rock 'N' Roll Circus, 1996, The Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon Tour '97-98, 1997, Four Flicks, 2003, The Biggest Bang, 2007, Shine a Light, 2008; appeared in (documentaries) 25 X 5: The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones, 1989, Being Mick, 2001, Stones in Exile, 2010
Filmography of Mick Jagger:
1966 Charlie Is My Darling
1968 Sympathy for the Devil, Performance
1969 Invocation of My Demon Brother
1970 Gimme Shelter, Ned Kelly
1972 Umano non umano
1978 Wings of Ash (television pilot for a dramatisation of the life of Antonin Artaud)
1978 All You Need is Cash (Mockumentary)
1981 Fitzcarraldo[92]
1982 Burden of Dreams, Let's Spend the Night Together
1987 Running Out of Luck
1991 At the Max
1992 Freejack
1997 Bent
1999 Mein liebster Feind (aka My Best Fiend)
2001 Enigma (cameo only, plus co-producer), The Man from Elysian Fields, Being Mick
2003 Mayor of the Sunset Strip
2008 Shine a Light
2010 Stones in Exile, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones
2011 The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas '78
Mick started off a Protestant in the Church of England, then converted to Catholicism for his first wife.
He said in September 2010 that he has a daily meditation and Buddhist practice.
He's been buddies with many of England's politicians and was even knighted by the Queen but has expressed an interest in anarchism.
