ストーンズ、「都市封鎖」連想させる新曲をサプライズ発表

【ニューヨークＡＦＰ＝時事】英ロックバンド「ザ・ローリング・ストーンズ」は23日、8年ぶりとなる新曲「リヴィング・イン・ア・ゴースト・タウン」を急きょリリースした。（写真は米テキサス州ヒューストンでのコンサートで熱演するザ・ローリング・ストーンズのメンバー。資料写真）
　ボーカルのミック・ジャガーがツイッターでサプライズ発表。「ロックダウン（都市封鎖）の前に、ストーンズはスタジオで新曲のレコーディングをしていた。その中の一曲『リヴィング・イン・ア・ゴースト・タウン』が今、われわれが生きているこの時に共鳴するのではないかと思った」と述べている。
　ジャガーはさらにアップルミュージックとのインタビューでも、新曲はキース・リチャーズと共に１年前に作ったものだが、不思議なほど現在の状況と一致していると語った。
　「かつては活気に満ちていたのに、今はいわば生気が失われてしまった場所にいることを歌ったものだ。ギターを弾きながら１０分ほどでさっと書き上げた」とジャガー。ただ、発表前に歌詞の一部を現状に合わせて少し変更したという。
　「人生はとても美しかった。そして、僕らは皆ロックダウンされた」と歌詞は続く。「どうか、これを終わらせてくれ。終わりのない世界に閉じ込められている」
　リチャーズも「この曲が突然、命を持ったのはちょっと不気味な気もした」が、新型コロナウイルスのパンデミック（世界的な大流行）は新曲をリリースするのにふさわしいタイミングだと考えたとアップルミュージックに話している。「そうしたらミックが連絡してきて、同じことを言ったんだ。賢人は皆同じように考えるものだ、ってね」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/04/24-14:46）

The Rolling Stones on Thursday released their first new original music since 2012, a single aptly named Living in a Ghost Town.
Frontman Mick Jagger announced the surprise release on Twitter, saying, The Stones were in the studio recording new material before the lockdown & one song -- Living In A Ghost Town -- we thought would resonate through the times we're living in.
Speaking to Apple Music moments later, Jagger said he and Keith Richards wrote the song over a year ago, but that it was uncannily fitting to current times.
It wasn't written for now, but it was just one of those odd things, he said.
It was written about being in a place which was full of life but is now bereft of life so to speak... I was just jamming on the guitar and wrote it really quickly in like 10 minutes.
Before releasing the moody song heavy on twang, Jagger tweaked some of the lyrics to fit the contemporary moment.
Some of it is not going to work and some of it was a bit weird and a bit too dark, Jagger said. 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.
The 76-year-old sings of chaos and destruction and the seemingly infinite loneliness of isolation.
Life was so beautiful / Then we all got locked down, Jagger sings.
Please let this be over / Stuck in a world without end.
Also speaking to Apple Music, Richards said the song was cut in 2019 at a Los Angeles studio and re-worked for release recently.
It's sort of eerie when suddenly it's coming to life, he said, adding that he'd been thinking the pandemic was an appropriate time for release.
Then Mick called me and said the same thing and that great minds think alike.
The iconic British rockers have spent much of the past two decades touring, though the coronavirus halted those plans.
The band was set to play 15 shows across North America starting May 8, but all have been postponed due to the pandemic.
Living in a Ghost Town is the Stones' first original work since 2012's Doom and Gloom and One More Shot came out on the greatest hits album GRRR!
The band hasn't released an original album since 2005's A Bigger Bang but have said they've slowly been working on a new collection over the past several years.
Over the weekend, the Stones headlined a marathon virtual concert put on by the international advocacy organization Global Citizen in collaboration with Lady Gaga.
Appearing ageless, Jagger delivered the classic You Can't Always Get What You Want, as his fellow Stones played from their respective homes, including a grinning Charlie Watts on the air drums.