On the heels of The Rolling Stones' first single "Angry" from the forthcoming release Hackney Diamonds, the band has just released "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" today, September 28. The bluesy, gospel-tinged seven-minute track builds up slowly, fades out then comes back in with an explosive, semi-improvised powerhouse vocalization between Gaga and Jagger for the final minutes.
This is not the first time the two have gone mano a mano musically. During The Stones 50th anniversary tour in 2012, she joined the band on stage to perform "Gimme Shelter" from their 1969 album Let It Bleed. At the press announcement on September 6, guitarist Ronnie Wood revealed little about the collaboration except "Lady Gaga sings really sweet on 'Sweet Sound of Heaven.'"
In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Jagger described Gaga as "a really great singer, adding he had "never heard her sing quite that style before" when recording "Sweet Sounds of Heaven." He continued, "We did it live in the room, and that was a great experience, her just coming in the room and her just opening up and seeing her bits and feeling her way and then getting more confident. And then we came back and then did some extra parts that we hadn’t done on the day and then we did some tidying up and we were just in the overdub room, really face-to-face, getting them really tight, the parts really tight, and then being slightly competitive and screaming."
Sweet Sounds Of Heaven
At the same time, Wonder is contributing on Fender Rhodes, Moog and piano that harkens back to the stylistic tones of 1981's "Worried About You." The prominence of Wonder's gospel-flecked ripplings can't be lost on Stones aficionados: he toured with the band in 1972 as the opening act and would also sometimes join the Stones at the end of the group's performance for an encore medley of "(Uptight) Everything's Alright" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."
Jagger in addition to his interviews regarding Hackney Diamonds, has hinted in a Wall Street Journal interview that he may sell The Stones back catalog to charity, instead of leaving it to his offspring. "The children don’t need $500 million to live well. Come on," he said, adding, "You maybe do some good in the world."
He also tellingly revealed that the group still doesn't own the copyright to some of their pre-1971 catalog (courtesy of controversial and influential music manager Allen Klein's devious business practices) and reflected on the similarities in ownership issues Taylor Swift had with her record label and the early Stones songs.
"The industry was so nascent, it didn’t have the support and the amount of people that are on tap to be able to advise you as they do now. But you know, it still happens. I mean, look what happened to Taylor Swift! I don’t really know the ins and outs of it, but she obviously wasn’t happy."
