Mick Jagger's Handwritten Lyrics

Mick Jagger's Handwritten Lyrics

• A rare set of Mick Jagger’s handwritten Rolling Stones lyrics
• Written for a previously unknown, unpublished song
• Believed to date from a significant period, circa 1965
• Current “Whole Item” Appraisal: $20,000

A small sheet of lined paper, featuring handwritten lyrics by Mick Jagger on both sides. Jagger has written the lyrics in blue ballpoint ink.

Sheet measures 5 x 8 inches, and remains in excellent condition.

This unsigned set of lyrics is believed to date from 1965, during the earliest days of Jagger’s career as a songwriter. In September 1965 Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the original Stones song ‘Sittin’ on a Fence’ during a tour of Ireland.

Notably, the song features the line:

“But there is one thing I could never understand,
“Some of the sick things that a girl does to a man”.

The present manuscript features the almost identical line:

“I said my little girl, you wouldn’t understand,

“Some of the sick things a girl does to a man”.

It’s highly unlikely that Jagger would later reuse an identical line from a song the Stones had already recorded. Which directly points to him writing these lyrics before he wrote Sittin’ on a Fence, prior to September 1965. As such, this manuscript is a significant piece of Rolling Stones history, written by Jagger during arguably the most important period of his songwriting career.

In 1965 The Rolling Stones had their first original #1 hit, and make the transition from a blues cover band to a pop band famous around the world. Jagger and Keith Richards went on to become one of pop music’s greatest songwriting partnerships.

A superb piece of rock and roll history.

Provenance: ex Stanley Gibbons.