Fact #148740
When:
Short story:
The Rolling Stones are working on the song Honky Tonk Women in Olympic Studios, London, England, UK, Europe. Young guitarist Mick Taylor of John Mayall's Blues Breakers is present as a session player.
Full article:
Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : Honky Tonk Women started in Brazil. Mick and I, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg who was pregnant with my son at the time. Which didn't stop us going off to the Mato Grasso and living on this ranch. It's all cowboys. It's all horses and spurs. And Mick and I were sitting on the porch of this ranch house and I started to play, basically fooling around with an old Hank Williams idea. 'Cause we really thought we were like real cowboys. Honky Tonk Women.
And we were sitting in the middle of nowhere with all these horses, in a place where if you flush the john all these black frogs would fly out. It was great. The chicks loved it. Anyway, it started out a real country honk put on, a hokey thing. And then couple of months later we were writing songs and recording. And somehow by some metamorphosis it suddenly went into this little swampy, black thing, a Blues thing.
Really, I can't give you a credible reason of how it turned around from that to that. Except there's not really a lot of difference between white Country music and black Country music. It's just a matter of nuance and style. I think it has to do with the fact that we were playing a lot around with open tunings at the time. So we were trying songs out just to see if they could be played in open tuning. And that one just sunk in. (Interview in 2003)
John Mayall : When Mick Taylor left my band, I wasn't upset. I'd suggested it. Mick Jagger had called me up one day and said he'd got the itch to get The Stones moving. Brian Jones wasn't up to it for health reasons so Mick called me up to see if I could recommend a guitar player. (Rock CD magazine, February 1993)
Mick Taylor : I was invited to do a session with The Rolling Stones. It puzzled me. I had never met Mick Jagger in my life and here he was phoning me. I went down and played and thought little more about it. Then they asked me if I wanted to be a Stone. I was amazed.
Ian Stewart (road manager/keyboardist) : The band weren't really worried about replacing Brian because in '68-69, they were top of the heap. They could have had anybody they wanted, including god himself. Clapton came to a recording session. Mick Taylor was very quiet and shy, but they got him playing. He was right. He could play.
Mick Taylor: Mick was in a side room doing an interview with the International Times, and Jimmy Miller was just sitting there. Keith turned up three hours later. It was like a bolt out of the blue, taking me completely by surprise. As soon as it was offered, of course, I wanted the job. It was very loose, nothing was discussed. I just went to the studio and played.
Keith Richards : Mick Taylor turns up and plays like an angel, and I wasn't going to say no. I thought I'd let the guy develop, because by then I thought I was an old hand - I was all of 25 years old! That's what four years on the road would do to you. You came out at the other end and you were already 50. You'd seen a lot of things.
Charlie Watts : That's Jimmy (producer Jimmy Miller) playing the cowbell and either he comes in wrong or I come in wrong - but Keith comes in right, which makes the whole thing right. It's one of those things that musicologists could sit around analyzing for years. It's actually a mistake, but from my point of view, it works. (Source : interview in 2003)
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And we were sitting in the middle of nowhere with all these horses, in a place where if you flush the john all these black frogs would fly out. It was great. The chicks loved it. Anyway, it started out a real country honk put on, a hokey thing. And then couple of months later we were writing songs and recording. And somehow by some metamorphosis it suddenly went into this little swampy, black thing, a Blues thing.
Really, I can't give you a credible reason of how it turned around from that to that. Except there's not really a lot of difference between white Country music and black Country music. It's just a matter of nuance and style. I think it has to do with the fact that we were playing a lot around with open tunings at the time. So we were trying songs out just to see if they could be played in open tuning. And that one just sunk in. (Interview in 2003)
John Mayall : When Mick Taylor left my band, I wasn't upset. I'd suggested it. Mick Jagger had called me up one day and said he'd got the itch to get The Stones moving. Brian Jones wasn't up to it for health reasons so Mick called me up to see if I could recommend a guitar player. (Rock CD magazine, February 1993)
Mick Taylor : I was invited to do a session with The Rolling Stones. It puzzled me. I had never met Mick Jagger in my life and here he was phoning me. I went down and played and thought little more about it. Then they asked me if I wanted to be a Stone. I was amazed.
Ian Stewart (road manager/keyboardist) : The band weren't really worried about replacing Brian because in '68-69, they were top of the heap. They could have had anybody they wanted, including god himself. Clapton came to a recording session. Mick Taylor was very quiet and shy, but they got him playing. He was right. He could play.
Mick Taylor: Mick was in a side room doing an interview with the International Times, and Jimmy Miller was just sitting there. Keith turned up three hours later. It was like a bolt out of the blue, taking me completely by surprise. As soon as it was offered, of course, I wanted the job. It was very loose, nothing was discussed. I just went to the studio and played.
Keith Richards : Mick Taylor turns up and plays like an angel, and I wasn't going to say no. I thought I'd let the guy develop, because by then I thought I was an old hand - I was all of 25 years old! That's what four years on the road would do to you. You came out at the other end and you were already 50. You'd seen a lot of things.
Charlie Watts : That's Jimmy (producer Jimmy Miller) playing the cowbell and either he comes in wrong or I come in wrong - but Keith comes in right, which makes the whole thing right. It's one of those things that musicologists could sit around analyzing for years. It's actually a mistake, but from my point of view, it works. (Source : interview in 2003)