Fact #64338
When:
Short story:
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones apologises to the Rev. Jesse Jackson for the racially offensive lyrics of Some Girls, but still refuses to remove the line 'Black girls just love to get fucked all night long'.Full article:
On 28 October 1978, The Rolling Stones issued a statement to the press, apologising for the lyrics of the title track to their recent album, Some Girls. “It never occurred to us that our parody of certain stereotypical attitudes would be taken seriously by anyone who has heard the entire lyrics of the song in question. No insult was intended and, if any was taken, we sincerely apologise.”
Like most PR statements, this one was a blatant and deliberate distortion of the truth. The lyric in question was “Black girls just wanna get fucked all night, but I just don’t have that much jam.” Far from it never having occurred to the Stones that anyone might be offended, the song had almost prevented the album from ever being released.
Recorded at Pathe Marconi studios in Paris, there was no question in anyone’s minds about the musical merits of the album. This was a complete return to form for the group that had come perilously close to losing its coveted status as the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world.
Nevertheless, when the album was played to Ahmet Ertegun, President of Atlantic Records, he was outraged. He felt that, ironic or not, the lyric sounded racist and was almost certain to cause offence. He refused to release the album unless the lyric was changed. Jagger said no, dug in his heels and the situation moved into deadlock.
Fortunately for the Stones, Ahmet’s wife Mica was also a close friend of Jagger’s. She eventually prevailed upon her husband, against his better judgement, to allow the album to go out with the lyric unchanged.
At first, all went well. Some Girls was released on 9 June and headed straight for the top of the charts. After a concert on June 28 at the Midsouth Coliseum in Memphis, Keith Richards was asked why the album was called Some Girls. He replied “Because we couldn’t remember their fucking names.”
Problems started early in July, when actresses Raquel Welch and Lucille Ball threatened legal action against the Stones, Atlantic and EMI. They had learned that their faces were reproduced on the album cover, and felt that the images were unflattering and humiliating. Soon after, the sleeves were withdrawn and the offending images blacked out.
Having just weathered that storm, Ertegun’s fears started to come true. On July 10, black radio stations in New York began removing the album from playlists, because of the racist lyrics in the title track. Still Jagger wouldn’t budge, claiming that the song was a parody of stereotypical attitudes to women. This was, of course, an area in which he was well equipped to judge, given that many of his lyrics, from Under My Thumb to Honky Tonk Women exploited stereotypical images of women. (An unkind observer might even suggest that he had married one from a Roxy Music album cover.)
The Rev Jesse Jackson was then working for PUSH, an organisation which saw itself as black America’s moral standards watchdog. Early in October, Jackson stated that Some Girls was “an insult to our race and degrading to our women. Music is the medium through which most of our messages are delivered. We must begin showing some social responsibility about the messages we’re delivering to our children.”
On 28 October, Ahmet Ertegun recommended that Some Girls should be re-edited, saying “Even though I know he didn’t mean it, it is not our wish to demean, insult, or make less of a people without whom there would be no Atlantic Records. Mick is certainly not a racist. He is consciously anti-racist. He owes his whole being to black people and black music.” It was then too that The Stones released their press apology and, in due course, the incident passed.
Needless to say, the controversy did nothing but good for sales of Some Girls, although Keith Richards knew the real reason why Some Girls sold so much better than its predecessors. “The reason that Some Girls was a hit,” he said, “was because I’d kicked junk.”
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Like most PR statements, this one was a blatant and deliberate distortion of the truth. The lyric in question was “Black girls just wanna get fucked all night, but I just don’t have that much jam.” Far from it never having occurred to the Stones that anyone might be offended, the song had almost prevented the album from ever being released.
Recorded at Pathe Marconi studios in Paris, there was no question in anyone’s minds about the musical merits of the album. This was a complete return to form for the group that had come perilously close to losing its coveted status as the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world.
Nevertheless, when the album was played to Ahmet Ertegun, President of Atlantic Records, he was outraged. He felt that, ironic or not, the lyric sounded racist and was almost certain to cause offence. He refused to release the album unless the lyric was changed. Jagger said no, dug in his heels and the situation moved into deadlock.
Fortunately for the Stones, Ahmet’s wife Mica was also a close friend of Jagger’s. She eventually prevailed upon her husband, against his better judgement, to allow the album to go out with the lyric unchanged.
At first, all went well. Some Girls was released on 9 June and headed straight for the top of the charts. After a concert on June 28 at the Midsouth Coliseum in Memphis, Keith Richards was asked why the album was called Some Girls. He replied “Because we couldn’t remember their fucking names.”
Problems started early in July, when actresses Raquel Welch and Lucille Ball threatened legal action against the Stones, Atlantic and EMI. They had learned that their faces were reproduced on the album cover, and felt that the images were unflattering and humiliating. Soon after, the sleeves were withdrawn and the offending images blacked out.
Having just weathered that storm, Ertegun’s fears started to come true. On July 10, black radio stations in New York began removing the album from playlists, because of the racist lyrics in the title track. Still Jagger wouldn’t budge, claiming that the song was a parody of stereotypical attitudes to women. This was, of course, an area in which he was well equipped to judge, given that many of his lyrics, from Under My Thumb to Honky Tonk Women exploited stereotypical images of women. (An unkind observer might even suggest that he had married one from a Roxy Music album cover.)
The Rev Jesse Jackson was then working for PUSH, an organisation which saw itself as black America’s moral standards watchdog. Early in October, Jackson stated that Some Girls was “an insult to our race and degrading to our women. Music is the medium through which most of our messages are delivered. We must begin showing some social responsibility about the messages we’re delivering to our children.”
On 28 October, Ahmet Ertegun recommended that Some Girls should be re-edited, saying “Even though I know he didn’t mean it, it is not our wish to demean, insult, or make less of a people without whom there would be no Atlantic Records. Mick is certainly not a racist. He is consciously anti-racist. He owes his whole being to black people and black music.” It was then too that The Stones released their press apology and, in due course, the incident passed.
Needless to say, the controversy did nothing but good for sales of Some Girls, although Keith Richards knew the real reason why Some Girls sold so much better than its predecessors. “The reason that Some Girls was a hit,” he said, “was because I’d kicked junk.”