Text "Marquee '62" (Walter Schäppi)

It's better to light up a small candle, tahn to complain about darkness. (Confucius)

It was 25 years ago that the Rolling Stones had their first legendary gig as The Rollin' Stones at the famous Marquee Club. This concert remained unrecorded, which is confirmed in F. Aeppli's trendsetting book Heart of stone. This album should at least give you an idea of the way the Stones played there.

To the Marquee songs I have added:

• One special song which needs no further explanation.
• The three songs of their first studio session. Those songs, as the following one, have never been released to date.
• As I didn't want to repeat the remarkable joke of leaving the 4th side without music, it includes a wide variety of blues songs which should encourage you to compare them to the covers.

Each album contains an 18 page booklet which I worked at from November 1986 to March 1987. Some parts were rewritten in June 1987; and 33 albums have a numbered tape with 35 more songs! First come, first served!

Why this album? Every song has been officially released, i. e. easy job to dub...

• Out of these 18 Marquee tunes, only four are known in at least one studio version, and recorded with a different line-up. I know from experience that there are a lot of Stones fans who don't know too many of the listed musicians, let alone the songs! I find that it's important for every real fan to be familiar with the roots of the Stones' music, or as Mick said in 1968: "What's the point in listening to us doing I'm a king bee when you can hear Slim Harpo do it?" Maybe you will not like some of these tunes, but then you shouldn't forget that the boys were crazy about them!
• Some of these tunes are by no means easy to obtain, and more easily available blues records are not always part of a collection.
• ...and this album makes more sense than to be forced to listen to the 47th version of "Brown sugar"!

Concerning song titles and composer credits, the existing information was not accurate enough, so I have collected the most important resp. interesting info from books, magazines, record sleeves and other sources, especially by listening to hundreds of records. In any case, it's work that repays the labour well!

Now listen to the songs and put together your own Marquee tape, and try to imagine how they played then. Fantasy is not a question of age...

I want to thank everyone, who, knowingly or unknowingly, helped me realise this project.

Dr. Blues jun. [= Walter Schäppi]

PS: The doctors Rock'n'Roll, Soul, Safe T. First and Country clearly say that they are not thinking of coming up with anything similar to this project!

Marquee International Jazz Club, 12th July 1962: Some personal remarks.

• R&B to the bone! In comparison to the Beatles (Star Club album from 1962!) and further bands from the Merseyside, the Stones were really different, despite Chuck Berry's heavy influence on all of these guys.
• The concert was organised very spontaneously. So they had to choose songs which they were very familiar with. As the group's member's showed different tastes, a variety of songs came together. Yet it's really to simple to say: Mick → Jimmy Reed, Keith → Chuck Berry, Brian → Elmore James and Stu → boogie woogie.
• As ist was a club performance this 18 song set was not too long, though it may be then seen so in retrospect. There was still a long way to the 8 song sets!
• They didn't play any Bo Diddley songs, and not more than two of Chuck Berry. Was there any fear of being considered a R&R band? On the other hand, there were ten songs by Jimmy Reed resp. Eddie Taylor and three by Elmore james! (There was only one Jimmy Reed song on an officially released record, but Jimmy Reed's and Elmore James's strong influences can hardly be overheard in the group later recordings.)
• In Britain the sources of black blues music were very limited. Records weren't easy to obtain, almost nothing could be heard on airwaves, with exception of the AFN and Radio Luxembourg, and the pop papers were stultifying garbage. So how did they come across these songs? Rare record shops which imported authentic blues records, art schools and clubs like Marquee and Ealing became meeting places and made discussions about musicians and songs, jams, rehearsals possible, and sometimes an effort to build up a band. (A remarkable number of black musicians had visited England before 1962. Big Bill Broonzy first, then J. White, Otis Spann, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry, Brownie M. Gee, Sp. Red, Willie Dixon, Memphis Slim, J. J. Dupree, Jimmy Cotton, Roosevelt Sykes and L. B. Montgomery. But there is no hint, that a Stone saw one of these gigs!)
• What did it sound like? In comparison to Blues Incorporated, the regular Thursday band, the Stones' music was brasher, rawer, less jazzy (no horns!), and probably louder. And it was based on two electric guitars, "supported" by harp, piano, bass guitar and drums, like a blues band from Chicago! So it was totally new for the big part of the audience. With exception of a few notes in Stu's diary, there are no specific hints concerning arrangements. So it's not always clear which version of a song could have influenced them. (Only one record is mentioned: when Mick met Keith after several years of separation, he was carrying Berry's Rockin' at the hops with him - including "Confessin' the blues" and "Down the road apiece".) Generally they must must have been influenced by such a large number of musicians (blues, R&R, C&W) that the result would be a list too long to even begin to reproduce.
• No home game but a nervous debut of a new band. At that point of time there were no "screamies" around. The audience was not influenced by fame but could only be impressed by quality music. The audience's reaction was said to have been very mixed, but at the end of the gig, people felt more for the Stones than against.

Yeah, well, how can I tell you?

You've surely noticed that the sound of the LPs is really different to the description given on the front side: it sounds as if the songs were dubbed from old scratchy 78 rpm records. But most of the recordings are in reality excellent. (There's no doubt that thirty or forty years ago many sound engineers did a great job!)

It isn't my intention, as you may suggest, to force you to buy all the "original" records with their far better sound. (But the idea isn't that bad, could be mine!)

Hard luck that my tape deck ceased to work exactly one day before the deadline. Instead of postponing the project for some months, I recorded the whole lot with another (most probably faulty) deck. Sorry, hi-fi freaks!

Anything else? The "producer" has changed side C and D, and the somewhat strange labels were not my idea. (My agent told me that these people wouldn't think too much about their work. It seems he's right!)

What's that to me? I have a perfect tape (and all the LPs). Stones fans buy everything. OK, where's the problem?

Not that way!! As consolation, you get a tape with those songs I would have put on record in 1987. As you can see below, A41, A43, B11 and C8 would be replaced by the EP tracks on a further edition.

Since the discs have been delayed for about a year, I missed the 25th anniversary for the gig; but on the other hand, the initial 8-page booklet has grown in size, and quite a lot of mistakes have been erased.

I'm happy that I've got the records after all, and I think it's better than nothing.

Table 3 (part of table 1): The Marquee tape - part one
Track		Interpreter	Title
A 01	A 02.3	Wilbert Harrison	Kansas City
A 02	A 03	Jimmy Reed	Baby what's wrong
A 03	A 04.2	Little Walter	Confessin' the blues
A 04	A 05	Jimmy Reed	Bright lights, big city
A 05	A 06	Elmore James	Dust my blues
A 06	A 07	Chuck Berry	Down the road apiece
A 07	B 02	Jimmy Reed	I'm a love you
A 08	B 03.a	Eddie Taylor	Bad boy
A 09	B 04.1	Jimmy Reed	I ain't got you
A 10	B 5	Jimmy Reed	Hush hush
A 11	B 06	Eddie Taylor	Ride 'em on down
A 12	B 07	Chuck Berry	Back in the USA
A 13	B 08	Jimmy Reed	Kind of lonesome
A 14	B 09.2	Elmore James	Blues before sunrise
A 15	D 01	Jimmy Reed	Big boss man
A 16	D 02	Billy Boy Arnold	Don't stay out all night
A 17	D 03	Jimmy Reed	Tell me you love me
A 18	--	Sonny Boy Williamson	Down child
B 01	D 04	Elmore James	Happy home
B 02	A 01.3	Muddy Waters	Rollin' stone
B 03	D 05.2	Muddy Waters	Soon forgotten
B 04	D 06	Bo Diddley	You can't judge a book by its cover
B 05	D 07	Jimmy Reed	Close together
B 06	E 01	Bo Diddley	Pretty thing
B 07	E 02	Coasters	I'm a hog for you
B 08	D 08	Elmore James	Look on yonder wall
B 09	F 01	R. Sharpe	Linda Lou
B 10	C 01.2	Little Walter	Key to the highway
B 11	C 02	Robert Johnson	Stop breakin' down blues
B 12	C 03	Slim Harpo	Shake your hips
B 13	B 04.2	Howlin' Wolf	Going down slow
B 14	C 05.2	Fred McDowell	You got to move
B 15	C 06	Jimmy Reed	The sun is shining
B 16	C 07.3	Elmore James	It hurts me too
B 17	F 02	Amos Milburn	Chicken shack boogie

Track	Interpreter Soloist or band leader (listed with his stage or nick name)	Title	Author as given on record in last column	Recording date	First released on	Selection on Marquee '62 is taken from
A 01.1	Robert Petway	Catfish blues	no credits → Robert Petway [→ traditional]	1941.03.28	(7" A-side) Bluebird B8838	Yazoo L-1038
	This is the first recording of this very popular tune which is said to have been already played by Skip James in the 1920. (A very special version is featured on the Bluesbreakers' bootleg The dark side of midnight.)
A 01.2	Muddy Waters	Rollin' stone	McKinley Morganfield [= Muddy Waters]	1950.02	(7" A-side) Checker 1426	Phonogram 9124 224 [= Chess 1427]
	This one is evidently influenced by "Catfish blues". But I think that the new lyrics and the different way the guitar is used turn it to a tune which stands on its own strongly enough. (Has nothing to do with Robert Wilkins' very popular "Rolling stone" recorded on 7 September 1928)
A 01.3	Muddy Waters	Rollin' stone [alternate]	McKinley Morganfield [= Muddy Waters]	1950.02	(LP) Chess 8208 ?	Teldec 6.28622 (2) (Chess)
A 02.1	Little Willie Littlefield	Kansas City loving	Willie Littlefield [?→ Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller]	1952.08.15or18	(7" A-side) Federal 12110	K. C. Rec. KC 101
	It's still not clear who wrote "Kansas City loving". On Federal 12110 it reads "Stoller-Leiber", but there is a credible story in existence, that in retrospect, Willie Littlefield sold this song for next to nothing to "Leiber-Stoller" (which is categorically denied by Mike Stoller).
A 02.2	Little Richard	Kansas City	Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller [?→ Willie Littlefield]	1955.09.13-14	Specialty 2104	Ace CH 133 [= Specialty 2104]
	As the Stones knew Little Richard very well, I wanted to use his "Specialty 2104" version. But then, after having listened to it, I really disliked it. (Released in March 1959 on LP, more than three years after the recording session, and after the success of Wilbert Harrison's version also on single, but without scoring.)
A 02.3	Wilbert Harrison	Kansas City	Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller [?→ Willie Littlefield]	1959.03	(7" A-side) Fury 1023	Charly CRB 1102
	When the session began, the horn section had already packed up their instruments. What a lucky chance! Did the Stones sound like that in the Marquee? I hope that they knew this very successful tune: No. 1 in the Billboard R&B charts with this lyrical slightly smoothed version of "Kansas City loving" (get me some - get me one). (Another source says, the piano was played by Ike Turner.)
A 03	Jimmy Reed	Baby what's wrong	Mathis James Reed [= Jimmy Reed]	1961	(7") Vee Jay 425	Vee Jay VJS 2-1035 (2)
	Thanks to the 1963 studio recording we are familiar with the song. A Willie Dixon composition, as the Stones books say? By chance, I discovered the song on an LP of "Mr. Memphis" Lonnie Mack (Edsel ED 158). Mack? Yeah, it's him! Thanks to the given composer credits I could import the LP in question. (Note that lots of Vee Jay LPs have been rereleased in the last few months.) Sometimes Ian Stewart didn't note the song titles in his diary, but a similar sounding part of the lyrics. His "Honey what's wrong with you" is part of two Jimmy Reed songs: "Baby what's wrong" and "You don't have to go" (30 December 1953), but of course the played "Baby what's wrong". (Different way of writing on label and cover of double album Vee Jay 1035! What's written on the single "Baby what's wrong" or "What's wrong baby"? Leadbitter listed it as "What's wrong baby"!) Bad luck! First I preferred another "Baby what's wrong", one of my Elmore James' all time favourites (October 1952) with some great Berry riffs (sorry, T-Bone & Co, I know Chuck's "teachers"). But then all arguments spoke against that song.
A 04.1	Jay McShann and Walter Brown	Confessin' the blues	Walter Brown, Jay McShann → Walter Brown	1941.04.30	(7") Decca 85..	[tape]
A 04.2	Little Walter	Confessin' the blues	Marion Walter Jacobs [= Little Walter] → Walter Brown, Jay McShann	1958.?02	(7") Checker 890	Teldec 6.24805 (Chess)
A 04.3	Chuck Berry	Confessin' the blues	Walter Brown, Jay McShann	1960.02.15	(LP) Chess 1448	Vogue 515033 [= Chess 1448]
A 05	Jimmy Reed	Bright lights, big city	Jimmy Reed	1961	(7") Vee Jay 398	Charly CRB 1003
A 06	Elmore James	Dust my blues	Bihari, Elmore James → E. Brooks [= Elmore James] → RJ, Elmore James
A 07	Chuck Berry	Down the road apiece	Don Raye
B 01.1	Amos Milburn	Down the road apiece	Don Raye
B 02	Jimmy Reed	I'm a love you	Jimmy Reed
B 03a	Eddie Playboy Taylor	Bad boy	Eddie Taylor
B 03b	Larry Williams	Bad boy	Larry Williams
B 04.1	Jimmy Reed	I ain't got you	Calvin Carter
B 04.2	Billy Boy Arnold	I ain't got you	Calvin Carter
B 05	Jimmy Reed	Hush hush	Jimmy Reed
B 06	Eddie Playboy Taylor	Ride 'em on down	Eddie Taylor → BJW, Eddie Taylor [→ traditional]
B 07	Chuck Berry	Back in the USA	Charles Edward Anderson Berry [= Chuck Berry]
B 08	Jimmy Reed	Kind of lonesome	Jimmy Reed
B 09.1	Leroy Carr	Blues before sunrise	no credits Leroy Carr [→ F. Blackwell, Leroy Carr]
B 09.2	Elmore James	Blues before sunrise	no credits Elmore James ?→ Leroy Carr, Elmore James [?→ F. Blackwell, Leroy Carr, Elmore James]
D 01	Jimmy Reed	Big boss man	Luther Dixon, Al Smith
D 02	Billy Boy Arnold	Don't stay out all night	William Arnold [= Big Boy Arnold]
D 03	Jimmy Reed	Tell me you love me	Jimmy Reed, Al Smith Jimmy Reed
D 04	Elmore James	Happy home	no credits Josea → Elmore James
D 05.1	St. Louis Jimmy	Soon forget you	no credits James Burke Oden [= St. Louis Jimmy]
D 05.2	Muddy Waters	Soon forgotten	no credits James Burke Oden [= St. Louis Jimmy]
D 06	Bo Diddley	You can't judge a book by its cover	Willie James Dixon [= Willie Dixon]
D 07	Jimmy Reed	Close together	Jimmy Reed
D 08	Elmore James	Look on yonder wall	no credits Elmore James, M. Sehorn → James Clark → James Clarke
C 01.1	Jazz Gillum	Key to the highway	no credits William McKinley Gillum [= Jazz Gillum]
C 01.2	Little Walter	Key to the highway	Little Walter → Jazz Gillum
C 01.3	Jazz Gillum	Key to the highway	no credits Jazz Gillum
C 02	Robert Johnson	Stop breakin' down blues	Robert L. Dodds [= Robert Johnson]
C 03	Slim Harpo	Shake your hips	James Moore [= Slim Harpo]
C 04.1	St. Louis Jimmy	Going down slow	no credits St. Louis Jimmy
C 04.2	Howlin' Wolf	Going down slow	no credits St. Louis Jimmy
C 05.1	Reverend Gary Davis	You got to move	traditional [→ Gary D. Davis = Reverend Gary Davis]
C 05.2	Fred McDowell	You got to move	Fred McDowell → Reverend Gary Davis, Fred McDowell [→ traditional]
C 06	Jimmy Reed	The sun is shining	Jimmy Reed
C 07.1	Tampa Red	It hurts me too	Hudson Woodbridge [= Tampa Red]
C 07.2	Elmore James	It hurts me too	Elmore James, Marshall Sehorn → Tampa Red, Elmore James
C 07.3	Elmore James	It hurts me too	no credits Elmore James, Marshall Sehorn → Tampa Red, Elmore James
C 08	Bo Diddley	Mona (I need you baby)
E 01	Bo Diddley	Pretty thing
E 02	Coasters	I'm a hog for you
F 01	Ray Sharpe	Linda Lou
F 02	Amos Milburn	Chicken shack boogie

Publication

ca. 1987

liner notes for sampler tape Marquee '62

These liner notes were originally written for the sampler album Marquee '62. Author Walter Schäppi sent them to me in 1987 - though I never got hold of this album and I don't even know if it actually exists (Walter had a definite faible for non-existing albums). However these notes show Walter's in-depth interest for the Rolling Stones and their blues roots, so I think it's good lecture still today. When I revised Walter's original writing in 2009, I substituted abbreviations with the complete words; footnotes were directly included to make reading easier.