Goddess In The Doorway

Pete Townshend was a central figure behind Mick Jagger’s fourth solo album, 2001’s Goddess in the Doorway, having heard some of Mick’s demos and telling him that they didn’t sound like Stones songs and that he should record them on his own. Lead single “God Gave Me Everything” was co-written and co-produced by Lenny Kravitz who also played guitar and bass on the track. Mick enlisted five other co-producers on the record including Marti Frederiksen (a frequent collaborator with Aerosmith in the ’90s), Matt Clifford (a Stones/Jagger collaborator since the Steel Wheels days), Chris Potter (The Verve), and Wyclef Jean (The Fugees) and his partner Jerry Duplessis. Pete Townshend, Jim Keltner, Bono, Joe Perry and Rob Thomas all make guest appearances.

“These are all personal songs,” noted Mick. “The concept was all about creating personal songs that could be sung directly to you. So the album would basically be like a guy with a guitar singing a tune. And if the songs would stand it, we wanted to have some orchestration with it as well. But it’s about the songs and what they are saying.”

“In terms of consistency, craftsmanship, and musical experimentation, this album surpasses all of Jagger’s solo work and any Rolling Stones album since Some Girls’,” wrote Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner in his five star review. “The album is almost entirely constructed around Jagger’s rhythm guitar. It is an insuperbly strong record that in time may well reveal itself to be a classic.”