How the Paris Sessions for 'Dirty Work' Became a Jagger-Richards Battleground, with 'Harlem Shuffle' as the Cease-Fire

By 1985, Mick Jagger was already deep into his solo career, recording She’s the Boss and hanging out with David Bowie, while Keith Richards was still reeling from the heroin bust in Toronto and the death of his son Tara. When they regrouped at Studio Guillaume Tell in Paris to cut Dirty Work, the tension was less an argument and more a cold war. Jagger would show up late, record vocals, then disappear to promote his own projects; Richards would arrive early, drink black coffee mixed with rum, and basically run the band’s rhythm section like a militia commander.

The only moment the two shared real studio chemistry came when they roughed up “Harlem Shuffle,” an obscure 1963 R&B track by Bob & Earl. Jagger’s idea, Richards’ riff – they worked it out in a single afternoon, tearing through the Hammond organ and barking the chorus like they were back in 1969. The rest of the album? A mess of overdubs, separate sessions, and a cover photo where they refused to stand next to each other. Richards later called it “a record made by a band that wasn’t really a band.”