The Rolling Stones

About

We’d be hanging out with the Stones, working on their sessions; it was a very friendly scene. There must have been a bit of competition because that’s only natural, but it was always friendly. We used to say, ‘Have you got one coming out?’ and if they had we’d say, ‘Well, hold it for a couple of weeks, because we’ve got one.’ It made sense, really, to avoid each other’s releases. John and I sang on the Stones’ song ‘We Love You’ – Mick had been stuck for an idea and he asked us to come along. So we went down to Olympic Studios and made it up.

We and the Stones were part of the same crowd. We used to go to a flat in Earl’s Court, the late-night hangout. Actually there were a few of these – there was Robert Fraser’s place, my place, Mick and Keith’s place or maybe Brian’s. I remember Mick bringing in ‘Ruby Tuesday’ as a demo; they’d just done it and it was great. We’d get everything hot off the press. They said, ‘What do you think of this one?’ and we said, ‘Yeah, great, “Ruby Tuesday” — lovely.’

When we asked Brian Jones to one of our sessions, to our surprise he brought along a sax. He turned up in a big Afghan coat at Abbey Road. He played sax on a crazy record, ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’. It’s a funny sax solo – it isn’t amazingly well played but it happened to be exactly what we wanted: a ropey, shaky sax. Brian was very good like that.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

Last updated on October 8, 2022