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Mick Taylor

Mick Taylor

Born 17 January 1949 (1949-01-17) (age 58)
Flag of England Welwyn Garden City, England
Genre(s) Blues-rock
Rock and Roll
Affiliation(s) John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
The Rolling Stones
Label(s) Deram, Decca, Rolling Stones Records, Atlantic, Columbia, EMI, Virgin Records, CBS (later: Sony), Maze
Notable guitars Gibson SG
Gibson Les Paul
Fender Stratocaster
Years active 1965 - Present
Official site www.micktaylor.net

Michael "Mick" Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire) is an English musician best known as the former guitarist for The Rolling Stones.

Contents

  • 1 Biography
    • 1.1 Early career
    • 1.2 The Rolling Stones
    • 1.3 Solo career
  • 2 Discography
    • 2.1 With John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
    • 2.2 With The Rolling Stones
    • 2.3 With Jack Bruce
    • 2.4 Notable work with Bob Dylan
    • 2.5 Solo discography
    • 2.6 With Carla Olson
    • 2.7 Other session work
    • 2.8 Music DVDs
  • 3 Filmography
  • 4 Awards
    • 4.1 External links
    • 4.2 Wiki links
  • 5 Guitar History

Biography

Early career

Mick Taylor grew up in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and began playing guitar at age 9. As a teenager he formed bands with schoolmates gigged as The Juniors (or the Strangers). They also appeared on television and put out a single. Part of the band was recruited for a new group called The Gods which included Ken Hensley (later of Uriah Heep fame). In 1966 The Gods opened for Cream at the Starlite Ballroom in Wembley.

At 16 Taylor in (1965) saw John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Hatfield. Eric Clapton failed to appear and Taylor volunteered to play Clapton's guitar for the second set. Regarded as a musical prodigy, Taylor replaced Peter Green in Bluesbreakers after his resignation. Before he turned 18, Taylor toured and recorded the album Crusade with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. From 1966 to 1969 Taylor developed a fluid, emotive, blues-based guitar style with Latin and Jazz influences.

The Rolling Stones

When The Rolling Stones wanted to tour North America in 1969 the problems surrounding founding member and guitarist Brian Jones could not be ignored. His conviction for illicit drug usage prevented him from obtaining a work visa status that would have allowed him to perform on tour in America; this and his emotional problems had alienated him from the rest of the group, and would have made touring difficult if not impossible. Jones was fired in early June 1969 (he died by drowning on 3 July 1969). Rolling Stones leader Mick Jagger reportedly did not want to hold auditions to replace him, and the process by which Taylor became a Stone was significantly different from the way Ron Wood would five and a half years later. Jagger simply asked John Mayall from the Bluesbreakers for his advice. Mick Taylor was recommended, and Jagger invited him to a recording session. Taylor arrived at the studio thinking they wanted him to do some session work, but he soon realized he was being auditioned as a new guitarist for one of the most popular bands in the world. Taylor did overdubs on two tracks, "Country Honk" and "Live With Me" from the 1969 album Let It Bleed. This impressed Richards and Jagger enough to tell Taylor: "See you tomorrow" before he left the studio. Taylor continued rehearsing and recording for the summer 1969 tour. The Stones were rehearsing Stevie Wonder's "I Don't Know Why (I Love You)" when Jagger answered the telephone informing the band Jones had drowned.

Mick Taylor performing on stage
Mick Taylor performing on stage

After the 1969 tour, Jagger and Taylor developed a way of working together when Richards was "missing in action", mainly because of Richards' growing use of drugs, including heroin. Jagger and Taylor wrote and recorded together songs like "Sway", "Moonlight Mile", "Winter" and "Time Waits for No One", but Taylor never received writing credit, as was the Rolling Stones' policy. This resulted in Taylor, a committed professional musician, becoming more disenchanted the longer he worked with the band. Taylor only received two songwriting credits, for the Jagger/Richards/Taylor composition "Ventilator Blues" and a Jagger/Richards/Wyman/Watts/Taylor composition, "Stop Breaking Down", both on the Exile on Main St. album. The latter credit was withdrawn after a lawsuit by the Robert Johnson estate.

Taylor with the Rolling Stones.
Taylor with the Rolling Stones.

Taylor was increasingly unhappy about his role with the Stones, and the situation went from bad to worse. While recording Exile on Main St. in the South of France, Keith Richards and his wife Anita Pallenberg, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Gram Parsons and Taylor all started dabbling more and more with cocaine and/or heroin (as described in various sources such as Rolling with the Stones by Bill Wyman and books by Philip Kamin, John Carr and Barbara Charone). This led to a very unhealthy climate around the Stones, and as early as 1972 Mick Taylor started talking to people about "escaping the Stones". Just before the release of It's Only Rock 'n Roll in October 1974, Taylor was interviewed by Nick Kent. Taylor was talking proudly about the album, especially about the two songs he had written with Jagger, namely "Till the next Goodbye" and "Time Waits for No One". When Kent showed Taylor the record sleeve it became clear that, once again, Taylor had not received credit. In 1974 Stones held a business meeting in the south of France, and according to Bill Wyman Jagger and Taylor had a fall-out over song writing credits and the lack of recognition for Taylor’s role within the Stones. Taylor left the meeting. Finally, in December 1974 Taylor shocked the music world when he announced he was leaving the Rolling Stones. As the story goes, the Stones were at a party in London when Taylor told Mick Jagger he was quitting and walked out. The Stones were supposed to start recording a new album in Munich, West Germany. Jagger took the news professionally, but Keith Richards complained about Taylor's departure as he felt that Taylor left at a very inconvenient moment. Taylor's future, howver, looked bright. At the time, he was considered one of the best guitarists in the world, it was expected that he could build a solo career as had Eric Clapton.

The Stones have always been reticent about Taylor. Mick Jagger, in a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine, nearly admitted that the years in which Taylor was a member of the band were its best, musically. Jagger said Taylor never explained why he had left, and surmised that "He (Taylor) wanted to have a solo career. I think he found it difficult to get on with Keith." Charlie Watts stated "he was such a beautiful musician, far better than any of us. But he thought he could write and produce just like Mick and Keith, but nothing came out of him after he left" and Keith Richards stated that Taylor is "a beautiful guitarist, but unfortunately that's all he is". However, hard feelings have dissipated over time: Taylor appears on "I Could Have Stood You Up", a song from Talk is Cheap, Richards' first solo album. On 14 December 1981, Mick Taylor appeared on stage for almost the full show at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City with the Rolling Stones; and at a Mick Taylor show in NYC (Lone Star Cafe) on 28 December 1986, Richards appeared on stage with Taylor, jamming on "Key to the Highway" and "Can't You Hear Me Knocking". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Stones and Mick Taylor in 1989. Taylor also worked with Bill Wyman on Wyman's solo project The Rhythm Kings in the early 90's.

Taylor's live presence with the Stones is preserved on the Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!, a masterful live album recorded over three concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York on November 27 and 28, 1969. Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock 'n Roll were the four studio albums Taylor recorded with the Stones. Recordings that remain bootlegs - due to complications with past Stones management - of 1972 American Tour and the 1973 European Tour showcase for Taylor's playng with the Stones.

After Taylor's resignation his playing can be heard on the compilation album Metamorphosis, Sucking in the Seventies, Made in the Shade as well as CD's like Rewind, Singles Collection: The London Years, Hot Rocks, More Hot Rocks, Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones and Forty Licks. Two new songs on 1981's Tattoo You also feature Taylor ("Tops" and "Waiting on a Friend"). Taylor is sometimes mistakenly credited as playing on "Worried about You" from Tattoo You, but the solo on that song is performed by Wayne Perkins.

Solo career

In 1973 Taylor had also been involved with introducing Mike Oldfield's music to the public by performing Tubular Bells live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in June of that year. Taylor was asked to take part in this project by Richard Branson because Mike Oldfield was the first artist he had signed to his fledgling label Virgin Records, but Oldfield was still completely unknown. Mick Jagger came to witness the first live rendition of Tubular Bells, and Taylor introduced him to Richard Branson. Taylor also played once more time with Mike Oldfield for a BBC Performance in November 1973.

After Taylor's resignation from the Stones, Jack Bruce asked him to form a new "supergroup" together with Carla Bley and Bruce Gary. The band got together for rehearsals in London in 1975. Because tour dates had already been lined up for later that year, there wasn't much time left for writing new material, and in the studio it became clear that in Jack Bruce's view the object of touring was to promote his three solo albums. The group toured Europe (including a performance at the Dutch Pinkpop Festival), but was disbanded for various reasons (mostly conflicting egos) before any studio material was recorded. In May 2003, the double CD Live at the Manchester Free Trade Hall (recorded June 1st 1975) was released by Polydor after some tapes were found back in someone's attic. This, and their performance Live at the Old Grey Whistle Test, is the only material available from this line-up which included drummer extraordinaire Bruce Gary (a good friend of Taylor). Bruce Gary passed away in Los Angeles in Aug '06, at the age of 55.

In the mid 1970s there was an extremely unhealthy climate in the music business, which lasted well into the '80s. This may have been part of the reason that Taylor disassociated himself somewhat from the scene after starting work on his first album. He developed his own musical ideas, wrote the songs and recruited the musicians. He then got on with recording and producing the tracks at the studio. Apart from singing and playing rhythm plus lead guitar, he had mastered bass guitar and keyboards, as is in evidence on the album.

Taylor worked with American guitarist Lowell George and his band Little Feat, appearing as a special guest at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and on the Waiting for Columbus album (see discography). He collaborated with French drummer Pierre Moerlen and his band Gong (Expresso II album), Miller Anderson, Alan Merrill and others. He was present at many of the recording sessions for John Phillips' first solo album which took place in London during the second half of the 1970s. This led to Richards, Jagger and Taylor working together on some of the tracks. (After Atlantic Records pulled the plug on the project, the sessions did not result in an official release, but illegal copies of the "Half Stoned" record circulated amongst bootleg traders). Decades later the original tapes were rescued and restored, and an official release came about in 2002 under the title "Pay Pack and Follow"). In 1975 and 1976 Taylor also contributed to the soundtrack of the Nicolas Roeg film "The Man Who Fell to Earth", starring David Bowie.

In 1979, four years after he had left the Stones, Taylor's first solo album, the self-titled Mick Taylor, was released on CBS. The album met with critical acclaim but could not have come out at a worse time. Taylor's new material was rock, jazz, and Latin flavoured blues while the year 1979 was the height of the punk and new wave movement. Still, it was his only charting album on both US or Europe, reaching #119 on Billboard in early August with a stay of 5 weeks on the Top 200. The record label told Taylor he should promote the record by visiting American radio stations. Taylor, on the other hand, wanted to take a new band on the road, which he saw as the best way to introduce new audiences to his own songs, but this plan wasn't backed by the record company. Already frustrated with this situation, Taylor took some time out and deliberately kept a low profile for about a year. He had moved to the US East Coast to promote his solo record and was now living in the house where part of The Great Gatsby was filmed (Long Island).

In 1981 he toured Europe and America with Alvin Lee (from Ten Years After), sharing the bill with Black Sabbath. He spent most of 1982-1983 on the road with his old mentor John Mayall for the so-called Reunion Tour with John McVie (Fleetwood Mac) and Colin Allen. It was during this tour that Bob Dylan showed up backstage at The Roxy in Los Angeles because he wanted to meet Taylor.

Perhaps Taylor's second most known work came in 1983 with Bob Dylan's Infidels album, on which Taylor played with Mark Knopfler as well as Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. Taylor lived in New York throughout the decade, which turned out to be a dark period. He battled with addiction problems for part of the decade before getting back on track the second half of the 1980s and moving to Los Angeles in 1990.

At the end of the 1980s and early '90s, Taylor managed to find his way back by doing session work and touring in Europe and America with a band including Max Middleton (formerly of Jeff Beck group), Shayne Fontayne, and Blondie Chaplin (now a back-up musician with the Stones). Taylor moved back to England in the mid 1990s. He never seemed to feel comfortable in his role as a former Rolling Stone until he released a new record in the year 2000, the CD "A Stone's Throw". Playing at clubs and theatres (impossible for the Stones) as well as appearing at festivals has connected Taylor with an appreciative audience and lasting fanbase.

Discography

With John Mayall's Bluesbreakers

With The Rolling Stones

Taylor plays on "Honky Tonk Women"
Taylor plays on Country Honk and Live With Me
Taylor plays on "I Don't Know Why" and "Jiving Sister Fanny".
Taylor plays on "Tops" and "Waiting on a Friend" both tracks recorded in 1973 during the Goats Head Soup sesions.
Taylor plays on "Let It Rock" (live 1971) and the 1974 b-side "Through The Lonely Nights".

Non-Rolling Stones work with Rolling Stones members:

from 1973-1979 recording sessions in London aka "Half Stoned" sessions
produced by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

With Jack Bruce

Notable work with Bob Dylan

Solo discography

With Carla Olson

Other session work

Note: recently repeated on BBC and included in Mike Oldfield DVD

released on CD (A& M - Japan, 2002)

Originally released by Alpha Music in 1996, this "Mick Taylor featuring Sasha" album should have read "Sasha featuring Mick Taylor", but the company felt it would sell better under a household name. It features Mick Taylor on guitar, but is basically a Sasha Gracanin album.

Music DVDs

released on DVD (VCI, 2001)
restored and released on DVD (Criterion, 2000)

Music DVDs - Unofficial

Filmography

Contributed to soundtrack

Music composers: Mick Taylor and Max Middleton

Awards

External links

Wiki links

Guitar History

Throughout his career, Taylor has used various Gibson guitars (mostly Sunburst Les Pauls, Gibson SG's, occasionally a Firebird) and Fender Stratocasters. His first Les Paul was bought when he was still playing with The Gods (from Selmer's, London in '65). He acquired his second LP in 1967, not long after joining The Bluesbreakers (Taylor came to Olympic Studios to buy a LP that Keith Richards wanted to sell). This LP Standard '59 with Bigsby arm was stolen from Nellcôte in the South of France in summer '71 during the recording of Exile on Main Street. On the '72/'73 tours Taylor's main guitar was a Sunburst LP without a Bigsby.


 v • d • e The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger • Keith Richards • Charlie Watts • Ron Wood

Brian Jones • Bill Wyman • Mick Taylor • Ian Stewart

See also

Chuck Leavell • Darryl Jones • Andrew Loog Oldham • Allen Klein • Nicky Hopkins • Bobby Keys • Jimmy Miller • Jim Price • Billy Preston

Related articles

Discography • The Glimmer Twins • Jagger/Richards • Nanker Phelge • Rolling Stones Records • Rock and Roll Circus

Categories

The Rolling Stones • Members • Albums • Singles • Songs • Tours • Films

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