Mick Taylor - The underappreciated Rolling Stone

[Seymouro]

I absolutely love Keith Richards guitar work. And his writing. He's a rock God. Too bad Keith had difficulties getting along with Mick Taylor. But Taylor (sadly) had even more problems with Mick. Got to love Mick, but he's a greedy mudda.

Taylor filled a huge hole after Brian Jones went too far with booze and drugs, then drowned in a swimming pool. Taylor was from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers before he came on board. He was there beginning with "Let It Bleed" (Jones' last stand was minimal on Beggars Banquet). He played through the "It's Only Rock and Roll" album, which is a lions share of their best work. This ended the term for him. Here are two excerpts from Taylor...

"I was a bit peeved about not getting credit for a couple of songs, but that wasn't the whole reason [I left the band]. I guess I just felt like I had enough. I decided to leave and start a group with Jack Bruce. I never really felt, and I don't know why, but I never felt I was gonna stay with the Stones forever, even right from the beginning."

— Mick Taylor, in an interview with Gary James

"We used to fight and argue all the time. And one of the things I got angry about was that Mick had promised to give me some credit for some of the songs – and he didn't. I believed I'd contributed enough. Let's put it this way – without my contribution those songs would not have existed. There's not many but enough, things like "Sway" and "Moonlight Mile" on Sticky Fingers and a couple of others."

— Mick Taylor, in a 1997 interview with Mojo

Ron Wood is a good fit to make up for the personnel loss. Musically, not really. Taylor was a genius in a band that Mick and Keith decided "already had enough geniuses". Sad.

Best case in point is Taylor on this (but I could present 12 or more cases nearly as compelling.

Jagger and Keef missed the boat here. Ron Wood has "plugged the personnel hole". They lost a guitar player that even as good as Keef is, likely had as many "tools in the box".

I could cite a dozen or more cases. Hope you like this. I love it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC0Qt1lvLq8

[Walter E]

Mick who?

Ha ha, just kidding.

[Mark M]

Walter, that really wasn NOT funny. Ok, maybe a little but also hurtfull man!  I think I loved everything Mick Taylor did.

[Bob]

Oh yeah, Taylor was great in the Stones. Has he done anything since then?

[Seymouro]

He did a lot of drugs for ten years .

More to the point, he has mainly done a bunch of session work. He played lead on Joan Jett's "Hate Myself For Loving You", and this most recently this in 2011.

He also helped to promote the Boogie for Stu album, which was recorded by Ben Waters to honor Ian Stewart (original Stones pianist and co-founder of the band), by taking part in a concert to mark the CD's official launch at the Ambassadors Theatre, London on 9 March 2011. Proceeds from the event were donated to the British Heart Foundation. Although Mick Jagger and Keith Richards didn't show up, Taylor noticeably enjoyed performing with, amongst others, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman.

[Mark M]

If you search you'll find Mick Taylor solo recordings.