Street-fighting 'Neo-Con'
USA TODAY
Date: 08-18-05
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY
Sweet Neo-Con, Mick Jagger's scathing indictment of U.S. foreign policy, isn't just rankling conservatives. It rattled a usually unflappable firebrand.
The song, due Sept. 6 on the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang, wasn't warmly embraced by guitarist Keith Richards. (Related story: Four rockers define Stones age)
"I didn't want this to be a diversionary storm," he says. "I thought potentially it would detract attention from the rest of the album and be seen as cheap publicity. We don't need that. But I told Mick, 'If you really feel like you want to say that, I'll back you all the way.'
"If I'm going to write a song, politicians are the last subject I think of. Neo-Con is like an old headline. Nobody will know what it means in 10 years. I like the oblique angles like Sweet Black Angel or Street Fighting Man. This one is a bit of a finger-pointer, but what's wrong with a poke in the eye?"
Accusing the administration of hypocrisy, the song asserts, "It's liberty for all, democracy's our style/Unless you are against us, then it's prison without trial."
Jagger isn't dodging the lyrics' thrust. "I have my opinions, which I've stated in the tune. Maureen Dowd is no more qualified to have opinions than I am."
Jagger composed the song quickly, then watched jaws drop as he bounced it off bandmates and producer Don Was.
"Isn't that really what pop music should be about?" he says.
The Neo-controversy might never have ensued if more bands had topical rants in the marketplace. "Perhaps they don't because everyone says, 'How dare he have an opinion?' " Jagger says. "But whose opinion do you listen to? People on TV who have no qualifications."
Bang also offers social commentary in Rain Fall Down and Back of My Hand, but the joys and pitfalls of romance dominate.
"People can understand and empathize with love and broken hearts," Jagger says. "Writing a whole album about politics would not be a good idea, but I specifically tried to encompass a broader set of subjects."
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