Quote
TravelinMan
Bobby Keys remembers it too.
Quite vividly too, it would appear (from
Bobby Keys: The Cream Interview)
NC: Has there ever been any really funny train wreck moments on stage with The Stones?
BK: Yeah, there have been. One time in particular I remember, and this goes back to the song "Can't You Hear Me Knocking". When I first started touring with The Stones, and this would have been the first tour with them; we played in England, Ireland, Scotland. Anyway, we'd just recorded "Can't You Hear Me Knocking". What album is that from, Sticky Fingers?
NC: Yeah, Sticky Fingers.
BK: Yeah, and we were going out to do the first promotional tour of the songs from that album, and this was back when The Stones didn't overly rehearse for a gig. The attitude was like, "Hell, we wrote 'em, we can play 'em." And they could.
NC: So you had to see a later show on the tour to see the band in top form?
BK: Yeah, so it was kind of like, "Well hell, we wrote 'em, we can play 'em. We'll just get up and play 'em." So we're gonna do "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", and I'm as nervous as a ruptured duck in a hailstorm because this is one of the first solos I've got to play with these guys on stage. Well we get into it, and it's going along okay. But on the record when it was done on the studio, that whole second part to the song, that instrumental part, wasn't really planned to go into the song when it was recorded. That just kind of continued on spontaneously; I wasn't even supposed to play on the record. I didn't play on the vocal part of the song, but when they started into that second part I was just sitting out there and had my horn sitting in the stand. I picked up and said, "Hey, this sounds good. I like the last little Latin kind of vibe." So I picked my horn up and looked around β nobody else was playing β so I started playing. I carried on for a while, then Mick Taylor took over and played for a little while, and I came back in and played for a little bit, then we ended the song. I thought, "Wow, that was really fun. That's cool." Then I believe Mick said, "Well that's cool, but it's not going to be on the record." "Oh God. Once again, I'm shot down."
NC: That's incredible. For someone like me, just as an observer, to think that song, or at least that section on that song, could have ended up not making that record β that's unbelievable to me.
BK: Well, it wasn't left off. They put it on. So when we get ready to go out and play, to do the promotional tour for that album, Mick called that song out and we started, got through the first part OK, and then started into the instrumental section and the first part of that went OK, although I was trying to remember what the hell I'd played the first time, and I can't think and play at the same time. [Laughs] It just doesn't work well for me. And apparently other folks in the band were having the same sort of, like, "What the hell are we gonna do? What comes after this?" And so I struggled through my part until I finally got Mick Taylor's attention and said, "Take it over, man. I'm out of gas! Do somethin'." So he started playing and by this point people in the band were just kind of looking at each other realizing, "You know what, we never rehearsed an ending for this thing." [Laughs] You know? "How are we gonna end it?!" And so it just kind of petered out, man. It just fell apart. It was the only time I've been onstage with The Stones when the song just kind of, died.
NC: And did the crowd just kind of sit there, confused. Or did they clap and cheer like it was great?
BK: [Laughs] Well I don't remember, man. I don't remember thinkin' anything except, "Wow, that was really, really unexpected." You know, to go from such a high intensity to where people just stop playing. That's just one moment that I remember.