whole rhythmic thing, and you can hear the two
guitars – they sound different in the mix. It was
one of the first perfect rock-meets-pop songs.
The Stones still inspire me now. Where would
we be without them? I blame them for the fact
that everyone else is still on the road. Before the
Stones came along you had to turn to jazz and
folk to find sixty-year-olds going out on tour. In
pop or rock, once you hit twenty, or at a push
thirty, you were over. The Stones rewrote those
rules, and they continue to do so.
Andy Scott, SweetIt was very hard to choose between this and the
live version of Midnight Rambler [on Get Yer Ya-Ya’s
Out!]. There were such fundamental differences
between their live-y, rock-y shit and the singles
that they put out. I saw them live on TV, and they
are the masters of stretching out one song – they’d
been on stage for forty-five minutes and had only
played three or four tunes. Midnight Rambler is one
of the songs that they really elongate. And they
do it so expertly, better than anyone else I know- even some of the Yankee bands. Which make
you think: “Jesus, let’s go home.”
I once read an interview with Bill [Wyman] on
their inner dynamic – this guy is doing
something, another something else, a third one is
behind the beat and fourth is asleep in the corner.
He wondered how the fuck the thing doesn’t fall
apart. Even the band don’t know, and that’s the
magic of it.
So getting back to your question, I like both of
those aspects of what they do, but if somebody
put a gun to my head then I’d have to go with their
pop side.
Francis Rossi, Status Quo
W
ith early tracks such Walking The Dog
(chosen by Ian Anderson), classic hits
like Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Alice In Chains’
William DuVall) or later-period belters such as
Start Me Up (Marillion’s Steve Hogarth), the stars’
choices confirm one thing: that the Stones really
are the Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band In The World.I’m A King Bee
(From The Rolling Stones, 1964)A
s a teenager I was a huge Beatles fan,
buying everything they did with my
paper-round money. Then along came
the big hoo-hah about these educated bad boys
from the south with The Rolling Stones, their first
album. I was skint, but borrowed the extra cash
from my mother – which took weeks to pay back,
but boy it was worth it. Every track smashed it, and
I was converted into a huge fan. I loved how Mick
Jagger sang their cover of Slim Harpo’s I’m A King
Bee, selling the lyric in such an innuendo-charged
way. I still love that first album today. Somewhere
I still have the original vinyl.
George Glover, Climax Blues BandWalking The Dog
(From The Rolling Stones, 1964)T
his was a breath of fresh air at the time, in
the face of cheesy UK pop chart songs.
I remember learning and playing it in 1964
when I was just seventeen. We played it at a local
youth club dance, and a gang of nasty biker
youths keep saying aggressively: “Play it again.”
In spite of my polite explanations that we had
already played the song three times there waslittle option, as we could not afford to replace
trashed guitars and amps. I lost count of the times
we played it “again” and have never been able to
listen to the song since!
Ian Anderson, Jethro TullIt’s All Over Now
(From 12 X 5, 1964)I
n the early-to-mid-1960s I was in a band
called the Missing Link, who did a lot of
Stones covers, so I go all the way back with
them. I was a bass player back then, and the one
song of theirs that I loved performing live was It’s
All Over Now. Until then I’d been a fan of The
Beatles and The Shadows, so it was a turning
point for me. They made me think: “I really like
that bad-boy image.” I fought that change, but
eventually I had to go with the f low.
The recording of that song is so good, as is theBut we like it – a lot. And so do a lot of stars, who we asked to tell us what their favourite
Rolling Stones track is and what’s so good or so important to them about it. Start ‘em up...Words: Dave Ling, Dave Everley, Polly Glass, Philip Wilding44 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM