Saturday, July 23, 2011

Come On

Once inside the Crawdaddy on April 28, 1963, it only took Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton a few minutes to agree: this band really had something. At the end of the show Oldham approached Brian Jones. And while Giorgio Gomelsky was out of the country, Andrew Oldham and Eric Easton signed the Rolling Stones on May 1, 1963.

Popeye, William Bendix, Ray Danton...in Andrew Oldham's opinion Ian Stewart could no longer be a front line member of the Stones, because his image was wrong and his looks were too different. The proceedings during the Stones' recording session at Olympic Sound Studios, London, on May 10, 1963 were a first but very clear sign Stu had to leave the band. During the more or less 'unproduced' sessions the band worked on a couple of songs, one being a rather obscure Chuck Berry tune, 'Come On', which had never been out in the UK.

Roger Savage, the studio's sound engineer: We set up and did four songs quite quickly. The main thing I remember was that Andrew Oldham told me to turn Ian Stewart's piano microphone off; he obviously didn't want him in the band because he didn't look the part. I was a bit embarrassed about doing it, but that was Andrew. When they came up the stairs to the control room to play back there was no piano! Nobody said anything. I felt a bit strange about doing that. Brian was the one who was the most vocal, he was the one who was suggesting things more than the others. The sound on 'Come On' was pretty conventional. It was a clean recording compared to the later recordings which they did at Regent Sound. Their own sound was more of a mess, looser, with less separation between the instruments.

Adapted from the following source: Andrew Loog Oldham, Stoned, Vintage, 2001.

1 comment:

  1. May 10, 1963: Olympic Sound Studios, London, England.
    The Rolling Stones: Come On (Berry) (1:54)
    The Rolling Stones: I Want To Be Loved (Dixon) (1:55)
    Keith Richards: Choosing "Come On" as a single
    We were always doing other people's material but with Come On we thought we'd have a go at that - oh, it sounds catchy. And it worked out. At the time it was done just to get a record out. We never wanted to hear it. The idea was Andrew's - to get a strong single so they'd let us make an album which back then was a privilege.

    630510A 10th May: London, Olympic Sound Studios. Producers: Andrew Oldham and (sound engineer) Roger Savage.
    - Come On (Berry) - 7“-version
    - I Want To Be Loved (Dixon) - 7“-version
    - Love Potion #9 (Leiber-Stoller) - unverified
    - Pretty Thing (Dixon) - unconfirmed.
    Line-up: Mick Jagger (voc)/Keith Richards (gtr, bvoc)/Brian Jones (gtr, harm, bvoc)/Bill Wyman (bass)/Charlie Watts (dr).

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