Sixty years ago (1965), Mick Jagger & the Rolling Stones released the title “The Singer not the Song”. This short Rock-Epos became a Motto for the ongoing international project “Experimental Concert Research”, see the Promo-Article “Beethoven-Mick Jagger”, published in the journal “Das Orchester (The Orchestra) 7-8, 2022.”
An exciting paper entitled “From structural listening to daydreaming: Listening modes influence the individual experience in live concerts”, published a few days ago by C. Weining et al. 2025 in the journal “Psychology of Music”, is the latest product of this “Jagger-Beethoven”-inspired Research Agenda. It should be of interested to all friends of good music—from the lovers of the classical music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770—1827) to the fans of the “Rolling Stones”.
I was very much impressed by the Live-Performance of the then 81-year-old Sir Mick Jagger, born 27th July 1943, during the recent “Stones-Hackney Diamonds-Tour 24”: Twenty perfect Rock-Concerts by Jagger & Company, from Houston-Texas, USA (28th April) to Vancouver, Canada, on 5th July 2024.
As an evolutionary biologist & musician, I admire the physical and reproductive fitness of Jagger & collaborators, and their ability to produce, when Jagger & Richards were 80 years old, a new Studio Album-- Hackney Diamonds-2023: Congratulations- An Outstanding Achievement!
Being a Prog Rock-composer, pianist and music producer, I re-designed, and supplemented, under the influence of the ongoing Jagger-Hackney Diamonds-Tour, the 200-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven-Song "Ode to Joy" from his world-famous "9th Symphony".
The resulting Rocky Piano-Version has been released-distributed worldwide on all Streaming Platforms, from Amazon Music, via Spotify to YouTube Music--see the Music Hub-Link-1 below.
This recent “Ulrich Kutschera-Single” consists of Track-1: Beethoven-Joy Phantasy, and Track-2: Lee Stanford Beet; both pieces of instrumental music are high-quality, Neo-classical “Rocky”- songs that have been air-played by Radio Wigwam and elsewhere.
Beethoven, who was “discovered” in 1809 and promoted as “The German Genius of Orchestra Music” by the author-composer-painter-jurist E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776—1822), soon gained the status of an eccentric ”Rock-Star”, admired by the music-loving Kings & Queens of his time. When he took a walk in Vienna, Austria, where the famous Beethoven lived, people would look around, talk about, and point at this “Freak of Modern Music”.
Hence, Beethoven and Mick Jagger have much in common. Both were “born musicians” and among the top-stars of their respective musical genre; they performed and produced high-quality music. In addition, they were, and are, to some extent, individualistic “egomaniacs”, with a strong love & desire for young, attractive women.
Unfortunately, Beethoven was a small, poor and rather unattractive man, who suffered from a variety of illnesses, so that his “success” in finding a wife was rather limited. In contrast, Mick Jagger is the father of 8 children, born from his unions with five different, beautiful female “reproductive partners”. In evolutionary terms: The “Darwinian Fitness” (i.e., lifetime reproductive success) of “Sir Mick” is high, i.e., his genes will live on, whereas that of “Ludwig van” is zero, so that the unique genetic material of Beethoven has disappeared from the human germline.
Despite these differences, I conclude that it is fair to say that Mick Jagger is the “Beethoven of Rock Music”!
Final comment: The well-known Motto “Creativity and Authenticity are the keys to success”, presented in an Essay on “music-news.com”-- 20. Nov. 2024, applies both to the “classical” Beethoven, and the “rocky” Jagger (see the Link-3 “Creativity”).
Music Hub I
Radio Wigwam I
Creativity I
Buy CDs I
X 
