Mick Jagger and Carly Simon Duet Rediscovered after 45 Years
A song written and recorded by Mick Jagger and Carly Simon during an hour-long piano session has been rediscovered after 45 years.
Thought to be entitled “Fragile,” it’s never been heard in public, although short sections of it have appeared in Rolling Stones fans’ bootleg collections.
Billboard reported that the “slow love ballad that has Jagger and Simon seemingly sitting together at a piano and singing” was found by London-based Stones collector Matt Lee on a tape he’d owned for some time. He said he’d had it transferred to digital and sent a copy to Rolling Stone magazine so it could then be sent on to Simon. “I’m not doing it for the money,” Lee stated. “I’m a collector. My motive for sending it to Rolling Stone was to pass it to Carly.”
Simon discussed the 1972 track during a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, confirming that it had been recorded after Jagger had made a guest appearance on her classic track “You’re So Vain.”
“We sat down at the piano and I started playing these chords – Mick asked me how I knew them all," she said. "I played the chord sequence from the line [in “You’re So Vain”] that goes, ‘You gave away the things you loved,’ and he started singing. We had this little back and forth at the piano for about an hour.”
Simon said she’d only seen Jagger twice since that time, and felt “uncomfortable” during the most recent experience, when she sat near him at an aftershow party. “My relationship [with Mick] happened at a time that was most inconvenient,” she recalled. “And certainly there was a great electricity between us. It made me nervous. … Mick has a very, very attractive way of being with you, whether you’re male or female. He’s incredibly seductive. I couldn’t accept those charms because of being already in love. I don’t know whether he was hurt.”