At their peak, the blues-driven rock of The Rolling Stones was among the closest things their generation had to punk. With tracks such as ‘Paint It Black’ and ‘Gimme Shelter’, their gritty sonic undercurrent and hard-living image positioned the band, alongside peers such as The Beatles and The Kinks, as forefathers to the likes of the Sex Pistols and The Clash – despite Johnny Rotten contemporaneously denying their influence. In the years since, Rotten and others have softened their stance on the importance of those 1960s tastemakers.
The first wave of punk had the bloated classic rock generation firmly in its crosshairs. Its proponents sought to purge 1970s music of what they deemed drug-addled, morally bankrupt and narcissistic rock stardom, and return guitar music to a stripped-back, anarchic form – something of a jacked-up answer to 1950s rock ‘n’ roll.
Yet despite positioning themselves as the antithesis of those out-of-touch icons, there were a handful of established artists who were avowed fans of punk. For them it was both refreshing and instructive, prompting a rethink of their own work and a return to basics.
Among those open-eyed figures was Mick Jagger – a man who has always had his finger on the musical pulse. In a 2011 Vevo interview conducted alongside his Rolling Stones songwriting partner Keith Richards, both had their say on punk. Richards was characteristically blunt. Though he credited the movement with helping a floundering Stones get back on track – it “moved our ass, boy” – and admired the attitude of the emerging generation, he remained conflicted: “Unfortunately, only a very few [bands] could actually play, you know, music.”
Jagger then drew a distinction between the New York and London scenes. “The sort of punk scene in New York, you know, you had the Ramones and you had the New York Dolls, but they didn’t really play that kind of music,” he said. “It was more of a glam look.”
For Jagger, the definitive punk band was British – though not, as many might expect, the Sex Pistols. His top spot goes to The Clash, whose fusion of dance and rock sensibilities clearly resonated with his own band’s instincts.
“New York was sort of different than what the Sex Pistols were putting out,” he said. “I mean, my favourite band of that period, was The Clash, definitely. They definitely had a dance sensibility, as well as a rock sensibility.”
