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Home , Between the Buttons, Bo Diddley, Brian Jones, Crawdaddy Club, Dick Taylor, Ed Sullivan

HALL OF FAME

The Rolling Stones

By Michael Hill

M a y 1965: In a Florida hotel room, wakes up hearing a Richards had been childhood acquaintances but had drifted apart when in his head that he has to play for M ickjagger immediately. The pair Richards’s family moved out o f the neighborhood. The pair resumed their begin to work on a song that initially has a folkish feel but takes on a more friendship in 1960, after Richards, a technical-school dropout, bumped hard-edged shape a few days later at Chicago’s Chess Studio. W ithin a into Jagger, a student at the School o f Economics, on a local train week, it’s completed at the R C A Studios in H ollywood. The song is and noticed the Jagger was carrying. The enterprising Jagger “Satisfaction,” and it’s destined for inclusion in their new , Out o f was a serious collector, writing away to , in Chicago, for ti­ O u r Heads. It’s also destined, with a deft leap to the top o f the American des he couldn’t secure at home, and he already fronted a group called Lit­ charts, to be ’s first Number One, to define, decisively and dra­ tle Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. matically, the sound and die attitude o f . Richards, w ho leaned more to ’s rock fe? roll and the Even­ They had always wanted to sing the blues, and now they were do­ ly Brothers’ country-inflected pop, soon became a Blue Boy himself, as ing it - in their own fashion, with their own voice and with their own w ell as Jagger’s roommate. Together they scoured the London blues words. It was a different sort o f blues, for sure: “Satisfaction” simulta­ scene, which centered on the Club and its house band, Blues In­ neously suggested a pop star’s premature world-weariness, a consum­ corporated, featuring “the grandfather o f British rock,” Alexis Komer. It er’s constant confusion and a ’s frustrated desire - set to the was there that Jagger and Richards first saw the already up-and-coming meanest groove east o f Detroit. On the surface, “ Satisfaction” was guitarist . They became fast friends, carousing, living and per­ crude and sexy, but beyond Jagger’s snarls and slurs and a riff that forming together. The trio, accompanied by and Tony Chap­ would launch a thousand combos, the song was savvy and cynical, jab­ man, even recorded a demo tape, which was promptly rejected by EMI. bing social commentary wrapped in adolescent petulance. A s Jagger’s and Richards’s talents became apparent, they were wel­ The blues had brought the Rolling Stones together. Jagger and 9 comed into Komer’s musical circle. Jagger and Richards sat in with m ROCK AND ROLL. HALL OF FAME

The Rolling Stones

Blues Incoporated (although purists remained wary o f Komer’s predileo- . Just as Epstein had happened upon tire Beatles at the C av­ tion for rock fe? roll). Blues Incorporated graduated to the larger Marquee ern Club and insisted then and there that he manage the group, Oldham Club, and that was where the earliest version o f the Rolling Stones made instantly saw in the Stones a chance to exploit the “opposite to what the its debut on July 12th, 1962. Beatles were doing,” something more raw, rough and even a little danger' Komer had skipped his usual gig to perform on a live BBC-radio broad' ous. “I was about forty'eight hours ahead o f the rest o f the business in cast, so J agger, who hadn’t been invited along, took the opportunity to getting there,” Oldham told the ls[ew Musical Express ten years later. The book himself, Richards, Jones, (a Blue Boy who later Stones, especially Jones, were impressed by Oldham’s brashness and felt joined the ), drummer M ick Avory (who became a Kink) comfortable with his youth. Oldham brought in an older investor, Eric and keyboardist Ian Stewart (who would remain a behind'the'scenes Easton, and then set about making the Rolling Stones famous. Stone). For subsequent gigs, they advertised themselves as “Brian Jones Getting a record deal this time around wasn’t particularly difficult. and M ick Jagger and the Rollin’ Stones,” their group name paying horn' , an Aèr’R man from Decca, known in the industry for having age to M uddy W aters in the way ’ moniker saluted Buddy turned down the Beatles, wasn’t about to lose out again after he received Holly’s Crickets, and they began to create a small stir for their unlikely a casual tip from during a talent contest they were both mélange o f American blues and current Rfer’B. judging. Harrison had cornei» the Crawdaddy and liked what he saw. A The three principals carried on with a revolving'door week after the Stones signed their contract with Oldham, they were in until they convinced a rather skeptical Charlie W atts, a former drummer Olympic Recording Studios, cutting their first sides for Decca - with for Blues Incorporated, to sign on. They auditioned an equally cautious Oldham, w ho had never before set foot in a studio, producing. Bill W ym an, whose professionaMooking amplifier, as w ell as his bass The result was their debut single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On,” backed playing, made him the most attractive candidate. with W illie Dixon’s “I W antrto Be Loved,” which reached Number In February 1963 iconoclastic entrepreneur offered Twenty'one on the U.K. charts, and the Stones appeared on the T V the Stones a regular gig at his new , at the Station Ho- sh o w Thank Tour Lucky Stars. One of the show’s producers took Old' tel, in Richmond. (The original house band, the Dave Hunt Rhythm 6? ham aside and advised him to dump “that viledooking singer with tire' Blues Band, featuring a guitarist named , was sacked after it tread lips.” They also scored a supporting berth on tour with the Everly failed to show up one night.) The Stones attracted a growing following o f Brothers and . The follow'Up single, “I W anna Be Your fans, as w ell as fellow musicians, including various Beatles, and curious Man,” which cracked the British Top Twenty, had been given to them members o f the press. by its writers, and Paul McCartney. They also attracted an ambitious nineteenyearold named Andrew In January 1964 the Stones began their first headlining U.K. Loog Oldham, then employed as a press officer by Beatles manager 10 tour, accompanied by . saw sufficient ROCK AND R □ L l_ HALL DF FAME

The Rolling Stones

threat in the Stones’ image to send them a telegram ordering them to their hip suburban peers could understand. “stay away from my girls.” The Stones’ third single, a version o f Bud' Then came “Satisfaction.” dy Holly’s “N ot Fade Away,” made it to Number Three in Britain and Jagger and Richards won an audience beyond teens looking for new provided a modest entry to American radio via London Records. Ah frve raves to call their own. College kids, critics and assorted hipsters be' though Spector may have wanted to keep the Stones at bay where the gan to appreciate the Stones’ rebelliousness, arrogance, intensity and dew Ronettes were concerned, he was impressed w ith their music. He il'tnay'care look. They were the prototype for a new kind of youth style played maracas on “N ot Fade Aw ay” and co-wrote the B side, “Little that would evolve and grow as the music exerted an ever more powerful By Little,” w ith the group. influence on mores as w ell as fashion. The acclaim o f this burgeoning au' Spector also sat in on the sessions for the group’s first LP, The Rolling dience would be matched by outrage from the powers that be; even O ld' S tones. Released in , on Decca, the album caused a sensation ham would not be able to contain things once the press, not to mention throughout . It knocked the Beatles from the top o f the charts the police, turned ugly. and generated both excitement and controversy for its interpretations o f In 1965 the Stones’ troubles remained fairly innocuous: they were the work o f such black American as Chuck Berry, Slim summoned to court for urinating on a gas'Station wall after they were re' Harpo, and Bo Diddley. Jagger responded those who fused admittance to the restroom. (They were ultimately fined three doubted the seriousness o f the group’s intentions in a letter to M elod y pounds each for “insulting behavior.”) “Satisfaction,” too, had the dis' M a\er: “To the critics, them, who think w e’re a beat group who came up tinction o f being banned on many American radio stations for its alleged' overnight, knowing nothing about it, w e invite them to examine o u r r e c' ly suggestive lyrics. (Thanks to Jagger’s delivery, programmers seemed ord collection. It contains things by Jimmy Reed, , Hooker more frightened o f what they couldn’t understand than the lyrics they and a stack o f private tapes by Little W alter.....” could decipher.) However pure the Stones’ musical aspirations might have been at A fterm a th , released in April 1966, was the first Stones album to com the time, the adult public was unanimous in its shock at the seeming tain all Jagger-Richards originals. Over the next few months it shared il­ impurity o f their behavior, a perception Oldham did nothing to dis' lustrious company on the charts: the Beatles’ R evolver and ’s courage. “Everything seems to be against them on the surface,” a w rit' . The record matched the formidable competition with e r in th e Daily M irror remarked. “They are called the ugliest group in brittle, unsentimental pop that strayed far from the Stones’ blues roots. Britain. They are not looked upon kindly by most parents or by adults The Stones didn’t simply explore the vicissitudes o f romance; they de- in general. They are used to the type o f article that asks big brother if tailed the battle o f the sexes . Tracks like “Out o f Time,” he would let his sister go out with one o f them.” The tabloid J^ews o f with its deceptively jaunty accents, “Under M y Thumb” and th e W o r ld wasn’t quite so objective, branding the Stones “five indo' “Stupid Girl” seemed like misogynist tracts but really addressed issues o f lent morons [who] give one the feeling that they enjoy wallowing in a class as w ell as sex. “Lady Jane” cast them as latter-day Elizabethans, swill-tub o f their ow n repulsiveness.” w ith Brian Jones on dulcimer, one o f the many arcane embellishments he Arriving in America in , for a whirlwind tour, the Stones contributed to the record. “Mother’s Little Helper,” on the British edi­ were described by the as “dirtier and streakier and more tion, approached the newly fashionable subject o f drugs, which had cer­ disheveled than the Beatles, and, in some places, they are more popular tainly been broached by the Beatles and Dylan. The Stones, however, than the Beatles.” The Stones garnered the most attention during their turned the tables on the topic, attacking the middle-class for hiding its short stay for a visit to their spiritual home, Chess Studios, in Chicago, own addictions. where they recorded tracks for a British EP and met a few o f their biggest In the summer o f 1966, the Stones returned to America for their fifth heroes, Chuck Berry, M uddy W aters and W illie Dixon. (One o f the tour, which would be the last w ith the original lineup. A s Jagger and Chess tracks, “,” was banned in America for Jagger’s Richards began to dominate the band, Jones, who had initially been the allegedly lascivious rendering o f the lyrics. It reached Number One, how ' band’s sex symbol and most accomplished player, began to distance ever, in Britain.) himself from the music and the band (and became more and more familiar In America the Stones found not only their mentors and the places and w ith the sex-and-drugs part o f the rock & roll equation). frees that populated their songs but also a quality o f recording that sur' In , once again booked the band, despite his passed anything they had experienced back home. Their British chart' previous qualms, and once again came away appalled (commercial canni­ topping “ItVA ll Over Now,” which featured Jagger’s much-censored (in ness prevented him from banning them, though). Jones looked decidedly the States, at least) reference to “half-assed games,” was recorded in the decadent during “Lady Jane,” and Jagger carried on in Eliazbethan fop­ IIS ., as ^ere most o f the tracks for their second album. The Stones re' pery, leaning and sneering at the cameras. The band took this outrageous- turned to the States in the fall, bolstered by the Top Ten showing o f ness even further during a photo session by posing in for “Time Is on M y Side,” and appeared on . Sullivan, the single sleeve o f “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby (Standing in the naturally, was appalled. “I promise you they’ll never be back on our Shadow),” a song Jagger described as “the ultimate freakout. . . w h a t . show,” he told the press. “Frankly, I didn’t see the group before the more can w e say?” Their following single, “Let’s Spend the Night To­ broadcast. They were recommended by my scouts in England. I was gether,” was introduced w ith another characteristically controversial spot shocked when I saw them. It took me years to build this show; I’m not on Sullivan — did Jagger mutter “night,” “sometime” or “mmmmmm” on going to have it destroyed in a matter o f weeks.” that saucy chorus? The lyrics prompted radio programmers to go w ith the If the Rolling Stones seemed a threat to home and hearth as blues'be' flip side, the pastoral “Ruby Tuesday.” (Few knew that the name was sotted bad boys in a field o f moptops, in 1965 they turned downright sub' purported to belong to a famous .) versive when Jagger and Richards emerged as a potent and hit'worthy Itt 1967 the band, back in the U.K., was beset by more than just tab­ songwriting team. Although they aimed for the top o f the charts, that loid troubles. W ithin a month o f the release o f , wasn’t their only target They were as precocious and prescient as Lett' which contained the unjustly overlooked “Miss Amanda Jones” and the non and McCartney. They anticipated the moods o f their peers; pioneer' teasing music-hall sendup “Something Happened to M e Yesterday,” the ed, at the urging o f Brian Jones, exotic instrumentation on humble rock media’s former playfulness had turned to harassment, which led to drug 6? roll tracks; and unsettled their elders w ith barbed commentary on the busts that effectively put the band out o f commission as a touring unit for lifestyles o f the rich and English. Their string o f major hits began w ith the more than just the Summer o f Love. It was an ironic turn o f events: the entirely self-penned “The Last Time,” backed with “Play with Fire.” Jag' Beatles had chosen to retire to the shelter o f the studio, Dylan was about ger, the journeyman blues singer, swaggered on the A side and smoldered to be sidelined by his mysterious motorcycle accident, and the Stones on the flip; his lyrics translated the sexual audacity o f Stones’ favorites were stymied by court dates and the threat o f jail. Even the London like “I’m a King Bee” and T ittle Red Rooster” to a setting any of Tim es had to sympathize w ith the band finally, declaring a miscarriage