Mick Taylor

Mick Taylor
October 2002
October 2002
Background information
Birth nameMichael Kevin Taylor
Born17 January 1949
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England
GenresBlues-rock, rock
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
InstrumentsGuitar
Years active1965–present

Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English musician best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones. He is well known for his skills as a slide guitar player. He also plays piano, bass and drums.

Life

Taylor during the Rolling Stones 1972 tour of North America in June, at Winterland in San Francisco

Taylor was born in Welwyn Garden City. He was raised in Hatfield.

He formed his first band The Gods in 1965. He played together with Ken Hensley (later with Uriah Heep). Other musicians were Greg Lake (later with Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and John Glascock. 1966 he left the band and joined John Mayall´s Bluesbreakers. He replaced there Peter Green. In June 1969 the Rolling Stones looked for a new guitarist and they found Mick Taylor. His first gig as band member of the Stones was the concert in Hyde Park on 5 July 1969 . The concert was in memory of the late Brian Jones.

Like Bill Wyman he was never the show man on stage. Due to Richards drug problem he did a lot of guitar work for the albums. Jagger and Taylor recorded Sway, Moonlight Mile, Winter, Till the Next Goodbye and Time Waits For No One. But Taylor never earned money for this work. As Richards critizied his guitar playing he decided in December 1974 to leave the Stones.

Taylor's onstage presence with the Rolling Stones is preserved on the album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!, recorded in New York and Boston in November 1969; in the documentary films Stones in the Park (released on DVD in 2001), Gimme Shelter (released in 1970) and Cocksucker Blues (unreleased); and in the concert film Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (shown in cinemas in 1974). Bootleg recordings from the Rolling Stones' tours from 1969 through 1973 also document Taylor's concert performances with the Rolling Stones.

Compared to the Rolling Stones time his solo career was not very successful. After leaving the Stones he formed together with Jack Bruce, Carla Bley and Bruce Gary the Jack Bruce Band. The project failed due to musical differences between Bruce and Taylor. But despite the split Taylor was often guitar player on solo projects of Rolling Stones members. For example he played om Richards album "Talk is cheap" from 1988. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Mick Taylor along with the Rolling Stones in 1989.In the early 1990s he played for Bill Wyman´s Rhythm Kings.

Discography

With John Mayall's Bluesbreakers

With The Rolling Stones

Former Stones bandmates Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor playing
with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, 17 March 2008
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 1972 during the Goats Head Soup sessions.
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

With Bob Dylan

Solo discography

With Carla Olson

Other session work

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

References

  1. ↑ Prato, Greg. "Shadow Man". Allmusic. Archived from the original on 2011-10-23. Retrieved 2011-10-23. There's a bit of false advertising behind the 2003 double-disc Mick Taylor release, Shadow Man. The album in question is not a Taylor solo recording, but rather it features Taylor as a sideman, to a singer named Sasha Gracanin.
  2. ↑ "Mike Oldfield (with Mick Taylor, Steve Hillage and members of Henry Cow, Gong and Soft Machine) - Tubular Bells (Live BBC Video 1973)". MOG. Archived from the original on 2009-08-23. Retrieved 2009-05-23.

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