But I was surprised when so many “Crawdaddy” entities came up in the initial Google searches for this post on the Crawdaddys. So where did all of this “Crawdaddy” business come from? The source is the Crawdaddy Club, which figures prominently in the early history of the Rolling Stones.
* * *
The first performance by what was then called the Rollin’ Stones – named after the landmark blues song “Rollin’ Stone” by Muddy Waters – took place on July 12, 1962 at the Marquee Club in London. The line-up at that time was Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar), Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart (piano), Dick Taylor (bass), and Mick Avory (drums – Avory himself recalls that it was actually Tony Chapman). Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had known each other as children and were reacquainted by Dick Taylor, who was a mutual friend. Bill Wyman replaced Dick Taylor on bass in December 1962; Taylor then became one of the founding members of the Pretty Things, a band that is as long-lived and (in some circles) as beloved as the Stones, though with a significantly lower profile. When Charlie Watts joined the band on drums in January 1963, and with Ian Stewart removed from the official band membership (also in 1963), the classic line-up of the Rolling Stones was born.
The Crawdaddy Club was founded in early 1963 in the back room of the Station Hotel in Richmond, Surrey (a suburb of London). The owner was Giorgio Gomelsky, who had previously owned the Piccadilly Club in central London. The house band in the beginning was the Dave Hunt Rhythm & Blues Band, whom Gomelsky had known from the earlier club. Charlie Watts had sometimes played drums for this band, and one of their guitarists was Ray Davies, later the founder and bandleader of the Kinks.
* * *
The Rolling Stones first performed at the Crawdaddy Club in February 1963 as a replacement for the Dave Hunt Rhythm & Blues Band when they were snowed in and could not reach the club; this was the first time that the Stones had performed publicly with Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. By April 1963, the Rolling Stones had taken over as the house band, with two gigs a week at the Crawdaddy Club plus a weekly date at another legendary music space in the Eel Pie Island Hotel in nearby Twickenham. (For years I thought that “eel pie” was some sort of slang for “ell-pee”, or LP).
* * *
The name of the Crawdaddy Club is taken from a song by Bo Diddley called “Doing the Craw-Daddy”; the Rolling Stones regularly included this song in their set while performing at the club. The song is taken from Bo’s fifth album, having the unusual name of Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger; the cover shows the man decked out in Western wear with a black ten-gallon hat and an electric guitar at his feet.
The Beatles came to see the Rolling Stones at the Crawdaddy Club on April 14, 1963; afterwards, the two bands repaired to Mick Jagger’s flat in Chelsea. As the Stones’ fame spread, the Crawdaddy Club was forced to move to a larger space.
* * *
In June 1963, the Rolling Stones released their debut single, a cover of a Chuck Berry song called “Come On”, which reached #21 on the UK charts. The flip side was Willie Dixon’s “I Want to be Loved”. Wikipedia reports about “Come On”: “During the June 6, 2013 concert in Toronto, Canada, as part of the 50 & Counting Tour, Mick Jagger sang a few bars (with Charlie Watts drumming the beat) after mentioning the single being released exactly 50 years ago that day. It was the first time the song was heard in any capacity during a Rolling Stones concert since 1965.”
By September 1963, the Rolling Stones had outgrown the local club scene and had begun to tour; their replacement at the Crawdaddy Club was another of the major British Invasion bands, the Yardbirds, whose line-up at that time included Eric Clapton. Other major bands and artists who performed at this club include Led Zeppelin, Long John Baldry, Elton John, and Rod Stewart.
(January 2015/2)
