The Rolling Stones
12 x 5 & The Rolling Stones, Now! (1964 & 1965)
“These are the first two Rolling Stones albums I got, and I bought them both on the same day. I listened to those albums over and over again. At that time, the Beatles and Bob Dylan were the big things, but they both wrote their own songs. The Rolling Stones were on the eve of coming out with ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and some great originals, but at the time they were doing very obscure blues covers. I listened to these two albums and thought, There’s a chance for a guy like me.
“I knew I’d never be able to write something like [the Beatles’] ‘Day Tripper,’ ‘Yesterday’ or ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’ And I’d never be able to play the guitar like Jimi Hendrix or do what Dylan’s done. No one’s gonna do what Dylan’s done. Forget it! But when I heard the Stones do ‘Little Red Rooster’ and Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley I thought, This is what I can do. So I did it the best that I could. And that was that.”
“You wanted me to come on your track and do something in a Spanish style. I thought, ‘I have to show him how I do it on the whole guitar’”: Marcin shows an astounded Will Smith his virtuosic guitar technique
“I probably hauled in 20 guitars. I listened to the record top to bottom, turned to him and said, ‘It doesn’t need anything’”: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on the one studio session where he lugged a ton of guitar gear – and didn't use any of it
