The Rolling Stones: The Origin Of The Species – How, Why & Where It All Began
by Alan Clayson

Fresh and rather funny twist on the well-trod Stones story

It’s usually reported that Mick met Keith on a train at Dartford station and the Stones arose from the blues imports under the former’s arm, before screaming commenced and the well-covered dark legend unfurled unto their current immortal status. Childhoods and adolescence, even if factually traced, have rarely been analysed, set in social context or examined with other musical scenes, developments and the lighter-than-lite entertainment going on. For years, RC contributor Alan Clayson has kept archives, consulted local libraries and interviewed contemporaries such as Pretty Things Phil May and Dick Taylor (famously the Stone who jumped ship), Brian Poole and former Yardbirds. He later realised he’d conducted the last interview with Art Wood. It’s a fascinating, entertaining read, with new titbits for Stones buffs (guitarist Mike Cooper nearly joining in 1962), and insights into how the well-known characters developed, particularly guitar delinquent Keith and degenerate genius Brian Jones, whose plan to replace school milk with bottled beer sadly backfired. Clayson looks at how, why and where these characters developed, intertwining the early lives of later Stones, before stopping in 1964. His detailed, humorous style (likening Eric Easton and Andrew Oldham to Colonel Hall and Sergeant Bilko, for example) propels it atop the ever-growing pile of Stones tomes.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

ISBN 78184240389

Reviewed by Kris Needs
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