The Rolling Stones - Living In A Ghost Town (2020)

One of the few positive things to come out of the Coronavirus pandemic is some good music even though I'm sure we'd all be willing to give up a few excellent tunes to eradicate that bad boy from the face of the Earth.

One of the artists who drew inspiration from the dismal lockdown was The Rolling Stones. They released "Living In A Ghost Town" on streaming services and as an mp3 download back in April 2020. It's also available as a ten-inch, one-sided single on vinyl and as a single track CD on Amazon. I recently purchased the song from iTunes.

The track is the first new, original Stones' music since "Gloom and Doom" and "One More Shot" became available in 2012, and it's the only new work they've released of any kind since their very fine album of blues covers, Blue & Lonesome, in 2016.

"Living In A Ghost Town" is notable for being the group's last recording session featuring their beloved, late Charlie Watts on drums. It was completed by the band remotely in 2020 after they were forced to end a long tour that began in 2017.

Mick Jagger said the song was already in the works when he changed some of the lyrics to discuss social distancing. "You can look for me/But I can't be found/You can search for me/I had to go underground/Life was so beautiful/Then we all got locked down/Feel like a ghost/Living in a ghost town."

"Living In A Ghost Town" debuted to mostly positive reviews. Watts was his usual stellar self, so was Keith Richards. Ron Wood's lead guitar work shined. Jagger proved he is a master of the harmonica and his vocal chords haven't lost anything due to age. The track moves along at the pace of a moderate shuffle and has more backing vocals than a Rolling Stones record usually offers.

The official video shows many scenes of what appears to be the city of London with hardly anyone walking the streets, a scene we were all quite sadly familiar with in 2020.

According to an article posted on March 14, 2023 in NME - published out of the UK - The Stones have been sued for copyright infringement by composer Sergio Garcia Fernandez. The suit states the band "misappropriated many of the recognisable and key protected elements” from two of his songs, 2006’s ‘So Sorry’ and the following year’s ‘Seed Of God’." As of this posting the veteran British rockers have not responded to the complaint.

The little known Fernandez claims that he gave a copy of two songs to one of Jagger's close relatives and that parts of each of them were embedded into the new single.

Please read a very different but positive take on "Living In A Ghost Town" at The College Crowd Digs Me.

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