I don't get asked to write many things at all. I really don't. I think it's got something to do with people thinking I couldn't or wouldn't or something like that. But I do think about alot of things going on in the world, and the music biz is one of those things.When we started out in London in the early 60's, Blues was the rage. It was grown-up you know, and we all imagined ourselves to be that in our early twenties. Keith was the most 'grown-up', and after a terrible concert series that the critics never let us forget, he reccomended me to some cousins of his in Massachusetts to help me rebuild my very damaged ego. It was there I met up with C.L.Freeman, then an unknown singer songwriter..(songwriter-singer..as he will inform you). I was going through some sort of mental struggle at the time and couldn't bring myself to admitting who I was to anyone. I wandered Harvard Yard, the main campus of Harvard in Cambridge, much like a madman, not sure of who if anyone might want to hear of the silliness I found myself in (was it really me?..ha ha). When I saw C.L. writing down some lyrics at a coffee shop in the square something told me I could trust him with my 'problem'. I approached him and quietly said, "I'm Mick Jagger. I see you like to write."
"Mick Jagger? Well welcome to America, Mick. Are you lookin' for some new country western tunes by any chance? Real cheap." he replied. I later found out he had no idea that I was who I said I was. He went along with me out of curiosity at first and later out of sympathy. We chummed along for the better part of twenty-four hours, and during that time he never knew I was me untill the end when I wrote him a check for 5,000 dollars for the song he put together for me on that steamy winter's midnight. That song, "A ZOO IN EVERY CITY', was lost by me on my trip back to England, and C.L. can't recall it at all. I liked it alot, and every now and then parts of it will appear and disappear, and I guess that's how it'll always be. I have many songs like that. Every songwriter does. Thirty years ago it weaved its way into my troubled soul and now..only fragments survive. But the fragments are enough! They remind me of my fallen self and a remedy that flies overhead like "Spirits free above the caged in every town.." I get the same thrill of hearing "..the stars that separate the bars" fragmented 'tho it is, as when the whole wonderful thing was together way back then, .."when I was hungry,..and it was your world"
Well, my kind associates, good luck and good pennies too. Husband, love your wive, and so forth and so on
M.J."
