Slim Harpo - I Got Love If You Want It

This was the great gift of the Rolling Stones: they shined a light on so much great American music that was being sorely neglected by 90% of the population of the United States.

I was just a kid in Queens, New York City. What did I have access too? The radio? Sure, we had two black radio stations in New York, WWRL ("The Big RL") and what was the "jazz" station, WBLS? Something like that. I listened to WWRL a bit, more later on, after the 'Stones had hit. But even there, you wouldn't hear the deep stuff, the real Blues. No, not even Slim Harpo, not a bit. There was no way that I was going to hear about this stuff unless the 'Stones shined a light on it.

One of the attractions of the Rolling Stones for me was that they valued the music that I had already discovered on my own. The semi-regional hits from New Orleans ("She Said Yeh!" "Pain in My Heart," etc.). Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. I didn't need any help there. That was the door opening. But the Rolling Stones led me to a whole new level, a couple of levels, of black American music that I had had no access to on my own.

So thanks for that, band members living and dead. The Rolling Stones! Thanks, guys! I'll be a fan as long as I last. Y'all made my life a lot more interesting than it was before I heard you.