Who Influenced the Rolling Stones?
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2 min readThe Rolling Stones have reached their 70s yet they keep touring in front of sold out crowds around the world. Moving past the days of all night parties fueled by drugs and drink, the band members keep themselves in shape for the long rocking sets they perform live. When the band started out, they could have been called a Chicago Blues tribute band. Brian Jones (1942 - 1969), Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards were greatly influenced by the electric blues musicians from Chicago. Music from blues legends like Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers were intertwined with the young British band's music. Brian Jones named the band after the Muddy Waters song "Rollin' Stone." Many of the Stones' early songs were blues covers. Keith Richards said, "When we started the Rolling Stones, we were just little kids, right? We felt we had some of the licks down, but our aim was to turn other people on to Muddy Waters." The Stones were also influenced by non-blues musicians such as Buddy Holly and James Brown and mixed them with the blues to make some of the best rock records of all time in the 1960s and 1970s. On what would have been Brian Jones' 75th birthday, we take a look at blues artists who have influenced the Rolling Stones.
Muddy Waters (1913 - 1983) was the "father of modern Chicago blues." Waters made his way from Mississippi to Chicago in 1943. In the 1950s Muddy and his band recorded many classics on Chess Records including "Hoochie Coochie Man." Waters was one of the first to amplify his band's music at gigs. "When I went into the clubs, the first thing I wanted was an amplifier. Couldn't nobody hear you with an acoustic." The Rolling Stones idolized Muddy Waters. Mick Jagger said, I'll always like Muddy Waters till the day I die. Nothing's gonna change that." Keith Richards on Muddy, "Muddy Waters is my man. He's the guy I listened to. Maybe I just picked... up the primal, almost sexual energy with which I play guitar off of him."
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