"Living in a Ghost Town" is a song by English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

. The song was recorded during sessions of the Rolling Stones in 2019, ultimately being finished the following year. The track is

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

-influenced and features lyrics and a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

that reference the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. It was released as a digital download and

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on 23 April 2020, through

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

. The song was the Rolling Stones' first single in four years and the first original material from the band since "

Doom and Gloom "Doom and Gloom" is the lead single taken from ''GRRR!'', the 50th anniversary compilation album by the Rolling Stones. It was premiered on BBC Radio 2 on 11 October 2012. The song's recording marked the first time that Mick Jagger, Keith Ric ...

" and "

One More Shot "One More Shot" is the second single taken from ''GRRR!'', the 50th anniversary compilation album by the Rolling Stones. It was premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music on 8 November 2012. The song marks the first time that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, C ...

" in 2012. It received generally positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

and was a commercial success, appearing on over a dozen sales and streaming charts. It is the final original recording by the band to feature Charlie Watts before his death in August 2021.

Recording and composition

Since 2017, the Rolling Stones had been on the

No Filter Tour The No Filter Tour was a European/North American concert tour by the Rolling Stones which began on 9 September 2017 in Hamburg, Germany. The tour was scheduled to conclude in 2020 but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour ...

but had to stop touring in 2020 due to the

. The Rolling Stones remotely performed at Global Citizen's ''

Together at Home ''One World: Together at Home'' (also known as ''Together at Home'') is a benefit concert that was organized by Global Citizen of New York City and curated by singer Lady Gaga in support of the World Health Organization. The special was intended ...

'' concert on 18 April 2020, helping raise money for healthcare workers and the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

during the crisis. On 23April, the band released "Living in a Ghost Town" online as a

. It was based on 2019 recording sessions and finished remotely, making this their first original material since 2012 and their first release since the 2016

cover album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

'' Blue & Lonesome''. Vocalist

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

claims to have written the lyrics in 10minutes. The band fast-tracked releasing the song due to its relevance to

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

, which has been used as a method to control the spread of COVID-19. While the original narrative of the song was about being a ghost after a plague, Jagger changed some of the lyrics to refer to the pandemic. Nidhi Gupta of ''

GQ India ''GQ'' is the Indian edition of the American monthly men's magazine called '' GQ''. It is the 15th international edition of ''GQ'' and is published by Condé Nast India Pvt. Ltd., a 100% owned subsidiary of Condé Nast International. Condé Nas ...

'' labeled "Living in a Ghost Town" as a "gentle blues-rock number". Multiple writers noticed a

influence in the song:

Will Hodgkinson Will Hodgkinson is a journalist and author from London (born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne), England. He is the chief rock and pop critic for ''The Times'' newspaper and contributes to ''Mojo'' magazine. He has written for ''The Guardian'', ''The Indepen ...

of ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' described the song as "a slow-paced chug with a tint of reggae", while

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis ( el, Αλέξης Πετρίδης; born 13 September 1971) is a British journalist, head rock and pop critic for the UK newspaper ''The Guardian'', as well as a regular contributor to the magazine '' GQ''. In addition to his mus ...

from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' noted a "vintage reggae flavour" in the song's "stabbing, echoing organ", and ''

Louder Sound ''Classic Rock'' is a British magazine and website dedicated to rock music, owned and published by Future. It was launched in October 1998 and is based in London. The magazine publishes 13 editions a year, mainly covering rock bands from the 60, ...

''s Fraser Lewry calling it "a relaxed piece of reggae-infused

". After the single's release, the Rolling Stones collaborated with Brazilian

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

Alok Alok is an Indian given name of Sanskrit origin. People with the given name Alok *Alok (DJ) (born 1991), Brazilian DJ and music producer *Alok Bhargava (born 1954), Indian-American econometrician * Alok R. Chaturvedi, Professor of Information Syste ...

to create a remix to which, in the view of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''s Daniel Kreps, "Alok applied a buoyant dance-music sheen and propulsive beat ..while still preserving the track's more spectral elements."

Release and reception

The song was initially released for digital download and

as a single on 23 April 2020, being accompanied by a

with footage of empty city streets that was taken from across the world. Once the pandemic subsides, the Rolling Stones plan to resume the No Filter Tour and releasing the single is a means of keeping fans happy who cannot see them live, as well as for promotion of their upcoming album. A

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

and purple

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

, both of which are exclusive to the band's online store, and an orange vinyl for sale by other retailers were later released. Writing in ''

'',

awarded the song four out of five stars, calling it the Rolling Stones' "best new song in years", with particular emphasis on the timely lyrics and reggae influence to the music. Writing for ''

'', Will Hodginkson gave the same score and agreed that the song's pacing and mood captures the experience of being in lockdown during the pandemic. Craig Jenkins of ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

'' opined that the single arrives "right on time" as the "track lands in the sweet spot between wistful boomer nostalgia and tacit acknowledgment that the sands of time have shifted, and once again we’re looking fondly backward instead of excitedly forward". Mark Beaumont of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' panned the track, calling it a "a rushed and half-baked comment on our current predicament", particularly criticizing the lyrics, as "Jagger perhaps doesn't have it in him to speak to the real discomfort and isolation of the average British hutch dweller, or the fear and hopelessness of the millions falling unfairly through the gaping holes in

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...

's fishnet safety packages". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' prepares a regular list of the most notable music releases of the week, and

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''. For ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

'', Tom Breihan briefly commented on the track and the band's relevance, writing that it was highly produced but "rocks harder than you might expect a new Stones song to rock". On 3July 2020, "Living in a Ghost Town" topped the

German singles chart The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindust ...

, after several different special editions were released for the song, making the Rolling Stones the oldest artists ever to reach number one on the chart and giving them the longest-running gap between two number-one singles in Germany, following on from "

Jumpin' Jack Flash "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as a non-album single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, the song was perceived by some as ...

" reaching number one in 1968. Streaming numbers were not higher than they had been for the previous few weeks due to the placement in for the German Charts being purely sales-dependent; it does not depend on the number of streams.

Personnel

Credits sources from single

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

The Rolling Stones *

– vocals, guitar, harmonica,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

(as a member of the

Glimmer Twins In bioinformatics, GLIMMER (Gene Locator and Interpolated Markov ModelER) is used to find genes in prokaryotic DNA. "It is effective at finding genes in bacteria, archea, viruses, typically finding 98-99% of all relatively long protein coding g ...

) *

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

– guitar, backing vocals, production (as a member of the Glimmer Twins) *

Charlie Watts Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021. Originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts developed an i ...

– drums *

Ronnie Wood Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as an official member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, playing guitar with a nu ...

– lead guitar, backing vocals Additional personnel *

Matt Clifford Matt may refer to: *Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt *In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance) *Matt, Switzerland, a mu ...

– keyboards,

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

, saxophone,

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

Darryl Jones Darryl Jones (born December 11, 1961) is an American bass guitarist. He has been recording and touring with the Rolling Stones since 1993. He has also played in bands with Miles Davis and Sting, among others. Career Darryl Jones was born on ...

– bass guitar * Krish Sharma – engineering *

Cenzo Townshend Vincenzo Capellini Townshend (born 28 October 1963) is an English record producer, mixer, and audio engineer, and has worked with artists and bands including the Rolling Stones, a-ha, Kaiser Chiefs, U2, Snow Patrol, Florence and the Machin ...

– mixing *

Don Was Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced s ...

– production

Charts

Release history

References

External links

*
Reviews
at Album of the Year * *
"Living in a Ghost Town"
at

Rate Your Music Rate Your Music (often abbreviated to RYM) is an online collaborative database of music releases and films. Users can catalog items from their personal collection, review them, and assign ratings in a five-star rating system. The site also fea ...

Review of the song
at

MSN.com MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

{{authority control 2020 singles 2020 songs Number-one singles in Germany Reggae rock songs The Rolling Stones songs Song recordings produced by Don Was Song recordings produced by Jagger–Richards Songs written by Jagger–Richards Polydor Records singles Songs about the COVID-19 pandemic British reggae songs