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kowalski

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Bluesstone
On the first Hyde Park Show in 2013 I had travelled to London with a bunch of friends, we were thrilled when the band started playing and we sang and danced our way into the concert.
Then, when the sun had set down a bit, they started playing Miss You and when Bobby Keys started his sax solo was the moment we all lost it completely. It was so gut-hitting and magical, I still remember how that sound hit me right through my entire body and filled me up with an incredible amount of pure joy. It took the song to a totally different level, we all were really elevated and went bananas.
I will not forget that moment and every time I put on the Hyde Park album version of Sweet Summer Sun (it's not the Miss You Version on the DVD) I can listen to that incredible Sax again and remember this night in London!
Thank you for that special moment, Bobby!

Yes, the sax solo on Miss You from the Sweet Summer Sun CD is absolutely stunning.

Another sax solo from Bobby Keys I rediscovered while watching Hampton DVD is on Let It Bleed :

Great sax from a great Sax player .... - 3 sideman not there anymore, Stu, Mac and Bobby Keys

Bobby Keys, Hard-Living Saxophonist for Rolling Stones, Dies at 70

By BRUCE WEBERDEC. 2, 2014


Bobby Keys on tour with the Rolling Stones in 1973. Credit Michael Putland/Getty Images


Bobby Keys, a Texas-born sideman whose urgent, wailing saxophone solos wove a prominent thread through more than 40 years of rock ’n’ roll, notably with the Rolling Stones, died on Tuesday at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 70.

His family announced the death, without specifying a cause.

A self-taught musician who never learned to read music, Mr. Keys was a rock ’n’ roller in every sense of the term. Born (almost literally) in the shadow of Buddy Holly, he was a lifelong devotee and practitioner of music with a driving pulse and a hard-living, semi-law-abiding participant in the late-night, sex-booze-and-drug-flavored world of musical celebrity.

“I’ve been smoking pot for over 50 years, and I never let a day go by unless I’m in jail,” he said in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “I am a devout pothead. I have been, will be, don’t see a damn thing wrong with it except the cost.”

Mostly playing tenor and sometimes baritone saxophone, he recorded with a Who’s Who of rock including Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Country Joe and the Fish, Harry Nilsson, Joe Cocker and Sheryl Crow. He toured with Delaney and Bonnie and was recording with them in 1969 when they shared a Los Angeles studio with the Stones, who were making their album “Let It Bleed.”

As Mr. Keys recalled in his 2012 memoir, “Every Night’s a Saturday Night” (written with Bill Ditenhafer), Mick Jagger invited him to sit in on the track “Live With Me,” and thus began an association with the band that went on to include the albums “Sticky Fingers,” “Exile on Main St.,” “Goat’s Head Soup” and “Emotional Rescue” and almost a dozen tours over more than 30 years.

Perhaps Mr. Keys’s most famous contribution to rock history is his roaring, lasciviously melodic solo — not unsuited to Mr. Jagger’s sexually charged lyrics — on “Brown Sugar,” from “Sticky Fingers.” He was also prominently featured on “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’,” “Happy” and many other Stones songs.

Mr. Keys and Keith Richards, the Stones’ legendarily profligate guitarist and songwriter, became great friends and frequent companions in, well, profligacy. The two of them famously threw a television set from a hotel window in 1972.

In Mr. Richards’s 2010 memoir, “Life” (written with James Fox), there is a description of the two men traveling together and narrowly escaping arrest for heroin possession at the Honolulu airport; Mr. Richards also describes Mr. Keys missing a gig in Belgium during a 1973 European tour because he was lolling with a young Frenchwoman in a bathtub filled with Champagne.

“I have lost the largest pal in the world and I can’t express the sense of sadness I feel, although Bobby would tell me to cheer up,” Mr. Richards said in a statement.

Remarkably, the two men were born on the same day, Dec. 18, 1943 — Mr. Richards in Dartford, Kent, southeast of London, and Robert Henry Keys, according to his memoir, in Hurlwood, a now-extinct West Texas town near Lubbock, where his father was serving in the Army Air Corps at an airfield that no longer exists. He grew up mostly in the segregated small town of Slaton, at the home of his father’s parents.

As a boy he would sneak out to hear Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf in a ramshackle club on the black side of town, and when he was 12 he heard Buddy Holly, a Lubbock native who was seven years older, play at the opening of a gas station half a block from his house.

The music, he wrote, was full of rebellion, and he was drawn to it and stayed drawn. He wanted to play guitar but couldn’t afford to buy one, and ended up with the saxophone because he got injured playing baseball and couldn’t try out for the high school football team.

“No big loss,” he wrote, “except the only way to go to the football games and be involved in the program was to join the band. And the only instrument they had left, the absolute last instrument available, was an old baritone saxophone, which I had no idea how to even put my lips on.”

He got some help picking out notes and memorizing songs from another high school kid who played the guitar: Sonny Curtis, who would go on to write dozens of well-known songs, including “I Fought the Law” and “Love Is All Around,” the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme.

Before Mr. Keys was of legal drinking age, he was playing in Lubbock clubs. In the early 1960s, he toured with the singer Bobby Vee’s band.

He was playing with that band in 1964 at the Teenage World’s Fair in San Antonio when he first encountered, for one night, the Rolling Stones, who were on the same bill. The Stones played “Not Fade Away,” first recorded by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and though Mr. Keys wouldn’t play with them for another five years, it was that night, he wrote, that he felt his kinship with the band in general and Mr. Richards in particular.

“They were both highly motivated people,” Mr. Keys wrote. “I mean, Holly knew he was gonna make it — here he was, a stained-toothed, four-eyed, glasses-wearin’ guy, but he had no fear. And that’s what I saw right away in Keith Richards.”

According to his spokeswoman, Mr. Keys’s survivors include his wife, Holly; two sons, Jesse and Huck; a daughter, Amber; a stepson, Randy Kaune; two brothers, Daryl and Gary; a sister, Debbie Kanishiro; and three granddaughters.

The drummer Steve Jordan, a friend, said in an interview on Tuesday that those who knew Mr. Keys were enjoying the chance to share memories of his music and his exploits.

“He was just a powerhouse,” Mr. Jordan said of Mr. Keys’s playing.

“He didn’t get cheated out of anything,” he said of the rest.


[www.nytimes.com]

RIP Bobby! We will miss you!

RIP

Rest in Peace, Bobby!

Just *******ing beautiful. Thank you Bobby...the absolute best!!!

This totally sucks...Bobby and Ian. Terrible news.

Goodbye Bobby, Brown Sugar live will never sound the same without you, rest in
peace

RIP

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crholmstrom
RIP

Hours are like diamonds , don't let them waste

SwayStones



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

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z

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camper88

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MidnightGambler
Nice comment from 1969Fan but one big mistake.

Bobby did not play at the Brussels concerts on 17 October 1973.

He was fired from the tour few days before by Mick Jagger.

Just my own personal, that was Mick's mistake.

Great comment from 1969Fan. Deep thanks for that.

IIRC Bobby said in his book that he wasn't fired. He left.

he did leave because of his own problems and he said so himself many times-

sadly,there are still fans out there with jagger derangement syndrome.

mick brought bobby into the fold which is why he was so angry at him for leaving during a tour.the story of keith sneaking him back in is one of his funniest tales..

RIP Bobby-you,your horn and your music brought us so much joy!

A tribute by Keith in Rolling Stone Magazine: [www.rollingstone.com]

"Bobby and I were on the road together for about two years before we found out that we were actually born within hours of each other. I think we had a passport check somewhere in Europe, so we started to read our passports to each other. "18th of December, 1943, get out of here!" We still never figured out who was older"




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-04 23:59 by dcba.

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Bluesstone
A tribute by Keith in Rolling Stone Magazine: [www.rollingstone.com]

I enjoyed that. Thanks for posting the link. I may have never sound it otherwise.

Peace,
Mr DJA

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Bluesstone
A tribute by Keith in Rolling Stone Magazine: [www.rollingstone.com]

Thanks! Good stuff.

Interesting that Keith hints that the idea to play the solo of "Brown Sugar" by sax derived from Bobby himself.

- Doxa

Another tribute to Bobby Keys.

The tribute by Keith in Rolling Stone really is wonderful. All those great memories swimming around his head. They should do a gig as a tribute for Bobby, Mac & Bobby Womack. I was hoping Woody would do something for Bobby Womack in London due to the great songs on his Now Look solo album, etc.

Bobby supposedly was the sax on this when he was a young un for Dion on The Wanderer but supposedly they overdubbed someone else but he thought it was him playing so there is a debate about that, but I think its Bobby: see Rolling Stones article below with his quote about it:



[www.youtube.com][video]




Rolling Stone

Bobby Keys: The Lost Rolling Stone Interview

The legendary saxophonist shares his favorite memories from a career spent playing with John Lennon, Buddy Holly and the Rolling Stones




Photo: Brian Hineline/Retna/Getty

Bobby Keys performs at the Highline Ballroom in New York on August 23rd, 2012. The saxophonist toured with the Rolling Stones for more than 45 years.


By Patrick Doyle | December 2, 2014
Legendary saxophone player Bobby Keys has passed away at age 70. Keys was best known for touring with the Rolling Stones for more than 45 years, but his career extended far beyond the band, from a childhood friendship with Buddy Holly to a role in hits by the Plastic Ono Band and George Harrison. In 2012, I spoke with Keys around the release of his book Every Night's a Saturday Night, discussing his long career and wild past.


I know you went on a lot of those Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars tours early in your career. What were those like?
I was pretty fresh out of Texas at the time that started happening, man, and I find myself rolling down the highway with a bunch of people that had records on the Top 10, like Little Anthony and Little Eva and Major Lance and Billy Stewart and Freddy Cannon. I was listening to some of these very same people less than a year earlier on the radio. Your seating position on the bus sort of determined your status on the tour. And the band went to the back of the bus.

How was the sound at those shows? It was before the Stones created the modern way of touring.
It was really bad. I mean, amplifiers weren't as big as they are now. There were no monitor systems or anything like that. There'd be a mic for Anthony and another one for the Imperials. And then they had another mic set up for the horn section. But it wasn't anywhere at all as elaborate as it is today, where every single thing is mic'd. Even the drummer's underwear.

Who blew you away on those tours?
I always loved Little Anthony and the Imperials. They were like the precursors of the Temptations. I loved their music. Besides that, we shared a common interest in pot.

It must've been hard to find pot in those days.
Well, it was for me because I didn't know anyone! But I got to be friends with the guys in the Imperials. I'd ask Sammy or Clarence or whoever's gonna go see the Man to pick me up a bag. And back then, they used to bring it to you in these little penny candy sacks, little brown paper bags. A baggie full of that was like 10 bucks, man and it was [laughs] not like today.

It's much stronger today, right? I've heard that back then it wasn't that strong.
Ehh. I've been smoking pot for over 50 years, and I never let a day go by unless I'm in jail. I am a devout pothead. I have been, will be, don't see a damn thing wrong with it except the cost. I used to buy this stuff for 90 bucks a kilo. That's over two pounds. And now, man, they're selling ounces in New York for about 500 bucks an ounce. Hydroponic grown… it's ridiculous. It's absurd. Legalize it, get the tax from it, the country's broke. Hell, we'll make an immediate recovery. I myself alone would be sponsoring a great portion of that. And I've got a number of friends who feel the same way.

You knew Buddy Holly early on. What was he like?
I didn't know Buddy real well because he was older than me. There's a big social difference in a four or five year age difference. I remember one afternoon, he was out on his front porch and he was sitting in rocking chair. And I just wandered over across the street from my aunt's house. And he was saying, "You know Robert, I believe I'm gonna make it." And I look him and I say, "I don't think so, I just don't see it, pal." I was just kidding. Buddy was a pretty energetic fella. He was the first guy I heard play electric guitar, and it impressed the hell out of me.

In your book you write about playing on "The Wanderer." You really just wandered into that session?
Yeah, as a matter fact I did. I really didn't know if it was me on the record until about six months ago. Another horn player I know talked to Dion about it. He said he remembered me there, but I was a little out of tune and they had another guy come in the next day and play the exact same part that I did. But I can't tell the difference. I think it's me [laughs]. I know how I sound. But that was the first time I ever heard myself on the radio on a hit record.

What was that like?
Well, son, that was just like getting the keys to the new car. It was a lot of fun, it made me feel real good.

Did you think that song was going to be a classic?
No, I didn't! But you know, the first session I did with the Stones was an accident. I just happened to be wandering down the hallway of the same studio. I was there with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends and the Stones were there doing the overdubs on, what the hell was it... one of those early albums. One of those good ones. They were still on Decca at the time. What the hell was it... had a birthday cake on the front of it!

Let It Bleed.
Yeah, that was the first time I recorded with the Stones. I just happened to run into Keith in the hallway. And the guy that had produced Delaney & Bonnie and Eric Clapton's live album, Jimmy Miller, was also there producing the Stones album. I had met him in England when I was there before. Anyway, he suggested to Mick that this track they had, they were kind of wondering what to do, maybe they put a saxophone solo on it. So they came down to the studio, in Studio B where I was with Delaney & Bonnie and said, "Hey, get your horn and come on to Studio A." So that's what I did. A couple of takes, and there it was. Voila! My first Rolling Stones record.

In your book you talk about the 1970s when everyone still lived in England, when you could go over to Ringo's house or Ronnie's house or Keith's house or Rod's house. What was that like to be in the middle of that?
Well, I'll tell ya, I went around smiling a lot. It was great fun because it was like one big sort of fraternal boys club. There was nothing sinister going on. It was like everybody had shiny brand new records out that they were selling and everybody was bopping up and down King's Road and going to pubs and clubs and there was a lot of music going on, man. Everybody was wearing shiny pants and alligator shoes. It was really cool. Everybody still lived there. I was staying with Jagger, and there was always folks driving by there. And Keith just lived down in the next block. It was a party! It was great! It was wonderful! If somebody said, "Sit down and map out your rock & roll fantasyland," that would've been about it.

Can you talk about how the "Brown Sugar" solo came together?
That came together at Keith and my birthday party in England. I guess that would've been 1970 of 1971. Originally "Brown Sugar" had a guitar solo, Mick Taylor put a guitar solo on it. In fact, some of the very early pressings came out with the guitar solo on it. But there was a birthday party with me and Keith and Eric Clapton and George Harrison and Ringo and Keith Moon, a whole bunch of other people. And we started to have a jam session. I don't remember exactly what the process was now, but we ended up playing "Brown Sugar." And I just played that solo on it. And Jimmy Miller, who was there that night, and Mick said, "Can you do that again?" I said, "Hell, I don't know what I did then, but if I did it once I can do it again." I think we made a date – we didn't do it the night of the party, but I came back in and did the solo. It was the first take.

Any other sessions with the Stones that really stand out to you as your favorites?
Oh, man. Well, I gotta say, the time in the South of France [for Exile on Main St.] stands out, pretty much. That was about a six-month-long session. It's hard to say. I loved the sessions I did with John Lennon for "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night." That was one take. I try to play the best I can every time I play. But there's just some folks that seem to draw a little bit of that extra special out of you. And that's what I've felt, primarily with the Stones and with John. And Delaney & Bonnie and Joe Cocker!

What's your favorite gig you ever played with the Stones?
I think 1972 Madison Square Garden in July with Stevie Wonder opening the show. I remember plastering a cop right smack in the face with a lemon meringue pie. I remember it was a conclusion of the Stones' tour in '72 and New York was definitely Rolling Stones' town. And I think we played three or four nights at Madison Square Garden, and it was the last night.

You've played with a lot of legendary acts. Is there something about the Stones that's different - a certain magic when they play? They're not the greatest virtuosos at their instruments, but when they play, they really have a sound.
Yeah! It is. If you believe in the magic of rock & roll, which I devoutly do, it isn't in the individual. I've played in bands with A-team players around. But unless they can play together, it doesn't do any good. And you can take guys who may not stand on their own up against a bunch of individuals they might be compared to, but you put 'em together, man, and they are unique unto themselves in a way that no one else can touch. You can get the finest A-team musicians in the world, put 'em together, and there's no guarantee it's gonna swing. But these guys, man, they've just got that natural thing about it. That's part of the music that I come from, cause I can't read music, I have no idea what's gonna come out of that horn half the time. I mean, I have an idea now. But I can't read music. That's not where I come from musically. I come strictly from feeling, and that feeling comes from rock & roll.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-05 01:02 by tumbled.

Keith Richards Remembers the 'Hidden Genius' of Bobby Keys

By Keith Richards | December 4, 2014

Rock & roll lost one of its greatest sidemen on Tuesday with the death of Bobby Keys, who recorded and toured with the Rolling Stones for more than 40 years. Keys was responsible for the powerful saxophone wail heard on classics like "Brown Sugar," "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "Sweet Virginia" and was a larger-than-life personality onstage and off. Rolling Stone spoke to Keith Richards about Keys, who called the musician his "greatest pal in the world."

Bobby Keys was built for fun. When we were making Exile on Main Street in France, we were there for several months, and I had a good ole speedboat. In the afternoons, before we went down the basement to record, we'd sort of zoom around, creating mayhem from Monte Carlo to Cannes. Bobby also bought a huge motorcycle, which he used to roar around the hills and pick up a few girlfriends. He'd always come back with a different chick on the back. He was that kind of guy.

He was the epitome of the rock & roll sax-playing man. He used to tell me about listening to Buddy Holly rehearse in his garage just down the road from his house. That's one of the reasons he wanted to get into music. That's pretty early rock & roll, so he was right in there at the very beginning. He was playing on the road by the time he was 15. He was a piece of history in himself, and had a deep knowledge of it.

When we brought Bobby in, we were listening to the great soul bands of the Sixties. We wanted to give the band a bigger sound and were influenced by all of the beautiful R&B records with the Memphis horns — the Otis and the Pickett bands — so adding saxes seemed quite natural to us. When I first met him, he had Jim Price with him on trumpet and they were a hot little duo themselves. I think they were with Delaney & Bonnie at the time.

When he cut "Live With Me," his first record with us, I immediately thought of great players like Plas Johnson or Lee Allen, who played for Little Richard and Fats Domino. He had that same Southern feel on the way he played. I guess that's not too astounding, since he does come from Texas [laughs]. He never let anybody forget he was from Texas.

Being in a guitar band, Bobby had an incredible knack of making horns melt in. He always knew the right part to play. I remember when we cut "Happy." One afternoon, I just had this idea and the rest of the boys hadn't turned up yet. It was just Bobby and Jimmy Miller, our producer at the time, who also plays drums. We cut the finished track in about an hour. Bobby was amazing on that, because instrumentation-wise, that started off just guitar, a baritone sax and some drums. Bobby's baritone part just picked it up. Usually, Bobby would just wail in first on the baritone, then he'd add the tenor, sometimes an alto.

Originally, "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" was going to be just the front piece of the song, and then for some reason, everybody kept playing and we got that wonderful extension by Bobby. So we decided to let the track roll.

And then, of course, there's "Brown Sugar." There was that gap left in the track and we didn't know whether to put a guitar solo on. Bob said, "Look, let me have a bash." And it was obvious that it was the most perfect rock & roll solo. We all knew it once we heard it.

Bobby and I were on the road together for about two years before we found out that we were actually born within hours of each other. I think we had a passport check somewhere in Europe, so we started to read our passports to each other. "18th of December, 1943, get out of here!" We still never figured out who was older.

We went on a lot of cruises together. It was nuts, you know. Bobby, in those days, was very large on the stimulants and…et cetera. And he always had an incredible list of drinks. He liked the Rusty Nail, which was scotch and Drambuie. I kept up with him as long as I could with that.

Some of the stories are straight out of the movies. Once in the Playboy mansion, we hung out until the bathroom went down. We were smoking and forgot where we were putting the ashes. "Bobby, is it getting a bit smoky in here?" Suddenly, the drapes are smoldering [laughs]. I'm going, "Oh, Hugh Hefner's gonna love this!" We were thick as thieves.

I remember on our '73 European tour saying, "Come on Bobby, we're getting on the plane." He said, "Damn it Keith, I'm staying here." He's got the French whore, a tub full of champagne. "Well Bobs, it might be difficult getting you back in." And it took me 10 years to get the guy back in the band.

Years later, the Stones were rehearsing for another tour. This was 1980-something, and I bought Bobby a ticket and said, "Just get your ass here. When we rehearse 'Brown Sugar,' just sneak up and do the solo, man." Once we did "Brown Sugar," Bobby hit the solo and then I looked at Mick like, "You see what I mean, Mick?" And Mick looked at me and says, "Yeah, you can't argue with that." Once he just played those few notes, there really was no question. So Mick relented and said, "Okay, let's get Bob back in the band."

His love of music, I think, is his other defining attribute. If we got interested in something, like a piece of music, we'd stay up until we'd killed it. I think he must have turned on millions of people, even though a lot of them don't know who he was. He's one of those hidden geniuses, 10 feet from stardom and all of that.

Bobby took everybody as they came. He wouldn't be weary of people. He had a large heart. He told me, "I got a heart as big as Texas" and I said, "Bobby, I think it's a bit larger." He was just a barrel of laughs to be around. I very rarely saw him down, and if I did, it was usually about a young lady who dumped him or something. And he soon got over that, you know. He probably wouldn't want us to be too solemn right now. Basically when it's all said and done, I'm looking upon this now as a celebration of life rather than a memorial for his death. He'd like a big wake.

It's a sad thing, but not totally unexpected. I've been speaking to him for the last couple of weeks and he was still laughing, but he was getting weak. I just wanted to cheer him up.

As Bob said, "It's time for the last roundup."

As told to Patrick Doyle

[www.rollingstone.com]

Can't say better than that. Thanks, kowalski.

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Sorry was a double post.

Lovely interview with Keith in Rolling Stone. Very touching.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-05 06:07 by OzHeavyThrobber.

Yes, thanks for the link to the RS interview, which was so moving--and funny at the same time.

keith has turned from being such a badass into the most soulful person.

they way he sort of ..bends a story to make it more seemless has grown on me.i'm sure most of you know from bobbys book that getting him back with the band didnt go quite as smooth as keiths story as far as mick and all that but keith just smooths it all out in a few sentences,as it should be. -great words,great tribute from the old stone.

Great words indeed, but Bobby had to wait in the wings for many years before he got his old job back in 1982 (not in 1989, as Keith always says).

i'm surprised that there is no reaction from the other members of the band.
was Bobby Keys only close to Keith ?

Feel so sad. Thankful for his music but stil so sad. Remember his playing at Pinkpop so loud en crystal clear. I was amazed.

When I feel so sad now, scared as hell as I think of other Stones

(Always took candy from strangers)

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jpasc95
was Bobby Keys only close to Keith ?

It is interesting that the first Rolling Stone Bobby was hanging with was actually Jagger. He lived at Mick's place, and according to him, that was the times of his life... Mick was a single (between Marianne and Bianca) and you know, to go places all over London with that bachelor....

Seemingly later - partly I guess Mick having settled down with Bianca - Bobby belonged more to Keith's court. Probably the mutual hobbies - and not just music - and lifestyle accompanied those two. (Which make me recall Keith's claim in LIFE that Mick is good to meet and find good people but not very good in lasting relationship (unlike him). Can't remember if he actually mentioned Bobby as an example, probably not, but I guess that goes in similar lines.)

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-05 13:35 by Doxa.

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jpasc95
i'm surprised that there is no reaction from the other members of the band.
was Bobby Keys only close to Keith ?

They did issue a statement saying they are devastated.
What else can you say, really?