Videodrone #12: Let's Work

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Let's Work (1987)

Although artists have been going solo ever since bands were formed, it seemed like the 1980s brought on a plethora of solo albums. Many of these artists were successful, including Phil Collins, George Michael, Lionel Richie, Ozzy Osbourne and Don Henley. But there were some big names who never quite matched the success they had with their original bands. One of the most notable was Mick Jagger, who kept trying but just wasn't able to surpass the massive achievements of the Rolling Stones.

By 1987, the Stones had been together for about 25 years, which was an eternity for a rock band at that point. Jagger was a huge celebrity and had done some acting, but most of his work was with the Stones. He released his first solo album, She's the Boss, in 1985; it performed decently, hitting #13 on the Billboard 200 and scoring two top 40 hits. Jagger worked with director Julien Temple to create Running Out of Luck, a longform music video for the album. All said, it was a decent album, if not up to the level of the Stones.

Jagger also performed solo at Live Aid and teamed with David Bowie to release a terrible cover of "Dancing in the Street," which got a lot of play on MTV. One person who was not pleased by all this activity was Jagger's bandmate Keith Richards, who was annoyed at Jagger's non-Stones work and began regularly trashing Jagger in the press.

The Stones released Dirty Work in 1986, but the recording sessions were fraught with tension between the band's two leading men, and Jagger was less involved than on previous albums. It sold well but was savaged by the critics and the Stones never toured to support it, with Jagger instead recording a second solo album called Primitive Cool that was released in 1987. 

Jagger called in some heavy hitters to work on the record, including a backing band of Jeff Beck, G.E. Smith, Doug Wimbish and Simon Phillips and guest appearances from Greg Phillinganes, Vernon Reid, Dave Stewart and Omar Hakim. The lead single was "Let's Work," which was Mick's attempt at an upbeat, danceable hit about motivating people to work, I guess. 

"No sitting down on your butt/The world don't owe you/No sitting down in a rut/I wanna show you/Don't waste your energy/On making enemies/Just take a deep breath/And work your way up/Let's work, be proud/Stand tall, touch the clouds/Man and woman, be free/Let's work, kill poverty."

Setting aside the questionable optics of a multimillionaire encouraging the masses to get to work, the song is, well, kinda cheesy. And the video lines up with that. It was directed by Oscar-winner Zbigniew Rybczynski, who also directed many music videos, including Rush's "Time Stand Still" the same year. He used new HDTV technology to make the video, which featured Jagger jogging, dancing and gesticulating in front of a green screen along with people from different walks of life (a newly married couple, firefighters, waiters, construction workers, kids, etc.) as traffic raced past them. 

Mick's using those exaggerated moves and faces that he's previously displayed on stage and in videos, but it all just looks silly. I don't remember seeing it much on MTV, either.

The song didn't do much on the charts, only reaching #39 on the Hot 100. The album hit #41 on the Billboard 200 and didn't even go gold, which at the time wasn't a huge accomplishment. 

Meanwhile, Richards released his first solo album, the excellent Talk is Cheap, in 1988 and did a solo tour. Jagger and Richards reunited and made peace later that year and began working on music for the next Stones album, 1989's Steel Wheels. The band then mounted its first tour in seven years.

Although his feud with Richards was over, Jagger still pursued solo success (after the Stones tour ended). He worked with Rick Rubin and released Wandering Spirit in 1993; it performed better than its predecessor, reaching #11 on the Billboard 200. Jagger rejoined the Stones for two more albums and tours in the '90s and then released Goddess in the Doorway in 2001, his most recent solo album. The Stones have released two albums of original material and toured several times since then. In addition, Jagger joined the supergroup SuperHeavy in 2009 with Dave Stewart, Damian Marley, Joss Stone and A.R. Rahman; the group released an album in 2011, but has done nothing since.

Nobody can accuse Mick Jagger of being lazy. In the case of "Let's Work," maybe he was a little too busy.