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Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
Sun 28 June 2026 17:14, UK <\/p>\n
In a musical sense, punk isn\u2019t the first word that springs to mind when one casts their mind to Mick Jagger<\/a> and The Rolling Stones. However, dig a little deeper underneath the surface into their ethos, and few bands have embodied the spirit of punk more.<\/p>\n If it were up to Jagger, The Rolling Stones would have a whole selection of punk tracks in their arsenal. However, the band functions as a democracy, and the frontman has always struggled to get these ideas through his colleagues, especially Keith Richards, whose preferences sit on the other side of the spectrum.<\/p>\n That creative tension has long been one of the Stones\u2019 greatest strengths. Jagger\u2019s instinct for contemporary trends often balanced Richards\u2019 devotion to blues and classic rock and roll, allowing the band to evolve without ever completely abandoning the sound that made them famous.<\/p>\n For The Stones\u2019 latest album, Hackney Diamonds<\/a>, the group recruited Paul McCartney to play bass on the track \u2018Bite My Head Off\u2019. Jagger explained of the song: \u201cI was kind of surprised Paul wanted to play on that track, actually. I wrote so many punk songs for the Stones, and I could never get away with them, but Paul is a very open-minded person \u2013 musically speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n Richards later confirmed Jagger has always brought in punk ideas to the rest of the band and will likely never stop doing so. He told\u00a0The Sun: \u201cMick\u2019s a punk! The punk side of Jagger has always been there, and we\u2019ll never get rid of it.\u201d<\/p>\n When the punk phenomena took off in the late 1970s, Jagger was intrigued by the prospect, even if The Rolling Stones weren\u2019t involved in the scene. While the group have never made a fully-throttle punk record, they did introduce elements of the genre into their sound on the 1978 album Some Girls<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jagger told\u00a0Rolling Stone\u00a0that the album\u2019s main inspiration was New York City, which injected the LP with \u201can extra spur and hardness\u201d. However, the punk scene in the Big Apple was another influence, with the singer revealing: \u201cAnd then, of course, there was the punk thing that had started in 1976. Punk and disco were going on at the same time, so it was quite an interesting period.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n Rather than viewing punk as a threat to the old guard, Jagger recognised it as another chapter in rock and roll\u2019s continual evolution. Like the Stones themselves in the early 1960s, punk challenged convention and rattled the establishment, making it easy for him to identify with its rebellious spirit.<\/p>\n The frontman then singled out the track \u2018Respectable\u2019 as an example of The Rolling Stones expressing their punk sensibilities. He said of the song: \u201cYeah, this is the kind of edgy punk ethos. Yeah, the groove of it \u2014 and on all of those songs, the whole thing was to play it all fast, fast, fast. I had a lot of problems with Keith [Richards] about it, but that was the deal at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n However, despite Some Girls taking influence from New York, Jagger preferred the British version of punk to the American incarnation. He claimed: \u201cThe sort of punk scene in New York, you know, you had the Ramones and you had the New York Dolls, but they didn\u2019t really play that kind of music \u2026 it was more of a glam look.\u201d<\/p>\n While Keith Richards may never have fully embraced Jagger\u2019s punk ambitions, that push and pull helped keep the Rolling Stones creatively alive. Their greatest records have often emerged from the friction between competing musical instincts, and Some Girls stands as perhaps the clearest example of that balance. It may not be a punk album in the strictest sense, but it proves the Stones were never afraid to borrow from the movements reshaping rock around them.<\/p>\n While there isn\u2019t a prolific number of punk songs produced by The Rolling Stones over the years, Jagger\u2019s credentials as a punk-rocker are clear for all to see, as he demonstrated on \u2018Respectable\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Mick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mick-Jagger-Keith-Richards-1970s-The-Rolling-Stones-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
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