Rollin' Stone

Waters recorded it in 1950 as his version of Catfish Blues, a Delta blues that dates back to 1920s Mississippi. It is a solo performance on voice and electric guitar, with a lot of empty space, and its words play on the proverb that a rolling stone gathers no moss. It is described as one of the first songs he learned to play. It was his first record released on Chess, second overall for the label. It did not reach the national charts but sold about 70,000 copies and let him quit his day job. A year later Still a Fool, built on the same melody and arrangement with Little Walter on second guitar and Leonard Chess on bass drum, reached number nine on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart.

The Rolling Stones named themselves after the song, according to the writer Robert F. Palmer, and so, Jann Wenner said, did the magazine. The song was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 and entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 2019. Jimi Hendrix built his Catfish Blues on it in 1967, and Frank Zappa recorded a version in 1970 whose backing track was later reused for Stink-Foot. The Rolling Stones recorded their own Rolling Stone Blues on Hackney Diamonds in 2023.