b. Michael Philip Jagger, 26 July 1943, Dartford, Kent, England. The celebrated singer of the Rolling Stones, Jagger has become less a pop star than a media icon. Initially a shy, middle-class student at the London School of Economics, his love of blues, distinctive vocal style and charismatic stage persona marked him out as an original. The image of Jagger has arguably been as crucial to the ultimate long-term success of the Rolling Stones as the quality of their songwriting and musicianship. The antithesis of the pretty-boy lead vocalists of the era, Jagger's surly demeanour, rubber lips and scarecrow body were initially greeted with bemusement by the pin-up pop magazines of the time. What Jagger did was to reinforce those apparent pop star deficiencies and, with remarkable effect, transform them into commodities. The lascivious stage presence was emphasized to such a degree that Jagger became both an appealing and strikingly odd-looking pop star. His self-reconstruction even extended as far as completely altering his accent. In mid-60s television interviews Jagger came across as an urbane, well-spoken university student, but as the decade progressed pseudo-cockney inflexions infiltrated his speech, ultimately creating the multi-mouthed media monster of the present - a figure equally at home talking yobbish platitudes to the gutter press and high-brow after-dinner conversation to the quality monthlies.
Jagger's capacity to outrage the elder members of the community in the 60s was perfected in his highly energetic dervish stage persona, anti-authoritarian stance and unromantic songwriting. In songs such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Get Off Of My Cloud", "19th Nervous Breakdown" and "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadow?' Jagger gave short shrift to sex, women, religion and even life itself. He was, undoubtedly, one of rock's most underrated and nihilistic lyricists. The force of his negative catechism was, of course, complemented by the musical contribution of Keith Richards, the architect behind the Rolling Stones" most memorable melodies. Jagger was also assisted by the quality of his players, especially Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Brian Jones and later, Mick Taylor. From the mid-60s onwards the rebellion implicit in Jagger's lyrics was reflected in increasingly bizarre real life situations. From urinating against an East London garage wall to saturnalian drug sessions and short-term imprisonment, Jagger came to embody the changing social values and bohemian recklessness that characterized the rock culture of the 60s. It must also be said that he performed a similar role in the 70s when his broken marriage, jet-set romances, cafe society fraternization and millionaire seclusion in exotic climes typified the bloated complacency of the musical elite of the period.
The barometer of his time, Jagger yet resisted the temptation to branch out from the Rolling Stones into too many uncharted areas. A desultory appearance in the movie Ned Kelly revealed that his powers of mimicry did not extend as far as a convincing Australian/Irish accent. By contrast, the extraordinary Performance captured the combined innocence and malevolence of Jagger's pop persona to striking effect in the guise of an east end gangster and decadent rock star The experiment was not repeated. Jagger was even less concerned about expressing himself in a literary form, unlike John Lennon, Pete Townshend and others of his generation. The most articulate of the Rolling Stones has frankly admitted that he can not even remember sufficient details of his life to pen a ghosted biography.
That peculiar combination of indolence and disinterest may have kept the Rolling Stones together as a performing unit, for Jagger studiously avoided customary rock star solo outings for virtually 25 years. When he finally succumbed to the temptation in the late 80s, the results were insubstantial. Apart from a small handful of tracks, most notably the dr
