Composer:
Muddy Waters
Original
performer: Muddy Waters
(1950)
Recording
date: November 2022-March 2023
Recording
locations: Henson
Recording Studios,
Los Angeles, USA;
Metropolis
Studios, London, England; Sanctuary
Studios, Albany, Bahamas; & MixStar Studios,
Virginia Beach, USA
Producer: Andrew
Watt
Chief engineer:
Paul Lamalfa
Mixers: Andrew Watt & Paul
Lamalfa
Never performed
onstage
Line-up:
Acoustic guitar:
Keith Richards
Vocal: Mick Jagger
Harmonica: Mick Jagger
TrackTalk
He’s like Andy, I don’t have time to write fucking blues lyrics; I’m writing 28 lyrics that I have to make sure I have finished.
It didn't happen immediately. One day, while hanging out with Keith in New York, he was sitting with me talking. But I found it hard to focus on his words because he had an old Martin acoustic guitar in hand, and he was playing the most primal blues I had ever heard in my life. Not many people can play blues like that. Robert Johnson could, Muddy Waters could, and Keith Richards certainly can. He seemed possessed by something, channeling the essence of the blues. It wasn't about complexity; it was about having it in your soul, and Keith had it in spades. It was surprising. I never really thought of him playing a slow Robert Johnson blues, but it's what he really loves. So I made a mental note of it. After that experience, I told Mick that I thought he and Keith should do a straight acoustic blues for the album. Mick found the idea intriguing but was initially noncommittal, given the many other songs we had to complete. But as the record started falling into place, I pushed him again on the idea. Sometimes that goes well, and other times it does not (laughs)... At one point, Keith began telling me the story about how the band got its name, and as he was telling me that, I just asked the dumbest question: Have you guys ever played Rollin' Stone before? He thought for a second and said, no they hadn't which sort of surprised him. They had played every other Muddy Waters song, but ironically, never that song. And that's when I pounced and asked whether he would consider playing it for this record. Keith said he knew it backwards and forward, but the decision ultimately rested with Mick. I said, Give me a second and I'll call him. So I went in the other room, and I called him. I was excited and said, You don't have to write any blues lyrics because you can just tackle Muddy's '"Rollin' Stone". There was a long pause on the phone. At first, I thought he was going be angry that I was pushing the blues idea again, but then he just said, Okay, when do you want to do it? We were finishing up our overdub session, so I suggested doing it that day. As Mick made his way to the studio, Keith began playing the song. And now the hairs were raising on everyone's arms in the studio. They were finally going to record the song that inspired the band's name..
That was a fun thing to do with Keith. We’ve never done that song, so we had to get it down. There’s so many Muddy Waters songs. That one, the song that we named the band after, we’d never done. I don’t know why.
That was Andrew's idea. He turned up at the
studio with a 1920s Gibson L-4 acoustic and asked us to do that
Muddy thing. Ironically, I'd never played that song before, but
the guitar was beautiful, and we did it in a couple of takes.
The guitar that he laid on me was just the perfect sort of
instrument for the job. It was perfectly archaic and, I must
confess, pretty difficult to play (laughs).
Keith, along with his guitar tech, Pierre De Beauport, and
I listened closely to Muddy's original recording as a reference.
We were like Is that an electric guitar? It
seemed unlikely; he was playing acoustic back then, yet the
sound was so heavy because of the way he played and how it was
recorded. So I said I have an acoustic 1930 Gibson
L-4 with me, which is like the L-1 guitar associated with
Robert Johnson. Keith was like Oh, let me see it.
And so he started playing the song. He could play it
beautifully, but it's not an easy guitar to play. It was made
before guitars had truss rods, so there was no way to really
adjust the action. But this is when the universe does its thing.
We started looking at these two pictures of Robert Johnson.
There's the one of him with a cigarette, and there's the other
one of him with the hat (shot from) further away. And we noticed
in the photo of him with the cigarette that he had a capo on the
second fret of his guitar. Keith caught that. So we all asked,
Why is there a capo on the second fret? What does that mean?
Most Robert Johnson songs are in the key of E and A. We
theorized that maybe he tuned down the guitar a full step, to D,
and put a capo on the second fret to bring the guitar back up to
E so that the strings were looser and he could play and bend
easier. So Pierre did exactly that with the L-4, then he handed
it to Keith, who found it played effortlessly - like butter.
Then we debated whether to record using an acoustic or an
electric guitar. Meanwhile, Mick was on his way, and we needed a
plan. Ultimately, we settled on trying it both ways and deciding
later. We set up microphones for the L-4's acoustic sound, and
Pierre added a lipstick pickup to it, so we could rout a signal
through all four amps in Keith's setup, located in another room.
The funny thing was, the volume was so loud from Keith's amps
that the electric sound from the other room began bleeding into
the acoustic mic, creating a fantastic blend.
I love the fact that Andrew kicked everyone out of the studio and said, Mick and Keith, you are going to play the song when you first met, inspired by the album you had under your arm on the station when you were kids: Muddy Waters’ "Rolling Stone Blues”. I thought that was very sweet.
Mick used a bullet microphone for his harmonica, that we routed
through one of my Dumble-modified Fender Champs from the '50s.
He also used another mic for his vocals. However, as they
played, Mick kept moving closer to Keith. Then Mick stood up,
rendering the vocal mic unnecessary because he was right next to
the room microphone that was capturing Keith's guitar.
Ultimately, the recording consisted primarily of this single
room mic, along with a subtle mix of the four amps and a touch
of the bullet microphone, which added an extra layer of edge to
the harmonica.
Mick and I can toss that off in a barroom
to pay for a drink. It was beautiful to be able to do it,
because it wouldn’t have occurred to me to do that. And Andrew
had to force us both to say, Come on. I mean, the song
is, in a way, the most obvious thing to do. After all, the band
is named after that track. When we did it, Mick and I were just
together face to face and going, We got to do the shit here
and lay it out. And so that’s what we did.
Neither of them wore headphones. It was simply the two of them,
playing together.
We used tape actually... for Rolling Stone Blues. We recorded that on tape. Just for fun, kind of a go vibe, you know. Just Keith and me, so we recorded it on a 24-track tape.
We did two takes. It’s not something you want to record over and
over. When we finished, I said to Mick, Well done, Muddy.
I made the decision with Paul Lamalfa, my engineer, that we
would record on tape, because there was no better way to capture
the essence of the moment. The goal was to capture the magic of
two musicians in a room. We aimed to re-create the vibe of
Muddy's original recording, and if there were ever two guys who
could do it, it was Keith and Mick.
It was heavy. It's probably the most
important thing I'll ever record.
This is Mick and me going: here is where it
all started. Mick plays incredible harp, I love the man, and it
is a nod back to the very beginning. Hey, if you want to know
about the band… this is it, baby.
Man, I've never even come close to thinking
of wrapping up the Rolling Stones' story, so my answer to that
is Absolutely not. It was just a cool way of wrapping up
this album, and the story so far.
It's a fitting statement, but it's not a
coda. It's more a tip of the hat to Muddy Waters, Chicago and
all the blues men we learned our stuff from.
We needed some real, so we got as real as
we could get. This is the Rolling Stones. This is what they can
do.