Ladies and Gentlemen... the Rolling Stones

On the evening of July 12, 1962 a group led by guitarist Brian Jones performed its first gig at the Marquee Club in London. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts would join the band in the coming year; Bill mainly because he had a good amplifier. The lead singer on July 12 was a skinny, androgynous 17 year-old named Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones wore sport coats and ties and did not do lewd things with the mike stands or their guitars. The last song in the set was titled "Happy Home."

Mick Jagger appears five times in A Book of Ages: meeting Keith Richards, attending the London School of Economics, writing lyrics about his inability to obtain satisfaction, buying a chateau in France, becoming a grandfather, and getting a knighthood from the Queen. The sorts of things any striving working class bloke might aspire to. Keith Richards appears four times, Bill Wyman once.

Love & Marriage

In the month we all associate with weddings it's interesting to know that on June 3, 1989, 52 year-old Rolling Stone bass guitarist Bill Wyman married his 19 year-old girlfriend, Mandy Smith. The New York Daily News later reported that Wyman’s 28 year-old son was dating Smith’s 40 year-old mother. If they too had married, Wyman’s wife would have been her own stepmother-in-law and Wyman would have been his son’s stepson-in-law.

The Stones appear eleven times in A Book of Ages, the Who five times, the Beatles fourteen times, Bob Dylan seven times, Michael Jackson five times, Eric Clapton and Joni Mitchell four times apiece, Jerry Garcia six, Simon and Garfunkel six and five times respectively, Bruce Springsteen and Brian Wilson once each.