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Michael (Mick) Kevin Taylor (born January 17, 1948 in Welwyn Garden City, England) is best known as the former lead guitarist for The Rolling Stones.
Early Career
Taylor grew up in Hatfield, a London suburb, and began playing guitar at age 9. He was quickly regarded as a musical prodigy, and before he was 18, he was playing, touring and recording with English blues pioneer John Mayall in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. From 1966-1969 Taylor grew to develop a unique, fluid, emotive guitar style that was consistent with blues and rock and roll.
Rolling as a Stone
When Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wanted to tour North America in 1969, a tour which was to be their first in three years, the problem of Brian Jones could not be ignored. The drug addiction that afflicted Jones would cripple the tour and slow the Stones who already at this early stage of their career were regarded as yesterday's band by some, and had to prove their worth on the stage each night. Jones was fired, and subsequently perished in a drowning accident. Jagger reportedly did not want to hold auditions, and the process by which Taylor became a Stone was significantly different than the way Ronnie Wood would five years later. Taylor was simply asked to join by Jagger. They started recording and preparing for the tour. Taylor's influence was immediately felt. His riff on "Honky Tonk Women", a sort of noodling around by himself, on the song "Country Honk" from Let it Bleed, inspired Richards and Jagger to re-record it as a single and to this day, "Honky Tonk Women" is the biggest selling Stones single ever.
Mick Taylor's live presence with the Stones is forever preserved on the 1970s Get Yer Ya-Yas Out, a live album recorded over two nights in Madison Square Garden in New York, a week or so before the Altamont tragedy in San Francisco. Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock and Roll were the four studio albums Taylor recorded with the Stones. Songs like "Sway", "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", "Moonlight Mile", "Tumbling Dice", "All Down the Line", "100 Years Ago", "Winter", "Time Waits for No One" "Short and Curlies" and "Fingerprint File" are indeliably Mick Taylor classics from those four studio records. That is not to discount his value to the Stones throughout the records, and on classic hits of the time, such as "Brown Sugar", "Doo Doo Doo Heartbreaker" and "It's Only Rock and Roll"
Mick Jagger in a 1995 Rolling Stone magazine interview with Jan Wenner said the years Taylor was a memeber were the best musically, and Taylor as lead was the best version of the band ever. Taylor resigned from the Rolling Stones in 1975 just before a recording session in Munich, West Germany. Jagger took the news professionally, but Richards, the man who most likely made life in the band the most difficult for Taylor, complained and bitched about Taylor's departure. Hard feelings dissipated over time. In fact, Taylor appears on "I Could Have Stood You Up" a song from Talk is Cheap, Richards first solo album. In 1981 Mick Taylor appeared on stage at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City with the Rolling Stones, he was in town touring and Jagger asked him to come to the show. At a Mick Taylor New York club date in 1988, Richards appeared on stage with Taylor. In fact, The Rock and Roll of Fame inducted the Stones — and Mick Taylor — in 1989.
Taylor as a Rolling Stone. Some things are good, and some things are so good, they are too good to last. Taylor as a Rolling Stone qualifies as the latter type of good thing. There was something about Taylor that just wasn't Stones-like, especially if the heart of the band is Keith Richards. Richards playing style with Taylor was brilliant and Keith's choppy, stacco rhythm guitar blended unforgettably with Taylor's languid, melodious stroke, but ultimately Taylor was too dominating a player for Richards. They could only co-exist for a certain period of time. Richards resented Taylor at times, and lacked confidence because Jagger was recording many tracks without Richards present, such as "Sway", "Moonlight Mile" and "Winter". Taylor became disgruntled the longer he worked with the band because it became clear he would always be a junior partner. The only songwriting credit, a Jagger/Richards/Taylor composition, was "Ventilator Blues" on Exile.
Solo Career
Four years after leaving the Stones, Taylor released his self titled debut. It was commercially disappointing and Taylor's grand ambition of being a successful solo artist faded. During the 70s and 80s, like too many people closely associated with the Stones, he suffered debilitating addictions. John Phillips relates in his autobiography that when he approached Taylor to play on the soundtrack of a David Bowie film, Taylor and his wife Rosie were reclusive addicts. Nevertheless, Taylor played on Phillips' second solo recording, Pay, Pack & Follow, with Richards and Jagger.
Taylor recorded with Dylan on Infidels. Perhaps Taylor's second greatest recorded work came in 1983 with Bob Dylan. Infidels is layered with Taylor's virtuoso performance which contributes to making the record Dylan's greatest album of the 1980s. Session work, a list of which is too long to mention, kept him active during the decades in which he seemed to begrudge his solo career was so overshadowed by his Rolling Stone years. Recently he has released several new records, much more comfortable with being regarded as a former Rolling Stone. A Stones Throw was the title of a 2000 CD. Touring, in a style that is impossible for the Stones — small clubs and theatres — has connected Taylor with an appreciative audience and lasting fan base.
Rolling Stone Discography
- Get Yer Ya-Yas Out (1970)
- Sticky Fingers (1971)
- Exile on Main Street (1972)
- Goats Head Soup (1973)
- It's Only Rock and Roll (1975)
Partial credits with Rolling Stones include:
Songs like 'Jiving Sister Fanny" and "I'm Going Down" are classic Taylor cuts.
- The London Years: The Singles. (1989)
- Tattoo You (1981)
Taylor plays on "Tops" as well as "Waiting on a Friend" both tracks recorded in 1973 during the Goats Head Soup sessions.
Solo Discography
- Mick Taylor (1979)
- Stranger in This Town (1990)
- Too Hot for Snakes (1991) (Carla Olson & Mick Taylor)
- Stone's Throw (2000)
- Shadow Man (Enhanced re-release) (2003)
- 14 Below (2003)
External Links
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