The British Blues Revival

OVERVIEW

In the last lesson, we looked at the Beatles. In this lesson, we will consider their counterparts in the British Invasion, the Rolling Stones. As we will see, the Rolling Stones had a very different trajectory than the Beatles did. They began as a blues cover band in London, and although their career exploded at about the same time as the Beatles', they far outlived their Fab Four counterparts as a group. Today, the members of the Rolling Stones are in their seventies and still going strong.

OBJECTIVES

Be ready to:

Recall the British blues revival tradition, which began as British musicians studied and emulated the music of Chicago blues musicians such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters

Recall the early days of the Rolling Stones and consider how their style changed as they moved from recording mostly covers of blues music to writing their own material

Identify the many ways in which the Rolling Stones were the opposite of the Beatles, apart from being a British rock band that was popular beginning in the middle of the 1960s

The British Blues Revival

Muddy Waters

The Beatles came from a background of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, Motown, girl groups, and a variety of other popular music styles. Their earliest songs included covers of music by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Berry Gordy, and Smokey Robinson. In contrast, the Rolling Stones were the product of a growing British interest in and revival of the American electric blues. Instead of relying on the song styles of American popular music like the Beatles had, artists such as the members of the Rolling Stones immersed themselves in the music of the Chicago electric blues tradition.

As we saw in an earlier lesson, the 12-bar blues in the 1920s and 1930s was dominated by two major types: the rural blues, sung by a male singer with a guitar, and the urban blues, sung by a woman with a piano accompaniment or a small combo.

In the 1940s, the blues became both electrified and diversified. Particularly relevant to the British blues enthusiasts was the Chicago electric blues tradition. In this style of blues, artists such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters played music that featured electric slide guitar, harmonica, and a heavy bass line. The electric guitar allowed the musician to not only play at a louder volume but also to experiment with a variety of techniques and timbres on the instrument. Other musicians such as T-Bone Walker and B.B. King included extensive string-bending in their playing styles in imitation of gospel music's vocal delivery.

The blues revival in the UK was largely centered in London. As mentioned in the previous lesson, the music of independent American labels (especially the music of black artists) was difficult to come by in the United Kingdom during the late 1950s and early 1960s. This scarcity of recordings led to a tradition of trading and borrowing recordings among the growing number of London-based blues enthusiasts. These early London blues artists tried to copy the sounds of their favorite records as faithfully as possible in their own performances. Among the British musicians who started their careers in this blues scene are Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, John McLaughlin, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger.

"The Rolling Stones have been the best of all possible worlds: they have the lack of pretension and sentimentality associated with the blues, the rawness and toughness of hard rock, and the depth which always makes you feel that they are in the midst of saying something. They have never impressed me as being kitsch."

-Jon Landau

"Whether it's a blatant homage or unconscious mimicry, the Rolling Stones have permanently, indelibly influenced how rock stars look and behave."

-Diablo Cody

"Piano player Ian Stewart, considered the "6th Stone," was not an official member of the group because manager Andrew Loog Oldham felt he didn't fit the Stones image. "

Songfacts