Rolling Stones Members to Pay for Bluesman’s Funeral

"December 8, 2011, 7:43 pm

"Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have offered to pay for the funeral of Hubert Sumlin, a great Chicago blues guitarist to whom they owe a musical debt, a spokeswoman for the Rolling Stones, Fran Curtis, confirmed. Mr. Sumlin died on Dec. 4 at the age of 80. He was the longtime guitarist for Howlin’ Wolf and inspired a generation of rock and blues players with his emotional solos, among them Mr. Richards.

"Mr. Sumlin’s longtime partner, Toni Ann Mamary, announced online Thursday that the Rolling Stones frontman and lead guitarist had agreed to pick up the costs of the interment and service. “Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have insisted on picking up the full expenses for Hubert’s funeral,” she wrote, the music website Noise11 reported. “God Bless the Rolling Stones.”"

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/

Some have accused the rock and roll crowd of ripping off the old bluesmen. That may be true in many cases, but I say the British rockers, especially the Rolling Stones, saved the bluesmen from obscurity.

While Elvis certainly rode the work created by the old blues players to fame, perhaps without giving proper credit to them, bands like the Rolling Stones took pride in the fact that they were paying homage to the old, black bluesmen. The Stones took Howlin' Wolf's song "Little Red Rooster" to the top of the UK charts in late 1964. Howlin' Wolf was featured on the U.K. program Shindig in 1965, along with the Stones.

I don't know if Howlin' Wolf and the other blues players received their proper royalties for all the covers produced by the British rockers, but, if not, that most likely was not the rockers fault, but the record companies, etc.