The Rolling Stones in full lockdown but still rock

The Rolling Stones in October 2017 at the U Arena de la Défense. Edmond Sadaka / RFI

Text by: Edmond Sadaka

Eight years after their last album, the Rolling Stones are back with an original title. Living In A Ghost Town which means "Living in a ghost town", resonates particularly in the current context of confinement.

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The secret had been kept well… and the release of this song took everyone by surprise, even the group's record company. The song Living In A Ghost Town was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, recorded last year in Los Angeles and London, and finalized during containment.

The text speaks of chaos, destruction, loneliness and isolation. It also evokes a world emptied of its inhabitants, without joy or celebration. Troubling words which, according to Mick Jagger, were written "  in ten minutes!"  Before the pandemic started, without thinking, he said, that they could be as premonitory.

But he said that the text was recently changed to better fit the news. Thus, the word "lockdown", which means "containment", is used several times.

This title is in any case heralding the new album on which the Rolling Stones have been working for more than a year. It should be released before the end of the year, and it will be the group's first album of unreleased songs since 2005.

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  • Culture
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  • Containment