How Bob Dylan Pushed the Rolling Stones to Stop Covering and Start Writing

Before 1964, the Stones were basically a blues cover band with a few Jagger/Richards originals thrown in. Then they met Bob Dylan at a hotel in May of that year—Dylan had been touring England and the two camps crossed paths. Dylan handed them a joint and a fresh perspective: he told them they didn’t need to keep looking backward to Chicago blues, that they had their own stories to tell.

The effect showed up fast. Later that year they recorded “It’s All Over Now” (a Bobby Womack cover) but also cut “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back)"—one of their first complete Jagger/Richards originals. By the time they started sessions for Out of Our Heads in early 1965, the balance had tipped. The album still had four covers, but the originals—including “The Last Time” and the early take of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”—felt less like attempts to imitate black American artists and more like the band’s own twisted vision of rhythm & blues. Dylan didn’t teach them to write; he gave them permission to sound like themselves.