Virgil
Fifty Year Anniversary of Their First Gig
by , 07-12-2012 at 10:50 PM (856 Views)
Talk about old guys who rock! I guess most people know I’m a big Rolling Stones fan. If you don’t, I am. They really are the greatest rock and roll band ever. Today, July 12th 2012 marks the fiftieth anniversary of their first show. You can read about in The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012...first-gig-50thA sober-suited crowd of about 80 men and 30 women were on hand to witness the Rolling Stones' first gig. There was a taste among both sexes for shapeless, utility-style clothes, stout shoes and goofy square glasses. (It's remarkable how many young men seemed to resemble Buddy Holly.) Based on the number of goatees in the photographs, many were also diehard jazz fans; those who were there report that the audience took some time to warm up to the Stones' 50-minute blast of American rhythm and blues.
The band were officially billed as "Mick Jagger and the Rollin' Stones", although the lead vocalist was by no means their most compelling personality. Jagger, his Dartford Grammar school friend Keith Richards, and the self-styled "Cheltenham Shagger" Brian Jones (who had recently come up with the group's name) were the front line. Jagger, who was still a student at the London School of Economics, wore a striped sweater and corduroys; Richards a funereally dark suit; while Jones pogoed up and down, leering at the women. Behind them was the already comically deadpan rhythm section, which for now comprised Richards's art-school friend Dick Taylor on bass and the future Kinks drummer Mick Avory, who sat in for the night. Jagger and Richards were 18 and living at home; Jones was 20; Ian Stewart, a 23-year-old shipping clerk, stood off to the side, eating a pork pie with one hand and playing piano in a loping, barrel-house style with the other.
Check out the entire article; they have a video clip that takes you to the past. And forget Dick Taylor and Mick Avory. The Stones lineup was soon after established with Bill Wyman on bass and Charlie Watts on drums to join up with Jagger, Jones, and Richards. And don’t forget Ian “Stu” Stewart as the unofficial sixth Stone who for marketing reasons was never an official member but was with them from that very first day to his death in 1985.
The article mentioned that on the set list of that first day was “Down the Road Apiece,” a jazzy, boogie-woogie style of blues that was representative of the early Stones music. Here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba0zs...feature=fvwrel
If I don’t listen to those early Stones records for a while, I tend to forget how good a guitarist Brian Jones was. You can hear it here, and you can also hear that interweaving between the two guitars the Stones would perfect and make a signature mark of their music.
If you want to get the best album from the very early Stones, get this one:
Here’s a classic Stones take of a Chuck Berry song off that album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Trt0klETk
It’s amazing how a bunch of kids from London barely 20 years old could play American rhythm and blues so well. How? The collected and studied from their teen years every American blues record they could get their hands on.
Thanks to those old farts for fifty years of rock and roll.
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