Adam writes…
It’s a BIG anniversary year in pop and rock music this year. Especially for the landmark records celebrating 60 years. Here are just a few of the titles that hit the market in 1964…
When we think of the early Rolling Stones, we often think of a blues band. In the beginning, the blues formed the cornerstone of their set. Listening to their 1964 debut album, however, it must have seemed like something of a hotchpotch to the ear of the blues purist back in 1964.
In this country the album was released in April 1964 and had no title and no band name on the sleeve. This was a stark and radical statement in the world of 1964 pop. When the album was released in the United States however, it was re-titled England’s Newest Hitmakers. Was this an attempt to make the bad sound like the next squeaky-clean jolly mop tops out of old Blighty. This record is many things, but jolly it is not…
Blues & Soul
In common with the debut albums of Dylan – Bob Dylan (1962) – and The Beatles with Please Please Me (1963), the Stones’ first long-player is a cornucopia of musical influences. Dylan draws upon the likes of Bukka White and Blind Lemon Jefferson, and his material ranges from trad folk to gospel numbers. The Beatles’ first record parades Brill Building pop (Goffin & King) with show tunes and Burt Bacharach.
The Stones remit is slightly wider that we often remember. There’s a bit of Motown in there (Can I Get a Witness by Holland, Dozier and Holland). Then there’s Chuck Berry’s Carol – a great version here, my favourite of all Stones versions of Berry’s work. Berry divided opinion at the time, with some hardcore blues fans calling his blues credentials into question, viewing him as a mere rock’n’roller. There’s even a comedy number on there in the shape of Rufus Thomas’s Walking the Dog.
But the blues forms the backbone of the album. The opening cut, Bobby Troupe’s Route 66 had first been recorded back in 1946 by the Nat King Cole trio. Bo Diddley’s shuffling Mona contrasts with a frankly frenetic take on Willie Dixon’s I Just Want To Make Love To You.
The Rock Age Starts Here
For five callow Englishmen from London, Kent and Cheltenham who’d only ever seen America at the pictures, I think they make a pretty good fist of the whole affair. Jagger is on fine, louche, slack-jawed form, drawling the vocals of his black heroes with all his might. Not bad going for a skinny-assed LSE student from Dartford. The guitar interplay between Brian Jones and Keith Richards is particularly noteworthy. Their two pronged attack was worked up over long hours nose-to-nose with guitars in their squalid Edith Grove digs at the wrong end of the King’s Road.
Taken together the three debuts of Dylan, Beatles and Stones – three albums that are often dismissed by the critics as lightweight – document the starting point of the rock age, the battle plan for the next 30 years.
The three albums always remind me of my favourite line in The Beatles Anthology series of documentaries – an insightful quote from McCartney. “It’s hard,” he says, “to imagine a time when Rock’n’Roll was just one of the musics.”
Not so hard when you go back to these great records. All the influences are there. And it’s all up for grabs. Soul, blues, gospel, show tunes, country, folk. It’s the optimism of these records that grabs me every time. Young boys with the world at their feet immersing themselves in the music of other ages, other countries, other ethnicities.
Here’s a playlist with the originals covered by The Stones on that first album from 1964…
And here’s the first album in its entirety…
We discuss the Rolling Stones’ debut album on the Rock’n’Roll London walking tour and The Rolling Stones In 1960s Soho tour.
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