The 1966 song that set Joe Strummer on course to become a punk legend
They came roaring out of the traps like “freaks” from another planet, rattling off music that had never been heard before, but internally, The Rolling Stones knew they were just ripping off their heroes with attitude.
So, when punk came along, Keith Richards quickly saw how it was simply cut from the same cloth that they had been weaving since the 1960s. “There’s always new bands,” the guitarist rather dryly mused. “I’ve seen them come and go, most of them.”
While the rest of the world was hailing the movement as revolutionary, Richards saw nothing new in punk, explaining, “I don’t know if they’re trying a little too hard to make something new out of something that really isn’t.”
On this front, he simply thought the bands were ripping off The Stones, ripping off other bands. “We didn’t consider what we were doing particularly new when we did it,” he mused, as per 50 Licks. “We were really rehashing old stuff. It’s just that people had missed out on it the first time around.”
Yet, Joe Strummer certainly wouldn’t have taken this as an insult. After all, he loved the Stones, and he wanted to revive the spirit that they had helped to serve up in his youth. He had always wanted to be a rocker in his own right ever since ‘Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?’ came into his life and changed it irrevocably in 1966.
“I just have great memories of this coming out,” he said when telling Uncut about his favourite Stones track. “I was at school, and the times were really defined by the Stones and all those great Sixties bands. There certainly was no time to do any school work.”
That might sound frivolous, but for Strummer it was true. He was now devoted to the new alternative life that bands like the Stones were peddling. The song’s searing attitude seemed to embody it. Distorted and growled more so than sung, it was punk before punk and the future Clash rocker was thrilled.
“This is just thrilling,” he continued, “It swoops, falls, picks itself up and comes at you full face on, ruthless descending guitar, brilliant harmonies. And the ‘baby’ in the lyric – very important that ‘baby’,” he beautifully over-analysed in the manner that only the greatest pop can conjure.
In 1966, the Stones were firmly establishing themselves as the dark alternative to The Beatles. They seemed dangerous, and to press that point home, they refused to let their foot off the gas. This also had an impact on Strummer. “It came in the middle of a frantic run of Stones singles,” he recalled.
Concluding, “It was such a feeling to know that next week something like this would be out among us. And the picture sleeve was breathtaking – Charlie Watts in a satin hat!” Sometimes, that’s all it takes to launch the next legend.
In just 11 years, Strummer would join his beloved bastards and blast out the next generation’s barrage of tracks like ‘Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?’
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