Composers: Mick
Jagger & Keith Richards First release: single, April 2020 Recording date: February 2019, c. May
2019 & April 2020 Recording
locations: Henson Recording Studios, Los
Angeles, USA; British Grove Studios, London, England;
& La Fourchette, Pocé-sur-Cisse, France Producers:Don
Was,
Matt Clifford &
The Glimmer TwinsChief
engineers:Krish Sharma&
Matt Clifford Chief
mixer:Cenzo
TownshendPerformed onstage:
2021-22
Line-up:
Drums: Charlie Watts Bass:Darryl Jones Electric
guitars:
Keith Richards, Ron Wood & Mick Jagger Lead
vocals: Mick Jagger Background
vocals: Mick Jagger, Keith
Richards & Ron Wood Harmonica:
Mick Jagger Keyboards:
Matt Clifford Saxophone:
Matt Clifford French
horn: Matt Clifford Flugelhorn:
Matt Clifford
Whoa oh oh oh Whoa oh oh
oh
I'm the ghost Living in a
ghost town
I'm a ghost
Living in a ghost town
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 - yeah
Once this place was humming
And the air was full of drumming
Sound of cymbals crashing
Glasses were all smashing
Trumpets were all screaming
Saxophones were blaring
Nobody was caring
If it's day or night
Whoa oh oh oh Whoa oh oh
oh
I'm a ghost
Living in a ghost town
I'm going nowhere
Shut up all alone
So much time to lose
Just staring at my phone
Every night I am dreaming
That you'll come and creep in my bed
Please let this be over
Not stuck in a world without end
Whoa oh
oh oh Whoa oh oh
oh Whoa oh oh oh Whoa oh oh
oh
I'm a ghost
Living in a ghost town
You can look for me
But I can't be found
Preachers
were all preaching
Charities beseeching
Politicians dealing
Thieves were happy stealing
Widows were all weeping
No beds for us to sleep in
Always had the feeling
It will all come tumbling down
I'm a ghost
Living in a ghost town
You can look for me
But I can't be found (Whoa oh
oh oh) We're all
living in a ghost town
(Whoa oh
oh oh) Oh oh oh Living in a ghost
town
(Whoa oh oh
oh) We
were so beautiful (Whoa oh oh oh) I was your man about
town (Whoa oh oh
oh) Living in this ghost
town (Whoa oh oh
oh) Ain't having any fun
(Whoa oh oh oh) If I want a party (Whoa oh oh
oh) It's a party of one
Whoa oh oh oh Whoa oh oh
oh
TrackTalk
It wasn’t
written for now but it was written about being in a place which
was full of life, and then now it's all bereft of life, so to
speak. And when I went back to what I’d written originally
lyrically, it was all full of plague terms and things like that. I
never actually used that, but it was all there. It was very close
to the times that we’re living through now. But Keith and I both
had the idea that we should release it. But I said, ‘Well I’ve got to rewrite it’.
Some of it is not going to work and some of it was a bit weird and
a bit too dark. So I slightly rewrote it. I didn’t have to rewrite
very much to be honest. It’s very much how I originally did it. I
was just jamming. I was just playing a guitar and just wrote it
like that. I don’t know what frame of mind I must’ve been in. I
mean it was semi-humorous, then it got less humorous and I don’t
know. Sometimes these things take a long time to write but, this,
I just wrote it really quickly in like 10 minutes.
- Mick Jagger, April
2020
(It) was
part of a group of songs we’d recorded quite recently. It just
seemed to fit the times. When I went back to my lyric book and
looked at it, it was a song about being a ghost after a plague.
Obviously I threw in a few more current lines, and then redid some
of the vocals and I redid bits of my guitar and stuff.
- Mick Jagger, August 2020
We played
this song just Keith and myself and a friend of ours, Steve. We
routined it together after I'd done it and we worked some parts
out. And then we went and recorded it with the band. Then last
week I redid the vocals for this. And it’s just open to your own
interpretation to a certain extent of course. But yeah, no, it was
a little strange because the original was so much apropos of the
times we were living through already.
- Mick Jagger, April 2020
(W)e were
cutting Living in a Ghost Town
as part of a new album along with several other tracks. And we
just pulled this one out because I mean obviously I’m staring you
in the face and you say, You've
got to say it now.
- Keith Richards, April
2020
It’s a
strange thing, you know what I mean? But it’s just something that
happens between Mick and me without us having to really think
about it. Mick had come up with a song and we recorded it over a
year ago, I think last February (2019) in LA. It’s sort of eerie
when suddenly it’s coming to life, I mean the ghost comes to life.
Mick and I have been in touch, but obviously only via the
satellite. I had said to Don (Was) about a month or so ago, I
said, Hey, this is a time for
the ghost town track. And then Mick called me and said
the same thing and that great minds think alike. And he said, Yeah I need to fix some of the
lyrics or the vocal. So we sort of did it from outer
space. But I actually liked the way it turned out.
- Keith Richards, April
2020
I enjoyed
working on this track. I think it captures a mood and I hope
people who listen to it will agree.
- Charlie Watts, April
2020
It has a
haunting melody.
- Ron Wood, April 2020
This is a
weird thing about writing. It’s like I’ve written things down
obviously about the times we’re living and everything but then you
want escapism as well. When this comes out, this might be all in
the past or we’re going to be in a different place or we don’t
know what’s going to happen to us. So you don’t want to just
concentrate on this moment. But of course you do want to document
it as well because it’s very important. So you got to just let
things come, see what comes out and be aware that you’ve got a
multitude of choices to draw on.
