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March 05, 2005
Say It Ain't So, Mark
Mark Coffey at Decision '08 runs a great blog, as I noted a while ago. But--and maybe I'm missing some brilliant ironic rhetorical device--the name of Dan Rather and the Beatles should never appear in the same sentence.
But Mark is dead-on right about the Rolling Stones best period being '67-'73. To me, the albums from Let It Bleed through It's Only Rock and Roll represent their best work--and not coincidentally it was the time lead guitarist Mick Taylor was with the band.
It's not just that Taylor was a flash guitarist--God knows there were plenty of hot blues players around in the late sixties. The important thing was that he provided a perfect complement for Keith Richards, in a way the Ron Wood never has. Keith was probably the best rock rhythm guitarist of the classic era (the hot argument was always who was better--Keith or Pete Townshend) and Taylor was just a pure lead player: head down, oblivious to Jagger's antics, and just burning. As I've preached over the years to anyone who would listen, anything Ron Wood could do, Keith could do better; and Wood couldn't do anything that Keith couldn't do. Taylor and Richards were perfect complements.
There was a time long ago, when I could play just about every lick Mick Taylor played on Get Your Ya-Ya's Out. Everyone who learned rock guitar back then developed a very precise thumb--to learn a lick you had to move the cartridge back over the same grooves over and over.
These days it's so much easier. For my own amusement I've been learning some Leo Kottke tunes (Stropes has some very high quality transcriptions). You just record the tune on the computer, and with a program like Sound Forge, you can precisely play any section you want with ease. You can even slow it down without screwing up the pitch.
When you're in your forties the idea of solo playing is a lot more attractive--it's just too damn much work to find reasonable bandmates.
By the way, even though I think Keith may have had the edge as a guitarist, I thing Pete Townshend's music has stood the test of time much better.
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We conclude with a discussion of a more urgent nature: whether Mick Taylor was a better complement to Keith than Ron Woods... [Read More]
Tracked on March 6, 2005 11:50 AM
Comments
Well, the perfect example of what Mick Taylor brought to the party is the coda to Can't You Hear Me Knocking on Sticky Fingers (in my mind the single greatest rock'n'roll album). It's impossible to imagine any Stones lineup besides that one pulling it off. Great post and thanks for the kind words...I'll be linking to it next roundup.
Posted by: Mark Coffey at March 6, 2005 02:44 AM
Yep. "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" and "Brown Sugar" (even thought the lyrics to the latter aren't exactly Lennon/McCartney) are songs that still convey the truth that real rock and roll was ruled by the electric guitar. Those days are long gone.
Posted by: Jeff at March 7, 2005 12:10 AM
