# Musical signifigance of the phrase "Rolling Stone" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2000, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984 "2000-07-27T00:23:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/1 "2000-07-27T00:23:27Z")
Ok, let’s see. You’ve got the band, the Dylan song, and the magazine. Which came first? Was there any relation between them (isn’t ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ a jab at the Stones in some way?)? Any kind of litigation in any direction between any of them? ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/2 "2000-07-27T00:28:26Z")
everything goes back to the saying “A rolling stone gathers no moss” ---
**Author:** ![Yue\_Han](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eada6e/32.png) [@Yue\_Han](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yue_Han)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/3 "2000-07-27T00:33:34Z")
Don’t forget the Temptations song, “Papa Was A Rolling Stone.” To elaborate, a rolling stone came to be used to describe someone shiftless that had no roots, ethics, or home, as you can see from the songs it’s used in. The Rolling Stones took it as there name probably for that reason. I don’t know which came first, the band or the magazine. Either way I figure it, somebody comes off looking stupid and/or sychophantic. Of course, the Stones were a British band (right? or have I lost it?), so they may have chose their name before the American magazine became the standard music tradepaper. –John ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/4 "2000-07-27T00:34:08Z")
Well, before all of that was the Muddy Waters song “Rolling Stone”, and that’s what inspired Mick to name his band. The Stones were together for quite awhile before the Dylan song came out, and before the magazine. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/5 "2000-07-27T00:36:56Z")
Well, The Rolling Stones are a British band. Both the band and Dylan’s song was out before the magazine. The magazine was introduced IIRC, 1966. The Muddy Waters song was 1950 ---
**Author:** ![MinkMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minkman/32/19170_2.png) [@MinkMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinkMan)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/6 "2000-07-27T01:18:24Z")
[ul] [li]1950 Muddy Waters records “Rollin’ Stone”[/li][li]July 11, 1962 The name of the band “The Rolling Stones” first appears in Jazz News. The name was from the MW song.[/li][li]Apr 1964 The Stones release their first LP _The Rolling Stones_[/li][li]1965 Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” on _Highway 61 Revisited_[/li][li]Nov. 11, 1967 First Issue of Rolling Stone Magazine[/li][li]June 1972 The Temptations “Papa was a Rolling Stone” Released[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/7 "2000-07-27T01:40:46Z")
Hank Williams also released the single ‘Lost Highway’ in 1950, which included the phrase ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ - I don’t think this had an influence on the others, but it shows it was in usage outside the blues at that time. HenrySpencer. ---
**Author:** ![Moonshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-signifigance-of-the-phrase-rolling-stone/26984/8 "2000-07-27T11:55:22Z")
IIRC Mick Jagger and Keith Richards named the band after the phrase in Muddy Waters song, because that is what they were into at that time. Bob Dylan wrote his song for the Stones, and that is the way they introduce it whenever they play it live too.