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Atlantic
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
When Mick Jagger Met the King of Zydeco
The story I'd heard was that Mick Jagger bought his first Clifton Chenier record in the late 1960s, at a store in New York's Greenwich Village. But when we talked this spring, Jagger told me he didn't do his record shopping in the Village. It would have been Colony Records in Midtown, he said, 'the biggest record store in New York, and it had the best selection.' Jagger was in his 20s, not far removed from a suburban-London boyhood spent steeping in the American blues. I pictured him eagerly leafing through Chess Records LPs and J&M 45s until he came across a chocolate-brown 12-inch record—Chenier's 1967 album Bon Ton Roulet! On the cover, a young Chenier holds a 25-pound accordion the length of his torso, a big, mischievous smile on his face. Bon Ton Roulet! is a classic zydeco album showcasing the Creole dance music of Southwest Louisiana, which blends traditional French music, Caribbean rhythms, and American R&B. This was different from the Delta and Chicago blues that Jagger and his Rolling Stones bandmates had grown up with and emulated on their own records. Although sometimes taking the form of slower French waltzes, zydeco is more up-tempo—it's party music—and features the accordion and the rubboard, a washboard hooked over the shoulders and hung across the body like a vest. Until he discovered zydeco, Jagger recalled, 'I'd never heard the accordion in the blues before.' Chenier was born in 1925 in Opelousas, Louisiana, the son of a sharecropper and accordion player named Joseph Chenier, who taught his son the basics of the instrument. Clifton's older brother, Cleveland, played the washboard and later the rubboard. Clifton had commissioned an early prototype of the rubboard in the 1940s from a metalworker in Port Arthur, Texas, where he illustrated his vision by drawing the design in the dirt, creating one of a handful of instruments native to the United States and forever changing the percussive sound of Creole music. Within a few years, the brothers were performing at impromptu house dances in Louisiana living rooms. They'd begin playing on the porch until a crowd assembled, then go inside, pushing furniture against the walls to create a makeshift dance hall. Eventually, they worked their way through the chitlin circuit, a network of venues for Black performers and audiences. They played Louisiana dance halls where the ceilings hung so low that Cleveland could push his left hand flat to the ceiling to stretch his back out without ever breaking the rhythm of what he was playing with his right. Influenced by rock-and-roll pioneers such as Fats Domino, Chenier incorporated new elements into his music. As he told one interviewer, 'I put a little rock into this French music.' With the help of Lightnin' Hopkins, a cousin by marriage, Chenier signed a deal with Arhoolie Records. By the late '60s, he and his band were regularly playing tours that stretched across the country, despite the insistence from segregationist promoters that zydeco was a Black sound for Black audiences. He started playing churches and festivals on the East and West Coasts, where people who'd never heard the word zydeco were awestruck by Chenier: He'd often arrive onstage in a cape and a velvet crown with bulky costume jewels set in its arches. Chenier came to be known as the King of Zydeco. He toured Europe; won a Grammy for his 1982 album, I'm Here! ; performed at Carnegie Hall and in Ronald Reagan's White House; won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He died in 1987, at age 62. This fall, the Smithsonian's preservation-focused Folkways Recordings will release the definitive collection of Chenier's work: a sprawling box set, 67 tracks in all. And in June, to mark the centennial of Chenier's birth, the Louisiana-based Valcour Records released a compilation on which musicians who were inspired by Chenier contributed covers of his songs. These include the blues artist Taj Mahal, the singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, the folk troubadour Steve Earle, and the rock band the Rolling Stones. In 1978, Jagger met Chenier, thanks to a musician and visual artist named Richard Landry. Landry grew up on a pecan farm in Cecilia, Louisiana, not far from Opelousas. In 1969, he moved to New York and met Philip Glass, becoming a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, in which he played saxophone. To pay the bills between performances, the two men also started a plumbing business. Eventually, the ensemble was booking enough gigs that they gave up plumbing. Landry also embarked on a successful visual-art career, photographing contemporaries such as Richard Serra and William S. Burroughs and premiering his work at the Leo Castelli Gallery. He still got back to Louisiana, though, and he'd occasionally sit in with Chenier and his band. (After Landry proved his chops the first time they played together, Chenier affectionately described him as 'that white boy from Cecilia who can play the zydeco.') Landry became a kind of cultural conduit—a link between the avant-garde scene of the North and the Cajun and Creole cultures of the South. From the July 1987 issue: Cajun and Creole bands are conserving native music Landry is an old friend; we met more than a decade ago in New Orleans. Sitting in his apartment in Lafayette recently, he told me the story of the night he introduced Jagger to Chenier. As Landry remembers it, he first met Jagger at a Los Angeles house party following a Philip Glass Ensemble performance at the Whisky a Go Go. The next night, as luck would have it, he saw Jagger again, this time out at a restaurant, and they got to talking. At some point in the conversation, 'Jagger goes, 'Your accent. Where are you from?' I said, 'I'm from South Louisiana.' He blurts out, 'Clifton Chenier, the best band I ever heard, and I'd like to hear him again.' ' 'Dude, you're in luck,' he told Jagger. Chenier was playing a show at a high school in Watts the following night. Landry called Chenier: 'Cliff, I'm bringing Mick Jagger tomorrow night.' Chenier responded, 'Who's that?' 'He's with the Rolling Stones,' Landry tried to explain. 'Oh yeah. That magazine. They did an article on me.' It seems the Rolling Stones had yet to make an impression on Chenier, but his music had clearly influenced the band, and not just Jagger. The previous year, Rolling Stone had published a feature on the Stones' guitarist Ronnie Wood. In one scene, Wood and Keith Richards convene a 3 a.m. jam session at the New York studios of Atlantic Records. On equipment borrowed from Bruce Springsteen, they play 'Don't You Lie to Me'—first the Chuck Berry version, then 'Clifton Chenier's Zydeco interpretation,' as the article described it. Chenier was in Los Angeles playing what had become an annual show for the Creole community living in the city. The stage was set at the Verbum Dei Jesuit High School gymnasium, by the edge of the basketball court. Jagger was struck by the audience. 'They weren't dressing as other people of their age group,' he told me. 'The fashion was completely different. And of course, the dancing was different than you'd normally see in a big city.' The band was already performing by the time he and Landry arrived. When they walked in, one woman squinted in Jagger's direction, pausing in a moment of possible recognition, before changing her mind and turning away. Chenier was at center stage, thick gold rings lining his fingers as they moved across the black and white keys of his accordion, his name embossed in bold block type on its side. Cleveland stood beside him on the rubboard. Robert St. Julien was set up in the back behind a three-piece drum kit—just a bass drum, a snare, and a single cymbal, cracked from the hole in the center out to the very edge. Jagger took it all in, watching the crowd dance a two-step and thinking, ' Oh God, I'm going to have to dance. How am I going to do this dance that they're all doing? ' he recalled. 'But I managed somehow to fake it.' At intermission, a cluster of fans, speaking in excited bursts of Creole French, started moving toward the stage, holding out papers to be autographed. Landry and Jagger were standing nearby. Jagger braced himself, assuming that some of the fans might descend on him. But the crowd moved quickly past them, pressing toward Clifton and Cleveland Chenier. Before the night was over, Jagger himself had the chance to meet Clifton, but only said a quick hello. 'I just didn't want to hassle him or anything,' he told me. 'And I was just enjoying myself being one of the audience.' The next time Mick Jagger and Richard Landry crossed paths was May 3, 2024: the day after the Rolling Stones performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. During their set, the Stones had asked the accordion player Dwayne Dopsie, a son of another zydeco artist, Rockin' Dopsie, to accompany the band on 'Let It Bleed.' A meal was set up at Antoine's, in the French Quarter, by a mutual friend, the musician and producer C. C. Adcock. Adcock had been working on plans for the Clifton Chenier centennial record for months and was well aware of Jagger's affection for zydeco. He waited until the meal was over, when everyone was saying their goodbyes, to mention the project to Jagger. 'And without hesitation,' Landry recalled, 'Mick said, 'I want to sing something.' ' As the final addition to the album lineup, the Stones were the last to choose which of Chenier's songs to record. Looking at the track listing, Jagger noticed that 'Zydeco Sont Pas Salé' hadn't been taken. 'Isn't that, like, the one?' Adcock recalls him saying. 'The one the whole genre is named after? If the Stones are gonna do one, shouldn't we do the one ?' The word zydeco is widely believed to have originated in the French phrase les haricots sont pas salés, which translates to 'The snap beans aren't salty.' Zydeco, according to this theory, is a Creole French pronunciation of les haricots. (The lyrical fragment likely comes from juré, the call-and-response music of Louisiana that predates zydeco; it shows up as early as 1934, on a recording of the singer Wilbur Shaw made in New Iberia, Louisiana.) Many interpretations of the phrase have been offered over the years. The most straightforward is that it's a metaphorical way of saying 'Times are tough.' When money ran short, people couldn't afford the salt meat that was traditionally cooked with snap beans to season them. The Stones' version of 'Zydeco Sont Pas Salé' opens with St. Julien, Chenier's longtime drummer, playing a backbeat with brushes. He's 77 now, no longer the young man Jagger saw in Watts in 1978. 'I quit playing music about 10 years ago, to tell the truth,' he said when we spoke this spring, but you wouldn't know it by how he sounds on the track. Keith Richards's guitar part, guttural and revving, meets St. Julien in the intro and builds steadily. The melody is introduced by the accordionist Steve Riley, of the Mamou Playboys, who told me he'd tried to 'play it like Clifton—you know, free-form, just from feel.' It's strange that it doesn't feel stranger when Jagger breaks into his vocal, sung in Creole French. His imitation of Chenier is at once spot-on yet unmistakably Jagger. From the May 1971 issue: Mick Jagger shoots birds I asked him how he'd honed his French pronunciation. 'I've actually tried to write songs in Cajun French before,' he said. 'But I've never really gotten anywhere.' To get 'Zydeco Sont Pas Salé' right, he became a student of the song. 'You just listen to what's been done before you,' he told me. 'See how they pronounce it, you know? I mean, yeah, of course it's different. And West Indian English is different from what they speak in London. I tried to do a job and I tried to do it in the way it was traditionally done—it would sound a bit silly in perfect French.' Zydeco united musical traditions from around the globe to become a defining sound for one of the most distinct cultures in America. Chenier, the accordionist in the velvet crown, then introduced zydeco to the world, influencing artists across genres. When I asked Jagger why, at age 81, he had decided to make this recording, he said, 'I think the music deserves to be known and the music deserves to be heard.' If the song helps new listeners discover Chenier—to have something like the experience Jagger had when he first dropped the needle on Bon Ton Roulet! —that would be a welcome result. But Jagger stressed that this wasn't the primary reason he'd covered 'Zydeco Sont Pas Salé.' Singing to St. Julien's beat, Jagger the rock star once again becomes Jagger the Clifton Chenier fan. 'My main thing is just that I personally like it. You know what I mean? That's my attraction,' he said. 'I think that I just did this for the love of it, really.'
The Courier
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
Hysteria and Satisfaction when Rolling Stones performed in Dundee in 1965
Screaming, fainting and sobbing teenagers caused pandemonium when the Rolling Stones performed in Dundee in June 1965. The Marryat Hall was turned into a casualty station. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts could barely hear themselves play and dodged stuffed toys of all shapes and sizes. It made national headlines. The Stones were the band of the moment following the release of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, which dominated the airwaves in the summer of 1965. The band first played the Caird Hall a year earlier. Albert Bonici and co-promoter Andi Lothian booked the Stones to join the bill of a pop package tour which was headlined by Freddie and the Dreamers. The Stones performed at 6.30pm and 8.50pm on on May 20 1964. The band returned to Scotland for a headline tour in June 1965 which included dates at Glasgow's Odeon, Edinburgh's Usher Hall and Aberdeen's Capitol Theatre. They received 40% of the gross box office and 'no less than £750 per venue'. Everyone wanted to see them. Four Dunfermline schoolgirls skipped lessons after the Edinburgh show. Hitchhiking 23 miles to the Gleneagles Hotel where the band were staying, they managed to meet the Stones and get autographs and souvenirs. Next stop was Aberdeen. You can't always get what you want, it's true, but the Stones did when they enjoyed a hearty meal of sausages, eggs, bacon and chips in Laurencekirk. The fry-up at a country pub prompted Jagger to sing a song for the locals. 'We had a great meal on the way up,' said Jagger. 'Laurencekirk, I think it was. 'And the people were very nice.' They returned to Gleneagles before the two shows at the Caird Hall. Tickets were priced from five shillings to 15 shillings. The Stones chose the supporting acts and were backed by The Hollies, Doris Troy, Johnny Cannon and the Shades, and the West Five. Before the gig they were taken to Broughty Ferry for a photo shoot for Romeo and Jackie teen girl magazines in the grounds of the Taypark Hotel. The band members were all clad in suits. The two shows at 6.30pm and 8.45pm were attended by 3,500 fans. The Stones were drinking bottles of Coke backstage. They played for 30 minutes. Songs included Not Fade Away, It's All Over Now and The Last Time, although little could be heard because the screaming was so loud. Jagger and his bandmates thought a young fan had fallen from the balcony during the show when an enormous cloth gonk was hurled on to the stage. In fact, it was a gift from Jean Gracie from Dundee and Ann Brown from Monifieth. The Stones brought the girls backstage during the interval. They were photographed by The Courier for the following morning's paper. It was the calm before the storm. The screaming reached a crescendo at the second show. The teenybop adulation threatened to become overwhelming. Hundreds of hysterical teenage girls attempted to break the cordon of police and 50 stewards which were made up of amateur boxers and wrestlers. However, one girl got through. Jessie Noble from Fintry raced past Wyman and Jones to the centre of the stage. She threw her arms around Jagger and started hugging and kissing him. Two burly stewards dragged her to the wings. 'I kissed Mick,' she said. 'I touched him and hugged him.' There was a short spell of peace. Then it was back to the yelling, stamping, screaming and fainting again. Jessie broke through the cordon a second time. She was promptly carted out again. The Courier said the floor of the hall became a battlefield. The screaming girl fans stood on seats and chanted: 'Mick! Mick! Mick!' Rooster-strutting Jagger looked in his element on stage and the cheering got louder when he took his jacket off and threatened to throw it to the audience. Red Cross workers had stationed themselves around the hall. Forty 'hysterical and fainting girls' were carried to the Marryat Hall. They were laid out on blankets, then revived and treated at the scene. One girl who collapsed unconscious was taken to Dundee Royal Infirmary for treatment after attendants worked unsuccessfully for half an hour to revive her. Maureen Rooney of Mid Craigie was suffering from 'acute hysteria'. She regained consciousness and was sent home. Other teenagers attempted to reach the stage but were held back by stewards. After the final song, many girls, who were still in the venue, were sobbing with disappointment because the band had left the stage. The fans left behind a litter of dolls, papers, autograph books and sweets. There were a number of broken seats. A car was waiting for the band in Castle Street. The Stones drove back to Gleneagles. A policeman grabbed a girl who attempted to throw herself in front of the car. Jagger defended the group's followers after the Dundee gig. 'The fans don't mean to break the seats,' he said. Afterwards, the band flew back to London from Renfrew Airport without Jagger. He spent the weekend in Scotland with 19-year-old girlfriend Christine Shrimpton. They visited Fort William, Oban and Loch Lomond. Jagger and Shrimpton stayed in the Loch Lomond Hotel. They flew back to London before the band went on tour to Scandinavia. The Stones never returned to Dundee. However, Bill Wyman did. He left the Stones in 1993 and later formed Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. Wyman returned to the Caird Hall with his new band in February 2008. There was also an equally famous 'what if?' Charlie Watts might have performed at the Dundee Jazz Festival. He put together his own 33-piece extra-big band in 1985 featuring many of the biggest stars of British jazz – including Jimmy Deuchar from Dundee. Deuchar stayed in Barnhill. Watts described him as 'quite brilliant' and 'probably the best writer in the band'. The friendship almost brought the Stones drummer back to Dundee. Alan Steadman was the organiser of Dundee Jazz Festival. He tried to persuade Watts to join the bill. The plan never came to fruition, though, and Steadman was left waiting on a friend.
Daily Mail
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
See the photo proves that while Sam Kerr's baby boy was born in England, he'll be raised 100 per cent Aussie
Sam Kerr 's son Jagger may have been born in England - but he will definitely be raised as an Aussie. The Matildas captain, 31, has posted an image to Instagram story from outside Australia House in London, the country's high commission for the UK, where matters like citizenship and passports are dealt with. The photo - featuring Jagger and Kerr's partner Kristie Mewis - was captioned 'Oi Oi Oi', which is a well known patriotic chant every Aussie knows. Jagger is likely to become a dual citizen - and given his mothers were born in Australia and the US respectively, it is safe to assume he will be a regular traveller abroad. It comes as Kerr continues her worrying long recovery from an ACL rupture in her knee sustained at a training camp with Chelsea in January of 2024 and made a surprise trip down under. Meanwhile, Family First national director Lyle Shelton was slammed after recently publicly questioning Kerr's same-sex relationship, blaming the couple for 'depriving' their son of a father. His vile post followed the soccer power couple - Mewis plays for the USWNT - proudly posting images of Jagger on social media. 'A baby is born - but where's dad?' Shelton wrote alongside a photo of the couple and their baby. 'Family First congratulates Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis on the birth of their son - but we must speak a truth too many are afraid to say. 'No child should be deliberately deprived of their father. Children aren't lifestyle accessories - they're human beings with rights.' Shelton went on to ask: 'When cultural elites cheer on choices that sideline dads, who's left standing for the child?' 'Love is not enough. Every child deserves - and needs - a mum and a dad, wherever possible. It's time to put children's rights before adult desires.' Shelton was one of the leaders of the 'No' campaign against same-sex marriage in Australia. His post received support from United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet, who commented, 'children need both a mother and a father.'
Perth Now
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Adorable new pictures of Sam Kerr's baby on first trip out
Matilda's captain Sam Kerr and her partner Kristie Mewis have let fans in on the behind the scenes of motherhood in an adorable social media update. The couple shared a carousel of pictures on Instagram showing baby Jagger out and about for the first time. Mewis posted the photos of their new family on Instagram, captioning the images 'Forever moments' and included a selfie of Mewis and Kerr pushing the pram, Mewis asleep next to baby Jagger along with the heart-warming moment that Jagger met his grandparents. In the photos the superstar soccer duo look excited and happy as they embrace the early weeks of parenthood, strolling through the city hand in hand. They announced the birth of their baby boy on Instagram on May 8, sharing a selfie of Mewis and Kerr with the newborn asleep on Kerr's chest with the caption 'our little man is here, Jagger Mewis-Kerr💙'. Kristie Mewis and Sam Kerr take Jagger for a walk in the stroller. Credit: Kristie Mewis / Instagram Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis's son Jagger meets his grandparents for the first time. Credit: Instagram / Kristie Mewis The news has been celebrated by every corner of the sporting world and the latest photos have been flooded with adoring comments. 'So sweet 🥹,' wrote Matildas goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold. 'Congratulations 🤍,' commented team USA. '🥹🥹 Mumma Mewis' said Westham Women. 'That HAIR!!! He is so, so precious. Congratulations Moms ❤️❤️❤️,' commented another follower. Kristie Mewis asleep next to baby Jagger. Credit: Kristie Mewis / Instagram Baby Jagger shares the same dark hair as his Mum Sam Kerr. Credit: Kristie Mewis / Instagram Going public with their relationship in 2021 following the Tokyo Olympics, Kerr proposed to Mewis in September 2023 announcing it publicly a month later in November 2023. The news of the engagement was followed by the exciting news a year later in November 2024 that they were expecting their first child together. 'She's my biggest supporter, always listening to me nag and complain, all of my crazy antics,' Mewis told People magazine at the time. Kerr is currently recovering from an ACL rupture suffered during a Chelsea training camp in early 2024. She returned to individual training in January, but it's still unclear when her return to football will be confirmed.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis step out with their baby boy Jagger for the first time as he meets his grandparents
Australian Matildas star Sam Kerr and her fiancée Kristie Mewis have shared a series of photos of parent life with their new arrival baby Jagger. The couple welcomed their first child, a boy, on Friday AEST, a moment celebrated by football fans around the world. The duo have become a power couple in the sporting world with Kerr hailing from Australia, Mewis from the United States and both playing in the UK. Now they have revealed a series of touching moments of their first days of parenthood. The images included: Sam and Kristie on an outdoor walk with baby jagger in a stroller, Sam is wearing a Michael Jordan t-shirt and bright pink joggers while Kristie is beaming in workout gear and holding an iced drink. A pre-baby image of Kristie with her baby belly in the gym in the days leading up to the birth. Kristie's parents Melissa and Robert get to meet their grandchild for the first time over dinner Sam in the hospital, smiling and hugging the leg of Kristie who is in the hospital bed taking the picture. Kristie's parents Melissa and Robert Mewis smiling broadly as they meet baby Jagger for the first time. An adorable image of Sam fast asleep on the couch with baby Jagger bundled up and sleeping beside her. The couple wearing warmer attire and taking a stroll with baby Jagger in London. Kristie's mother Melissa smiling and enjoying walking Jagger in his stroller. The couple walking hand in hand while pushing the stroller. A close up image of Jagger's little hand, showing his dark black hair like his mother Sam. 'That HAIR!!! He is so, so precious. Congratulations Moms,' one follower commented. The final image was a sweet and candid moment of Kristie taking a selfie while holding baby Jagger close to her chest. The photo collection attracted hundreds of comments from fans, teammates and family. Matildas stars MacKenzie Arnold, Caitlin Foord and Emily van Egmond were among the well wishers. 'You are the best,' Kerr posted with a heart emoji. The couple's relationship began around 2020, gaining public attention during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when they shared a heartfelt moment on the field. They officially confirmed their relationship in August 2021 through an Instagram post. In September 2023, they got engaged, announcing it publicly in November of the same year. Their engagement was followed by the news in November 2024 that they were expecting their first child. They are expected to marry in December this year. The former United States international stayed active throughout her pregnancy, pictured in the gym in the days leading up to the birth Kristie snapped this touching image of Sam supporting her in hospital during the birth of their first child together The couple are more in love than ever, pictured walking hand in hand through London with their son Kerr is currently recovering from an ACL rupture suffered during a Chelsea training camp in early 2024. Kerr returned to individual training in January, but a timeframe on a return to football is still not clear. Her recovery has now gone well beyond the usual time for an ACL rupture, but Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor is optimistic of a return in the near future. The Matildas will next take to the pitch on May 30 and June 2 against Argentina as they build towards hosting the Women's Asian Cup next March.
