All The Songs Mick Jagger Wrote For His Romantic Partners
Mick Jagger live at the White House - The Glimmer Stone / Youtube
The Rolling Stones were easily perceived as more rebellious than their rivals The Beatles, as they embodied the “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” lifestyle through scandalous affairs, substance abuse, and chaos among its members.
The group, with original leader Brian Jones dying at 27, channeled their tumultuous experiences into their music. Naturally, the Stones translated their wild stories into songs, often recounting their romantic escapades over the years.
Lead vocalist Mick Jagger, known for his numerous relationships and tumultuous affairs, found invaluable lyrical inspiration in these experiences. Notable partners such as Marianne Faithfull, Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, and L’Wren Scott are part of Jagger’s romantic history, despite his infidelity to many of the women he professed to love.
While there are songs penned by Jagger whose true inspiration remains elusive, some tracks can almost certainly be linked to specific women in Jagger’s life.
Marianne Faithful
During the course of their four-year romantic entanglement, Marianne Faithfull became a profound muse for Jagger. One such composition, “I Got The Blues”, materialized a year following the dissolution of their relationship, its lyrics eloquently capturing the poignant aftermath of a love gone awry.
The essence of Faithfull’s influence on Jagger’s creative process extended to the iconic “Wild Horses”. This ballad was inspired by a poignant moment when, after awakening from a coma, Faithfull told Jagger, “wild horses couldn’t drag me away”. This deeply personal revelation seeped into the song’s fabric, infusing it with a raw and authentic emotional resonance.
Additionally, she revealed to Classic Rock, “I also contributed to ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ and ‘Dear Doctor’ – junk songs… I know they used me as a muse for those tough drug songs. I knew I was being used, but it was for a worthy cause.”
Bianca Jagger
In 1971, Jagger married Nicaraguan social and human rights advocate and a former actress Blanca Pérez-Mora Macía, who became Bianca Jagger. Bianca and Mick crossed paths at a party following a Rolling Stones concert in France in September 1970.
While she was four months pregnant, the couple decided to tie the knot, opting for a Roman Catholic ceremony in Saint-Tropez, France. This union marked Jagger’s first and only legal marriage, though this marital bliss was short-lived. In May 1978, Bianca filed for divorce, citing Jagger’s adultery with American model Jerry Hall as the grounds for their separation.
The track “Respectable” from the album Some Girls is dedicated to her, as Jagger himself admitted, “This is a Punk meets Chuck Berry number. The lyric carries no fantastically deep message, but I think it might have had something to do with Bianca.”
Jerry Hall
On November 21, 1990 in Bali, Indonesia, Jagger and Hall celebrated a Hindu wedding ceremony; however, the purported marriage was subsequently deemed null and void ab initio by the High Court of England and Wales in 1999. The court ruled that the “marriage” lacked legal validity under either Indonesian or English law.
Despite their union not being legally recognized, the couple shares four children. They went their separate ways in August 1999.
It’s believed that the Hall served as the muse for the iconic Rolling Stones track “I Miss You”, where Jagger subtly nods to her by incorporating a reference to her last name in the lyrics, particularly in the lines “I’ve been waiting in the hall / Been waiting on your call”.
“Brown Sugar”
Controversially, there’s the infamous track “Brown Sugar”, characterized by its tasteless and offensive lyrics, marked by both misogyny and racism. In hindsight, Jagger expresses regret over crafting this song, acknowledging its inappropriate narrative that revolves around themes of slavery and rape while attempting to express love for African American women.
The inspiration for this troubling composition is attributed to two women, Claudia Lennear and Marsha Hunt. The latter, the mother of Jagger’s first child, Karis Hunt Jagger, is one of the women said to have influenced the song. However, their relationship was short-lived.
On the other hand, Claudia Lennear, a former member of Ike and Tina Turner’s The Ikettes, shared a brief romantic involvement with Jagger. The ambiguity surrounding the true muse behind the song persists, with Marsha Hunt claiming to be the inspiration while Bill Wyman suggests that Claudia Lennear may have been the intended subject.
