What came first, the band, the magazine or the song? (Rolling Stones)

[Lakai]

That is The Rolling Stones band, The Rolling Stone magazine or the song Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan. I’m wondering if there is any relations with the three since The Rolling Stone Magazine named Like A Rolling Stone and (I can’t get no) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones as their top two songs of all time.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

@Lakai

That is The Rolling Stones band, The Rolling Stone magazine or the song Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan. I’m wondering if there is any relations with the three since The Rolling Stone Magazine named Like A Rolling Stone and (I can’t get no) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones as their top two songs of all time.

“Rolling Stone” is old blues slang for hobo, referring to the old truism “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” The magazine started in 1967, the band in 1961 (They became popular in the US in 1964). Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” was recorded in 1965; the Temptations’ “Papa was a Rolling Stone” came out in 1972.

[Waterman]

In terms of who came first, it was Muddy Waters, who used the phrase in a song that was later used as the basis for name of the band.

[AZRob]

(I need to learn to research faster…) But, as mentioned above, Muddy Waters recorded Rollin Stone by 1950 and Jagger and Richards named their group after this song in 1961. Bob Dylan recorded Like a Rolling Stone in 1965. Wenner and Gleason founded the rock magazine in 1967.

Wenner apparently based the title on the very old phrase as much as the songs and the rock group. One source quotes his dedication from the first issue as follows

“You’re probably wondering what we are trying to do. It’s hard to say: sort of a magazine and sort of a newspaper. The name of it is Rolling Stone, which comes from an old saying: ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss.’ Muddy Waters used the name for a song he wrote; The Rolling Stones took their name from Muddy’s song, and ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ was the title of Bob Dylan’s first rock and roll record. We have begun a new publication reflecting what we see are the changes related to rock and roll. Because the trade papers have become so inaccurate and irrelevant, and because the fan magazines are an anachronism, fashioned in the mold of myth and nonsense, we hope that we have something here for the artist and industry, and every person who ‘believes in the magic that can set you free.’ Rolling Stone is not just about music, but also about the things and attitudes that the music embraces. We’ve been working quite hard on it and we hope you can dig it. To describe it any further would be difficult without sounding like bullshit, and bullshit is like gathering moss.”

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AZRob