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Rolling Stones songs: Stoned
STONED IN ’63 Before the world tours, pyrotechnics, and swaggering legend, the Stones were just kids chasing a raw blues high. Stoned, their 1963 B-side to I Wanna Be Your Man, was messy, mumbly, and gloriously weird. Credited to the band’s in-joke alias “Nanker-Phelge,” it’s more drunken jam than polished song—just echo, groove, and Mick asking, “Where am I at?” Somehow, that scrappy mix of slop and charm set the tone for everything that came next.
Stoned: The First Original That Wasn’t Really Original
Before the Stones were stadium gods, they were scrappy blues fanatics just trying to get a song on vinyl—and Stoned was the result. Released in late 1963 as the B-side to their Beatles cover I Wanna Be Your Man, it marked the band’s first original composition on record… sort of. Officially credited to the mysterious “Nanker-Phelge,” (a band pseudonym created for group-written tracks), the song was more jam session than masterpiece. Built on a 12-bar blues framework, it featured Mick Jagger mumbling oddball lines like “Where am I at?” and the occasional spaced-out “stoned,” all soaked in echo and weirdness. A lazy groove, some decent raunchy guitar, and voilà: a track that’s both derivative and oddly charming.
And no, it’s not just a knockoff of Booker T.’s Green Onions (though comparisons were inevitable)—in fact Stoned moves slower, shuffles more, and sounds like it was recorded after one too many pints.
Nanker-Phelge, Dirty Underwear, and Echoey Nonsense
Now let’s talk about that glorious pseudonym: “Nanker-Phelge.” The “nanker” part came from the band’s charming hobby of pulling faces and sticking fingers up their noses. “Phelge” was their roommate James (Jimmy Phelge), infamous for wearing filthy underwear on his head (yes, really). When he spotted his name on the B-side label, the band smiled proudly and asked, “Hope you don’t mind?” As if anyone wouldn’t want to be immortalized on a semi-plagiarized blues instrumental.
The track almost made it as their U.S. debut but was pulled in favor of Not Fade Away, possibly because someone realized that a song called Stoned featuring vocals that sound, well, stoned, might raise eyebrows. Still, it lives on as one of the Stones’ strangest and grooviest early moments—and a rare collectible with a typo to boot.
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