Rock News & Interviews

WESTROCK: Mick Jagger & Dave Grohl release new lockdown single

“You gotta pay Peter if you’re paying Paul.”

Mick Jagger has teamed up with ex-Nirvana and current Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl to release ‘Easy Sleazy’. In 3:46 seconds, it goes from talking about sadness and despair to hope, rails at lockdowns, and has a few confusing lines about Bill Gates and the ‘Deep State’. 

The lyrics are not brilliantly written, as if they were winging it, but it should grab your attention. 

The first half of the tune talks about things like being stuck at home, learning to cook, and cancelled tours, which is probably a direct reference to what the Rolling Stoner felt at the beginning, to a more sarcastic approach near the end of the song mentioning the “earth is flat,”.

“Bill Gates in my bloodstream … mind control.” He’s picking up on the conspiracy theory clickbait that that often gets lumped in unfairly with those who might reasonably oppose lockdowns and other restrictions on liberties. 

 
 

Mick Jagger has teamed up with ex-Nirvana and current Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl to release ‘Easy Sleazy’. In 3:46 seconds, it goes from talking about sadness and despair to hope, rails at lockdowns, and has a few confusing lines about Bill Gates and the ‘Deep State’. 

The lyrics are not brilliantly written, as if they were winging it, but it should grab your attention. 

The first half of the tune talks about things like being stuck at home, learning to cook, and cancelled tours, which is probably a direct reference to what the Rolling Stoner felt at the beginning, to a more sarcastic approach near the end of the song mentioning the “earth is flat,”.

“Bill Gates in my bloodstream … mind control.” He’s picking up on the conspiracy theory clickbait that that often gets lumped in unfairly with those who might reasonably oppose lockdowns and other restrictions on liberties. 

Were it not for the musicianship and guitar playing of Dave Grohl, the song wouldn’t be worth listening to. It’s just sort of thrown together.

There is a basic chord structure and that’s it; nothing special other than it was put out by someone who’s worth a half a billion dollars and is bored locked in his home. 

There is one line worth paying attention to from Mick, however, “You gotta pay Peter if you’re paying Paul.”

 

He isn’t known for his libertarian views, but it’s hard to take it any other way. Is this Mick Jagger’s way of saying that he’s sick of paying taxes for people to sit at home and do nothing? Only he really knows.

Having referenced being locked up inside “prison walls” for more than a year, couldn’t the lyrics have been fine tuned just a bit?

“Clean the kitchen sink”, “TikTok stupid dance, took a Samba class” are examples of lyrics a 10-year-old could write as well. 

As a fan of the Rolling Stones music for decades; this song though, would have a ratio of 2000 to 1 in the dislikes to likes columns if it were not written by and performed by Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl.

I was asked to review this song because its relevant to our time, and this is my conclusion. I know I’ll get backlash for it, but hey, I don’t care.

It’s a missed opportunity. 

Ernest Skinner if the WestRock Music Columnist for the Western Standard

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