beelyboy you are right to remind us of Jack Nitzsche...He was there from '64 up to "Emotional Rescue", was an extremely important influence on Oldham & the RS and has been somewhat neglected since his death...architect of the Spector sound, member of Crazy Horse (whose debut album from '71 is classic), a genuinely crazy horse himself (subject of even more perverse gun stories than Phil Spector!), produced plenty of great records and scores of soundtracks...RIP
I mean this guy got John Lee Hooker, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, Earl Palmer (not to mention Dennis Hopper and Jack himself!) all together to make the "Hot Spot" soundtrack...Very distinctive pianist on the Stones' records, too - the least like the band themselves, stylistically, to work with the Stones, yet he said he learned lots from them as well as vice versa.

about Nitzsche: I read a story that I related on another thread a while ago about mick dropping by the sessions for Mink DeVille's first album to say hello to Jack. He ended digging the band, but from the story, he was just catching up in a quiet, friendly way, with no other agenda apparent. Nice anecdote...

Chuck: he seems sort of like Nicky-lite, like he is brought up with this Southern rock thing but feels compelled to play a bit too ornately. He has chops but there's just something missing. Nicky could pull that stuff off; I don't think anyone else ever could. For example, the Springsteen guy just sounds pretentious when he tries to play in a demi-classical style.

Stu plays my favorite Stones piano parts. But mick and keith aren't slouches, either, from what I can hear.

Chuck doesn't offend me if he's not mixed louder than the guitars...He's competent, (& seems like a useful, responsible, overall nice guy with no ego or artistic temperment, therefore one who Mick depends on), but lacks the genuine style or genius of Stu, Nicky, or the more carefree (but imo appropriate musically) McLagan...He tends to overplay, which during the Licks tour, or if mixed to drown out Wood (2002-03) or Keith is deeply annoying. First 2 shows I saw fall of '05, I didn't even notice him for the first several songs - as it should be.

Stewart is my man. Listen to "Little Red Rooster", the one recorded with Wyman, Watts and Eric Clapton sung by Howlin' Wolf, it doesn't get much better than that.





Winwwod plays on this too, but the honkey tonk piano is Stewart



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-23 07:37 by BluzDude.

Yes Stu was all over that Howlin Wolf set (along with Charlie and Bill), especially the 2 CD deluxe edition which has more by the basic band (3 Stones, Clapton, & Hubert).....

john r -- you are right on the money about chuck.. he does tend to overplay and goes off on tangents, steeing away from the main rhythm... and drowns out the guitars and the main rhythm gets lost... it was better in the ABB tour, but still not good enough. it's not that he is a bad player, he is just not a good match for the stones. and that combined with daryl jones - you lose your entire engine really.. it is a amazing the stones can still sound good... just shows you how really amazing they are - mick, keith, charlie, and ronniw when he is playing and coherent.