Recording 'A Bigger Bang' at La Fourchette and the Sharp Turn Into Politics With 'Sweet Neo Con'

The Rolling Stones cut A Bigger Bang in a château-turned-studio called La Fourchette in the south of France. It was an isolated, almost monastic setup — the band lived on site, recording mostly live in the same room with minimal overdubs. Keith Richards later said the stripped-back energy reminded him of the early days, and the sessions were unusually efficient. But while the surroundings were idyllic, the outside world kept forcing its way in.

Mick Jagger wrote “Sweet Neo Con” after becoming frustrated with the rhetoric surrounding the Iraq War. It’s a rare instance of the Stones writing a direct political protest song — the title itself is a blunt jab at the neoconservative movement, and lines like “You’re a sweet, sweet neo con / And I’m gonna turn you on to the promised land” are dripping with sarcasm. Jagger said he wasn’t trying to be diplomatic; he wanted to call out the people he felt were selling a war under false pretenses. The song stands out on the album not just for its subject matter, but because the Stones usually avoided that kind of explicit finger-pointing.