27. October 17, 1961, a train platform in Dartford, England

Living only one street apart in a London suburb, two 7-year-olds strike up a friendship that lasts until they are 11 and one of them moves away. In the years that follow, their school careers diverge (one begins attending university, the other enrolls in a local art school) but their musical tastes are oddly similar, as they discover when their paths finally cross again on a train platform in their hometown. Although six years have passed, they quickly recognize each other. In one version of this story, the art-school student is carrying a guitar, and the university student has under his arm two albums he has ordered from a Chicago record label specializing in the blues. In another version, the art student has with him a record from the Chicago label and, noticing it, the other traveler reveals that he owns all of that musician’s records. Whichever version is accurate—or even if neither is—what’s indisputable is that within less than a year they are playing together in a band that for the next 60 years will regularly be touted, not unreasonably, as “the greatest rock and roll band in the world.”

(Mick Jagger, Keith Richards)