![]() ![]() “Maybe that’s what Mick picked up from me when we met. “ was like a Françoise Hardy song, really,” Marianne would recall. It has been suggested that it was with Marianne in mind that Oldham had entrapped Jagger and Richards, hence the resulting song’s wistful qualities. Marianne had thought the Stones “crass and boorish,” but was intrigued enough by Oldham to proceed with his plans. Struck by her enchanting looks, he’d immediately suggested he make a record with her. In the meantime, Oldham had his own plans for “As Time Goes By.” That March, he’d met a 17-year-old former convent girl named Marianne Faithfull at a party. Unfortunately, neither Mick or Keith felt like the song was suitable for the Stones – the latter calling it “a terrible piece of tripe” – and it would be another eight months before they’d present with confidence a song they’d written (“The Last Time”) to the band. ![]() Oldham’s directives for the pair to not come out with a blues song, or a copy of an old favorite, had produced something entirely new. They emerged with “As Time Goes By” (as it was originally titled), an acoustic number whose melancholic mood was a distinct departure from the Stones’ usual insolence. It was very obvious once he put it to us.” That was a very astute observation of Andrew’s. Andrew presented the idea to us, not on any artistic level, but more money. But Andrew showed me, and what I firmly believe is if you can play an instrument you can write a song. I didn’t think I’d be a songwriter any more than I’d be a nuclear physicist on the side. My job was to play guitar and that’s what I wanted to do. “My first reaction,” Keith later recounted, “was, ‘Who do you think I am, John Lennon?’ At that time, for me, songwriting was somebody else’s job. One day in early 1964, he locked the pair in the kitchen of their Willesden flat, telling them they’d be released once they’d written a song. In Jagger and Richards’ shared commitments and chemistry he saw the promise of a prosperous pairing, and after some early attempts of collaboration, Oldham went to extreme measures to ensure their union would yield better results. ![]() It was the Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham who recognized this fatal flaw in the group’s fortunes – above all else, they were missing out on the publishing royalties that songwriters receive – and so set to rectifying the situation immediately. The Rolling Stones, meanwhile, having not yet sharpened their own compositional skills, were beginning to run out of obscure blues tracks to cover. The Beatles, thanks to John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s prolific songwriting partnership, were thriving with an abundance of self-penned songs. ![]() The big difference between Britain’s two biggest groups in the early 1960s was original material. In its sweeping sentimentality and lush instrumentation, “As Tears Go By” – the first original composition by Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards – opened a new era for The Rolling Stones, one in which they’d further experiment with sounds and styles and firmly define themselves as rock and roll innovators. The bittersweet, strings-laden pop landscape of “As Tears Go By” was a far cry from the twin guitar grooves the band had thus far crafted. What nobody expected from the now-notorious group of badly behaved blues enthusiasts was what they got next: a ballad. ![]()
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