News The guitarist Keith Richards said made the “best” Rolling Stones albums
If you’ve been around for as long as The Rolling Stones have, chances are that some of the best songs come naturally to you. It may have been a long time for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to write classics in the early days, but tearing through a song like ‘Satisfaction’ or ‘Wild Horses’ today is probably as second nature to them as lighting a cigarette. There are always peaks and valleys in every band, and Richards always came back to Mick Taylor when talking about the band’s best work.
Then again, Richards’ guitar work on every Stones record is why the band has gone on for so long. While he was never known for the kind of soaring lead tone that his contemporaries had, Richards got his right-hand technique down to a science with the group, always providing a gentle pulse that made the band jump on every track.
Every band needs a lead guitar player, though, and Brian Jones was no slouch when the band got started. A student of the old-school bluesmen, Jones was ready to put his punk-tinged spin on the traditional blues format. Even when he was playing harmonica on a song or adopting any other instrument under the sun, Jones was determined to leave his mark on every track despite having not written anything.
By the time Jones found himself out of step with the rest of the group, Taylor gave them a shot in the arm the minute that he began working on their 1970s classics. Although Beggars Banquet could be considered one of the few Stones albums without a proper lead guitar player, the difference between Jones and Taylor on albums like Let It Bleed is like night and day.
Since they had more room to spread out, the songs also became much longer. They were never trying to stretch songs out by putting prog-metal sections into it or anything. This was the result of capturing jams live in the studio, and Taylor’s way of weaving his guitar parts around Richards resulted in some of the most erratic moments of their career on songs like ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’.
Although Taylor would check out of The Stones once the 1980s rolled around, Richards still thought that the band’s greatest moments came from when he was in the band, telling Rolling Stone, “The most fun is Ronnie. He’s also the most open. However, I think some of our best work was probably with Mick Taylor.”
Going through every era of The Stones, the guitar players that they have worked with have helped tell the story of the band. Jones represented the naive era where they were still growing as players, Taylor marked the moment when they became the modern bluesmen of their generation, and Ronnie Wood is when they realised that they didn’t need to stick to any one genre to make magic happen.
Though it’s hard to rate any of the guitarists above another, Taylor is certainly one of the most accomplished guitarists that the band ever worked with. He may have avoided the spotlight compared to the other band members, but he was always the classic example of the guitar player who ties everything together so well that it’s almost easy to miss him.
