Who remembers the Stones with Taj Mahal? They first had Mahal (nee Henry St. Clair) with them during their 1968 Rock & Roll Circus TV show. Almost 30 years on, they hired him back for their Bridges to Babylon tour, so that he could perform his song "Corinna" with them (which featured Mick playing harmonica, of course). (Mahal's original version of the song can be found on his 1968 album, Natch'l Blues and on his 1992 album Taj's Blues.)

This prompts me to bring up this question: Did the Stones ever cover another Mahal standard, his adaptation of James "Yank" Rachell's song "She Caught the Katy" ("Katy" referring to the Missouri/Kansas/Texas, or MKT, train)? This song was more widely known when it was covered by the Blues Brothers Band (which featured veteran actors Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi of Saturday Night Live fame) in 1979.

~Ben



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-09-25 17:28 by BrianJones1969.

>> Did the Stones ever cover another Mahal standard, his adaptation of James "Yank" Rachell's song "She Caught the Katy" <<

you know ... somehow i get the feeling you know yourself that they haven't, at least not in any public performance.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg's commentary to the Rock & Roll Circus dvd includes a charming recollection
of the scenario when it turned out that Taj Majal and his band wouldn't be given work permits to do the gig:
apparently Lindsay-Hogg and Mick were ready to say "oh well" and proceed without them,
but Keith hit the roof, stormed around calling everyone pussies and declared he wouldn't play if they didn't film Taj.
so they came up with the "workaround" of filming them during rehearsals instead of during the Circus itself.

Could these altercations that you mentioned give rise to the fact as to why the R&RC film hadn't been released for 28 years in any form of media?

~Ben

that isn't at all likely.

I saw Taj in a record store once -- he was wearing a promo leather jacket for RNRC. I wondered if it had been a gift or perk of some sort (this was after the official DVD release).

I always thought that the version of "Leavin' Trunk", that Taj cut on his first record, was an inspiration for "Memo From Turner". In fact, I think I heard that Mick was actually dancing to the Taj song when they filmed some of that scene. Of course, I have no idea where I heard that, or if it's true. I will say that Taj's original band with Jesse Ed Davis was a wonder to behold.