Mick Jagger may be one of the most prolific frontmen in rock history, but he’s never been shy about distancing himself from parts of the Rolling Stones’ back catalogue.
In interviews over the decades, he’s repeatedly expressed disappointment in entire albums, openly dismissed certain tracks, and at times couldn’t even recall the names of songs from their earliest releases.
With a recording career spanning more than 60 years, that honesty has led to some fascinating admissions. Here are some of the songs and albums Jagger has admitted he didn’t like.
Between the Buttons (1967)
Though it features well-known cuts like ‘Ruby Tuesday’ and ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’, Jagger later revealed he had little affection for the Stones’ seventh UK studio album.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1995, he said: “It’s a good record, but it was, unfortunately, rather spoiled… We bounced it back to do overdubs so many times; we lost the sound of a lot of it.”
When asked if any of the music on the album still meant something to him, Jagger simply responded, “No. What’s on it?” He acknowledged ‘Ruby Tuesday’ as a “wonderful song,” but dismissed most of the others, including ‘Yesterday’s Papers’ – the first song he ever wrote entirely on his own.
“They sounded so great, but then, later on, I was really disappointed with it… I don’t think I thought they were very good at the time either.”
Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)
Released the same year as Sgt. Pepper, this overtly psychedelic album has long divided fans – and Jagger himself remains firmly in the “not very good” camp.
“It’s not very good,” he said of the record in the same 1995 interview. “It had interesting things on it, but I don’t think any of the songs are very good.”
He described it as more of a sonic experiment than a songwriting triumph: “It’s a sound experience, really, rather than a song experience.”
While he did praise ‘She’s a Rainbow’ and ‘2000 Light Years from Home’, he called the rest of the tracklist “nonsense” – including cuts like ‘Sing This All Together’, ‘In Another Land’, and ‘Gomper’.
Street Fighting Man (1968)
Though it’s widely seen as one of the band’s most politically charged and iconic tracks, Jagger has spoken surprisingly dismissively about ‘Street Fighting Man’ in recent decades.
In the same Rolling Stone feature, he reflected: “I’m not sure if it really has any resonance for the present day… I don’t really like it that much. I thought it was a very good thing at the time.”
Written in the midst of global protests in 1968, the song’s meaning and message may have dulled for Jagger over time – a contrast to how it was once perceived as a rallying cry.
Jagger’s discontent extended to a number of other songs from the Stones’ psychedelic and mid-60s output. Most were released on Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request, two albums he has long regarded with scepticism. Among those Jagger singled out or distanced himself from ‘Sing This All Together (See What Happens)’, ‘Citadel’, ‘Lantern’, ‘Gomper’, ‘Back Street Girl’, ‘Cool, Calm & Collected’, ‘Complicated’, ‘Miss Amanda Jones’, ‘Something Happened to Me Yesterday’, ‘Please Go Home’, ‘Who’s Been Sleeping Here?’, ‘She Smiled Sweetly’, ‘2000 Man’ and ‘In Another Land’.