Episode 10: Roll Away The Stones

Welcome! We took a little time off—after all, it is the sweet, sweet summertime—but be assured: we are back. Thank you for your patience.

Episode Ten opens up with Christian narrating at the site of the Bricklayer’s Arms Public House, in Soho, West London, where Brian Jones met with two younger men, school chums, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, in the fall of 1963.

The three of them share a passion for American music—especially the amped-up, tough-sounding Chicago Blues coming out of Chess Records.

We will tell a story about the Rolling Stones by telling a story about the music of Black America—because we think that’s the REAL origin story of the Stones. First, last, and always, the Stones have always been sincere and passionate lovers of American Blues, R&B, and Soul.

So we will meet some academics: folklorists and anthropologists who traced the early roots of the Blues. We will meet some of the early practitioners of this uniquely American art form. We will tell a story that has not been well told until very recently:  the story of the Great Migration, which carried the Blues up and out of the Mississippi Delta to the big cities of the north, and then to the world.  

This journey of nearly 70 years will take us back to where we started, West London. It’s 1964 and the Rolling Stones are banging out the blues before rabid crowds in London clubs. They’ve attracted the notice of the Beatles, and a record deal is imminent.

We close with some brief commentary about that lifelong love affair between “England’s Newest Hit Makers” and the music of Black America.

 Songs

The Rolling Stones: “2120 South Michigan Avenue,” from 12 X 5, 1964 London Records (US Release)

Muddy Waters: “Mannish Boy,” (Written by Willie Dixon) single released 1955, Chess Records

Django Reinhardt: “St Louis Blues,” (Written by W.C. Handy) from Django Reinhardt: Legendary Recordings, re-release in 2014, Profile Records

Mississippi John Hurt: “Candy Man,” from Vanguard Visionaries, re-released in 2007

Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter: “Moanin’,” from Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, re-released in 2015, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter: “Midnight Special,” from Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, re-released in 2015, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter: “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” from Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, re-released in 2015, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter: “Black Betty,” from Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, re-released in 2015, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Bessie Smith: “Nobody Knows You (When you’re Down and Out,),” Single released 1929, Columbia Records

David “Honeyboy” Edwards: “Sweet Home Chicago,” (Written by Robert Johnson), from Last of the Great Mississippi Bluesmen, Live in Dallas, released 2007, The Blue Shoe Project

Charley Patton: “Mississippi Boweavil Blues,” from A Rough Guide to Charley Patton,” released 2012, World Music Network

Robert Johnson: “Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)” from Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released 1990, Columbia Records

Son House: “John the Revelator,” from Father of the Delta Blues: the 1965 Sessions, re-released in 1992, Sony Entertainment

Charley Patton: “Shake it and Break it,” from A Rough Guide to Charley Patton, released 2012, World Music Network

Robert Johnson: “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues,” from Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released 1990, Columbia Records

Robert Johnson: “Walkin’ Blues,” from Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released 1990, Columbia Records

Robert Johnson: “They’re Red Hot,” from Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released 1990, Columbia Records

Robert Johnson: “Hellhound on My Trail,” from Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released 1990, Columbia Records

Robert Johnson: “Terraplane Blues,” from Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released 1990, Columbia Records

Robert Johnson: “Come on in My Kitchen,” from Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released 1990, Columbia Records

Muddy Waters: “Rollin’ Stone,” single released 1950, Chess Records

Muddy Waters: “Rolling and Tumbling,” single released 1950, Aristocrat (later Chess) Records

Muddy Waters: “I Feel Like Going Home,” single released 1948, Aristocrat (later Chess) Records

Howlin’ Wolf: “The Red Rooster,” single released 1960, Chess Records

The Rolling Stones: “The Red Rooster,” from Live 65, 1965 Decca Records (UK release)

The Rolling Stones: “Not Fade Away,” (Written by Buddy Holly) from The Rolling Stones: England’s Newest Hit Makers, 1964 London Records (US release)

The Rolling Stones: “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” (Written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke, and Jerry Wexler) from Live 65, 1965 Decca Records (UK release)

A note about the Robert Johnson songs: in the show, we use recordings that are digitally slowed down—just a little bit, about six to eight percent. We think it possible that at some point during the process of recording Robert’s music and mastering it to disc, it was—probably by accident—speeded up a bit. 

There is a lot of contention about this among Blues aficionados and scholars.

We should say that we are in the minority here. While we find it possible, even plausible, Elijah Wald and most other serious scholars of Robert Johnson’s music don’t generally buy the “it got speeded up somehow” hypothesis.

We just went with our ears: to us they sound better, especially Robert’s singing. And we like the show to sound good. We encourage you to compare and decide for yourself. Here’s a couple useful links:

http://www.npr.org/sections/talk/2010/06/03/127404458/robert-johnson-we-heard-you-all-wrong

http://www.elijahwald.com/johnsonspeed.html

Books

Egan, Sean (2013): The Mammoth Book of the Rolling Stones. Running Press

Guralnick, Peter (1982): Searching for Robert Johnson. Plume Books

Guralnick, Peter (e-book published 2013): Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues and Rock n Roll. Little, Brown & Co.

Palmer, Robert (1981): Deep Blues. Penguin Books

Prial, Dunstan (2006): The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music. Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Sandburg, Carl (1916): Chicago and Other Poems. Holt & Co.

Szwed, John (2010): Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World. Viking Press

Trynka, Paul (2014): Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones. Penguin Books

Wald, Elijah (2004): Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. Harper Collins

Wilkerson, Isabel (2010): The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Vintage Books

Online Sources, by Topic in Order of Appearance

Census Data for Mississippi: retrieved from http://www.census.gov/

Alan Lomax Archives at the Smithsonian Museum: http://research.culturalequity.org/home-audio.jsp