A few days ago, Mick Taylor - the long-forgotten Stone - played an outstanding solo on "Satisfaction". But why did he leave the Stones? In fact I spent ages to find answers for my eBook "50 Years On Tour - The Story Of The Rolling Stones: Live!"


FROM HALLS TO STADIUMS taken from: "50 Years On Tour. The Story Of The Rolling Stones: Live!"

"In December 1974, we went to Munich to record Black and Blue […]. That was when Mick Taylor dropped his bombshell on us, telling us he was leaving the band and that he had other furrows to plow, which none of us could believe."[1] Keith Richards


Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones of his own free will. He himself found it unfair that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had used his abilities without granting him joint-authorship for songs such as “Sway”, “Moonlight Mile”, “Winter” and “Time Waits For No One”, which he had evidently co-written with them. Mick Taylor: "We used to fight and argue all the time. And one of the things I got angry about was that Mick [Jagger] had promised to give me some credit for some of the songs – and he didn’t."[2]
Added to that, there was also a drug problem. Today, Mick Taylor is convinced that he wouldn’t have survived much longer if he had stayed with the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards: "He thought he was going to be a writer, a producer, that he’d take it as far as you could – but unfortunately he never got it."[3]
In hindsight, Taylor’s departure in December 1974 marked a break in the story of the Rolling Stones as a live band. Although the commercial success of the concerts with him didn’t match that of the world tours that would come later, still the band reached many of their musical highs thanks to his contribution. Charlie Watts: "We made some of the best music we’ve ever made with Mick Taylor. I thought the chemistry worked fabulously, and musically it was a peak period, which may not be all down to him, it might equally be the songs that Mick and Keith were writing, but the combination worked."[4]
For the first time, in 1995, Mick Jagger would later tell Rolling Stone magazine: "Mick Taylor would play very fluid lines against my vocals. He was exciting, and he was very pretty, and it gave me something to follow, to bang off. Some people think that's the best version of the band that existed."[5]
The remaining Rolling Stones would say very little about Mick Taylor during the next three decades, perhaps out of consideration for Ron Wood, who replaced him and was described by Bob Dylan as “the best bad-guitar-player in the world”. And so, while Mick Taylor appeared in ever-smaller concert halls and clubs, the Rolling Stones vied with one another, again and again, in ever-bigger stadium shows. That's life…

This one is huge can of worms. Mick Taylor himself has given contradictory answers to this over the years. So have Jagger and Richards. It was and is a touchy situation so their answers given have been spin and usually only semi-honest.

My take is three part--
1- Mick Taylor was worn and wasted from trying to keep up with the Keith Richards version of The Stones lifestyle. Cocaine and other drugs. Jimmy Miller and Graham Parsons could not keep up with it either and it was their death. GP passing away one year before MT left the Stones, maybe MT was spooked by this and drew a lesson from this. Mark down Nicky Hopkins as another who got ill from it.
2- Mick Taylor was being screwed on song writing credits which translates into fat royalty checks in the mailbox. When this got to be too much he left.
3- He was deprived of these royalties due to pure greed on the part of MickJ and Keith but also as a way to induce him to leave. It would be seen by the 1970s rock n roll press and critics as totally uncool to fire MickT. Far better for THe Stones to give MickT reasons to want get the hell out. Keith was jealous of his stellar guitar playing and wanted him out. MickJ was neutral on this, liked Mick Taylor so wanted him to stay, but MickJ still wanted Stones songwriting credits (and royalty money) to be flowing exclusively to him and Keith

The final irony today is it seems Keith wants more MickT up on stage and Jagger wants less with Jagger being the final arbiter



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-10 12:58 by triceratops.

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triceratops
This one is huge can of worms. Mick Taylor himself has given contradictory answers to this over the years. So have Jagger and Richards. It was and is a touchy situation so their answers given have been spin and usually only semi-honest.

My take is three part--
1- Mick Taylor was worn and wasted from trying to keep up with the Keith Richards version of The Stones lifestyle. Cocaine and other drugs. Jimmy Miller and Graham Parsons could not keep up with it either and it was their death. GP passing away one year before MT left the Stones, maybe MT was spooked by this and drew a lesson from this. Mark down Nicky Hopkins as another who got ill from it.
2- Mick Taylor was being screwed on song writing credits which translates into fat royalty checks in the mailbox. When this got to be too much he left.
3- He was deprived of these royalties due to pure greed on the part of MickJ and Keith but also as a way to induce him to leave. Keith was jealous of his stellar guitar playing and wanted him out. MickJ was neutral on this, liked Mick Taylor so wanted him to stay, but MickJ still wanted Stones songwriting credits (and royalty money) to be flowing exclusively to him and Keith

what evidence is there that keith was jealous? hard to imagine, their styles are so different.

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sonomastone


what evidence is there that keith was jealous? hard to imagine, their styles are so different.

Mick Taylor became the Stones lead guitarist, Keith's resentment built up. Resentment of MickT getting the spotlight up on stage. Keith never comes right out and says this so the evidence is thin. Just my thoughts on the situation

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triceratops

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sonomastone


what evidence is there that keith was jealous? hard to imagine, their styles are so different.

Mick Taylor became the Stones lead guitarist, Keith's resentment built up. Resentment of MickT getting the spotlight up on stage. Keith never comes right out and says this so the evidence is thin. Just my thoughts on the situation

ok... i think you're totally wrong and there's no evidence to support that. keith got tons of the spotlight back then, it was the time of his great rolling stone cover.

plus he was zonked out on h. i think his hands were pretty full with mick, anita, his kids, his addictions, etc.

I'm sure he thought of it as a good idea at the time.

I read a fairly recent interview with MT where he said he left the Stones because he was scared that the addiction to heroin and cocaine he acquired while in the band's employment was out of control and he didn't want to end up dead. Jagger asked him to get clean, take about 6 months off and come back. Taylor didn't want to come because he was afraid he couldn't handle the temptation of the drugs that were in abundance in and around the band at the time. And yes, he did also mention some bitterness about not getting certain writing credits.

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stonesdan60
I read a fairly recent interview with MT where he said he left the Stones because he was scared that the addiction to heroin and cocaine he acquired while in the band's employment was out of control and he didn't want to end up dead. Jagger asked him to get clean, take about 6 months off and come back. Taylor didn't want to come because he was afraid he couldn't handle the temptation of the drugs that were in abundance in and around the band at the time. And yes, he did also mention some bitterness about not getting certain writing credits.

This is what i agree on,,and only reasonable reason,and keith took heroin up to 1977,but abuse of alcohol and other drugs continued well into 2000´s,,,

everybody usually just blames yoko

He left to return in 2012 and 2013, and to become the main subject on this board.

Viva Mick Taylor, and Rolling Stones forever.

I agree with all of the above basically but it probably came down to money/credits.

Also, If I was Mick Taylor and saw The Stones cutting songs with Ron Wood and giving him even an 'inspiration" credit on IORR, I would leave too.

I think MJ & KR made it clear they wanted him out.

If you read A Season in Hell by Robert Greenfield, there is a lot of background on this. Mick was considering leaving as far back as Nellcote. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that Keith was jealous of Mick T - read the interview in the book with Andy Johns.

Mick has also said that he thought the RS were finishing and he wanted to jump ship before it sank. He was bored with the limited scope of RS music and wanted to explore new horizons. As well, as has already been discussed, he was bitter at not being given writing credits and royalties, and strongly felt he had to escape the heroin milieu of the RS' circle.

Ego.

well I'm glad he's back. its beneficial for all concerned. He looks happier than ever as far as one can tell from photos and videos.

wHO KNOWS - WHO CARES AT THIS POINT - ALL I CARE ABOUT IS HE'S ON TWO SONGS NOW
IN THE LIVE SET AND HERE'S HOPING FOR MORE!!!!!

MLC

He wanted to be High School music teacher

I think it's a perfect storm combo of all the things mentioned, probably the key reason being to save his own life, and running right behind that is that the Stones felt like a sinking ship in 1974. It's important to remember that the Stones didn't appear as incredible as we take them to be now. There was no live album to testify to the 72-73 peak. It was almost a secret. If you didn't go to the gigs, and most people weren't able to, you didn't KNOW how great they were. Exile's a great album but it's not as ferocious as the live show, and it got crappy reviews anyway. And GHS and IORR at the time just seemed to be a portent of the ship sinking. "Heartbreaker" and "It's Only Rock and Roll" are good records, but compared to "Black Dog" and "Smoke on the Water", forget it! Oh, and it was completely a forgone conclusion then that Keith would be dead any day. His teeth were black and the rest of him was going that way. They didn't look nearly as invincible then in real time as it looks to be now in retrospect.

[www.dailymail.co.uk]

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JC21769
I agree with all of the above basically but it probably came down to money/credits.

Also, If I was Mick Taylor and saw The Stones cutting songs with Ron Wood and giving him even an 'inspiration" credit on IORR, I would leave too.

I think MJ & KR made it clear they wanted him out.

Taylor was there, cutting songs with Ronnie himself. In fact, Ronnie was a friend of his.

From the same sessions as the "trade" IORR/I Can Feel The Fire:

Too much drugs in the band?
Threated bad by M & K?
Too much disco?

2 1 2 0

Haven't we been there a 1000 times? If the drugs would have been a main reason he wouldn't have teamed up with Jack Bruce who was shooting up smack and coke even more than.
Think there have been many reasons and he was lured out from others like A. Johns and Taylors wife. Plus in those days there was still the chance of getting big record contracts.There wasn't one reason alone. And I'm shure he regreted it many times in the years coming but of course wouldn't say.

Musically speaking I think the greatest motivation was that he wanted to get in to stuff like this.





His playing during the 1973 European tour shows him moving ever clsoer in that direction and his playing in Jack Bruce group after he left the stones shows him trying, but failing to match any of the actual fusion guitar virtuoso of the time.

Fact is, for all the talk of him giving the stones music more gravitas, it turned out that it was actually their songs which gave his playing more gravitas and meaning because without them he was really just one of many good, but ultimately limited bluesy guitarists.

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His Majesty
Musically speaking I think the greatest motivation was that he wanted to get in to stuff like this.





His playing during the 1973 European tour shows him moving ever clsoer in that direction and his playing in Jack Bruce group after he left the stones shows him trying, but failing to match any of the actual fusion guitar virtuoso of the time.

Fact is, for all the talk of him giving the stones music more gravitas, it turned out that it was actually their songs which gave his playing more gravitas and meaning because without them he was really just one of many good, but ultimately limited bluesy guitarists.

I agree. That leaves the question I have been asking myself for several years: why didn't he continue and try to reach this level- talent and feeling was not the problem?

Yeah, 73/74 were - after progressive rock - the years of jazz-rock. Taylor wanted to play those styles with great musicians.And the Stones were in a bad shape. It all came together.

Apart from the other reasons I think that basically the times of the guitar heroes was over and he felt that he had played everything with the Stones he was capable of. I mean, what could he have followed the Tour of Europe 1973 with?

I am amongst those who think that this tour was the greatest ever but at the same time I think the Rolling Stones would not have survived as long hat Mick Taylor stayed with them. Image-wise Ron Wood was a better guitarist for the late 1970s and 1980s, that means the Punk, and Disco era. After 1989, it was rock theater and not concerts anymore.

But it's great that MT is back with them now. If only they would perform a mini-set of 3 to 4 songs with him, including rather obscure ones like Ventilator blues, Time waits for no one, 100 years ago, and so on!

In hindsight the Stones had mostly been lucky. In the 60's they had Brian.When you needed a guitar god in the early 70's they had Taylor. When punk came they got Woody.

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svt22

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His Majesty
Musically speaking I think the greatest motivation was that he wanted to get in to stuff like this.





His playing during the 1973 European tour shows him moving ever clsoer in that direction and his playing in Jack Bruce group after he left the stones shows him trying, but failing to match any of the actual fusion guitar virtuoso of the time.

Fact is, for all the talk of him giving the stones music more gravitas, it turned out that it was actually their songs which gave his playing more gravitas and meaning because without them he was really just one of many good, but ultimately limited bluesy guitarists.

I agree. That leaves the question I have been asking myself for several years: why didn't he continue and try to reach this level- talent and feeling was not the problem?

I assume this is where his personal problems might have come in to play.

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CousinC
In the 60's they had Brian

Don't forget Geoff Bradford. Always wondered why he left. Any thoughts?

Great musician who was brought in by Brian. But no Rolling Stone . .

They could form a band called the castoffs. Mick Avory on drums, Bill on bass, Taylor and Bradford on guitar, Dick Taylor doing something, Blondie on vocals. Support the stones, keep everybody happy