40 Year Itch : Mick Taylor Leaves The Stones

Mick Jagger promised him a credit on "Moonlight Mile" and a couple of other things but never have it to him. He saw Keith a couple of years ago and Keith was crying and saying "Oh, we really owe you, man. We really owe you". But nothing came of it. I think Ronnie Wood said, "Well, Mick Taylor neurally really was a Rolling Stone." And he was right.  He wasn't. I think Mick always felt he had sold his soul for rock'n'roll. And didn't get paid nearly enough in exchange. But then you never do, do you?"

-A "Stones Insider" quoted in Exile On Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield.

Between 1969 and 1974 The Rolling Stones made and released Let It Bleed, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St. and Goats Head Soup, and Mick Taylor played on all of them. He got one writing credit, for "Ventilator Blues" on Exile which he shared with Jagger. On December 12, 1974, at a party in London, Taylor told Jagger he was leaving the Stones. “To ask if I regret leaving The Rolling Stones is to ask the wrong question”,  Taylor has said. “The hard one to answer is, do I regret joining them?”

Mick Taylor's 6 Best Moments on Rolling Stones records:

1. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", Sticky Fingers.



 Sure, the song stars with a classic open chord riff from Richards but at about 4:40 in, Taylor takes the song --and his Gibson ES-345 --in a smooth direction reminiscent of Carlos Santana.

2. "All Down the Line" on Exile on Main St.



Mick Taylor on slide guitar, played with a  bottle on his finger, punctuates every Jagger line and takes a mind blowing single at the 2:10 mark.

3."Winter" on Goats Head Soup and 4."Moonlight Mile" on Sticky Fingers



Taylor should probably have received a co-writing credit for both tunes with Jagger. Richards wasn't even at the studio the day they knocked out "Winter". Taylor can be heard on slide guitar and then with a piercing lead on "Winter". It was Taylor's idea to add the string section on "Moonlight Mile".

4. "Stop Breakin' Down" on Exile on Main St.



Producer Andy Johns says this is his favorite song on the legendary double album. Jagger was playing rhythm guitar and Taylor those bluesy solos.

6. "Sway", Sticky Fingers



  Taylor plays the bottle neck guitar on this song which he always claimed to have written with Jagger. The last minute is all Taylor too.

40 Year Itch : Rats On The Sell Out

    On October 16, 2014 The Rolling Stones released It's Only Rock 'n Roll, their 14th US album and the last one to feature Mick Taylor on lead guitar.

    Though Taylor would complain that he left after a dispute on songwriting credits, his lead guitar work is less than inspired. But then he didn't have much to work with on this album. The ballads, "Till the Next Goodbye" and "If You Really Want to Be My Friend" are bores. The second one runs over six minutes in length. 

    "Luxury" is an embarrassment . It sounds like the Glimmer Twins took notes from the drivers and maids they met on a Jamaican resort. "Dance Little Sister" repeats its title more often than even Bob Seger would dare. And "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" ain't too good a cover version.

"Fingerprint File" is the sole bright note, a preview of the underrated funk of Black and Blue. More relevant than ever, the song could be the anthem of the post 9/11 citizen surveillance. There some great bass runs by Wyman before it breaks its spell and gets silly.

At the time, critics fawned over the album. These were, after all, The Rolling Stones! Goats Head Soup may have been underwhelming but surely the greatest rock n roll band in the world wouldn't release a second dud.

Jon Landau called the album "one of the most intriguing and mysterious, as well as the darkest, of all Rolling Stones records" while Robert Christgau gave the album a B  and claimed he heard "enough hooks for here ordinary albums".

Only Lester Bangs called it right, calling the album "false. Numb"

The solution to the Stones problem "inspired" the title cut, guitarist and the best friend of just about every UK rocker, Ronnie Wood.