After the release of the Rolling Stone's 1986 album, Dirty Work, the relationship with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger soured when the singer declined to tour with the band in support of the album. Instead, he returned to the studio to being working on the tracks that would become his second studio album, 1987's Primitive Cool. Among them, purportedly, where the songs, Kow Tow, and Shoot Off Your Mouth, Jagger's response to Richard's very public feud with him.
Though a slew of musicians would once again be called in to assist with production, wanting more uniformity between songs, he would exclusively rely on Jeff Beck as lead guitarist. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be enough to produce a magnum opus for the singer.
Primitive Cool would not only perform less favorably than expected, but worse than its predecessor, peaking at number forty-one on the Billboard 200. With it would come the Billboard Hot 100 singles, Let's Work, and Throwaway, which would land at number thirty-nine and sixty-seven, respectively. This would lead to Jagger pulling back his anticipated tour, staying out of the UK and USA, and instead focusing on Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
Things kick off with the single, Throway, and it's a pretty decent song. I think what ultimately ends up saving it is actually the guitar work of Beck. However, from there, things quickly shift into generic. Jagger just doesn't feel like he's bringing his A-game to the record.
Again, and as I said yesterday, he's never been an artist that I consider perfection. Not by a longshot. But with that said, I did expect better.
It's not until the title track that I finally heard something that got my head bobbing and foot tapping again. Unfortunately, this was the only other gem I found on the album, and overall, it was pretty drab. Overall, it just felt like minimal effort.
It's worth noting that leading up to his work on the album, Mick actually did a one-off, recording the theme to the 1986 comedy, Ruthless People, starring Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, and Helen Slater. Fast forwarding past Primitive Cool to 1988, Richards and Jagger would reconcile, somewhat, deciding that keeping their legacy band going was more important to them than publicly feuding (*cough*....money).
The Stones returned to the studio for their comeback album, Steel Wheels (1989), and then set off on a massive world tour. As for Mick, he eventually dabbled back in the world of solo albums with 1993's Wandering Spirit, and 2001's Goddess In The Doorway. However, his primary focus remains with Keith on the Rolling Stones, who since 1989 have released six more studio albums, with the latest being 2026's Foreign Tongues.
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