It is 60 years since the Rolling Stones’ first album. On this day, April 16, 1964, the band’s self-titled album was released, which would be the beginning of one of the most successful and long-lasting careers in the history of music.
At that time, the group was made up of Mick jagger (voice and harmonica), Keith Richards and Brian Jones (guitar and backing vocals), Bill Wyman (low) and Charlie Watts (battery). Ian Stewart, nicknamed the ‘Rolling Sixth’, played organ and keyboards on several songs. The producers were Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton and the cover photographer was Nicholas Wright.
The record label was Decca Records in the English version, London Records in the North American version, and it was recorded at Regent Sound Studio, on the legendary Denmark Street in London, where there is now a musical instrument store.
Keith Richards confirmed the precariousness of the recording of the first work: “We said ‘oh, this is a recording studio, huh? A little back room’. Under those primitive conditions it was easy to make the kind of sound we got on our first album and first singles, but difficult to make one much better”.
After the release of the ‘LP’ in the United States under the name ‘England’s Newest Hit Makers’, It would end up being the unofficial name of the album. In the song list there are many covers of artists, especially R&B (Rhythm and blues), such as ‘I just want to make love to you’ by Willie Dixon, ‘Honest I do’ by Jimmy Reed, ‘Mona (I need you baby)’ by Bo Diddley, ‘I’m a king bee’ by Slim Harpo, ‘Carol’ of the legendary Chuck Berry, ‘Can I get a witness’ of the Holland-Dozier-Holland trio and ‘Walking the dog’ by Rufus C. Thomas Jr.
Songs by jazz musicians such as ‘Route 66’ by Bobby Troup and ‘You can make if you try’ by composer Ted Jarrett and which Gene Allison had performed in 1958 with a style that leaned more towards soul and the Rollings turned it into blues.
The only proper themes were ‘Tell me (You’re coming back)’, ‘Now I’ve Got a Witness (Like Uncle Phil and Uncle Gene)’ and ‘Little by Little’although in the latter two they signed with the pseudonym Nanker Phelge.
Image of the vinyl of The Rolling Stones’ first album Decca Records
This name was used for the first songs composed by the entire group from 1963 to 1965, in addition to the quintet Jagger, Jones, Richards, Wyman and Watts, it also included the producer Andrew Loog Oldham and, according to the records of ASCAP, the American society of authors, in the first songs to the keyboardist Ian Stewart. Later he generated disputes over the copyright of some topics such as ‘Paint it black’.
On the North American edition of the album the version of ‘Not Fade Away’ by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty and ‘Mona (I need you baby)’ disappeared.
Blues is one of the favorite musical styles and that gives its name to the group (and, therefore, to the album) since the Rolling Stones took from a song by Muddy Waters from 1948 that says “He’s gonna be, he’s gonna be a Rollin’ Stone” called ‘Catfish Blues’, as reflected in the film ‘Cadillac Records’.
The album is a tribute to the blues musicians who forged the beginnings of rock’n’roll, with Chuck Berry as the greatest exponent on the guitar and Elvis Presley as proclaimed king. But the Rolling Stones, ‘Their Satanic Majesties’, have led R&R on their shoulders for more years than any other artist.
The fresh and ‘amateur’ sound, even somewhat dirty, that predicts the beginnings of punk rock, of some twenty-somethings who amazed the world and sneaked in during 12 weeks as number one of the charts in the United Kingdom with his first work. “On the first album, we released everything in mono, like the R’n’B records we loved, we liked their rawness. The band had to record live in the studio,” Bill Wyman said in an interview, that’s why it sounded more like a live performance than a professional recording.
They became involved in the revival of blues, that black music in decline, by taking several of these artists on tour and collaborating with them. They were always committed and refused to play on their first tours in the United States in venues that were still segregated by race.
Of ‘The Rolling Stones’ to ‘Hackney Diamonds’
‘The Rolling Stones’ was the first of 31 studio albums, the last one was called ‘Hackney Diamonds’ and it was published in 2023, after seven years without releasing new material. Almost six decades between the first and he, until now, last album from an iconic band from the beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll.
Mick Jagger kept the word he gave in a 1972 interview with Dick Cavett in Martin Scorsese’s 2008 documentary ‘Shine a light’ when he was asked: “Can you picture yourself at the age of 60 doing what you do now“?” (Can you see yourself doing this at 60 years old?) and he answered: “Yeah, easily” (yes, easily). Not only has he complied, but he Next April 28 they start a tour for the United States, when his first album has turned 60 years old and he is an octogenarian.
‘Their Satanic Majesties’ are a transgenerational band, which has overcome, for now, the inevitable passage of time.
