Fact #176242

Bill Wyman (bassist, Rolling stones) : There was a complete division in England between The Beatles and their followers – The Hollies, The Searchers, Gerry And The Pacemakers, Freddie And The Dreamers, The Merseybeats, Billy J. Kramer, Dave Clark and Herman's Hermits – and the Stones' lot. That was us, The Animals, Them with Van Morrison, The Pretty Things, and all the bands that followed us. It was a very strong division. The other side was playing eights – eight to the bar – like She Loves You. We were doing Chuck Berry stuff, shuffles, everything was based on a more jazzy influence.

John Lennon : When we first came down to London we felt like provincials. But it really was a great period, we were like kings of the jungle. It was probably the best period, actually, fame-wise. We didn't get mobbed so much. It reminded me of an exclusive men's smoking club, you know? Only with The Stones, Eric Burdon and us as members. It was just a very, very good scene.

Mick Jagger (vocalist, Rolling Stones) : We knew The Beatles by the end of 1963 and we were rehearsing and Andrew (Oldham) brought Paul and John down to the rehearsal. They said they had this tune, they were really hustlers then. I mean the way they used to hustle tunes was great : 'Hey Mick, we've got this great song'. So they played it and we thought it sounded pretty commercial, which is what we were looking for.

Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : John and Paul came down to a rehearsal of ours and laid it on us. We hadn't heard their version. We just heard John and Paul on a piano banging it out. We picked it up, and it was just one of those jams. They got enthusiastic, we got enthusiastic, and said,'Right, we'll cut it tomorrow,' and that was it.

Paul McCartney : We were friends with them, and I just thought "I Wanna Be Your Man" would be good for them. I knew they did Bo Diddley stuff. And they made a good job of it.

John Lennon : It was a throwaway. The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones. That shows how much importance we put on it: We weren't going to give them anything great, right?

Mick Jagger : So we did it like Elmore James or something. I haven't heard it for ages but it must be pretty freaky 'cause nobody really produced it. The guy who happened to be our manager at the time was a 50-year-old Northern mill owner (Eric Easton). It was completely crackers, but it was a hit and sounded great on stage.

Bill Wyman : We kind of learned it pretty quickly 'cause there wasn't that much to learn. Then Brian got his slide out, his steel (guitar) out and dadaw ... dadaw ... and we said, 'Yeah, that's better, dirty it up a bit and bash it out', and we kind of completely turned the song around and made it much more tough, Stones- and Elmore James-like.

Keith Richards : The Sixties were so weird, especially if you were like The Beatles or ourselves, spending your life thinking, wouldn't it be great if this happened, or this. And then it did!

Suddenly everything was going in line with what you'd fantasized, when you were lying around thinking, wouldn't it be great to stir it up a bit! But you didn't realise how big it was gonna get, you just wanted to shake them up a bit, not have any major revolutions or anything. What, you gonna have a revolution with a guitar?

The other thing that made it all important was in fact the paranoia of the authorities. Not just in Britain, here (the USA) too. These were bastions, nations and people the whole world relies upon to get fed - did they really spend their time listing us as a threat? This I can't believe. But it really happened.
(Sources of quotes : unknown)