The Rolling Stones Album That Captured the ‘Violence and Menace’ Between Keith Richards and Mick Jagger
In 1986, The Rolling Stones released the album Dirty Work. The title was fitting. Making the album was a dirty, painful process that left the band furious with one another. For Keith Richards, Mick Jagger was the primary problem. He was working to promote his debut solo album, She’s the Boss, and shirked his responsibility to the band. As a result, Richards wrote several songs about his stormy relationship with Jagger.
The Rolling Stones released an album at a low point in band relations
After over two decades of working together, Richards’ relationship with Jagger reached a breaking point. Jagger prioritized his solo album above Dirty Work, which the Stones’ guitarist found unforgivable.
“By the time we gathered in Paris to record Dirty Work in 1985, the atmosphere was bad,” Richards wrote in his memoir Life. “The sessions had been delayed because Mick was working on his solo album, and now he was busy promoting it. Mick had come with barely any songs for us to work on. He’d used them up on his own record. And he was often just not there at the studio.”
In his frustration, Richards wrote many of the album’s songs about his bandmate.
“So I began writing a lot more on my own for Dirty Work, different kinds of songs,” he wrote. “The horrendous atmosphere in the studio affected everybody. Bill Wyman almost stopped turning up; Charlie [Watts] flew back home. In retrospect I see that the tracks were full of violence and menace: ‘Had It with You,’ ‘One Hit (to the Body),’ ‘Fight.’ We made a video of ‘One Hit (to the Body)’ that more or less told the story — we nearly literally came to blows, over and above our acting duties. ‘Fight’ gives some idea of brotherly love between the Glimmer Twins at this juncture.”
The lyrics to “Fight” are aggressive and violent. “Gonna blow you to a million pieces/ Blow you sky high, I don’t care/ Splatter matter on the bloody ceiling/ Blow the building right into the air,” Richards wrote. Notably, it’s one of the few songs on the album on which Jagger doesn’t have a writing credit.
The turmoil of the Rolling Stones album resulted in a career bump for Keith Richards
Richards was unhappy with the band dynamic, but his frustration allowed him to grow as an artist. He had long pushed back against starting a solo career, but the lull in the Stone’s schedule gave him time to start one. With the help of musician Steve Jordan, Richards founded the X-Pensive Winos. The band released their debut record, Talk Is Cheap, in 1988.
While the record didn’t come close to the sales a Rolling Stones album would have brought in, the band released it to critical acclaim. Richards had been in the music industry for over two decades, but he had never worked as the lead singer. He’d also never worked without Jagger. His time with the X-Pensive Winos allowed him to grow as a musician outside his longtime relationship with Jagger. It brought a freshness to his work that he’d begun to lack with the Stones.
The Rolling Stones did not tour after the release of their 1986 album
While Richards, Charlie Watt, and Ronnie Wood wanted to tour for Dirty Work despite the turbulent band dynamics, Jagger pushed back.
“Dirty Work came out in early 1986, and I badly wanted to tour with it,’ Richards wrote. “So, of course, did the other band members, who wanted to work. But Mick sent us a letter saying he wouldn’t tour. He wanted to get on with his solo career.”
This decision, coupled with comments Jagger made to the media, nearly broke up the band.
“Soon after the letter came, I read in one of the English tabloids of Mick saying the Rolling Stones are a millstone around my neck,” he wrote. “He actually said it. Swallow that one, f***er. I had no doubt that some part of his mind was thinking that, but saying it is another thing. That’s when World War III was declared.”
Despite all this, the band endured. Nearly four decades later, they are still working together.
