Why It Matters

When is a Rolling Stones album not a Rolling Stones album?

During the 1969 sessions for Let It Bleed, Stones guitarist Keith Richards went AWOL, leaving the rest of the band to twiddle their thumbs while sidemen Ry Cooder and Nicky Hopkins counted their twiddles. Of course, that’s not how things work with musicians. They had instruments, studio time, and tape. You can guess what happened next.

If you like your Stones loose and bluesy (and I do), it doesn’t get much better than this. Granted, Keef is missed, but slide players don’t come any better than Ry Cooder:

Their impromptu jam session saw the light of day as an official album release in 1972, with cover art by pianist Nicky Hopkins (who is also the “Edward” of the album title, which was an inside joke). It performed fairly well, peaking at #33 on the album charts. That’s respectable for an album that wasn’t conceived with commercial pretensions, and it speaks to the Stones’ overwhelming popularity in ’72. Even their jam sessions qualified as hit records.

This isn’t a record that you hear about much anymore, mostly because it doesn’t fit into the classic rock radio format. That’s the bad news. The good news is that  because Jamming With Edward isn’t highly sought after, you can pick up this Rolling Stones oddity for just a couple bucks. Happy hunting.