There’s a tradition in rock ‘n’ roll to refer to rockin’ in song: “Reeling and Rocking”, “Rock Around the Clock”, “Rock This Town”, “Rockin’ Down the Highway”, “Rock ‘n Me.” And yet, it’s the songs that emphasize the unsung roll that might just be the true heroes: “Roll Over Beethoven” (Chuck Berry), “Let Me Roll It” (Wings), and “Roll Away the Stone” (Mott the Hoople) are but a few of the esteemed rolling songs of rock. There are the groundbreakers like Etta James’ “Roll With Me Henry” (her answer to Hank Ballard’s “Work With Me Annie”), Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, and Shirley & Lee’s “Let the Good Times Roll.” Lately the roll has mostly gone out of favor, though old-time-inspired gal Jolie Holland asks the river, the freight train, and the highway to “Roll My Blues” away; Two Gallants also look backward to the bad old days with “Steady Rollin’.” And yet rock would hardly be rock as we know it without the big daddy of the roll: “Rollin’ Stone” by Muddy Waters, the song that launched at least one rock band, partly inspired the name of a magazine, and contributed to any number of references in rock to rollin’ stones.

As a wee listener, I have to admit I was a little confused by all those stones rolling: The Rolling Stones, Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”, and the Temptations jam, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, to name the big four. Of course there was no official relationship between the entities, though in the case of the Stones and that other mag, they shared a direct link to the title and line, “I got a boy child’s comin’ he’s gonna be a rollin’ stone,” from Waters’ song. (It’s probably worth mentioning here that Crawdaddy! is also rooted in the roll, naming itself after the club in London where the Stones played their first gig). To confuse my young mind further, when Elton John sang, “I used to be a rolling stone,” in “Philadelphia Freedom”, I lost the plot entirely. Hadn’t I just read somewhere that he’d written that song for his friend Billie Jean King? What did she have to do with the Rolling Stones? “Dig It” by the Beatles, with its chords taken from Dylan’s song, pretty much did me in: (”Like a rollin’ stone…like the FBI…like the CIA…and the BBC…BB King…and Doris Day…Dig it!”)

Of course, knowing about Muddy Waters and his song would’ve saved some daydreaming and explained all the stones; familiarity with the proverb A rolling stone gathers no moss would’ve helped too. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable says a rolling stone is: “Someone who is always on the move and does not settle down and will never become prosperous or wealthy.” The reference dates back to the 1400s and possibly before, but we’ll need to roll the back pages forward to grab the piece of the rock on which Waters etched his words.

Waters’ version of “Rollin’ Stone”, written in 1948, opens with “Well I wish I was a catfish, swimming in oh deep blue sea”; it is an adaptation of “Catfish Blues” by Robert Petway, originally cut in 1941 (”Well if I was a catfish mama, swimming in the deep blue sea…”). According to an informative history of “Catfish Blues” by Max Haymes at earlyblues.com, Petway most likely learned “Catfish Blues” from Tommy McClennan, though the song made its debut even earlier, as part of the traditional song repertoire from the Mississippi Delta region (home turf for Waters); Skip James may’ve been performing a version of the song as early as the ’20s. The first recorded reference to catfish was “Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues” (”I wish I was a catfish swimming down in the sea / I’d have some good women fishing after me”), though Ma Rainey had weighed in with “Don’t Fish in My Sea” (”If you don’t like my ocean, don’t fish in my sea”) in 1926.

With the catfish established as kingfish in blues country, let’s come up from the deep and back to the lost highway of rollin’ stones where Reverend Robert Wilkins penned his “Rolling Stone” in the 1920s. In a unique twist on the rambler’s tale, Wilkins’ rolling stone is a woman, though the Rev., the Original Rolling Stone, is best-known for his parable-inspired “Prodigal Son”, about a rollin’ stone who fails at roamin’—as covered by the Rolling Stones. Mercy!

Jimi Hendrix covered “Catfish Blues” and “Rollin’ Stone” and also rewrote them as “Voodoo Chile”, into which he incorporated Muddy’s “Still a Fool” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin’.” He also quoted the original proverb in “Highway Chile” and rocked Bob’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” Greil Marcus wrote Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads about the song and its impact on Dylan’s career as well as the American psyche. Rolling Stone named the song the greatest of all time (of course they did). The Replacements pissed on the monument by titling a half-baked send-up, “Like a Rolling Pin.”

Before completely leaving the quarry of rolling stones, it is essential to note “Lost Highway”, Leon Payne’s 1948 tune made famous by Hank Williams (”I’m a rollin’ stone, all alone and lost”) and the defining song of all things dark and country. Seems like Waters and Payne both bumped into something rolling and stoney back in ‘48, resulting in two incredibly influential 20th century songs. But what about some of those other numbers that keep on rolling?

The Yardbirds’ “Train Kept a Rollin’” is high on the list of greats, though Neil Young’s “Let’s Roll” is a bottom feeder. Both Steve Miller and Steve Winwood had songs titled “Roll With It” (and as young men, both played the blues and jammed with Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker, too). Hmm… kinda makes you think: What if the blues had a baby and they called it roll ‘n’ rock? Okay, maybe not.

Watch: Muddy Waters, “Rollin’ Stone” [at youtube.com]

Watch: Jimi Hendrix, “Voodoo Chile” [at youtube.com]

Film review of the Rolling Stones, Shine a Light

Lee Michaels’ 5th

Album review of Carole King, Tapestry