REMEMBER MICK’S OBSERVATION about the Stones’ first trip to the States in 1964? “It takes time to conquer America.” Well, later that same year, the
second trip to America was quite a different story. This time, the Stones were more than just a blip on the radar of American media. This time their songs “Tell Me” (a Jagger/Richards
original) and “It’s All Over Now” (a cover of the Bobby and Shirley Womack song Murray the K suggested they record) had both spent time on the US Top 40 charts and “Time Is
on My Side” (written by Jerry Ragovoy under the pseudonym of Norman Meade) was on its way to becoming the group’s first Top 10 hit in America. And this time, the band was visible enough
and important enough to be invited on The Ed Sullivan Show (described in chapter 4), and also important enough to headline and close the T.A.M.I. Show (see chapter 6).
But something else was happening as well. The group was transforming and reinventing itself right before our eyes and ears. No longer content with being the top-tier British interpreters of
American rhythm and blues music, the Stones were forging a new identity that relied heavily on the burgeoning songwriting talents of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
There’s a famous quote from the John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart cowboy movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that came out the same year that the Stones got started: “When the
legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
Following that bit of wisdom, here’s the legend. Andrew Loog Oldham figured out that the only true way the Rolling Stones could realistically compete with the Beatles was to slightly
change course and move in a different direction. They had already loaded their first three albums with amazing American R&B covers, but that process could not possibly continue indefinitely.
The group had to follow the Beatles’ lead and begin incorporating much more new, exciting, and original material into their repertoire. Bill complained the most about not being able to get
more of his original songs on a Stones album. Brian was always more interested in covering the masters. And Charlie had no desire to write.
Mick and Keith were quite a different story. Early on, Andrew determined that they had the potential to rival Lennon and McCartney, or, at the very least, take the Stones to the next level of
success. To accomplish this (Look out! Here comes the legend!), he supposedly “locked” Mick and Keith in the kitchen of his flat and told them not to come out until they had an original
song finished.
Keith is the one who relishes telling the “locked-in-the-kitchen” story:
KEITH RICHARDS: With the pressure of the game, Andrew Oldham boxed Mick and me in a kitchen and said, “Come out
with a song.” I said, “Well, we’ve got some food, so I guess we can last for a while.” Eventually, we did come out of the kitchen, with “As Tears Go By,”
which within six weeks was in the Top 10 by Marianne Faithfull. Before that I thought of songwriting as a totally separate job—like there’s the blacksmith, and there’s the
stonemason, and you did this, and I did that. So at that point I integrated that I was not only a guitar player, but that I could write what I was going to play, instead of just revamping all
the time. It was an eye-opener.
Mick demurs:
MICK JAGGER: Keith likes to tell the story about the kitchen, God bless him. I think Andrew may have said something
at some point along the lines of “I should lock you in a room until you’ve written a song,” and in that way mentally he did lock us in a room, but he didn’t literally
lock us in.
They were ALL making it up as they went along. That goes for all four of the Beatles, all one of Bob Dylan (although it took five actors and one actress to portray him in the
2007 biopic I’m Not There!), and all five Rolling Stones. But myths and legends aside, the new formidable songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards was poised to take its
place in the pantheon of great rock writers.
There were other factors that were contributing to the redefinition and redirection of the Rolling Stones in 1965. The balance of power in the group was changing dramatically and swiftly. What
began as Brian Jones’s band of purist blues interpreters was morphing into Mick and Keith’s band of pop prophets and profiteers. Brian’s growing frustration with his change of
status was undeniable.
BILL WYMAN: There came a time when he wanted to write for the band but he couldn’t. He was just not able to
produce a song for the Rolling Stones, which frustrated him. Remember, he was the leader of the band in the beginning. Brian Jones formed the Rolling Stones, not Mick Jagger. And Brian got more
fan mail during the first year and a half than anybody else. When the limelight went away from him, and Mick started getting the attention, Brian found it difficult to deal with.
Simultaneously, Mick and Keith, even more than the Beatles, had their fingers on the pulse of US culture. The romantic notion of America as some sort of dreamlike fantasy world
was giving way to a much more realistic, harsher view of the colonies. As they crisscrossed the country for the third time in twelve months, they witnessed firsthand the commercialism, racism, and
materialism in abundance in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
There is no formula for tuning into the zeitgeist of a country—the cultural, ethical, intellectual, political, or spiritual climate of an era. It is not something that can be conjured or
willed. It is a multiplicity of circumstances and events usually resulting in the rise of a force that is unstoppable. Such a vacuum was created in the 1960s and the Stones were primed to fill it.
Building on an image that was partly truth and partly fiction, they ultimately found a voice and gave a voice to a burgeoning global youth culture. They became the conduit to express the angst,
frustration, rage, and uncertainty of the times for a generation aching to express itself artistically, sexually, and socially.
AS TEARS GO BY
Marianne Faithfull became involved with Mick from 1966 to 1970 and must be counted as one of the great muses in rock history, as well as a legendary singer and performer
in her own right. She spoke to us for the book (briefly). Here’s what she had to say about “As Tears Go By.”
MARIANNE FAITHFULL: This is a song I first sung when I was little. I was seventeen years old. My friends Mick
and Keith wrote it for me. Last night even, as I sing it, I feel it. What a beautiful song. And how wonderful it is for the audience. There are moments I can tell you where I’d like
to retire it. But there are certain songs that I have to sing and “As Tears Go By” is definitely one of them . . . If you are going to have a song slung around your neck for
life, you could do a lot worse . . . What if my hit song was “Wooly Bully”?
The Stones’ rebellion against the establishment finally came together with a single declaration, one that completely changed their future as a band: “(I Can’t Get No)
Satisfaction.” That line said it all: who they were, what they wanted, where they were headed. It screamed non-stop, 24/7, from the phonographs and radios, first in the United States, and
soon thereafter all over the world. Dylan liberated songwriting, the Beatles redefined pop stardom, and both gave the Stones a launchpad for their unique brand of insolence, rebellion, and
decadence.
Tom Wolfe once brazenly suggested: “The Beatles just want to hold your hand. The Rolling Stones want to burn your town down.” “Satisfaction” gave them the match to do it
with.
MICK JAGGER: It was the song that really made the Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge,
monster band. You always need one song. We weren’t American, and America was a big thing, and we always wanted to make it here. It was very impressive the way that song and the popularity
of the band became a worldwide thing. It’s a signature tune, really . . . a kind of signature that everyone knows. It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a
great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs . . . Which was alienation. Or it’s a bit more
than that, maybe, but a kind of sexual alienation. Alienation’s not quite the right word, but it’s one word that would do.
The French have a phrase for it (Don’t they have a phrase for everything?!?): “succès fou”—crazy success. There is “success,” then
there is “unimaginable, wild success.” That is what the Stones achieved first in America, then all over the globe in 1965. Some of it was sheer luck; some of it was sheer timing; but
all of it put them on the path unlike any other in music history.
