Goddess in the Doorway is the fourth solo album by Mick Jagger, released in 2001. The most recent offering from Jagger as a solo artist, it marked his first release with Virgin Records, who he has been contracted with as a member of The Rolling Stones since 1991.
Background
Following his 1993 album Wandering Spirit, and The Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon in 1994 and 1997, Jagger began to work on demo material in 2000, finally reaching the studio in the spring of 2001. Although Jagger would primarily work with Marti Frederiksen and Matt Clifford as producers, he also sanctioned the talents of Lenny Kravitz and Wyclef Jean to help create Goddess in the Doorway. And while the songs would largely be composed by Jagger, he endeavoured to work with other collaborators, namely, Kravitz and Rob Thomas, lead vocalist of Matchbox Twenty. The recording sessions of several of the album's tracks were featured in the documentary Being Mick. The Cover Photo was created by German fashion Designer Karl Lagerfeld.
Recording
While recording was underway, many of Jagger's musician friends, including Bono, Pete Townshend, Thomas, Kravitz, Jean and Joe Perry all made contributions. Townshend, in fact, was the initiating force behind the album. After having heard some of Jagger's demos, he told him that they didn't sound like Rolling Stones songs and that Jagger should record them on his own.
In the summer of 2001, Jagger had bumped into Missy Elliott and requested her to be part of the album. At his New York hotel, Jagger previewed his demo material to Elliott.[1][2] Following their meeting, both Jagger's and Elliott's reps confirmed the two artists were slated to collaborate on the song, "Hide Away," however, due to scheduling conflicts their collaboration never saw the light of day.[2][3] Jagger's collaborations with super-producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins would suffer the same fate.[2] By the end of the summer, Goddess in the Doorway was initially completed and the Kravitz-produced (and almost self-performed) "God Gave Me Everything" was put forward as the lead single that October. The song failed to become a significant hit.
Jann Wenner, chief editor for Rolling Stone magazine, bestowed a five-star instant classic rating upon the album, a score that The New Yorker noted as part of a general trend at the magazine, "an almost cynical way of preserving the critical legitimacy of classic-rock artists."[7] More than two decades later, Wenner defended the review in an interview with The New York Times, saying, "The editors themselves put it at four stars, and there was not a critical backlash to the thing. [...] It’s still quite a good album. So I personally intervened. Having sat there and listened to Mick make it, I was in love with it. I confess: I probably went too far. So what? I’m entitled."[8]
Writing for the New York Daily News, Jim Farber said: "From the musicianship to the production to the performance and the lyrics, everything sounds cold and corporate." Keith Richards regularly referred to the album as Dogshit in the Doorway.[9]
Goddess in the Doorway only reached No. 44 in the UK and No. 39 in the US[10] It has sold 80,778 copies in the UK [11] and 317,000 copies in the US.[12]
Following this, Jagger returned to work with The Rolling Stones on Forty Licks and A Bigger Bang and their respective worldwide tours labelled Licks and A Bigger Bang. Aside from his soundtrack work with David A. Stewart on Alfie in 2004, and the best of collection The Very Best of Mick Jagger released in 2007, Goddess in the Doorway remains his last solo release to date.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Mick Jagger, except where noted
"Brand New Set of Rules" ("Brand New Set of Rules" only runs 3:36; it is followed by 2:56 silence and the hidden track "Goddess in the Doorway (Cocktail Version)" 1:07)
7:39
Total length:
56:42
Japanese edition bonus track
No.
Title
Length
13.
"If Things Could Be Different" (If Things Could Be Different" was also the B-side to "Visions of Paradise" in Europe and "Blue"—a 5:40 Mick Jagger composition—was the B-side of the European single "God Gave Me Everything" and the British single "Visions of Paradise)
