The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones (1964)
The group formed in ’62 and after a couple of changes settled on Mick, Keith, Brian, Bill and Charlie. They were basically a blues band, rehashing old American blues numbers for an increasingly ecstatic audience in London and the Southeast, especially with their residence at Eel Pie Island. The Beatles had exploded on the scene in ’63 and smart new entrepreneurial young guys were looking for bands to make records. Andrew Loog Oldham became the boys manager and helped them get a record contract with Decca, who had famously rejected the Fabs. This first album with it’s moody cover was the result; mostly blues covers from their live act with only one Jagger/Richards composition – the quite poppy ‘Tell Me’. Still they have a raw and exciting sound. I first heard this record as a thirteen year old at Haughley Youth Club and this was the first time I heard numbers like ‘Route 66’ and ‘Walking The Dog’ though I had heard ‘Carol’ as sung by The Beatles. This was a really feel-good record and still brings a smile to my face, even though I didn’t get round to buying a copy until the mid-Seventies. Strangely it has an almost timeless quality, as most of the songs are classics anyway. The boys were almost instantly popular and soon developed their sound into a more pop-rock sound. They were of course, and still remain almost an institution. But a pretty good debut album too.
