Being ignorant is not a crime - just an opportunity for good teachers, and it's part of the Stones' legacy that those ignorant white kids now know all about the black musicians who did it so much better, and can compare the Stones early covers unfavourably to their originals.

Although the young Stones were quite shameless in marketing their bad-boy image, I think the intention of their cover versions was always and honestly to turn their audiences on to the music that had inspired them, by doing their best to copy it. This wasn't the kind of cynical corporate rip-off of black artists' work that did take place in the States.

I'll come to "uninspiring" later on, when I've found a book I want to quote from...

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Green Lady
Being ignorant is not a crime - just an opportunity for good teachers, and it's part of the Stones' legacy that those ignorant white kids now know all about the black musicians who did it so much better, and can compare the Stones early covers unfavourably to their originals.

Although the young Stones were quite shameless in marketing their bad-boy image, I think the intention of their cover versions was always and honestly to turn their audiences on to the music that had inspired them, by doing their best to copy it. This wasn't the kind of cynical corporate rip-off of black artists' work that did take place in the States.

I'll come to "uninspiring" later on, when I've found a book I want to quote from...

I love you Green Lady, you are the tops...and you can quote me on that one.

Quote
Green Lady
Being ignorant is not a crime - just an opportunity for good teachers, and it's part of the Stones' legacy that those ignorant white kids now know all about the black musicians who did it so much better, and can compare the Stones early covers unfavourably to their originals.

Some of the Stones early covers surpass or create a 'new' cover. Little Red Rooster is not like the rough Howlin' Wolf version, but it's just as valid. Brian Jones bottleneck lead is as good as any black slide player ever came up with. Same on 'I Can't Be Satisfied'. And the Stones version of Mona is unsurpassed.

The blues didn't bother them. Where I saw them get into trouble were covers of pop songs like 'Under the Boardwalk' and the never released Da Doo Ron Ron.

Right, I found the book ... The scene is a stuffy boarding school in 1960s England:-

The boarders' communal room, a small, badly heated square space intended for the reading of improving books and serious newspapers, also contained a Grundig mono record player and a large tube radio, both put to purposeful use by Johnny Mellor and his cohorts. Another contemporary, Andy Ward, recalls hearing "Little Red Rooster" by the Rolling Stones blasting out of the window, Johnny Mellor silhouetted in the frame as he mimed exaggeratedly to the Stones' cover of the blues classic.

In 1988 he told the NME's Sean O'Hagan that one record had changed his life, the Rolling Stones' "Not Fade Away", which came out in 1964, about a year before "Little Red Rooster". "'Not Fade Away' sounded like the road to freedom. Seriously. It said: 'LIVE! ENJOY LIFE! F*CK CHARTERED ACCOUNTANCY!'" Later he expanded on this. "I remember hearing 'Not Fade Away' by the Rolling Stones coming out of this huge wooden radio in the day room. Very loud - they always kept it on very loud. And I remember walking into the room and that's the moment I thought: 'This is something else! This is completely opposite all the other stuff we're having to suffer here.' It was really a brutal situation. That's the moment I think I decided here is at least a gap in the clouds, or here's a light shining. And that's the moment I think I fell for music. I think I made a subconscious decision to only follow music forever."

Johnny Mellor is the real name of the boy who eventually became "Joe Strummer" of the Clash.

(quote from "Redemption Song", Chris Salewicz's biography of Joe Strummer - a very good read and highly recommended.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-07-03 14:00 by Green Lady.

That is excellent, Green Lady! :-) I love the earliest stuff, perhaps because it was the first Stones tunes I ever heard as a teenager in early 90s. I listened to my father´s vinyl and his mixed tape with songs from the first Stones albums on. Not fade away is perfection! Brian´s harp does it for me. And there are some wild live versions where it sounds like he is killing the instrument, hehe. :-)