It was 54 years ago last April that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards went to Ealing Jazz Club to watch Blues Incorporated, led by guitarist Alexis Korner, a band who then featured one Brian Jones. Three months later The Rollin’ Stones (no ‘g’ then) made their debut at the Marquee Club, along with bassist Dick Taylor (who would later find success with The Pretty Things) and blues aficionado and pianist Ian Stewart. Jagger also did time with Blues Incorporated, singing imports of Chicago blues songs such as Muddy Waters’ 'Got My Mojo Working’ and Eddie Taylor’s ‘Ride ‘Em On Down’. Back then these were more or less contemporary, and fresh, tunes. He had a fine voice then, suitable for the blues, and he still has a fine voice now. Indeed, more than ever it's suitable for the blues, and perhaps not so much anymore for the likes of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'.

54 years later, the biggest band the world has ever seen, go back to their roots on Blue & Lonesome, revisiting some of those songs they first heard live on stage or as vinyl imports, as well as a smattering of post-1962 songs, that inhabited the glory era of Chicago electric blues, as interpreted by the Brits. The mid-60s.

It’s hardly surprising that they have done this. A spent force creatively, the Stones have been in effect a band living off past glories for the last 20 years or so. Since 1997’s Bridges to Babylon album, they have only released one studio album (2005’s A Bigger Bang). As music sales continue to fall, and with such an enormous repertoire of class songs at their disposal, the imperative to release new material has all but been extinguished. Touring, merchandise and royalties are where it's at for a band such as this. But with the prime elements of the band all being in their 70s, who can blame them? They are, indeed, semi-retired.

But, Blue & Lonesome is the smart move; as I write it's winging its way to the top of the album charts. And, it’s obvious that here is a band whose first love was, and still is, blues-infused rock’n’roll. Being a touring band, and one who takes pride in their playing, benefits from this recording immensely. Recorded over just three days and with no overdubs – just like they used to make ‘em – with Don Was at the controls, and in Richmond of all places (within spitting distance of the infamous Crawdaddy Club), Blue & Lonesome replicates the Stones’ early releases, which featured 100% covers, up to their 1964 The Rolling Stones EP. Except this time it’s the first all-blues album, almost all associated with Chicago (along with the deep South); covering tracks by the likes of Jimmy Reed, Howling’ Wolf, Magic Sam, Willie Dixon, Eddie Taylor (the aforementioned 'Ride 'Em On Down') and harp maestro Little Walter.

From the start you can sense the vibe in the room, as the Stones and friends get down to the business of recording 12 tracks for posterity, perhaps the final tracks they will ever lay down in a studio. Beginning with the chugging 12 bar r'n'b of 'Just Your Fool', we then get into some proper meat'n'potatoes blues via Howlin' Wolf's 'Commit A Crime', the menacing guitar interplay of Wood and Richards underpinned by Watts' elegantly no-fuss drumming, and Jagger sounding not much different than he did back in the 60s when he first sang this song. He also plays a mean harp here, as he does throughout the album, foresaking the guitar for once (as Richards does with vocals). The band's sharp division of labour working up a hard-at-work sweat, even if they are ultimately luxuriating in the knowledge that they are rich beyond their wildest dreams. Still, whether rich or poor we all know about other types of trouble, and while these skinny white boys from the south-east could not be much further from the travails and troubles that hit many-an-American bluesman hard, there's no doubting their respect for the genre(s), and the culture and history behind them. Moreover, the boys can play and sing. In particular, Jagger rises to the ocassion, not only via his harp playing, but his vocal performances, which are controlled, but with just the right hint of theatricality. On the incessant grooving and repeating riffage of Little Walter's 'Hate To See You Go', Jagger's elastic drawling lends the song that extra ounce of menace and angst.

On the title track itself, Watts and bassist Darryl Jones provide the deeply languid rhythm to allow Wood, Richards and Jagger to let rip on their respective instruments. Conversely, Jagger's harp is suitably pulled back for the slow-grooving 'All of Your Love', along with a typically neck-hair raising piano solo from Chuck Leavell, on this relatively late blues number, originally done by Magic Sam back in the Summer of Love (1967) when the Stones were donning their finest psychedelic frippery.

Close British contemporary Eric Clapton, who developed his trade as a guitarist via the seminal John Mayall's Bluebreakers, a contemporary of Alexis Korner, features on the Willie Dixon-penned 'I Can't Quit You Baby' and the innuendo-strewn 'Everybody Knows About My Good Thing' ("call the plumber, darling, there must be a leak in my drain," et al), delivering some typically fluid slide guitar work alongside some unusually abrasive solos from Richards and/or Wood.

Apparently made on impulse, the recording ultimately benefits from the quick burst of activity associated with it, and the hard swinging of the band. Stripping away all fat, and indulgence, it's a return to the lean and mean early days when they would plough through dozens of songs in a live set, all covers. They hadn't yet begun the truly life-changing journey of writing their own material. Like The Beatles, they used these songs as a springboard to greater things. And so, in a way, Blue & Lonseome is a homage to those beginnings, a big tip-of-the-hat to those often rudimentary songs and a way of playing that, once they mastered the art of songwriting, would earn them fame and fortune.
Jeff Hemmings

Website: rollingstones.com