Slim Harpo wrote this. I'd done it in bands in, like, '64 and '65, but when the Stones did it, it was so much better and different.
The Playlist Special: Top Artists Pick Their Personal Top 10
Steven Tyler: The Rolling Stones
"I always got labeled a Mick Jagger lookalike, a wanna-be, and I fucking hated it," says Tyler. "Then I realized Mick was the baddest boy on the block. I learned from the Stones – and from Janis Joplin – that it's not about hitting the notes, it's about having style."
Listen: Steven Tyler's Top Rolling Stones Songs
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1."I'm A King Bee" | The Rolling Stones, 1964
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2."Brown Sugar " | The Rolling Stones, 1971
This is probably the best rock & roll song short of anything written by Chuck Berry.
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3."Rip This Joint" | The Rolling Stones, 1972
When I went to my first rehab, at a place called Hazelden, I brought Exile on Main Street on cassette. I remember waking up the first morning there and realizing I hadn't been sober once for the past 12 or 15 years, from LSD to heroin and cocaine and acid. The only way I could get a buzz at that point was to listen to "Rip This Joint."
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4."Get Off of My Cloud" | The Rolling Stones, 1965
It's all about those drum fills. I like songs that have a stop – what I call a wet spot. Little moments like those are what you remember forever.
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5."Something Happened to Me Yesterday" | The Rolling Stones, 1967
Anything Keith sang on always killed me, and this one is so fucking cool.
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6."Hot Stuff " | The Rolling Stones, 1976
The song just goes on and on, but it was such a fucking great groove, right?
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7."Memory Motel " | The Rolling Stones, 1976
Mick can't sing, but he's one of the best fucking singers in rock & roll.
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8."The Spider And The Fly" | The Rolling Stones, 1965
This was the kind of song that inspired me to start writing my own lyrics. When Mick sings, "She was common, flirty, she looked about 30" – that was my kind of lyric. It jumped into my ears.
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9."She Said Yeah" | The Rolling Stones, 1965
When I was younger, in all of the bands I was in, way before Aerosmith, we would open sets with "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" and end with this one. I loved all the reverb and Keith's guitar.
