Rolling Stones: here’s how to listen to the new single, released today
The devil is in the details. Never was an incpit more apt than this. Yes, because the Rolling Stones, those who sang “Sympathy for the devil”, to launch the single which marks their return to the recording scene three years after the last album “Hackney diamonds” and which anticipates thealbum “Foreign tongues” coming out – according to what Rockol has learned – the July 10ththey fielded one marketing strategy with attention to the smallest details. Proving that, when it comes to creating anticipation, no one knows how to move with the same surgical precision as them. The song, published under the pseudonym The Cockroachesit’s called “Rough and twisted“. But don’t look for it on streaming platforms: you won’t find it. No releases on Spotify, no digital previews on YouTube. “Rough and twisted” was released exclusively in 12″ vinylprinted in one extremely limited quantitywith a minimalist white cover. Very few copies distributed in select record stores around the world. Including Italy. Where they literally sold like hot cakes.
The wait came to a head in recent days, when – as already anticipated by Rockol – mysterious posters appeared in London, containing a QR Code which, if framed, took you to the website thecockroaches.com, a page which reproduced the interior of a 1970s style room with a clock in the center giving an appointment to Saturday 11 April and the invitation to register on the site to receive further information. The most attentive fans did not miss the detail (precisely): Cockroaches was a pseudonym that Jagger and company used in the early 1980s for some surprise concerts.
Then between Thursday and Friday the British tabloids ruined the surprise for the Stones and fueled the fans’ hype, revealing that the single – produced by Andrew Watt, the same producer who had supported Jagger and his companions for “Hackney diamonds”, a «song in pure Stones style, built around an electric riff close to that of Start Me Up», would only be released in 12″ vinylprinted in very limited copies made to arrive in several shops around the world. The list of shops was revealed through some geographical coordinates sent to fans who had registered on the site, which linked to the locations of the shops themselves. In our country a copy could be purchased from Psycho Records in Milan: the lucky buyer opened the record immediately after purchasing it and listened to it in the company of the other customers of the shop and the owners.
Other copies were available at Laziale Disco in Rome: they sold like hotcakes there too. “When we opened this morning, we found about ten people waiting for us, outside the shop since dawn”, they say from the music shop, among the best-stocked and busiest in the capital.
Very limited availability also from Semm Music in Bologna.
A release so exclusive that it immediately became a cult object for collectors and enthusiasts. But therefore, beyond those who managed to purchase the very few copies, how can Rolling Stones fans listen to “Rough and twisted”? Only through videos posted on social media by lucky buyers. Like him:
Masters of creative marketing since the days when they chose as their official logo that dirty tongue that has become one of the strongest and most iconic visual brands of all time, this time too the Rolling Stones have surprised everyone. The strategy implemented for the release of “Rough and twisted” in the marketing world is called “scarcity marketing” and – for those who are passionate – it is based on the psychological principle said “scarcity principle”according to which people attribute more value to what is rare or difficult to obtain. By doing so they increase desire and hype among fans and collectors.
It is not known at the moment whether the 12″ vinyl will be reissued.
