Mick Taylor on the Stones, John Mayall, Guitars and Gear

[JasO]

In 1979 I had the opportunity to do interview Mick Taylor, the great British blues-rock guitarist who was just about to release his self-titled solo album on Columbia. An extremely gracious guy, Mick spoke to me for two hours. He began by covering his early life and his adventures and albums with John Mayall. He reveals the guitars, amps, and effects he used on his classic cuts on Mayall albums such as Bare Wires and Blues From Laurel Canyon, discusses the influence of blues records, and talks about sharing gigs with Jimi Hendrix.

Then we spoke at length about his years with the Rolling Stones, which lasted from Let It Bleed through It’s Only Rock and Roll. Mick offers a wealth of insight into how classic tracks were recorded and how specific guitar parts were played, gives his unabashed opinion of various albums (yea Exile, nay Goats Head), and goes into his reasons for quitting the band. The final section is devoted to his debut solo album, his guitars, playing techniques, advice for slide players, his work with other musicians, and much more. If you’re into Mick Taylor, this massive 11,000-word interview is for you! It’s posted it in its entirety here:
http://jasobrecht.com/mick-taylor-rolli ... ing-guitar

[fillmore nyc]

GREAT stuff, Jas... thanks SO much for all these interviews that would undoubtedly be lost, or at best, nearly impossible to find if you werent posting them here.

With all the manic "tone investigation" that goes on here, its funny to read shit like "I don’t remember the amplification – a stack of something. [Laughs.] I think it was Hi-Watt." when Mick was playing with virtually the most famous band on Earth, making some of the most recognized recordings ever!!

Massive kudos!!

[leadguy]

Gear searching for some holy grail tone can be taken too far.

A band like the Stones just got on with the job of making music.

Interesting to me is what Keith played and what Mick played, like the Honky Tonk Women intro and the Little Queenie solo and the It's Only Rock And Roll solo are played by Keith and it makes sense because they all have Chuck Berry like cliche double stops in them.
Mick is a way more versatile player than Keith but Keith plays in a certain (Chuck Berry open tuning) way that fits the song pretty well.

Mick played the Honky Tonk Women lead fills and a lot of the solos on other songs and a fair bit of bass and most of the Acoustic on Angie.

Mick brought a more versatile guitar playing level into the Stones but Brian Jones was pretty versatile on a lot of instruments before it all went down the tubes.

I was watching Alice Cooper presenting a music show not that long ago and he said Brown Sugar was maybe the best rock song ever.