Remember When The Rolling Stones Released an Album That Nearly Broke Them up in 1986?

The Rolling Stones are still going strong more than 60 years after they first played together. That feat would be remarkable in a vacuum. Considering how much turmoil they’ve undergone throughout the years, it’s nothing short of miraculous.

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They reached perhaps their lowest point in 1986. That’s when they released a somewhat unloved record that laid bare the infighting that very nearly doomed the group.

Mick Goes Solo

The competing artistic tendencies of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards helped make The Rolling Stones’ music as special as it is. But those differences have occasionally led to periods of discontent. Jagger and Richards were feuding with a particularly intense fervor heading into the making of the 1986 album Dirty Work.

For several years, the two men had battled about how The Stones should sound. On albums like Undercover, released in 1983, Jagger pushed for more of a modern rhythmic approach to keep the band current. Richards, meanwhile, pined for a more traditional, blues-based attack like the band’s halcyon days.

Things got especially heated in 1985 when Jagger released the solo album She’s The Boss. Richards didn’t believe that Jagger’s priorities were in the right place. When the time came to make Dirty Work and Jagger was still fulfilling his promotional duties for his solo record, the simmering tension reached a boil.

‘Work’ Release

Since Jagger was absent at the start of the album-making process, Richards got down to business with Ronnie Wood. Wood, whose songwriting credits had been sparse in his time with The Stones up to that point, earned four co-writing credits on Dirty Work.

Even when Jagger arrived, the band wasn’t firing on all cylinders. None of The Stones were in great shape, and it was rare that all five members were in the studio at the same time. To make matters worse, Ian Stewart, long the band’s road manager and often their keyboardist, died suddenly towards the end of the album-making process.

Dirty Work arrived in March 1986, featuring a cover with the band wearing suits of garishly loud colors. Reviews were mixed, but a pair of hit singles came forth in the form of a cover (“Harlem Shuffle”) and an original (“One Hit (To The Body)”). The video for the latter song featured Jagger and Richards mimicking a brawl. Call that foreshadowing.

No Tour

As disjointed as the album process may have been, the aftermath betrayed even more animosity. Jagger decided against touring behind the record. That was a particularly tough pill for Richards to swallow, since he had crafted many of the songs with the intent of playing them live.

The cold war between the two men raged on for about three years following the release of Dirty Work. During that time, each man released a solo album. Richards’ LP contained the song “You Don’t Move Me”, a biting takedown of his longtime musical partner.

Thankfully, Jagger and Richards came back together for the making of the 1989 album Steel Wheels. A return to form, that album helped to put the bad memories of Dirty Work behind them, ending one of the roughest patches ever between The Glimmer Twins.

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