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Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger surprised drinkers in an English pub last week by turning up at a weekly folk music session and performing a song dating first recorded 99 years ago.
Jagger was in Oxford last Sunday (June 7) with his partner Melanie Hamrick as guests of Oriel College, and joined in the session after visiting the college.
"After dinner and drinks in the SCR (Senior Common Room) a small group went off to the pub where Mick gave an impromptu performance with Rolling Stones keyboard player Matt Clifford and Oriel Politics academic Robert Cheah," the college told the BBC.
Jagger sang folk standard Handsome Molly, a song he recorded on his 1993 solo album Wandering Spirit, but first recorded by Appalachian musicians G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter in 1927. The song was first documented by folk song 'collector' Cecil Sharp in 1918.
"We were sitting right by the band when a small group wandered over towards the musicians," an audience member told The Sun newspaper. "I caught a glimpse of one of them from the side and said to my mates, ‘Wait… is that Mick Jagger?'
"A few moments later, someone hopped onto the piano, and Mick just started belting out some lyrics. The most surreal part was that almost nobody seemed to realise it was him. There were no crowds and you could really tell just how much fun Mick was having."
The Rolling Stones will release their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, on July 10 via Polydor/Universal Music. Producer Andrew Watt says that the record is "rawer" than the group's last album album, Hackney Diamonds, which he also produced.
Telling The Telegraph newspaper that working with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on Hackney Diamonds was "my dreams coming true", he states that the 2023 album has "a special place in my heart".
"But I like this one even more," he says. "It’s rawer and liver and jammier and – wait till you hear the shit Keith’s playing. It’s unbelievable."
"Really, it’s the most fun thing in the world," Watt says of working with the rock legends. "There’s never a single day that I’d go into the studio and not be like, I’m going to see the fucking Rolling Stones play!"
Foreign Tongues will feature cameo appearances by Paul McCartney, Robert Smith from The Cure, Steve Winwood and more. It was recorded in less than one month at Metropolis Studios in west London.
"I love doing these recording sessions in London at Metropolis," Mick Jagger said in a press statement. "It was a very intense few weeks recording Foreign Tongues. We had 14 great tracks and we went as fast as we could. I like the room there as it’s not too big so you can feel the passion in the room from everyone."
