“That was your introduction”: The first blues artists Mick Jagger ever heard of
Blues music laid the foundations for the age of rock and roll, but its legacy certainly did not stop there. Even today, you can still hear the influence of early American blues artists in virtually all rock songs and subgenres. One band that has always been hopelessly indebted to the impact of the blues is The Rolling Stones, who first came together during the 1960s under a common adoration of old-school American blues artists, despite being born and bred in the heart of London.
During the early part of the 1960s, the United Kingdom seemed to witness a resurgence in the popularity of American blues music. All of a sudden, groups of young people across the nation were becoming infatuated with the faraway sounds of the United States, and many of those young folks chose to establish bands of their own as a result. The Rolling Stones were no different, having emerged from the shadow of Brian Jones’ group Blues Incorporated, which consisted almost entirely of old blues covers.
The early years of the band were dominated by blues music, with cover versions of classic tracks making up the majority of their setlists and Black American artists serving as the predominant inspiration for many of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ songwriting efforts. Although the group soon became a world-famous rock band with their own distinctive rock sound and persona, the influence of American blues artists has never really left the minds of Jagger or Richards, as they continue to create blues-based rock with the Stones to this day.
On the face of it, England seems an unlikely place for blues music to take root, having very little in common with the American South aside from the prevalence of racism and economic downturn during the mid-20th century. However, if you want to look back at how blues became such an influential movement on budding young artists like Mick Jagger, you only need to look towards the advent of television.
Television was still in its relative infancy during the 1950s and 1960s, and programming was very limited in the UK. As Jagger once recalled to CBS, “There was a lot of visiting blues artists, and there was only one-and-a-half TV channels, and they put them on these TV channels, so that was your introduction.”
Continuing, the songwriter shared, “You saw film clips of old blues artists like Lead Belly. You got visitors that came repeatedly like Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.”
Terry and McGhee were particularly influential in the development of blues during the mid-20th century. Adopting a Piedmont blues style that often bordered on folk blues, the duo had a much broader appeal than some other blues disciples and became notable for their collaborations with artists like Woody Guthrie during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. During this time, the pair also visited the UK and were televised as a result. According to Jagger, these scarce TV appearances formed the earliest influences for The Rolling Stones.
“I think Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were the first blues people I saw, when I was really young on TV. Big Bill Broonzy was another one,” the singer remembered. Explaining his appreciation for the genre, Jagger said simply, “I thought it was different, you know. It was a different kind of entertainment to the pop singers that were on TV.”
Blues offered an alternative to those kids who weren’t convinced by the pithy love songs of the Hit Parade, yearning instead for something honest and from the soul. Mick Jagger took that early inspiration given to him by television and ran with it, creating an entirely new avenue of creative expression and musical rebellion with The Rolling Stones in the process.
