How did The Rolling Stones get their name?
Had you been a bright young thing in 1950s Dartford, you might well have come across a fledgling outfit known as The Blues Boys – formed by childhood friends and classmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Back then, they were performing alongside Dick Taylor, Alan Etherington, and Bob Beckwith. When they weren’t practising in Taylor’s garage, they were hunting down blues records, one of which would come to inspire The Blues Boys’ new name, the title of 1965 single by Bob Dylan and the name of a hugely influential music magazine. It was, of course, ‘Rolling Stone Blues’ by the great Muddy Waters.
In March 1962, London’s Ealing Club had just opened its doors. The club’s founders, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies were known for bringing popular American blues acts to the UK and had even had the pleasure of backing Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. In the spring of 1962, their band, Blues Incorporated, paid for the following advertisement in Jazz News: “Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated: The Most Exciting Event Of This Year. Rhythm And Blues Clubs No.1: The Ealing Club, Ealing Broadway, W5 (Immediately Opposite Tube station). Debut Of Britain’s First Rhythm & Blues Band. This Saturday & Every Saturday: 7.30pm.”
The Blues Boys came across the advert and decided to send a demo tape of their best songs to Korner, who invited the band to the Ealing Jazz Club on April 7th, where they met Blues Incorporated member Brian Jones, keyboardist Ian Stewart and drummer Charlie Watts. When Jones left Blues Incorporated in 1962, Jagger, Taylor, and Richards joined him to form a new outfit with drummer Tony Chapman. Jones and the others remained close to Horner and Davies, so when Blues Inc. were offered a spot on BBC’s radios Jazz Club, they asked Brian and the others to fill in for them at London’s Marquee Club. Having secured the gig, Mick Jagger gave his first-ever press interview, telling Jazz News, “I hope they don’t think we’re a rock ‘n roll outfit.”
But before the band could take to the stage, there was the small issue of their name: they didn’t have one. Jones was also on the phone to Jazz News, and was dvertising the group’s show on July 12th, 1962, when he realised he didn’t know how to refer to the band. The story recounted in 2003’s According to the Rolling Stones states that Jones, thinking on his feet, looked around the room for some inspiration and spotted a copy of the 1959 compilation LP The Best Of Muddy Waters lying on the floor. He flipped it over and read the tracklisting for side one. There it was: track five, a song called ‘Rolling Stone Blues’. And with The Rolling Stones were born.
Dave Godin, a childhood friend of Mick and Keith’s, thinks the story is a fabrication. Speaking in an interview quoted by Udiuscovermusic, he claims to have been present “when they decided on the name, and there is no way that it came from the Muddy Waters 78 ‘Rolling Stone Blues.’ No one would be seen dead with 78s, we exclusively had 45s and 7″ EPs. I had the Muddy Waters ‘Mississippi Blues’ EP on London that includes ‘Mannish Boy’ which has the interjection ‘Ooo I’m a rollin’ stone’.” Apparently, Ian Stewart hated the name and thought it made the outfit sound like some ‘Irish Show Band’.
Either way, the name stuck, and Jazz News advertised The Rolling Stones’ first concert with the following: “Mick Jagger, R&B vocalist, is taking an R&B group into the Marquee tomorrow night, while Blues Incorporated do their Jazz Club gig. Called The Rollin’ Stones. The line-up is: Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards & Elmo Lewis (guitars), Dick Taylor (bass), Ian Stewart (piano), & Mick Avory (drums). A second group under Long John Baldry will also be there.” Long John Baldry. Now that’s a bad name.
