PDA

View Full Version : Former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor flat broke...



Diamondjimi
09-14-2009, 03:20 PM
The Rolling Stone who's stony broke: Why Mick Taylor lives in a rundown Suffolk semi with a shabby car.... By Bob Graham

It is a curious effect of the passage of time that The Rolling Stones are now as much admired for their business acumen as for their rock and roll. Nearly half a century after their rebellious beginnings, the Stones remain the world’s highest-earning rock stars.

Their albums have made them £250million and their spectacular tours have grossed upwards of £1.8billion.

Mick Jagger, whose androgynous sneer was once so feared by The Establishment, is now canny Sir Mick with a £225million fortune and palatial homes on three continents.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/09/12/article-1213013-0667015A000005DC-6_468x522.jpg

Unpaid bills:Mick Taylor believes he could be owed millions of pounds in royalties
Even guitarist Ronnie Wood, a relative newcomer who was only made a full member of the band in 1990, was estimated to be worth £70million during his recent divorce.

All of which is a source of bitter amusement to the shambling figure in a dark grey duffel coat, stopping to light his umpteenth cigarette of the day as he walks from his ramshackle cottage in rural Suffolk to the village shop.

Mick Taylor is Ronnie Wood’s direct predecessor and the musical virtuoso behind the Rolling Stones’ golden age.

When the band announced six weeks ago that it was switching record labels from EMI to Universal, much was made of the continuing selling power of classic albums such as Exile On Main Street, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers – all made in an astonishingly productive five-year period between 1969 and 1974, when Taylor was the Stones’ lead guitarist.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/09/12/article-1213013-06614E7D000005DC-531_468x303.jpg
Mick Taylor's rundown Suffolk semi

Taylor, who replaced the erratic Brian Jones, played guitar on Honky Tonk Women, Wild Horses, Angie, It’s Only Rock And Roll and a host of other classic tracks.

He was present at the height of the band’s decadent excess at Nellcote in the South of France in the summer of 1971 and on the legendary tours of America in 1969 and 1972-73.
Yet Taylor walked away from the band at the height of its musical powers.

And while Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts have become fabulously wealthy on the back of music he helped make, Taylor scrapes a hand-to-mouth existence by playing pub gigs and hasn’t seen a penny in royalties from the Rolling Stones since 1982.
Rolling in it: Mick Jagger and Mick Taylor together on stage in 1972
For years, he has refused to discuss his time as a Stone and has brushed off the two questions that have dogged him ever since: why did he leave, and does he regret it?

Now, 61-year-old Taylor has broken his silence in an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday.

It is clear that the scruffy, two-bedroom semi where he has lived for the past 20 years hardly fits the image of a former Rolling Stone. The tiny house in a Suffolk country lane is in serious need of repair and redecoration.

‘Yeah, I know it needs doing,’ he said dismissively. ‘I just don’t feel up for it right now.’

Even less edifying is the unopened stack of bills and threats to cut off the water, electricity and gas. The uncut grass, empty cans in the kitchen sink and the ancient car parked in the driveway with weeds growing through its wheels also tell a tale.

The thick-set Taylor has none of the dandyish elegance of Jagger or the outlaw chic of Keith Richards. His once-golden mane of hair is streaked with grey. He is jowly and far heavier than in his prime – the legacy, he admits, of years of drug abuse.

‘People are always asking me whether I regret leaving the Rolling Stones,’ he said. ‘I make no bones about it – had I remained with the band, I would probably be dead.
'I was having difficulties with drug addiction and couldn’t have lasted. But I’m clean now and have been for years.

‘My life is so much better now than being a drug-ravaged member of the Stones. So no, I don’t regret leaving.

‘But people who really know me ask another question – whether I regret joining the Stones. To me, that’s far more astute.’

In truth, Taylor has always been ambivalent about the Stones – a fact that explains in part why he has never pursued what he believes may be millions of pounds in unpaid royalties.

For all his undoubted virtuosity on the electric guitar, he was never a huge fan of the band and found their brand of bar-room rock and roll musically limited.

‘When they asked me to come to the studio in 1969, I thought they just wanted me to play a session,’ he recalled. ‘I sort of liked them, but was never passionate about the Stones. In some ways I liked The Beatles more.

‘At the first session, I overdubbed the guitar on Honky Tonk Women, but I thought they were all a little bit vain and full of themselves.

‘After doing guitar parts on three songs, I said to Mick and Keith, “If you guys are just going to sit and mess around, I’m going home. I’ve got things to do.” I told them to give me a call if they wanted me to do anything else.

‘The next day, Mick called and asked if I wanted to join. He came and picked me up in his Bentley. I wasn’t impressed by all that and I think they kind of liked that attitude.

‘Part of the charm of the Rolling Stones, as far as I could see, was that they were not technically very good but were very raw and had great ideas.’

Taylor was always set apart from the rest of the band, who had already been together for seven years by the time he joined.


He was five years younger than his bandmates and a far more gifted instrumentalist, having toured for three years with the influential John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.

Furthermore, as a fitter’s son from Hatfield, Hertfordshire, he was genuinely working class, while the Stones were middle-class boys pretending to be rough.

From January 1971, he also had a daughter, Chloe, to support from a short-lived marriage to his first wife, Rosie.

His first public appearance with the band was the Stones’ huge free concert in Hyde Park, which became an impromptu memorial for the band’s founder and original guitarist Brian Jones, who had been found dead two days earlier.

Taylor’s influence on the band was immediately appreciated by critics and fans alike for his brilliant, fluid guitar-playing. And climbing aboard the Stones’ rollercoaster gave him access to an extraordinary world he had never even dreamed of.

‘There was as much sex as you wanted,’ he smiled. ‘That was part of being a rock musician, especially in America. And they always had people around them telling them how great they were and to try some of this or that. I hated that.

'Keith in particular was surrounded by people telling him how great he was when he could hardly keep his eyes open.’

Taylor revealed that around 1972-73, Keith’s drug-taking became a serious problem.

‘Several times the band almost broke up,’ he said. ‘Keith had his own separate social scene and it was obvious there was a lot of drug-taking. There were also problems travelling to certain countries because of all the drug convictions.

‘When I left John Mayall I was a London musician with London friends. But because the band wanted to live in France to be tax exiles, I was forced to go along with them.

'I didn’t need to be a tax exile, I didn’t have financial problems to hide. It was all very well being with the Stones and apparently making all this money – although no one really knew how much because it was all on paper – but I was losing my friends and missing the scene in London.

'I began to realise how big an effect the Stones was having on my life.’

By now Taylor was also dabbling with narcotics. ‘It began as an occasional recreational thing,’ he explained. ‘I never thought I would get addicted. But by the time I returned to London in 1973, I’d become more and more dependent. I was using every day.

‘By 1974, I felt I’d gone as far as I could with the band. I didn’t think they’d stay together. The records were doing well but the band was falling apart – it was in chaos.

‘Mick and Keith weren’t talking or working together and it was taking longer and longer to make the albums. So as well as Keith’s addiction there was Mick’s frustration and my own disenchantment and disillusionment with them.’

And Taylor confided: ‘I was a bit impulsive back then. I had a reputation on stage of being quiet, but off it I wasn’t. We used to fight and argue all the time. And one of the things I got angry about was that Mick had promised to give me some credit for some of the songs – and he didn’t.

‘I believed I’d contributed enough. Let’s put it this way – without my contribution those songs would not have existed. There’s not many but enough, things like Sway and Moonlight Mile on Sticky Fingers and a couple of others.

'I took offence and that was a contributory factor in my departure. But I’d never seen being with the Stones as a permanent thing.

‘When I told the Stones’ office I was leaving, they asked for my gold Amex card. Mick tried to persuade me to stay, but I told him I was fed up and how my drug problems were beginning to worry me.

'Mick suggested taking six months off, but I’ve never been good at taking advice. Maybe I should have listened.’

Given all that, it is perhaps not surprising that it was not an amicable split. ‘When I left, they cut off my money for a year, just like that,’ said Taylor. ‘But I had to leave because I was frustrated.

‘I had a creative relationship with Mick, but I was also bored for a lot of the time. I wanted more and they wanted to remain the same. I also wanted to deal with my drug problems. I believed if I removed myself from that situation I would sort myself out.’

But life outside the band was not easy. Taylor divorced Rose, sold his gold records, moved to New York and squandered most of his money on heroin and cocaine. ‘I was addicted then, using anything I could get,’ he said.

The downward spiral continued even when he flew back to Hertfordshire to sit at his father’s deathbed.

‘My father was dying of liver cancer and was in terrible pain in hospital,’ Taylor recalled. ‘He said he knew I’d been using drugs and asked if I would ask the nurses for stronger painkillers. I did and they gave him morphine. I sat there trying to balance the irony of the situation.

'My father needed morphine to ease his pain and there was me, addicted to the stuff for pleasure. I was so disgusted, I felt numb.’

Taylor moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and enrolled at a methadone clinic in Hollywood Boulevard.

‘I joined the line of junkies. I was a virtual down and out,’ he admitted. ‘My lowest time was in the clinic on Christmas Day. A nurse gave me a tumbler of methadone and said, “Have a nice Christmas.”

'I told her there wasn’t any Christmas for junkies. I decided to go back to England to find a cure, however painful.’

Since the end of his marriage to his second wife, an American called Valerie, Taylor has lived on his own and rarely sees his daughter Chloe, or Emma, a second daughter by a one-time backing singer with his band.

But he still plays music with friends, including former Jeff Beck keyboard player Max Middleton, ex-Manfred Mann guitarist Denny Newman and ex-Snowy White drummer Jeff Allen.

On the days he has some money, he roots through the stack of bills and pays the ones he can. When he doesn’t, which is often, he phones his friends and suggests they play a few gigs in local pubs and clubs, living out of the back of a Transit van.

But what about his royalties from the Stones? ‘In 1982 they stopped paying me. They’d signed to a different record company and had new contracts and were advised they didn’t need to pay me any more,’ explained Taylor with a shrug.

‘Until then, I’d had a contract with Rolling Stones Records which was licensed to Atlantic Records – the same contract as the rest of the band.’

The deal gave him an equal share of performing royalties, though Jagger and Richards shared the writers’ royalties. But when the Atlantic contract expired, the band’s management used a loophole in Taylor’s contract to stop all payments.

‘I should have got a lawyer,’ he said. ‘But instead I called them rude words and asked how they could just stop paying me. They all know it’s not right. In fact it is outrageous. They get all the money and I get the plaudits and praise, even from Mick.

‘I’ve tried to talk to Mick a couple of times, but I realise that hiring a lawyer is probably the only way they’ll take me seriously. But they figure I’m not going to do anything about it.’

Taylor thinks for a moment, then adds: ‘I’m going to do something about it because it’s morally wrong to cut my royalties for those six albums.’


Read more: The Rolling Stone who's stony broke: Why Mick Taylor lives in a rundown Suffolk semi with a shabby car | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1213013/The-Rolling-Stone-whos-stony-broke-Why-Mick-Taylor-lives-rundown-Suffolk-semi-shabby-car.html#ixzz0R6rZHQPv)


LINK (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1213013/The-Rolling-Stone-whos-stony-broke-Why-Mick-Taylor-lives-rundown-Suffolk-semi-shabby-car.html#ixzz0R3TGH4g4)

Diamondjimi
09-14-2009, 03:21 PM
As far as I'm cuntcerned ,their best work was with Mick Taylor...

sadaist
09-14-2009, 03:56 PM
Taylor thinks for a moment, then adds: ‘I’m going to do something about it because it’s morally wrong to cut my royalties for those six albums.’



Go get 'em brother. That money I paid was for you too. Thanks for the great music.

Master Yoda
09-14-2009, 04:01 PM
Hmmpph. Feel that Stones were overrated even Mick Taylor does. How embarassing, hooow embarassing.

Diamondjimi
09-14-2009, 04:46 PM
Hmmpph. Feel that Stones were overrated even Mick Taylor does. How embarassing, hooow embarassing.

http://www.romancingsingapore.com/articlefiles/thumbnail_58744banned.jpg

How embarassing, hooow embarassing...

:biggrin:

standin
09-14-2009, 04:48 PM
They (Mick) are known for it. It is truly a shame to be so endowed monetarily and such an inferior.
That should simply be fixed before another dawn breaks.

kwame k
09-14-2009, 04:50 PM
As far as I'm cuntcerned ,their best work was with Mick Taylor...

Yup as far as consistent albums......

Igosplut
09-14-2009, 05:39 PM
That's not new, I've read that before.

You don't get where they are in the music world being nice guys...

Matt White
09-14-2009, 05:44 PM
I prefer the Brian Jones era...without question....

Those cunts should pay Mick Taylor though.........................

Diamondjimi
09-14-2009, 05:45 PM
That's not new, I've read that before.

You don't get where they are in the music world being nice guys...

True, but to outright shut out a former member who cuntributed substantially who not only got fucked out of song writing credits. But to cuntractually assfuck him out of rightly deserved perfoming royalties of recorded works is fucking low.
Mick Jagger (elitist cunt)is the biggest fucking hypocrite in British rock. He's about as much a R&R rebel as Perry Como.
Christ , dig into those pockets and help a brother out ,ffs....

Kristy
09-14-2009, 05:46 PM
Now if Taylor is as poor as he claims to be be really shouldn't be surprised. Like all mega-lithic bands such as The Eagles or even Fleetwood Mac the Stones operate as a company so if you're no longer part of the Monday morning water cooler clan you're also no longer receiving a check, royalty or not. I don't blame the guy for seeking something in the way of compensation but chances are Jagger's lawyers will laugh and inform Taylor in the politest of ways "to get fucked"

Diamondjimi
09-14-2009, 06:04 PM
Now if Taylor is as poor as he claims to be be really shouldn't be surprised. Like all mega-lithic bands such as The Eagles or even Fleetwood Mac the Stones operate as a company so if you're no longer part of the Monday morning water cooler clan you're also no longer receiving a check, royalty or not. I don't blame the guy for seeking something in the way of compensation but chances are Jagger's lawyers will laugh and inform Taylor in the politest of ways "to get fucked"

The stones pulled a fast one on him the same way the VH sisters pulled a fast one on Dave when they renegotiated their contracts a number of years ago. I would think that ,had they tried that shit with DLR in the room the sisters would be leaving (said room) with lumps and broken teeth...

Royalties are goddamn royalties. They were earned and are payable... even after death!

ThrillsNSpills
09-14-2009, 06:13 PM
That's not new, I've read that before.

You don't get where they are in the music world being nice guys...


I saw a youtube interview with Lennon the other day where he said the same thing. He said the Beatles had to be bastards to do what they did. That's what their fans didn't know. I wish I remembered which one so I could post it but it was a great interview. He also mentioned the book Love Me Do being the only one that got it right.


Mick Taylor as a guitarist was the king of killing ya with one or two well placed notes. It was fucking amazing how well his playing blended with Keith's. He should have just gotten clean and continued on but you know how peoples' judgement gets clouded once a few bucks land in their pocket. He's the last guy who should have received the bend over plan from the Stones. I always thought his playing served up far more emotion than Clapton.
The guy was a textbook example of how feeling is greater than shred.

Kristy
09-14-2009, 06:20 PM
Not in today's world, Jimi. The music "biz" is run by two sets of people: lawyers and the vultures who hire them. When Fleetwood Mac started recording their last dismal album back in 2003 or 4, neither Stevie Nicks or Lindsey Buckingham could be in the same room together in a working (i.e., recording) situation without each other's lawyers' present deciding who put more on a collaborated-written song in order to decided where the lion's share of royalties shall flow. It's like that line from that song I conveniently forget now where's it's sung "money rules the groove now."

Of course Taylor was fucked over but he's not the only one to experienced this so it really doesn't matter the caliber of albums he happened to have played on and with what band. Say if he co-wrote with The Carpenters and was getting the same raw deal would people care as much?

Diamondjimi
09-14-2009, 06:26 PM
But to reverse his royalies is fucking criminal. He should get a lawyer, pronto.
If that shit were to happen to me, short of stomping the culprits guts in, I'd want payback!

Kristy
09-14-2009, 06:36 PM
Again, if this was a perfect world, Jimi. Most likely when Jagger bought the rights to all of The Stones back catalog he had them legally revised in that all of the royalties being made from either radio play or album/concert sales went directly back into his and Keith's pocket no matter who the song's (original) collaborator's were. Yes, you can legally do that without moral precedent. I'm not saying I'm for it but that's the way the system works.

Maybe if Taylor wasn't so fucked-up and asleep at the switch he could have challenged Jagger at the time but once the i's are dotted and the t's crossed there is little Taylor can do now. After all, Taylor could have pulled the same shit on Mick and Keith if he could afford to do so at the time. Now, Taylor might get a crumb or two thrown in his direction but Jagger and/or Richards have no legal responsibility to compensate him. It's pretty much the same deal Michael Jackson had owing the rights to the Beetle's back catalog - he didn't have any legal ties to paying McCartney and therefore, never did.

Kristy
09-14-2009, 06:54 PM
But to reverse his royalies is fucking criminal.

Not if you revise the contract freeing you from all fiduciary responsibility that Jagger, Richards and Taylor might have had between each other. The law is clever more than ever these days.

yah
09-14-2009, 07:05 PM
I really hope that Mick Taylor hires a lawyer and that they get some money from the Stones.
He does deserve the royalties from the albums he played on and he should get back payments for the yrs he missed,(1982 and on...)
They are selfish idiots by cutting him out that way....

Igosplut
09-14-2009, 07:32 PM
True, but to outright shut out a former member who cuntributed substantially who not only got fucked out of song writing credits. But to cuntractually assfuck him out of rightly deserved perfoming royalties of recorded works is fucking low.
Mick Jagger (elitist cunt)is the biggest fucking hypocrite in British rock. He's about as much a R&R rebel as Perry Como.
Christ , dig into those pockets and help a brother out ,ffs....

Was it right morally? Fuckin A no. For the money these guys have made over the years, even a couple of mill from the band (collectively) wouldn't have been a big deal. And they should have done it without the prompting, and done it quietly without fan fair.....

Now for reality. The reading I've done on the stones and Micks realization of the worth of the songwriting credits made him fanatical about giving anything to anybody. Hence Mick Taylor being on the outside looking in. And do you think for a minute an egotistical fuck like Mick Jagger was EVER going to give credit to somebody else for the biggest hits they ever had? Hell, he wouldn't give credit for the smallest shit. This was his worry about cutting Brian Jones loose, never mind Taylor.

Taylor should sue, chances are they'd settle out of court for an amount that would take care of his, but be far less that what he should receive (and what is due)....

Igosplut
09-14-2009, 07:41 PM
I saw a youtube interview with Lennon the other day where he said the same thing. He said the Beatles had to be bastards to do what they did. That's what their fans didn't know. I wish I remembered which one so I could post it but it was a great interview. He also mentioned the book Love Me Do being the only one that got it right.


I'm thinking that this was written (or released) a few years ago. I think it was posted on DDLR.

The Beatles lost MILLIONS (read:100 million in 60s dollars) on their merchandising licensing alone (Epstein literally gave it away) so they had a hard and fast education in business.

Kristy
09-14-2009, 07:41 PM
And do you think for a minute an egotistical fuck like Mick Jagger was EVER going to give credit to somebody else for the biggest hits they ever had? Hell, he wouldn't give credit for the smallest shit. This was his worry about cutting Brian Jones loose, never mind Taylor.


AND...Ron Wood. I believe Wood was credited with some songwriting partnership on Voodoo Lounge and was superfluously mentioned as "inspiration" on the Black & Blue album (only because he wasn't regarded as an official member of the band at the time) but he too has been vocal every now and then for not getting full due only to recant a little and say, "well, that's how it is when you're in this band, you learn to play without proper mention."

Terry
09-14-2009, 07:42 PM
The Stones stuff I like best is the stuff Taylor was involved with.

With the Brian Jones era, most of that material I still listen to is from Between The Buttons through to Beggar's Banquet. Jones was great at adding exotic touches to the tunes...he really wasn't involved much with Let It Bleed from what I've read (the story is that Ry Cooder did quite a bit of uncredited work on Let It Bleed, as well as on a couple of tunes on Sticky Fingers). I can't say I liked much of what Ron Wood brought to the group. Some Girls was easily the best thing he ever participated in. Emotional Rescue was okay. Tattoo You had old outtakes from the Taylor era, complete with Taylor leads...and he wasn't credited with any of that when the album was released, either. Undercover was okay. The output after that has been less than inspired.

Not in the least bit surprising that Taylor has been shafted. I mean, from many accounts, Ronnie Wood wasn't even made a full partner in the band until the 1990s (after Bill Wyman left). Kristy is right in the sense that Taylor should have engaged an attorney to look after his interests the moment he left the band. Particularly with the catalog having bounced to several different record companies since then. Record contracts, much like home mortgages or many other financial/business undertakings, can be byzantine to the point of lunacy. The only people assured of being paid at the end of the day are the record companies; the artists need to engage the services of lawyers and accountants to make sure royalties are being written into contracts, as well as checking amounts of record units pressed and sold. I mean, ideally Taylor should still be getting his share of the profits of those Stones records which he appeared on. However, it sounds like when he initially quit the band he was fucked up on drugs, stuck his head in the sand and assumed the record companies and his former bandmates would do right by him. He's not the first musician to have that attitude, and not the first musician to get screwed over as a result, either.

Igosplut
09-14-2009, 07:46 PM
AND...Ron Wood. I believe Wood was credited with some songwriting partnership on Voodoo Lounge and was superfluously mentioned as "inspiration" on the Black & Blue album (only because he wasn't regarded as an official member of the band at the time) but he too has been vocal every now and then for not getting full due only to recant a little and say, "well, that's how it is when you're in this band, you learn to play without proper mention."

No fucking shit, huh? They only made him a "Full Partner" in 1990 (what ever that Entails in the stones world..) Why, if he was helping to write/play, and they considered him permanent member would they wait until then?????

All just greed.....

Igosplut
09-14-2009, 07:57 PM
The Stones stuff I like best is the stuff Taylor was involved with.

With the Brian Jones era, most of that material I still listen to is from Between The Buttons through to Beggar's Banquet. Jones was great at adding exotic touches to the tunes...he really wasn't involved much with Let It Bleed from what I've read (the story is that Ry Cooder did quite a bit of uncredited work on Let It Bleed, as well as on a couple of tunes on Sticky Fingers)


Jagger was on full boil to A: get Jones out of the picture/band ( his emotional/drug problems were over the top at that point) and B: to make sure that none of the money slipped away. Perhaps what was done to Jones was worse than Taylor (they did give up about 200K in 1969 dollars) only because he was the founding member of the group.

Jagger learned early on the value of the band.

Kristy
09-14-2009, 08:09 PM
The Stones stuff I like best is the stuff Taylor was involved with.

With the Brian Jones era, most of that material I still listen to is from Between The Buttons through to Beggar's Banquet. Jones was great at adding exotic touches to the tunes...he really wasn't involved much with Let It Bleed from what I've read (the story is that Ry Cooder did quite a bit of uncredited work on Let It Bleed, as well as on a couple of tunes on Sticky Fingers). I can't say I liked much of what Ron Wood brought to the group. Some Girls was easily the best thing he ever participated in. Emotional Rescue was okay. Tattoo You had old outtakes from the Taylor era, complete with Taylor leads...and he wasn't credited with any of that when the album was released, either. Undercover was okay. The output after that has been less than inspired.

Cooder also played bit parts on what was to be the Metamorphosis sessions ("Memo From Turner') as well as some Jagger solo work for Ned Kelly. The story of Cooder's involvement with the Stones was that he was to be an interim guitarist (based on his studio session skills) until Jagger could find a replacement for Jones fucking up all the time because The Stones were still under recoding contract with London/Atco. Richards seemed to have detested him claiming that Cooder was too sterile for the Stones (my guess is that Cooder wasn't a limey) but Jagger seemed to have taken a fondness to him, calling Cooder to come from L.A. to Muscle Shoals to play on Sticky Fingers for what was to be two tracks, Cooder only sufficed on one. (You see, I'm in love with Ry Cooder and always have been - saw him back on his Chavez Tour and, as usual, he was amazing.)

As for Wood's input I never thought of him as an adequate guitar player for The Stones much less a replacement for Taylor's astonishing fretwork (did you know that it was Taylor playing bass on 'Fingerprint File'?) but Wood seemed to fit the archetype of the Stones that Taylor could never achieve. Wood did write some creative riffs when he was back with The Faces and it does make you wonder just how much of his work is uncredited from Some Girls on.

chefcraig
09-14-2009, 08:37 PM
Cooder also played bit parts on what was to be the Metamorphosis sessions ("Memo From Turner') as well as some Jagger solo work for Ned Kelly. The story of Cooder's involvement with the Stones was that he was to be an interim guitarist (based on his studio session skills) until Jagger could find a replacement for Jones fucking up all the time because The Stones were still under recoding contract with London/Atco. Richards seemed to have detested him claiming that Cooder was too sterile for the Stones (my guess is that Cooder wasn't a limey) but Jagger seemed to have taken a fondness to him, calling Cooder to come from L.A. to Muscle Shoals to play on Sticky Fingers for what was to be two tracks, Cooder only sufficed on one. (You see, I'm in love with Ry Cooder and always have been - saw him back on his Chavez Tour and, as usual, he was amazing.)

Don't forget this overlooked beauty.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2121/nickyhopkinsjammingwith.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/nickyhopkinsjammingwith.jpg/)


As for Wood's input I never thought of him as an adequate guitar player for The Stones much less a replacement for Taylor's astonishing fretwork (did you know that it was Taylor playing bass on 'Fingerprint File'?) but Wood seemed to fit the archetype of the Stones that Taylor could never achieve. Wood did write some creative riffs when he was back with The Faces and it does make you wonder just how much of his work is uncredited from Some Girls on.

Wyman is on record in several interviews and in his various books about the Stones that many tracks cut by the band had other people playing his bass parts. He claims that Jagger and Richards could be quite sneaky and underhanded "in the ways they'd get recording done", such as not inviting him to sessions, ect. Wyman was extremely candid about this, along with being (rightfully) indignant and quite pissed about the practice. In fact, if you've ever seen Jean-Luc Godard's film One Plus One (which chronicles the Stones recording "Sympathy For The Devil"), you'll see Richards take over from Wyman on bass, as Wyman is reduced to shaking maracas.

Hellraiser!!
09-14-2009, 09:13 PM
How fucked up is that....

That's why you have to think twice before stick the needle in your vein...

standin
09-15-2009, 12:11 AM
Again, if this was a perfect world, Jimi. Most likely when Jagger bought the rights to all of The Stones back catalog he had them legally revised in that all of the royalties being made from either radio play or album/concert sales went directly back into his and Keith's pocket no matter who the song's (original) collaborator's were. Yes, you can legally do that without moral precedent. I'm not saying I'm for it but that's the way the system works.

Maybe if Taylor wasn't so fucked-up and asleep at the switch he could have challenged Jagger at the time but once the i's are dotted and the t's crossed there is little Taylor can do now. After all, Taylor could have pulled the same shit on Mick and Keith if he could afford to do so at the time. Now, Taylor might get a crumb or two thrown in his direction but Jagger and/or Richards have no legal responsibility to compensate him. It's pretty much the same deal Michael Jackson had owing the rights to the Beetle's back catalog - he didn't have any legal ties to paying McCartney and therefore, never did.

Mick and Michael as 2 peas in a pod.
That is pretty harsh, Kristy.

Igosplut
09-15-2009, 07:57 AM
It's pretty much the same deal Michael Jackson had owing the rights to the Beetle's back catalog - he didn't have any legal ties to paying McCartney and therefore, never did.

No, not at all. There was basically a three-way split of the Northern Songs catalog ownership. John and Paul retained 20% each. Brian Epstein had 10% and Dick James (Beatles music publisher) got 50%. The reasoning behind Epstein and James receiving those amounts (for NOTHING) was that it was in lieu of management (25%) and Publishing fees respectively.

After Brian's death his brother Clive (who inherited Brian's 10%) Sold the interest (called NEMS) to pay the substantial death taxes the family didn't have to a company named Triumph. At the same time Dick James believing that the Lennon/McCartney partnership was (correctly) doomed, and figuring Allen Kline would mismanage the Beatles into the ground he was determined to sell out.

Lew Grade bought James 50% and obtained enough stock (Northern Songs had gone public a few years before) to have controlling interest of the catalog. This is essentially the controlling interest that Michael Jackson bought in the 80s. The main sticking point (at the time) was Jackson actively working with McCartney on songs during the time of the purchase and not telling him up front (or conceding the sale to him/Yoko)

So, while John/Paul lost the controlling interest/ownership in Northern Songs (that they never owned anyway) they still retained more than 40% (Paul had been buying shares behind the others backs from the time it went public). The money splits were different than the % owned due to contracts (which have since long run out) But the earning power of the 159 song catalog has been strong throughout the years from the endless sales/repackaging of Beatles music.

Bottom line while the Beatles salad days were over, the earning power of the catalog 40%+ was still very substantial throughout the years. And Paul/John got a cut of every use of their music, right down to the commercials Jackson sold the music to (for heavy money). John/Yoko were the first to voice their displeasure of the use of the licensing, but the paydays still were substantial (no complaints there) And Yoko/Paul had substantial earnings after the fact on their own insuring they would hardly have money problems.

But Mick Taylor only had one shot at the brass ring, got some meager royalty's that were ripped out from underneath him by people that could afforded much more especially giving the party's perspective positions. Much different thing in my eyes....

Panamark
09-15-2009, 11:27 AM
Stingy bastards should set him up with something.
How does he not get royalties form that era, unless
he signed it away ?

78/84 guy
09-16-2009, 09:07 PM
Mick get a lawyer !! The best Stone's albums have him on them !! Why he has waited so long is fucked up, 1982 !! I like Wood but he never has come close to bringing what Taylor brought to the band !!

DavidLeeNatra
09-17-2009, 02:53 AM
boo...fucking...hoo...

sorry, but I can't stand those drugged up crybabies...

was he asked to leave the best gig in the world? no

was he forced to shoot his money through his veins? no

did somebody hold a gun against his head and made him an offer he couldn't refuse? no

I hope he can afford a ticket to catch the stones on their next tour that he can see what he has wasted away...talent, fame and fortune...stupid idiot!

ODShowtime
09-23-2009, 07:51 PM
Go get 'em brother. That money I paid was for you too. Thanks for the great music.


that's a great way of looking at it.

Thanks poster for posting the article.

This shit makes me sick BTW. I bet Brian Jone's family still receives royalties. And he was garbage compared to Taylor, IMO.

FORD
09-23-2009, 08:01 PM
So the Rolling Stones albums with Mick Taylor are now on their third re-release on CD, and he's never seen a dime from any of it? Not to mention the "deluxe" versions of "Exile" and "YaYas" due for release within weeks, which will no doubt retail for $40 or $50.

Love the Stones. Been a lifelong fan, but I gotta say to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards..... this is just BULLSHIT. Pay the man his fucking fair share, for Christ's sake. You would have broken up in 1969 just like the Beatles without him.

FORD
09-24-2009, 11:35 AM
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPCRIFLjfPo&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPCRIFLjfPo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>