I think this song would have fit perfectly on "It's Only Rock 'n Roll"

Wander how it would have sounded with Mick on vocals.....................

Bill Wyman - What A Blow 1974

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-04-29 01:34 by NICOS.

Woow!
Great idea NICOS
Could have been a great steamy blues...

Maybe Mick was afraid of "The Hank Williams Effect" and did not want to do it because of the "negative" Never Get Out Of This World Alive chorus.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-04-28 23:58 by RipThisBone.

Wow. great song! Prob known to many of you but new to me. Thanks

I always enjoyed Monkey Grip. What A Blow was co-written with Dr John and the whole album had a stellar line up of musicians:
Bill Wyman - lead vocals, bass guitar, guitar, piano, clavinet, Jew's harp, horn arrangements
Dr. John - organ, piano
Gwen McCrae - backing vocals
Leon Russell - piano
Betty Wright - backing vocals
Mark Colby - saxophone
Lowell George - guitar (5, 14)
John McEuen - acoustic guitar, banjo, dobro, mandolin
Byron Berline - fiddle
Neal Bonsanti - English horn, saxophone, clarinet
Abigale Haness - backing vocals
Hubert Heard - organ, piano
Danny Kortchmar - guitar
Joe Lala - percussion
Joey Murcia - guitar
Wayne Perkins - guitar


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Thanks for promoting this record Deltics..............must say back then.... although great names worked on this record I wasn't crazy about it ...but now If I listen to it I enjoy most of it....by the way you forgot to mention Van Morrison who told him not to sing from his throat but from his belly ;o)

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Maybe Mick was afraid of "The Hank Williams Effect" and did not want to do it because of the "negative" Never Get Out Of This World Alive chorus.


Or more maybe Bill and the Dr had been spinnin' Jimbo's Five To One ....



ROCKMAN

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Deltics
I always enjoyed Monkey Grip. What A Blow was co-written with Dr John and the whole album had a stellar line up of musicians:
Bill Wyman - lead vocals, bass guitar, guitar, piano, clavinet, Jew's harp, horn arrangements
Dr. John - organ, piano
Gwen McCrae - backing vocals
Leon Russell - piano
Betty Wright - backing vocals
Mark Colby - saxophone
Lowell George - guitar (5, 14)
John McEuen - acoustic guitar, banjo, dobro, mandolin
Byron Berline - fiddle
Neal Bonsanti - English horn, saxophone, clarinet
Abigale Haness - backing vocals
Hubert Heard - organ, piano
Danny Kortchmar - guitar
Joe Lala - percussion
Joey Murcia - guitar
Wayne Perkins - guitar

Drums?

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NICOS

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Deltics
I always enjoyed Monkey Grip. What A Blow was co-written with Dr John and the whole album had a stellar line up of musicians:
Bill Wyman - lead vocals, bass guitar, guitar, piano, clavinet, Jew's harp, horn arrangements
Dr. John - organ, piano
Gwen McCrae - backing vocals
Leon Russell - piano
Betty Wright - backing vocals
Mark Colby - saxophone
Lowell George - guitar (5, 14)
John McEuen - acoustic guitar, banjo, dobro, mandolin
Byron Berline - fiddle
Neal Bonsanti - English horn, saxophone, clarinet
Abigale Haness - backing vocals
Hubert Heard - organ, piano
Danny Kortchmar - guitar
Joe Lala - percussion
Joey Murcia - guitar
Wayne Perkins - guitar

Drums?

Dallas Taylor.


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

This is a pretty good song from what was otherwise a horrible album. I wish he would have stuck to just releasing this as a singl...really Monkey Grip is stunningly bad. Not even a great band can save it from the cheese whizz. Sounds like the sound track to a soft core porn movie. A really bad one. Emannuel.

I never realized all those great players were on Monkey Grip. I will have to give
it another listen - have not done so in decades.

Say what you like about Monkey Grip and its musicians, but Bill's best album is his third known as Bill Wyman.

2 1 2 0

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Come On
Say what you like about Monkey Grip and its musicians, but Bill's best album is his third known as Bill Wyman.

Ooh, not even close! 3rd album was Bill's attempt to become pop, with some okay results but mostly cheesy. Monkey Grip actually has some pretty good songs ... It's his only solo album where he's ever released tracks that I would think could make a Stones album, including "What A Blow"

I Wanna Get Me A Gun always gets stuck in my head for ages once its lodged there. Infact just writing it down now it's right there along with this cool performance of it
[youtu.be]

As I've said before, the bluegrass song "Pussy" from Monkey Grip is GREAT--the best track cut by any Stone (alone or together) in 1974. Like "I Can Feel The Fire" by the pre-Stone Ronnie that year, it feels much more ALIVE than anything on the sonically dead IORR LP.

Listen to the trumbone!

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whitem8
This is a pretty good song from what was otherwise a horrible album. I wish he would have stuck to just releasing this as a singl...really Monkey Grip is stunningly bad. Not even a great band can save it from the cheese whizz. Sounds like the sound track to a soft core porn movie. A really bad one. Emannuel.

That's how he got all his "girls"..... mmmmmm.... soft whispering in their ears

Bill was not in the same league as Mick and Keith in the songwriting department, overall, but some of his stuff was better than some of their stuff. It would have made a nice change of pace if they had used a song of his once in a while, in place of one of their weaker efforts.

All in all I think Bill's first one is the best. No matter how limp it is, it still has something Stonesy about it. I love the girls dancing in his videos for that record. It is always the same ladies. There is one video where he is on a TV show, and supposedly playing one of the songs live. But here he has not only girls, but also some big muscular boys hanging round. The clip is very bizarre. I mean, are we supposed to believe that those guys are here for the girls? LOL

The second Bill album still feels like it comes from a Stone, and the song selection is still decent. He just ruins the entire album by suffocating every tune with layers upon layers of BU vocal arrangements. Nothing against the Pointer Sisters, but..

Dirty old man...... if Mick is here, he has his laugh.. LOL

Bills LAST album, from a few months ago, is his best. It's certainly better than Keith's. It even has a single which is quite good.

I always wondered about Mick and Keith including a song by Bill as the Who (Entwistle) or the Beatles (George) almost always did.
They did with In Another Land, obviously intended for Beggars' Banquet with Downtown Lucy.
So, let's speculate what we would add by Bill and drop by J/R or other covers for the official Stones release of the time!

I don't think Bill ever wrote something as good as My Wife or The Quiet One by Entwistle. And can't be compared to George Harrison with the Beatles.

He was, at best, and adequate bass player, rarely having to add anything too complex or difficult to a song, studio of live.

On his solo work, I could never get by his vocals. Unlistenable to me. I am sure I am in the minority here, but I prefer Darryl's playing to Bill's by a mile.

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buffalo7478
I don't think Bill ever wrote something as good as My Wife or The Quiet One by Entwistle. And can't be compared to George Harrison with the Beatles.

He was, at best, and adequate bass player, rarely having to add anything too complex or difficult to a song, studio of live.

On his solo work, I could never get by his vocals. Unlistenable to me. I am sure I am in the minority here, but I prefer Darryl's playing to Bill's by a mile.

Bill is far above being an 'adequate' bass player, but agree, his solo material is not good. He had a couple nice songs (Monkey Grip, What a Blow, Pussy, Visions) but for the most part, none would have worked, or were up to par, with anything the Stones did (exception ... White Lightnin'). And wow, what a terrible singer ... he either seems to talk the words, or puts on a weird nasally tone on his voice, as if he's singing for little kids.

What about Bill? He was hot and "smoking" - the women like him a lot.
Can not be said about Harrison and Entwistle.

By the way, Bill was great on bass, rock-solid and swinging with Charlie.
His music was good, just different than Stones.

Yes, maybe Bill wasn't in the same league as Entwistle or Harrison but I think one or another song by Bill would have fit on every occasion.
In Another Land is probably the most psychedelic song on the psychedelic TSMR. Downtown Lucy has the Country/Folk feel that could have easily replaced this or that from Beggars or Let It Bleed.
I vaguely remember some "I Love My Baby" style song of 1964/65 by Bill that had more substance than Grown Up Wrong or What A Shame or some b-sides like Sad Day.
Monkey Grip has some real great stuff, Fitting in IORR.
Wine & Wimmen (1973 by Tucky Buzzard) could have given Goat's Head Soup a kick!
And there is a lot on Black And Blue waiting to be substituted by Stone Alone. And there is more than Je suis to contribute to Tattoo You. And maybe lots of Steel Wheels critics would even find on Stuff (recorded 1988 onwards, released only as late as 1992) some stuff to like the record.
Yes, of course, drop one synthesizer of the later works, add one more guitar and Mick's vocals - and Bill would have stayed in the band?!

Bill is in general not a great songwriter. He's quirky, very English. I don't think his earlier solo albums from the 70s make even a ripple here in the States. It kind of reminds me of the Small Faces, some really strange, really localized music. (Except for Itchycoo Park, which was as international smash.) Je Suis un Rockstar got no airplay I remember in America. But Bill's last single off the recent Back to Basics album is his most fully realized music. And yeah, again, the vocals are quirky, but they are more accessible. And, again, a better, new sounding effort than Keith's Crosseyed Heart, which didn't amount to much more than Wino's B-sides.

And it was enough for Bill to be the greatest bass player the Stones ever had, and probably ever will have. He can say that his contribution is a big part of the Stones' sound. Darryl will never be able to say that.

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JJHMick

And there is a lot on Black And Blue waiting to be substituted by Stone Alone.

I always thought Mick could have sung a great version of Bill's Stone Alone track "No More Foolin'" that would have worked well on Black And Blue.

[www.youtube.com]

If you listen to the end of "Hand of Fate" or parts of "Midnight Rambler" at the Forum in '75, Mick is trying a version of that Louis Armstrong/"Fat Albert" growl...

[www.youtube.com]

It plods along ...it just don't get there ...



ROCKMAN

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24FPS
Bills LAST album, from a few months ago, is his best. It's certainly better than Keith's. It even has a single which is quite good.

The single sounds John Cooper Clark reciting in front of a backing band



ROCKMAN

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Rockman

Quote
24FPS
Bills LAST album, from a few months ago, is his best. It's certainly better than Keith's. It even has a single which is quite good.

The single sounds John Cooper Clark reciting in front of a backing band

I don't even know who John Cooper Clark is, so I totally enjoyed it. And so do some people I've turned on to it who don't know who Bill Wyman is.

One can only speculate but had Mick and Keith taken him full on seriously, and looked upon his song ideas as equals, Im sure they would have transformed songs like 'Soul Satisfying", most of 'Monkey Grip' . Often he had a good verse but these terrible, terrible choruses, like 'Apache Woman' or 'Peanut Butter Time', or 'Feet'. On 'Feet' I can almost hear Mick singing.