Olympic Studio, 1967

Behind the Photo #1

This photo was taken at Olympic Studios in the early summer of 1967, I believe, by Michael Cooper. I’m sitting on the floor with tablas, which are Indian drums, with Paul McCartney to my right and Keith Richards on my left.  

We were jamming during a break of the recording session of the Rolling Stones single “We Love You” and its flip side, "Dandelion,” on which John Lennon and Paul McCartney sang backup harmonies. 

At an earlier date, I had recorded a track called "Message to Pretty,” which was produced by Terry Kennedy and written by my friend Arthur Lee of the LA group Love.

"Message to Pretty” was a proto-rap version of the song that Paul McCartney thought was a masterpiece; he said, “I know what to do with this track!” And he persuaded Terry Kennedy to let him take the master to Olympic Studios that night. Terry could hardly say no to a Beatle, so he reluctantly allowed Paul to take it.

The plan was that if studio time was still available at the end of the Rolling Stones' session, we would work on that track, as well as some music that I'd done with the Beatles at Abbey Road. However, the Stones session took far more time than anticipated, and as it crept into the wee hours, it became quite clear that there wouldn't be any time to work on my stuff. Moreover, I had to catch an early morning flight to Rome. 

As I was reluctantly leaving the studio, Mick Jagger said, “Don't worry Stash, Paul and I will take care of the track!” But at that exact moment, Mick dropped the precious master onto the floor! 

I thought, Oh my god, this is a very bad omen! and I left the studio all shaken up.

Sadly, they never got around to doing anything with the tracks, and my master tapes somehow got lost at the studio. By the time I got back to England in late October for my trial, nobody knew what actually happened to the tracks, as they had mysteriously vanished.

Years later, when Olympic Studios vacated the premises, they threw a whole bunch of other master tapes, including Stones stuff, into a dumpster. Some people recovered and kept them; however, mine never resurfaced.

Terry Kennedy was understandably livid at the loss of "Message to Pretty," which was his property because he had paid for that session, and, as I can tell you, studio time was not cheap in those days!

Oddly enough, although I can’t remember all the details looking at the photograph, I do remember that the Indian shirt I'm wearing in this photo is one I traded with Mick Jagger and that my green velvet pants were made by a designer in Saint-Tropez.