Mick Jagger Doesn’t Get the Appeal of One of The Rolling Stones’ Biggest 1970s Hits

With a career as enduring as The Rolling Stones‘, you’re bound to have a myriad of reactions to your own songs. No one is completely infallible, not even these legendary rockers, and they know it. Mick Jagger once spoke about a hit he was surprised did as well as it did. This 1970s track became one of their most famous, much to Jagger’s chagrin.

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Mick Jagger Is Confused as to Why This Rolling Stones Track Charted as Well as It Did

Exile On Main St. was a controversial Stones work at the time of its release. Many critics were confused by the sprawling tracklist. Moreover, they were knee-deep in hot water while making this record, facing drug busts, tax issues, and poor working conditions in a mobile studio. It’s a wonder this album turned out as masterful as it is now considered.

While fans still consider this album a perfect work from The Stones (and its charting success certainly indicates that opinion), Jagger once called a single from this album not “their best stuff”. He called out the lyrics to the standout track, “Tumbling Dice”, expressing confusion about why fans loved it so much.

“I don’t really know what people like about it,” Jagger once said. “Don’t think it’s our best stuff. I don’t think it has good lyrics. But people seem to really like it, so good for them.”

The Meaning Behind “Tumbling Dice”

It’s kind of funny that Jagger doesn’t like the lyrics to “Tumbling Dice”, considering they are some of the most “Stones-y” lyrics from the album. The band conflates sex with gambling. They delivered a high-octane, seductive track that they have become so accustomed to over the years.

The song began with a riff from Keith Richards before Jagger came up with a matching lyric.

“I got the title in my head, ‘call me the tumbling dice,’ so I had the theme for it,” Jagger once said. “I didn’t know anything about dice playing, but I knew lots of jargon used by dice players. I’d heard gamblers in casinos shouting it out…I asked my housekeeper if she played dice. She did, and she told me these terms. That was the inspiration.”

“’Cause all you women is low down gamblers / Cheatin’ like I don’t know how / Baby, got no flavor, fever in the funk house now / This low down b**chin’ got my poor feet a itchin’ / Don’t you know you know the duece is still wild,” the lyrics read, perfectly weaving in and out of gambling themes and innuendo.

In hindsight, this song was guaranteed to become a fan favorite. If you like The Stones, you know they do this sort of thing well, no matter how Jagger feels about it.

(Photo by Mark Hayward Archive/Redferns)