Nothing new here but l was wondering in which album is Mick T's contribution the best ,imo is in Goat's Head Soup,
Any opinions?

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

Goats Head probably seems accurate. There's no real way to tell right? The liner notes on Exile are not exactly correct. He's on most of Fingers. I dunno.

Does it matter?

Quote
skipstone
Goats Head probably seems accurate. There's no real way to tell right? The liner notes on Exile are not exactly correct. He's on most of Fingers. I dunno.

Does it matter?

Not really, is just a question to pass the time....

Well, Sticky Fingers would be my favorite, and is it not thought that Moonlight Mile was heavily influenced by Taylor?

'Liv'R Than You'll Ever Be'!!!

That solo on 'Love In Vain' is legendary.

And of course, his amazing work on the unreleased '72 live album. 'Bye Bye Johnny' is one for the ages. Hope it sees the light of day, because Mick T. positively soars on that entire recording.

Sorry, what I meant by Does it matter is that he's not 100% that I am aware of on any of the albums he's on.

But it is an interesting bit of trivia. Never really thought about it.

I would say his sound is more in the front on Goats Head Soup,followed by Sticky Fingers,IORR an then Exile.

Coming Down Again

I think he's more inspired on Goats than on IORR - where he settles for more predictable quasi-Santana buildups or decent blues fills. Gimmie 'Winter', '100 Years' 'Doo Doo', or 'Sway'...

interesting post... it depends on how we view his contributions, in terms of a band context.

Let It Bleed he's hardly on.

Ya Ya's he shines at times and is restrained at others. In a sense he's not quite taylor of "the taylor years" yet, but IMO that's not a disadvantage, as I prefer keith's style of playing. Still there a couple of cuts here where he's not really doing anything interesting.

Sticky Fingers has probably his best moments, but awkward spotlights like the outro to "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" indicate the problems to come. Still this album probably has him fitting into the band the best overall. (So did he write the music to "Moonlight Mile"? or is jagger playing the acoustic, and taylor only the slide leads?)

Exile is a keith-dominated album, and taylor can be hard pressed to get into the mix. I think like bill he didn't adapt all that well to the informal, unpredictable recording schedule of the Nellcote sessions, and mick and keith seemed to have controlled the LA sessions. His playing on "All Down the Line" and "Stop Breaking Down" are among his best, and he only gets possibly overbearing on "Shine a Light"... but it works anyhow, the song is so great.

Goats Head Soup is probably the album he contributed the most in an absolute sense; however, this seems to have been due to keith's relative lack of contributing. So it's not necessarily for the best. "Winter" is superb, but taylor's not able to transform any of the other songs, such as "Hide Your Love" into taylor-pieces. Billy Preston picks up keith's slack probably more than taylor does, and I believe bill begins branching out to synths here, perhaps because taylor plays a fair amount of bass himself on this record.

IORR has taylor absent for the main early sessions, as reported by Andy Johns: he had sinus problems. So he is just rather quickly overdubbing his standard shtick on a lot of the cuts here, a la ron on ABB. On the other hand, his spotlight moments, "Time Waits for No One," is fairly dreadful and illustrates that he wasn't fitting anymore. So because of the sinus problem or his own mixed feelings, he mainly did not follow through on the songwriting partnership he had been building with jagger on the previous album.

ultimately I think you'd say he contributed the most to the album that had the band gelling the best, not necessarily the one where he has a heaviest presence (which is probably GHS). However, each of these albums has a rather protracted and confused production, so it's hard to make a final call.

>> So did he write the music to "Moonlight Mile"? <<

since Bill's indicated that the working title of that number was "Keith's Japanese thing"
i would guess that Taylor wasn't the sole or primary composer.

your proposal that he contributed most when he fit in best, not when he stood out most,
sounds about right to me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-16 08:37 by with sssoul.

Quote
with sssoul
Bill's indicated that the working title of that number was "Keith's Japanese thing"

right...! strange then that keith's not on the final cut, at least according to the credits. Also that this should be something of a mystery, when it's IMO one of the group's very best moments. The acoustic playing has a plodding feel that while utterly appropriate suggests it could be jagger the amateur...

Tubular Bells....



ROCKMAN

>> strange then that Keith's not on the final cut, at least according to the credits. <<

yeah it seems strange in a way, but the mystery suits the track, huh.
or maybe it wasn't all that strange really. one quote from [www.timeisonourside.com] sounds like
it was simply one of those situations where multiple takes were layered into the final track,
and no one knows exactly who played what on the parts that got used:

I thought I wasn't on Moonlight Mile but the last riff everybody gets into playing
is a riff I'd been playing on earlier tapes before I dropped out.
- Keith Richards, 1971

that statement of course pretty much contradicts another statement from 1971:

The only thing in Sticky Fingers I don't have anything to do with is Moonlight Mile,
'cause I wasn't there when they did it. It was great to hear that because I was very out of it
by the end of the album and it was like listening, really listening. It was really nice.
- Keith Richards, 1971



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-16 09:34 by with sssoul.

Quote
with sssoul
your proposal that he contributed most when he fit in best, not when he stood out most, sounds about right to me.

Fair enough opinion but on some tracks, such as TWFNO, he stands out the most and at the same time contributes the most. By this I mean without his lead guitar work, I doubt thus track would have seen the light of day. The same might be said for Moonlight Mile.

How one can call Time Waits For No One dreadful is totally beyond me. That´s a beautiful song.

>> on some tracks, such as TWFNO, he stands out the most and at the same time contributes the most <<

i'm cognizant that that's some people's opinion, but i've got a different one.
IORR is one of the albums i am least moved by, and that kind of "standing out" is part of the reason.

Sticky Fingers for Sway and Bitch.
Love the MSG '72 boot : Love in vain, YCAGWYW and All down the line (and JJF and rambler...) are fantastic.

---

Sorry for my english ; I'm a french little boy (but I like it)

<Sticky Fingers for Sway and Bitch.>

The riff?

The best guitar work from Taylor on a Stones album must be All Down The Line, 100 Years Ago, Sway and Moonlight Mile IMO.

Quote
Svartmer
How one can call Time Waits For No One dreadful is totally beyond me. That´s a beautiful song.

well to each there own but I think it is one of their worst tracks ever.

The best songs from the Stones are the songs that capture them as an entire band where it's not important who plays what, who wrote what or who is the most prominent, but the song that is created by putting all these fragments together.

That being said, in my opinion the most valuable contribution of Mick Taylor might be Exile. Listening to that album I at least have an experience like listening to a band that is bigger and better than the sum of all individual members.

Sticky Fingers to me. I brought it to his show in 2006 to get him to sign it, but he was a bit too drunk.

JumpingKentFlash

Quote
cc
"Time Waits for No One," is fairly dreadful and illustrates that he wasn't fitting anymore.

That's a very harsh judgement, cc. I don't know. What's your exaxt problem with TWFNO? Too "forced"? Too much soloing? I quite like the song. It's not as strong as Winter or Moonlight Mile which might have been the templates they tried to follow here but it's still an impressive collaboration IMO.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-16 17:42 by Greenblues.

It's Exile, no doubt.

That is the kind of stuff that Taylor was playing before he joined the stones (Crusade is a great example) and, to a certain extent, now.

It doesn't matter how they did it, but on Exile MT is fully merged in the band. His solos and fills and everything fits perfectly the context. To the point that sometimes you can't say who played what.

C

Get Yer Ya's Out !

the most influential live album ever....

Get Yer Ya Ya's Out !

the most influential live album ever....

Quite amazing to hear KR saying on the Youtube clip he really misses Mick T - pity they didn't hit it off more at the time, the horse has long since bolted. MT deserved more credit for his efforts on those albums, he never got it.

we all know Keith speaks sh!t far too often...one day he wants to kinfe the guy, the next he loves him....lets get it straight - Jagger & Keith don't give a sh!t about him....they love money and screwed him big time...argue otherwise and you are kidding yourself.

Those great songs by Jagger & Richards deserved the care and virtuosity provided by Taylor. It’s great to have a drink, a smoke and crack your own self up while on stage, but Taylor seemed to care about the songs.