Re: Question about Mick Taylor and Keith
Date: October 3, 2009 10:26
Being a devoted Mick Taylor fan (and a big fan of the Stones in the Brian and MT years) I've read everything down to the shortest 3 paragraph interview about all this. My impressions are that Taylor and Richards were not friends but they got along ok and they complimented each other so well on stage-- I mean those '73 boots from Europe are jawdropping. Taylor was good friends with Wyman, and Wyman had talked about leaving the Stones at the same time as Taylor, because he and Keith really didn't get along. They did several tours where they never spoke. Jagger hung out with Taylor a lot, it was at a party after the two of them had gone to see a Clapton concert that Taylor gave him his neatly typed resignation letter. Jagger all but said in an interview in NY in '95 that that version of the band was the best but he wouldn't come out and actually say that because "that kind of trashes the band I have now, right?' But he loved having a guitar player who could play long, extended lines that he could work vocal lines from and not two guys going chunka chunka all night long. Neither he nor Richards wanted him to leave but you have to remember Taylor was 20 when he joined that band, 3 of the others were 25 to 28 and Wyman was 33. The group had several years where they were starving and scuffling and he wasn't a part of that so didn't feel he was a real Stone. He's always maintained he never planned on staying with them forever and he's on such another level playing wise that it's easy to see where he'd be bored to death doing the same set night after night and the thought of playing JJF and MR the rest of his life was pretty scary. But I still think if they'd given him song writing credits on the songs he obviously helped write, he'd have stayed a lot longer. Sway is Mick J on rhythm guitar and MT on lead guitar and no Keith to be heard. Same with Moonlight Mile, Can You Hear the Music, Winter, Hide Your Love and others. If you listen to some of the songs that didn't make Exiles which Taylor was brilliant on -- particularly I Ain't Lying, he's playing some monster licks and the fact they couldn't find a place for them somewhere is ridiculous. I think by 73 and 4, Keith was not only jealous as Mick was starting to be mentioned with Hendrix, Page, Clapton, Townshend, Santana and others as a virtuoso, Keith was too junked out to do much about it and he saw his Chuck Berry style band going into new directions he did not want it to go. Keith said some really dumb things right after Taylor left like not only did Wood fit in better but that he was a better player. It boggles that any guitar player would make such a statement but I have a feeling by then it had begun to sink in they'd messed up and had gone from being the Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the world to one of many pretty good hard rock bands. The KC concert was spur of the moment and all 3 had been drinking. listening to the boot, Jagger is obviously not happy but when Taylor came out the place went batshit and nobody had worked out how long he was going to play and with a reception like that, who was going to tell him to get off? It was Wood who did the complaining and when somebody asked Richard about it he said 'yeah, that @#$%&' but obviously wasn't irate or anything. And as others have mentioned they've played together since. In fact they both played on John Phillips solo album within a year of Taylor walking out altough Phillips wrote that it took a while before they started joking with each other again. A few more interesting quick points here - sorry I'm going on long-- KR has had nothing but good to say about Taylor for many years; it's reported in Greenfield's Exiles book that Keith has run into Taylor and almost started crying saying 'we owe you, man, we owe you'(but hasn't done anything about it -- I see it took them 4o yrs to give Marianne Faithfull her part writing credit for Sister Morphine)-- I can't imagine a guy collecting royalties on songs like Sway and Moonlight Mile when he wasn't even at the damn sessions. There is also a boot of Dylan, Richard and Wood practicing for the Live Aid concert in '85 which was right after Taylor had played and toured with Dylan for 2 years. Keith asks Dylan so hows' Mick Taylor doing? And Dylan says he doesn't know, Mick is always calling saying he'll be in town in a couple weeks but he hadn't seen him in a year. They discuss the fact that Mick is Mick no two ways about it,and Keith says it's impossible to get to know him well, he's so walled in. Then Dylan and Wood and finally Richard all start raving about Taylor's first solo album Leather Jacket. Dylan loved that song and Broken Hands.Richard made -for him - a very astute observation that both Taylor and Billy Preston were types who wanted to get out front but were more suited to be members of a band where all they had to do was play. And that I think is a pretty accurate description of MT. He's been incredible with the Stones, Mayall, Jack Bruce, Alvin Lee, Carla Olson and this year with Petit and many others. His live shows are great when he's playing but his singing is mediocre and he doesn't look comfortable being the man out front. But as long as he's playing guitar, who cares, right? That boot is Voices of Freedom Live Aid '85 btw.
Sorry I went on so long but this is a topic that's fascinated me because I went from being a huge Stones fan from 63 to 74 to not even paying attention to them after Black and Blue. With Taylor, Jimmy Miller, Nicky Hopkins, Johns, Price and Keys, Ian Stewart -- that band was untouchable. I still gobble up everything I can find that Taylor is on because he has such incredible touch and taste and his vibrato is almost alien. Very sobering (he's 2 years older than me) to be thought of as a pretty decent guitar player in your little corner of the world and know that guy could play rings around you today when he was 19.
Again, I aplogize for the length here.