Despite the fact that they are now famous for being one of the biggest rock bands in the world, The Rolling Stones have often come into problems when writing original music.
The band first got together because they were all obsessed with blues and R&B music. While there will have been multiple influences, a Muddy Waters tour throughout the UK in 1958 was certainly a large contributing factor. His voice and guitar ability was unlike anybody had seen or heard, so when respective members of Rolling Stones found themselves in the crowd, witnesses to sonic revolution in action, it was only a matter of time before they started trying to make such music themselves.
When the band originally formed, they didn’t focus on writing a whole lot of original music, and instead covered some of the R&B artists that inspired them. While they were predominantly a covers band at the very beginning, they were still good enough to turn heads. Not many people were playing this kind of music in the UK, and despite playing other people’s songs, Rolling Stones took to the sound pretty naturally.
When the band started to gain some traction, it became clear to their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, that they would soon need to start making their own original music. Considering the range of classics the band went on to write, you would think that first song came pretty naturally, but that wasn’t the case. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards spent so much time twiddling their fingers and being indecisive on their creative direction that Oldham eventually had to lock them both in a kitchen, threatening to not let them out until they had three minutes of hit single packed and packaged.
The two of them finally wrote ‘As Tears Go By’, a track with Marianne Faithfull that Richards called “Anti-Stones,” however, despite his reservations, he was grateful for the song. “When you start writing, it doesn’t matter where the first one comes from,” he said, “You’ve got to start somewhere, right?”
The band got better at writing music, but that doesn’t mean that every song came easily. For instance, when they were writing Exile on Main St, it took them so long to get their first song down, that when they finally finished ‘All Down The Line’, it was a track that Mick Jagger was sure would be the first single for the album, but engineer Andy Johns wasn’t sure.
“It was the first one that was finished cause we’d be working for months and months,” recalled Johns, “Mick got very enamored. ‘It’s finished! It’s going to be the single!’ I thought, ‘This isn’t really a single, you know’. I remember going out and talking to him and he was playing the piano. ‘Mick, this isn’t a single. It doesn’t compare to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” or “Street Fighting Man”’. ‘Come on, man’. He went, ‘Really? Do you think so?’ I thought, ‘My God. He’s actually listening to me’.”
Johns continued working on the track, but couldn’t tell if the mix was finished or not. He needed to hear it on the radio in order to be definite, but the track would need to be released for that to be the case… or would it? This was when Johns realised the true power that came with being a member of the Rolling Stones, as when he told Mick Jagger he wanted to hear it on the radio, Jagger had it arranged. Only moments later, the band were in the back of a car, listening to the half-finished song being played on the radio.
“So sure enough, we’re touring down Sunset Strip and Keith is in one seat, and I’m in the back where the speakers are with Mick, and Charlie is in there, too. Just because he was bored,” said Johns, “Mick’s got the radio on and the DJ comes on the air, ‘We’re so lucky tonight. We’re the first people to play the new Stones’ record’. And it came on the radio and the speakers in this car were kind of shot. I still couldn’t tell. And it finishes. Then Mick turns around. ‘So?’ ‘I’m still not sure, man. I’m still not used to these speakers’. ‘Oh, we’ll have him play it again then’.”
Many artists have trouble working out when a song is finished and how well it might be received on the radio, but very few are fortunate enough to be in a position like the Rolling Stones, where they can put the song out for a test run.
