Let’s be honest—no rock frontman ever got famous for keeping quiet, and Mick Jagger might just be the loudest of them all. With a career fuelled by swagger, controversy, and a tongue that rarely stops wagging, Jagger’s always been the kind of guy who says exactly what’s on his mind. After six decades in the spotlight, he’s not holding anything back—and that includes his brutal take on some of The Rolling Stones’ own music.
For all the praise heaped on the Stones’ legendary catalogue, Jagger’s never been shy about calling out the duds. And the two albums he’s got the biggest beef with? They didn’t come from the band’s turbulent ‘80s or their twilight years. Nope—Jagger’s grudge lies deep in the golden era of the 1960s.
First on his hit list: Between the Buttons. Despite its cult following, Jagger told Rolling Stone it’s a record that should quietly fade away. “Frank Zappa used to say he really liked it. It’s a good record,” he said, before swiftly pulling the rug out: “But it was unfortunately rather spoiled. We recorded it in London on four-track machines. We bounced it back to do overdubs so many times, we lost the sound of a lot of it.” Translation? The songs might’ve been decent, but the technical mess buried them.
But that wasn’t the end of Jagger’s 1967 regret parade. Just months later, the band dropped Their Satanic Majesties Request—and if Buttons was a misfire, this one was a full-blown rebellion. Jagger didn’t mince words: “It’s not very good. It had interesting things on it, but I don’t think any of the songs are very good.” While some fans defend the album’s psychedelic sprawl, Jagger shot that down too. “It’s a sound experience, really, rather than a song experience.”
There was, however, one twisted upside. That over-the-top sonic chaos? It was all part of a plan—to get rid of their then-manager Andrew Loog Oldham. “We did it to piss Andrew off,” Jagger confessed. “He was such a pain in the neck. He didn’t understand it. The more we wanted to unload him, we decided to go on this path to alienate him.”
So when Satanic Majesties bombed, Jagger didn’t lose sleep. It was never about charting hits—it was a middle finger dressed up as a concept record. And that’s probably why, all these years later, he’s so candid about it. Jagger knows something most artists won’t admit: sometimes the truth sounds harsh, but it’s still the truth.
