The Train Station Encounter That Forged Rock's Greatest Duo

by Kat Anderson | October 17, 2024

Written for Today in Music History

Today marks the 63rd anniversary of a chance encounter that altered the course of music history.

On October 17, 1961, 18-year-old Keith Richards arrived at Platform 2 of Dartford Station, en route to art school. There, he spotted a familiar face—a childhood classmate, clutching two blues records: Chuck Berry’s Rockin’ at the Hops and The Best of Muddy Waters.

At the time, blues records were hard to come by in the UK, and Richards believed he was the only one in his area with an interest in the genre. Intrigued, he struck up a conversation: “Hey man, nice to see you but where’d you get the records?” 

Richards later wrote to his aunt about the encounter:

“He’s got every record Chuck Berry ever made and all his mates have too, they are all rhythm and blues fans, real R&B I mean (not this Dinah Shore, Brook Benton crap) Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Chuck, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker all the Chicago bluesmen real lowdown stuff, marvelous. Bo Diddley he’s another great.

Anyways the guy on the station, he is called Mick Jagger.”

Jagger had been ordering blues records directly from Chess Records in Chicago. Within days of their meeting, the two began meeting to listen and play along to these albums, which were impossible to find in UK stores. The pair soon formed a band with some friends called The Blues Boys, but the group fell apart after Jagger and Richards met Brian Jones at the Ealing Jazz Club.

Jones, who played in Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, invited Jagger and Richards to jam with his band. Jones eventually left Blues Incorporated to start his own group, enlisting Jagger, Richards, guitarist Mick Taylor, and keyboardist Ian Stewart.

They were primarily a blues cover began, so they named themselves The Rolling Stones, after Muddy Waters' song “Rollin' Stone.”

Their first gig was at London’s Marquee Club in 1962. After the show, they went for a pint with Charlie Watts, who soon joined as their drummer. Bassist Bill Wyman came on board later that year. In 1963, an enterprising 19-year-old named Andrew Loog Oldham signed the band, becoming their manager.

It was Oldham who saw the potential of Jagger and Richards as a songwriting duo.

Determined to break their reliance on cover songs, he plopped the pair in a kitchen and instructed them not to leave until they’d written something. After an entire night of writing, they emerged with “As Tears Go By,” a song that became a Top Ten hit for Marianne Faithfull. Six months later, they wrote their second hit, “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday,” recorded by Gene Pitney.

The duo saw writing pop songs as an apprenticeship. Their early success gave them the confidence to transition from covering blues songs to creating their own music. In According to The Rolling Stones, Richards said that Oldham’s push to turn him and Jagger into songwriters was “more important to the Stones than anything, and probably [Oldham’s] main achievement.”

It’s impossible to overstate the impact of the Jagger/Richards partnership.

The Rolling Stones are among the most influential rock bands of all time. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine (which, incidentally, took its name from the same Muddy Waters song—not the band) published its first edition of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” Fifteen of the songs were written by Jagger and Richards—14 performed by the Stones, plus “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve, which sampled their 1965 hit “The Last Time.” The duo, along with the band, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy’s in 1986 and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993. To date, the Stones have sold more than 250 million records worldwide.

But despite their professional success, the relationship between Jagger and Richards has been turbulent.

Their most severe rift, dubbed "World War III" by Richards, unfolded during the ‘80s. Throughout the ‘70s, Richards’ heroin addiction left Jagger to manage the band’s affairs. When Keith finally kicked the habit following his 1978 arrest, he expected to share leadership again. But Jagger refused to relinquish control.

In Life, his 2010 memoir, Richards described Jagger’s ego as so inflated that his head was too big to fit through a doorway, suffering from what Richards called “LVS,” or lead vocalist syndrome. He felt the band had become “Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones” rather than just The Rolling Stones. Even Charlie Watts once punched Jagger after Jagger referred to him as “my drummer.”

During the recording of Dirty Work in 1986, Jagger was focused on his solo album and brought little new material to the table.

Richards aired his grievances through lyrics, such as the bitter “Had It With You:”

“Always try to taunt me / Always seem to haunt me /
Serving out injunctions / Shouting out instructions…
You're a mean mistreater / You're a dirty, dirty rat scum
Now I had it, I had it, I had it, I had it with you”

The breaking point came when Jagger refused to tour with the band to promote Dirty Work, opting instead to embark on a solo tour—performing Stones songs, no less. He broke the news via letter. Feeling betrayed, Richards formed his own solo project, The X-Pensive Winos. Although the Stones never officially disbanded, they didn’t tour between 1982 and 1989, and communication between Jagger and Richards was nearly nonexistent.

Eventually, the two made amends and got back on the road, but Richards admitted in Life that their relationship never fully recovered.

He spoke about Jagger with a fair bit of vitriol, fondly recalling the nicknames he gave him: “that bitch Brenda” and “Her Majesty.” Still, both have acknowledged that their complicated bond is like that of brothers. There’s no denying that something special happens when they get together—because let’s be real, neither had much success flying solo. Name a Mick Jagger or Keither Richards song. Go ahead… we’ll wait. Hard, isn’t it? Aside from Jagger’s “Dancing in the Street” with David Bowie—a cover, mind you, of a Martha and the Vandellas song written by Marvin Gaye—neither cracked the top 10 on their own.

Maybe it’s because their magic lies in the way their different writing styles complement each other. Richards prefers spontaneous studio jams, while Jagger walks in with structured, nearly finished ideas. Together, they create something neither could pull off alone.

In 2023, The Stones finally dropped Hackney Diamonds, their first album of new material in 18 years. And while both Jagger and Richards were credited as songwriters, their collaborative dynamic had changed. These days, they tend to write separately. When asked about it, Jagger said, “It’s so different now because we used to live in the same apartment when we started off writing songs together… That’s a long time ago, things evolve and change. I like to write songs on my own.”

In According to The Rolling Stones, Watts, who passed away in 2021, said:

“The magic of the band is when Mick and Keith are doing it together. What would be wonderful is if they ever sat down together and started writing together from scratch. It may be that they don’t necessarily need to do that from the off, but it would be great to go back to the days of Keith sitting on the end of a bed with his guitar and a cassette recorder, making up songs with Mick, with me playing brushes on a book.”

Sadly, that dream is no longer possible for Watts. But as long as Jagger and Richards remain, there’s still a glimmer of hope for them to rekindle their songwriting partnership. After all, Jagger once quipped that he’d rather die than still be singing “Satisfaction” at 40—and here he is at 81. And hey, if Oasis can reunite, anything is possible.

Even if they never write another song together, the legacy of Jagger and Richards is undeniable.

Their success can, in part, be credited to Oldham’s insistence that they become songwriters. But none of it might have happened without that fateful meeting at Dartford Station 63 years ago today.