Monday, August 30, 2004

100 Best Nonfiction Books -- Three Lists

Prof. Graves’s Idiosyncratic List of Literary Nonfiction

(now with colored comments)


Hunter S. Thompson
-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
-Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
-The Great Shark Hunt
-Hell’s Angels
**took reportage to places it had never been

Tom Wolfe
-Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamlined Baby
-The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
-Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers
-The Right Stuff
**the guy who both coined and embodied The New Journalism

Al Stump
-profile of Ty Cobb
**many people consider this the greatest sports profile ever written. It is.

Mikal Gilmore
-Shot in the Heart

Harry Crews
-Blood and Grits
-A Childhood
**I actually think Crews nonfiction is his best stuff. A Childhood may be the best autobiography I have ever read.

Charles Willeford
-A Guide for the Undehemorrhoided
-Something About A Soldier
**Willeford was a terrific writer of pulp crime thrillers, but these two books show a master craftsman at work.

Susan Orlean
-The Orchid Thief

Gay Talese
-Fame & Obscurity
-Honor Thy Father
-more
**Talese more or less made an ass of himself with his highly publicized book on sex. His early stuff, however, still sings.

Tom Piazza
-True Adventures with the King of Bluegrass
**I think the piece I wrote on the first Elvis impersonator, Bill Haney, may be my finest piece of nonfiction. It appeared in the same issue as this article in The Oxford American. But it wasn't my piece people talked about. It was Piazza's piece on Jimmy Martin, bluegrass pioneer and madman.

Kenneth Tynan
-Show People
**His piece on Louise Brooks has intimidated me from ever pushing forward with my own piece on her. His is a classic.

Truman Capote
-In Cold Blood
-Music for Chameleons
-various other
**work of genius.

Norman Mailer
-Armies of the Night
-The Executioner’s Song

Robert Mason
-Chickenhawk
**The best book I have read on the Vietnam experience.

Stanley Booth
-Rythm Oil
-Dance With the Devil
**some of the stories are, shall we say, apocryphal, but that doesn't stop them from being great.

Nick Tosches
-Hellfire
-Dino
-new book on opium trade
**Tosches can be very good, and he can be VERY bad. The bio of Dean Martin absolves him of many sins.

Jim Bouton
-Ball Four
**This book is about so much more than baseball. A touchstone of sorts about the American dream.

Hampton Sides
-Stomping Grounds

Robert Gordon
-It Came from Memphis

Jim Thompson
-Hardcore

Bob Greene
-Be True To Your School
-Billion Dollar Baby

Joe McGuinness
-Going To Extremes
-The Selling of the President

Joe Eszterhas
-Nark
-Charley Simpson’s Apocalypse
-American Rhapsody

A.J. Liebling
-anything

Joseph Mitchell
-The Old Hotel

Terry Southern
-Red Dirt Marijuana

James Conaway
-Memphis Afternoons

George Plimpton
-various

Joan Didion
-Slouching Towards Bethlehem
-The White Album

Michael Herr
-Dispatches

Rex Reed
-Do You Sleep In the Nude?
**Reed has fallen from the firmament and fallen hard. But some of these profiles show that this simpering former talk show mainstay had talent once upon a time.

Robert Sapolsky
-A Primate’s Memoir
**Sapolsky is a neuroscientist who has studied one troop of baboons in Kenya for over 20 years. Boy does he have stories to tell. What a gifted writer! All science writers should aspire to such literary heights.

Lucy Greely
-The Autobiography of a Face
**A haunting book about Lucy's lifetime ordeal with cancer of the jaw. Sad, wistful, and beautiful. She was a teacher of mine at Bennington. A few years ago when she learned her cancer had returned, she killed herself.

Kenneth Anger
-Hollywood Babylon I and II
Took Hollywood scandals to a bitchy, unforgettable, artistic high.

Criticism
-Reverse Angle by John Simon
-1001 Nights at the Movies by Pauline Kael
-The Castle of Indolence by Thomas M. Disch
-various by music critic Dave Marsh

Books on Writing
-The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
-The Writer's Art by James J. Kilpatrick
-Paradigms Lost by John Simon

**Rolling Stone magazine probably published more creative journalism in its early heyday than any other publication. Worth getting, but hard to find, are various anthologies the magazine put together over the years. Especially worth seeking out are the Rolling Stone articles on Bobby Fischer and Mark Spitz.


100 Best Nonfiction Books
As Chosen by The Modern Library


**These are some moldy oldies. I suppose it is good that someone has created a pantheon of great nonfiction writing, but these lean far more towards historical than literary importance, in my judgment.



1. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS by Henry Adams*

2. THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE by William James*

3. UP FROM SLAVERY by Booker T. Washington*

4. A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN by Virginia Woolf

5. SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carson

6. SELECTED ESSAYS, 1917-1932 by T. S. Eliot

7. THE DOUBLE HELIX by James D. Watson

8. SPEAK, MEMORY by Vladimir Nabokov

9. THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE by H. L. Mencken

10. THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY by John Maynard Keynes

11. THE LIVES OF A CELL by Lewis Thomas

12. THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY by Frederick Jackson Turner

13. BLACK BOY by Richard Wright
**I agree with this one.

14. ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL by E. M. Forster

15. THE CIVIL WAR by Shelby Foote*
**Local boy makes good. It doesn't hurt that he also happens to be on the Modern Library selection committee.

16. THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman

17. THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND by Isaiah Berlin

18. THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN by Reinhold Niebuhr

19. NOTES OF A NATIVE SON by James Baldwin
**Baldwin was a terrific essayist. He deserves deeper reading than the obligatory gestures in college lit. classes.

20. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS by Gertrude Stein*
**Brownies anyone?

21. THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by William Strunk and E. B. White

22. AN AMERICAN DILEMMA by Gunnar Myrdal

23. PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell

24. THE MISMEASURE OF MAN by Stephen Jay Gould

25. THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP by Meyer Howard Abrams

26. THE ART OF THE SOLUBLE by Peter B. Medawar

27. THE ANTS by Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson

28. A THEORY OF JUSTICE by John Rawls

29. ART AND ILLUSION by Ernest H. Gombrich

30. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS by E. P. Thompson

31. THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK by W.E.B. Du Bois*

32. PRINCIPIA ETHICA by G. E. Moore

33. PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION by John Dewey

34. ON GROWTH AND FORM by D'Arcy Thompson*

35. IDEAS AND OPINIONS by Albert Einstein*

36. THE AGE OF JACKSON, Arthur Schlesinger by Jr.

37. THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB by Richard Rhodes

38. BLACK LAMB and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West

39. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES by W. B. Yeats

40. SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION IN CHINA by Joseph Needham

41. GOODBYE TO ALL THAT by Robert Graves

42. HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by George Orwell

43. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN by Mark Twain
**Seems to me there ought to be more Twain here.

44. CHILDREN OF CRISIS by Robert Coles

45. A STUDY OF HISTORY by Arnold J. Toynbee

46. THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY by John Kenneth Galbraith

47. PRESENT AT THE CREATION by Dean Acheson

48. THE GREAT BRIDGE by David McCullough

49. PATRIOTIC GORE by Edmund Wilson

50. SAMUEL JOHNSON by Walter Jackson Bate

51. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
**A great, important book, but highly credible biographers dispute much of the mythmaking here.

52. THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolfe

53. EMINENT VICTORIANS by Lytton Strachey*

54. WORKING by Studs Terkel

55. DARKNESS VISIBLE by William Styron

56. THE LIBERAL IMAGINATION by Lionel Trilling

57. THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Winston Churchill

58. OUT OF AFRICA by Isak Dinesen*

59. JEFFERSON AND HIS TIME by Dumas Malone

60. IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN by William Carlos Williams

61. CADILLAC DESERT by Marc Reisner

62. THE HOUSE OF MORGAN by Ron Chernow

63. THE SWEET SCIENCE by A. J. Liebling
**The classic on boxing.

64. THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES by Karl Popper

65. THE ART OF MEMORY by Frances A. Yates

66. RELIGION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM by R. H. Tawney

67. A PREFACE TO MORALS by Walter Lippmann

68. THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE by Jonathan D. Spence

69. THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS by Thomas S. Kuhn

70. THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW by C. Vann Woodward

71. THE RISE OF THE WEST by William H. McNeill

72. THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS by Elaine Pagels

73. JAMES JOYCE by Richard Ellmann

74. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE by Cecil Woodham-Smith

75. THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY by Paul Fussell

76. THE CITY IN HISTORY by Lewis Mumford

77. BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM by James M. McPherson

78. WHY WE CAN'T WAIT by Martin Luther King by Jr.

79. THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT by Edmund Morris

80. STUDIES IN ICONOLOGY by Erwin Panofsky

81. THE FACE OF BATTLE by John Keegan

82. THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND by George Dangerfield

83. VERMEER by Lawrence Gowing

84. A BRIGHT SHINING LIE by Neil Sheehan

85. WEST WITH THE NIGHT by Beryl Markham

86. THIS BOY'S LIFE by Tobias Wolff
**This book, like The Duke of Deception by his brother Geoffrey Wolff, is wildly overrated. A good, proficient journeyman book, but not one of the top 100 nonfiction books of the English language.

87. A MATHEMATICIAN'S APOLOGY by G. H. Hardy

88. SIX EASY PIECES by Richard P. Feynman

89. PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by Annie Dillard

90. THE GOLDEN BOUGH by James George Frazer

91. SHADOW AND ACT by Ralph Ellison

92. THE POWER BROKER by Robert A. Caro

93. THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION by Richard Hofstadter

94. THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY by William Appleman Williams

95. THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE by Herbert Croly

96. IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote*

97. THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER by Janet Malcolm

98. THE TAMING OF CHANCE by Ian Hacking

99. OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS by Anne Lamott

100. MELBOURNE by Lord David Cecil


100 Best Nonfiction Books
As Chosen by The Modern Library's Reader Poll

1. THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS by AYN RAND
**Ballot stuffing, pure and simple.

2. DIANETICS:THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH by L. RON HUBBARD
**How much money did it cost the Scientologists for this?

3. OBJECTIVISM: THE PHILOSOPHY OF AYN RAND by LEONARD PEIKOFF

4. 101 THINGS TO DO TIL THE REVOLUTION by CLAIRE WOLFE

5. THE GOD OF THE MACHINE by ISABEL PATERSON

6. AYN RAND: A SENSE OF LIFE by MICHAEL PAXTON

7. THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE by JULIAN SIMON

8. ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON by HENRY HAZLITT

9. SEND IN THE WACO KILLERS by VIN SUPRYNOWICZ

10. MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME by JOHN R. LOTT

11. PSYCHIATRY: THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL by BRUCE WISEMAN

12. FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS by G. HANCOCK

13. CLASSICAL INDIVIDUALISM: THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF EACH HUMAN BEING by TIBOR MACHAN

14. FREE TO CHOOSE by MILTON AND ROSE FRIEDMAN

15. AIN'T NOBODY'S BUSINESS IF YOU DO by PETER MCWILLIAMS

16. THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by F. A. HAYEK

17. FREEDOM IN CHAINS by JAMES BOVARD

18. AMERICA'S GREAT DEPRESSION by MURRAY N. ROTHBARD

19. THE ROOSEVELT MYTH by JOHN T. FLYNN

20. THE TRUE BELIEVER by ERIC HOFFER

21. VINDICATING THE FOUNDERS by THOMAS WEST

22. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE by CARL L. BECKER

23. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND THE EMOTIONAL DISORDERS by AARON T. BECK

24. DEATH BY GOVERNMENT by R. J. RUMMEL

25. A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN by VIRGINIA WOOLF

26. LONGITUDE by DAVA SOBEL

27. ORDINARILY SACRED by LYNDA SEXSON

28. SPEAK, MEMORY by VLADIMIR NABOKOV

29. THE ART OF MEMORY by FRANCES YATES

30. DUMBING US DOWN by JOHN TAYLOR GATTO

31. THE GOLDEN BOUGH by JAMES FRAZER

32. UNDAUNTED COURAGE: MERIWETHER LEWIS, THOMAS JEFFERSON, AND THE OPENING OF THE AMERICAN WEST by STEPHEN E. AMBROSE

33. A MODERN PROPHET by HAROLD KLEMP

34. THE FLUTE OF GOD by PAUL TWITCHELL

35. REAL PRESENCES by GEORGE STEINER

36. OUT OF AFRICA by ISAK DINESEN

37. WAYS OF SEEING by JOHN BERGER

38. THE SHADOW UNIVERSITY: THE BETRAYAL OF LIBERTY ON AMERICA'S CAMPUSES by ALAN CHARLES KORS

39. PROPERTY MATTERS: HOW PROPERTY RIGHTS ARE UNDER ASSAULT AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE by JAMES V. DE LONG

40. STORMING HEAVEN by JAY STEVENS

41. THE TEXAN by C. S. BARRIOS

42. HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by GEORGE ORWELL

43. THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM JAMES

44. HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS by DARRELL HUFF

45. BUT IS IT TRUE? by AARON WILDAVSKY

46. A MATHEMATICIAN READS THE NEWSPAPER by JOHN ALLEN PAULOS

47. ANATOMY OF CRITICISM by NORTHROP FRYE

48. THE MAINSPRING OF HUMAN PROGRESS by HENRY GRADY WEAVER

49. MODERN TIMES by PAUL JOHNSON

50. MEN TO MATCH MY MOUNTAINS by IRVING STONE

51. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS by HENRY ADAMS

52. THE GREAT BRIDGE by DAVID MCCULLOUGH

53. AMERICAN GAY by STEPHEN O. MURRAY

54. THE DOUBLE HELIX by JAMES D. WATSON

55. THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by FRANK KERMODE

56. THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS by ELAINE PAGELS

57. EROS THE BITTERSWEET by ANNE CARSON

58. THE WESTERN CANON by HAROLD BLOOM

59. THE WHITE GODDESS by ROBERT GRAVES

60. HEALING OUR WORLD by MARY RUWART

61. SILENT SPRING by RACHEL CARSON

62. PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by ANNIE DILLARD

63. SEXUAL PERSONAE by CAMILLE PAGLIA
**I enjoy tinkering around with her ideas, but as a writer Paglia frequently simply bores.

64. THINK AND GROW RICH by NAPOLEON HILL

65. A LIFE OF ONE'S OWN by DAVID KELLEY

66. DOORS OF PERCEPTION by ALDOUS HUXLEY

67. THE DISCOVERY OF FREEDOM by ROSE WILDER LANE

68. MORE LIBERTY MEANS LESS GOVERNMENT by WALTER WILLIAMS

69. LIBERTARIANISM: A PRIMER by DAVID BOAZ

70. BEYOND LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE by WILLIAM MADDOX AND STUART LILIE

71. A CONFLICT OF VISIONS: IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF POLITICAL STRUGGLES by THOMAS SOWELL

72. PARLIAMENT OF WHORES by P. J. O'ROURKE

73. SEPARATING SCHOOL AND STATE: HOW TO LIBERATE AMERICA'S FAMILIES by SHELDON RICHMAN

74. THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES by VIRGINIA POSTREL

75. THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by WILLIAM STRUNK AND E. B. WHITE

76. ORIENTALISM by EDWARD SAID

77. ECOTERROR by RON ARNOLD

78. WHY GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WORK by HARRY BROWNE

79. OUT OF THE CRISIS by W. EDWARDS DEMING

80. NOT OUT OF AFRICA by MARY LEFKOWITZ

81. THE END OF RACISM by DINESH D'SOUZA

82. BEHIND THE MASK by IAN BURUMA

83. IN A DARK WOOD by ALSTON CHASE

84. PRIVATE PARTS by HOWARD STERN
**I confess, I read this. And it's not bad. The movie, however, is downright good.

85. THE TELEPHONE BOOK by AVITAL RONELL

86. THE MINUTEMAN: RESTORING AN ARMY OF THE PEOPLE by GARY HART

87. WAKING AND DREAMING by JOSEPH HART

88. THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD by LANA CANTRELL

89. RADICAL SON by DAVID HOROWITZ
**This goofball!!!!??????

90. UNDER THE SIGN OF SATURN by SUSAN SONTAG
**Sominex between two covers.

91. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by ALEX HALEY AND MALCOLM X

92. A FEELING FOR BOOKS by JANICE RADWAY

93. THE HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES by JOSEPH CAMPBELL

94. THE JOB by WILLIAM BURROUGHS
**I am shocked this made it. I have the book, like it, but Burroughs is such an outrageously out there thinker, that this will only appeal to lunatics like me.

95. SILENT INTERVIEWS by SAMUEL R. DELANY

96. SLATS GROBNIK AND SOME OTHER FRIENDS by MIKE ROYKO
**Read this and understand why he had such a devoted following.

97. RISE OF THE UNMELTABLE ETHNICS by MICHAEL NOVACK

98. REVERSE ANGLE by JOHN SIMON
**How did this make it? I thought I was the only person who admitted liking John Simon.

99. PLACING MOVIES by JONATHON ROSENBAUM

100. RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING by PATRICK J BUCHANAN
**Read it. Liked it. Like him. Disagree violently with much of his social agenda. He hit a new low in trying to discredit the war record of John Kerry. Newsflash for Pat: He served, you didn't. Shut up.

Monday, August 16, 2004

Tom Graves' Reviews from Rock & Roll Disc 06/'91

The La’s
The La’s Go! London 828 202-2

From Rock & Roll Disc magazine June, 1991

Right out of the box The La’s had me hooked like a red snapper. All my complaints of yore about the bored soul at the heart of so much of today’s college/alternative scene evaporated when the disc’s first track “Son of a Gun” came ringing out of my speakers like it had every right to be there. Imagine, if you will, the pop songcraft and catchiness of an early Bang period Neil Diamond grafted onto the swagger and spit of the Clash’s Combat Rock – that’s The La’s in a nutshell. Track after track, cut after cut, I sat in mute disbelief at the polish, talent, and songwriting smarts I was hearing from this heretofore unknown Liverpool group.

But is there real musical substance beneath the gloss, the jangles, the hooks, and Steve Lillywhite’s surehanded production? Let me put it this way: “Way Out” matches nearly any Who acoustic number bar for bar, “Freedom Song” is as good as any Muswell Hillbillies-era Kinks song, and the lyrics sink a pipeline of mental images into your head. Now you tell me, does that sound like a band worth hearing?

The La’s isn’t perfect – what album really is? “There She Goes,” the college chart hit pulled for the video now on rotation on MTV, while a choice song, isn’t the best track here. And the 7:52 “Looking Glass” meanders. But when every other song is short, in sharp focus, and tempered as true as tungsten steel, how can I fault them?

It’s impossible to predict success (for all I know The La’s may suck live), but if this were the Kentucky Derby, I know where I’d place my bet. In short, The La’s is the best album R.E.M. will never make.

--Tom Graves



Wishbone Ash
Argus

From Rock & Roll Disc magazine June, 1991

Ever wonder who the real model was for Spinal Tap? Wonder no more.

--Tom Graves


The Five Americans
Western Union

Sundazed SC 11004

From Rock & Roll Disc magazine June, 1991

The band that did “Western Union, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah,” is actually pretty good-ga-good-ga-good.

--Tom Graves

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Tom' Reviews from November 1989 Rock & Roll Disc

The Sugarcubes
Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!

from Rock & Roll Disc magazine November, 1989

Elektra 960 860-2
Producers: The Sugarcubes and
Derek Birkett
Engineers: Various
Total disc time: 51:46
(no SPARS code listed)

Merit: *1/2
Sound: ***

It is the job of the P.R. people at record companies to shove this week's newest big thing down the throats of a hungry music-buying public. Like seasoned carnival barkers, the pros are expert at tapping into youthful fads and exploiting them to the last dime. The British and European rock press is never sated with these Johnny-come-latelys; they grind out rock idols like smokers grind out cigarettes.

As a critic I've become nearly immune to the wheedling and siren calls visited upon me by the mountains of promotional material I receive each week. But as callous as I've become, I still keep my ear to the ground for something truly new and original. I heard about the Sugarcubes long before their domestic debut on Elektra, when their singles were available only on import. The grapevine was overflowing with praise for this innovative collective from, of all places, Iceland.

Life's Too Good, their first disc, very nearly lived up to its reputation with the most stunningly feral and imaginative singing in recent rock history from lead singer Bjork. The first song on the disc, "Traitor," opens with an avalanche of chords and drums over Bjork's eerie, ethereal chanting. The very next track, "Motorcrash," boasts the most impassioned, foreboding vocals I have heard in ages, and Bjork's emotional range throughout the disc is not to be believed.

But even on this most auspicious of debuts, there were signs of trouble. Einar Orn, billed as the other lead singer, is really more a provocateur and thorn in the band's side than a contributor; truth is he couldn't carry a tune in a U-Haul and his aggressive and senseless interruptions on-stage turned off so many concert-goers in New York last year that the art crowd that was so eager to embrace the Sugarcubes dropped them like a hot spud. Now the Sugarcubes couldn't get arrested if they went "wilding" in Saks Fifth Avenue.

With Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! one finds only the faintest traces of their early promise. There is not one distinguishable melody on the disc and Bjork's seductive and enthralling singing has now become excessively melismatic and overbearing. She swoops down on every syllable as if it were her last utterance, and puts lyrics through a bootcamp's worth of vocal calisthenics. Einar Orn's indefensible rantings simply have got to go. Mark my words; if he stays this band will perish. Even the most ardent Europhile can only take so much of a steady irritant, and the Sugarcubes have fallen prey to their own art-rock conceits (they performed at several concerts in the U.S. using only their native tongue, even when they all speak and sing in fluent English!). Like so many others before them, they need to learn you have to make good music before aspiring to make great art.

Can the Sugarcubes survive this anchorless dreck? I doubt it. We may see a few more albums, but since inertia is an irresistible force of nature, I wouldn't be surprised if Bjork (who remains one of the most sexually alluring creatures in the universe despite her altogether ordinary looks) eventually goes it alone. Out of the frozen desolation of her homeland, she is that rarest of orchids, flowering against a backdrop of icy nothingness. She, like a bloom in the tundra, is too precious a thing not to cherish.

--Tom Graves



The Essentials
The Essentials

from Rock & Roll Disc magazine November, 1989

Refrigerator TE2300
Total disc time: 44:34 (no SPARS code listed)

Merit: *
Sound: **

Non-essential.

-Tom Graves









Chet Baker
Sings and Plays From the Film
"Let's Get Lost"

From Rock & Roll Disc magazine November, 1989

Novus 3054-2-N
Total disc time: 63:14
(no SPARS code listed)
Merit: ****
Sound: ****

I am no jazz critic, and there are several Rock & Roll Disc writers far more qualified to write about Chet Baker than I. But after reading the accompanying press kit, I could not resist exploring this disc. Baker, one of the most atmospheric and haunting of jazz trumpet players, lived life in the fastest jet-set lane during his heyday in the 50's. He was handsome and roguish, and bore more than a little resemblance to James Dean. He died only a few years ago from drug-related causes -- he had been a heroin addict for nearly three decades and it had left him dissipated and old beyond his years. This disc is from Bruce Weber's documentary film on Baker's final days, when he was still active on the jazz scene. Baker's sorrowful, disquieting vocals are the real substance of the disc, and more melancholy music I have never heard.

This is a disc I will save for private moments of introspection and despair. Because after hearing this, nothing else could ever quite fit those moods.

--Tom Graves



Various Artists
Toga Rock II
from Rock & Roll Disc magazine November, 1989


DCC Compact Classics DZS-043
Total disc time: 38:20 (no SPARS code listed)

Merit: ***
Sound: ***

If you have read this magazine[Rock & Roll Disc] for any length of time, you should know the work of Steve Hoffman, the remastering wunderkind who now works for DCC Compact Classics. His remastering expertise is unimpeachable, and the first installment of Toga Rock (DCC DZS029) was one of the few compilation CDs that made it to our 100 Best Of issue. But with Toga Rock II I can only surmise that Hoffman was in the mood to experiment. His versions of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers and "Gloria" by Them have a grating high end that had me checking my stereo for a problem. I compared these versions to the Isley's Bear Family release (which was warmer and truer to the original) and Them's Polygram release (which was far truer to the original single) and was left wondering what got into Hoffman. He has never mixed drums this hot before or tried to "update" his sound to be more contemporary (a charge that has recently been leveled at Rhino's Bill Inglot). His uncompromising standards are what have made him a household name among CD addicts.

Stranger still is a version of the Strangeloves' "I Want Candy" that was taken off a record (the liner notes tell us the master tapes no longer exist) that sounds like it was rubbed on a sidewalk. I mean, like, why? Rare Earth's"'Get Ready" was remixed without the silly audience noises, but without them the song drags without relief.

Even with these complaints, which are a rarity with Hoffman, there are still rubies and emeralds scattered throughout. Sly Stone's "Dance To the Music" is simply stunning, with a huge stereo separation and pinpoint imaging. The Rivingtons' "Papa-Omm-Mow-Mow" likewise makes you want to salute. A high point for me is the obscure Gary Glitter song, "Rock & Roll," which I have been trying to find for nearly two decades. A sinister heavy metal riff reverberates over tribal drumming as big as all outdoors. It's one of those songs you can't shake once you've heard it.

Although I'm still puzzled by the erratic nature of this disc it remains a must for those into collecting the choicest remasterings.
--Tom Graves

Aerosmith
Pump
Geffen 9 24254-2
from Rock & Roll Disc magazine November 1989


If any critic ever cut Aerosmith slack during their halcyon days in the 70's, I never saw evidence of it. Steven Tyler seemed no more than an artificially induced Mick Jagger, a distorted mirror's image with poutier, gravity-deflected lips and an even more cartoonish stage appearance. The whole group was deemed low-brow and sleazy and they went unnoticed and unloved by all except the millions of fans who knew a good riff when they heard one.

I met up with Robert Palmer, the esteemed New York Times music critic, recently and one of the many things we talked about was Aerosmith. "I thought their stuff was absolute junk at the time," he admitted, "but they were a major influence on practically everything decent that's coming out today." We agreed that Aerosmith was a band in clear need of re-evaluation, especially after their benchmark collaboration with Run-D.M.C. on "Walk This Way," which was not only the most successful melding of disparate idioms we have seen in recent times, it was one of the best (maybe even the best) rock videos ever made.

Aerosmith has had some severe ups and downs over the two decades it has been in business, but Pump, their newest disc, sounds like a band fresh out of the starting gate. Pump rolls in like a thunderhead with a viciousness that hasn't been matched by other veteran rockers as far back as I care to remember. Every song on the disc is cut from the same hard rock cloth; don't expect slow-building ballads like "Dream On" here. "F.I.N.E.," "Love In An Elevator," and "Janie's Got A Gun," (the lyrics of which I could not penetrate even if I had a decoder ring) are played for maximum body contact; to hear them is to feel them. Listening to Joe Perry's hypersonic finger slashings on "Janie's Got A Gun" I got that rarest of rock critic afflictions -- the itch to strap on that Les Paul Air Model Deluxe and take the motherfucker over.

I'm too old to have grown up drooling over Aerosmith -- but hell, I can always learn.

--Tom Graves


The J. Geils Band
The J. Geils Band

From Rock & Roll Disc magazine November, 1989

Edsel EDCD 300 (British import)

While I don't think there is a single instance of great, enduring songwriting on this disc -- don't look for any Hall of Fame nominations here -- The J. Geils Band is still a fine example of aggregate groovemaking.

Put in the context of 1971, when the album debuted, it's easy to understand how it was overlooked. The early 70's was the tail end of the great blues revival that had begun in the mid-60's with such groundbreaking bands as the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Rolling Stones, and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (not to mention the revived careers of blues stalwarts such as B.B. King, Albert King, and John Lee Hooker) and ended with the lasting contributions of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the early Z.Z. Top. Blues, great blues was everywhere, and if it didn't knock your feet out from under you, then it seldom got noticed.

The J. Geils Band, with its understated guitar work and frequently slow, percolating rhythms was a far cry from the fried and frenzied wallop of AC/DC's early boogie outings. But this disc has a way of throwing a little dancing fever on you with fetching covers such as Albert Collins' "Sno-Cone"
and the smoldering "Serves You Right To Suffer."

The soul music side of the band shines here as well with fine soul-strutting by Peter Wolf on "First I Look At the Purse" and "On Borrowed Time."

Harp player Magic Dick was a rare commodity for a white blues band, and Muddy Waters himself paid the youngster the highest tribute by saying if he could perform oral sex like he played harp, well, he would be one son of a gun (I'm paraphrasing).

The songwriting talent soon enough emerged and blossomed in the J. Geils Band and they later directed their energies to more pop-flavored material. While someone looking for the pyrotechnics of Cream or Ten Years After will surely be disappointed by the more modest approach taken here, those who can appreciate hard-hitting straight doses of blues without frills and some excellent ensemble playing to boot will undoubtedly be pleased by this early effort.

It's too bad that potentially great blues artists such as Albert Collins and the Kinsey Report can't put aside their string squeezing long enough to take a cue from the J. Geils Band: the groove is the most important thing. Too much flash can become a flash in the pan.

--Tom Graves



Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Full Interview -- Rolling Stone Mick Taylor

Stone Alone

A Rare Interview with Mick Taylor by Tom Graves

originally published in Rock & Roll Disc magazine July, 1989

Mick Taylor initially came into the public spotlight as the very young (17 years old) replacement for the renowned Peter Green in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Although his early work reflected a preoccupation with the blues guitar style set forth by Eric Clapton during his legendary tenure with the Bluesbreakers, Taylor quickly matured into one of the most melodic, articulate, and technically accurate of players. He rapidly gained recognition for his fluid soloing, but became equally celebrated for his brilliant slide guitar style. Taylor did not become known to the mass rock audience, however, until 1969 when the Rolling Stones sent shock waves through their corps of fans by announcing Brian Jones' departure and replacement by the relatively unknown Mick Taylor. Only weeks later Brian Jones drowned in his swimming pool and the Stones began a tour of America that ended in the murder and chaos of Altamont. In addition to Let It Bleed and Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, Taylor was a crucial musical cog in the Stones' most influential middle-period albums, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street. He recorded two other albums with the Stones and unexpectedly called it quits, seemingly going into hiding. In 1979 he resurfaced with a self-titled solo album which sold poorly but was well-received by fans and critics. Reportedly sidelined by debilitating drug habits, he nevertheless toured and recorded with Bob Dylan, among others.

Mick Taylor is currently working with a new band that includes Jeff Beck alumnus Max Middleton, and a record deal with a major label is said to be forthcoming. According to several sources, including Taylor himself, he has kicked his drug habits and is playing better than ever.
Taylor has rarely granted interviews since leaving the Stones, certainly none that were in-depth. A naturally quiet and reflective man, Taylor was not the ideal interview since he rarely opened up at length. If one reads his carefully weighed answers closely, however, they frequently speak volumes.

R&RD: Did you have a musical upbringing? Were either of your parents gifted with an instrument?

Taylor: My mother had a younger brother who used to play guitar. That was kind of my inspiration and my starting point on the guitar, but my whole family liked music. I won't say they were overtly musical -- they didn't play instruments or anything other than my mother who played a bit of piano -- but I grew up in a house listening to music all the time.

R&RD: Were you too young to have been a part of the first wave of rock and roll in England, when Elvis, Bill Haley, and Buddy Holly had all become tremendously popular and influential?

Taylor: Well I suppose I would have been too young if my parents had not bought those records. They even took me to my first rock and roll concert when I was nine years old. They took me to see Bill Haley and the Comets in 1958, I think it was.

R&RD: When do you recall becoming seriously interested in music yourself?

Taylor: Well, when I started making a bit of progress on the guitar. I got together with some school friends and formed a band, which was when I was 13 or 14 years old.

R&RD: Would this have been during the time of the British Invasion?

Taylor: Yes, the Beatles were then becoming famous in England and all over the world.

R&RD: At this early age were you yet aware of the Rolling Stones?

Taylor: Oh yeah, of course. They were certainly an influence on me in the sense they were playing rhythm and blues as was John Mayall's Bluesbreakers who I listened to a little later on. I kind of got to discover American rhythm and blues -- black music -- and started listening to that when I was a teenager. That's when I started taking the guitar more seriously.

R&RD: What was your first guitar?

Taylor: It was called a Hofner President. It was like a semi-acoustic single cutaway with two pickups. I can't remember what kind of amp I started on.

R&RD: When you began to play the guitar was it rock and roll or rhythm and blues that first interested you?

Taylor: I was aware of and roll before I was aware of blues, but by the time I became aware of blues I was playing guitar so I became more interested in rhythm and blues.

R&RD: In reading about you I'm always struck by your youth when you got involved with John Mayall or for that matter the Rolling Stones. You were playing blues in your very early teens and that surprises me, because it was my impression that blues appealed to the older more collegiate musical sophisticate.

Taylor: No it wasn’t like that at all. I suppose it would seem that way, but it was people who were 15 and 16 years old. Certainly there were people older than myself, but I'm not the only one of that era who was aware of rhythm and blues music.

R&RD: Were you more influenced by the original American rhythm and blues or by the blues scene that was beginning to happen in England?

Taylor: I became aware of it all at the same time really. It was impossible to listen to the Rolling Stones playing Chuck Berry and not realize they were playing American rhythm and blues music, so one naturally wanted to hear the original, the real thing.

R&RD: Who were the blues players who most interested you?

Taylor: I used to listen to a lot of the Chicago blues artists such as Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and Muddy Waters, a guy called Jimmie Rogers. One of the first blues albums I remember buying was a record called Live At the Regal by B.B. King. That had a big influence on me.

R&KD: What knocked you out the most about him, his singing or guitar playing?

Taylor: Both, but especially his guitar playing at that time.

R&RD: Did you listen to Albert King or Freddie King much at this time?

Taylor: Yes I was aware of both of those guys, or at least I was by the time I joined John Mayall because we used to play a lot of their songs in our show – we used to play "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "Crosscut Saw" and we did some Freddie King instrumentals. Those records were difficult to find in London, though. There were only a couple of places where you could buy rhythm and blues imports, so I found out where the shops were in London and I used to go there and buy them. They weren't widely available. You had to be quite dedicated and quite keen on that music to seek out those record shops where they stocked American imports.

R&RD: Did you order many direct from Chess records in the States like Mick Jagger did?

Taylor: No I just used to buy them at those specialty shops.

R&RD: When the music scene began to happen in earnest in England who did you first hear that made you decide then and there to get in a band? Taylor: I suppose something that was really interesting – apart from the Beatles, who I always liked and loved their music – would be Eric Clapton, who was the best blues guitar player around at the time that I had ever seen.

R&RD: Your first record was Blues Crusade with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers...

Taylor: Yes it was.

R&RD: Many critics believe that your playing at this time was very heavily influenced by Eric Clapton, that your guitar sound was patterned almost identically after his, and in a sense was derivative...

Taylor: But it was derivative. I had just turned 17 years old and hadn't been playing that long, so my blues playing at that time was very derivative. I was still very much a beginner. I wouldn't say I was more influenced by Eric Clapton than anybody else though, than any of the other blues guitarists that I had listened to, but it certainly was derivative. It took me four years of being on the road with John Mayall to really develop my own style.

R&RD: Of course you are celebrated now as much for your slide guitar as your lead guitar playing. Wasn’t this something of an extreme rarity in England in the early 60's?

Taylor: There weren't too many people who played slide guitar, no.

R&RD: How did you learn slide guitar? Was it from listening to Brian Jones in the Stones?

Taylor: No, he wasn’t really an influence though he played a bit of slide as did Keith Richards. I suppose the first slide guitar playing I heard was Muddy Waters.

R&RD: But slide guitar is considered to be such a difficult style, and it wasn't until you and Duane Allman popularized it that you saw that many people play it. Wasn't it difficult to pick up all the slide techniques on your own?

Taylor: Not necessarily. Not if you were brought up in a musical environment and you liked rhythm and blues and you knew lots of other musicians, then it doesnt seem so strange. But I know what you mean, because like I said before, that music wasn't widely accessible in England. So you had to really know a bit about it and know where to find the records...

R&RD: Who were some of these other musicians?

Taylor: Well there was Eric Clapton, there was Jeff Beck, there was myself, there were lots of other people really who played blues.

R&RD: But they weren't really known for slide playing then were they?

Taylor: Not then they weren't, no. Eric Clapton does now.

R&RD: You didn't play slide guitar on Blues Crusade at all. Was this because Mayall, who hyped his own slide playing, was considered the slide player of the group?

Taylor: No I dont think so. I think it was just the choice of material.

R&RD: Have you ever stopped to think that of all the guitar players around only you and Duane Allman and perhaps Johnny Winter are considered to have been equally articulate as slide players and as lead players?

Taylor: What about Ry Cooder?

R&RD: Yes, but his favor among critics and guitarists is weighted more towards him as a slide guitarist than a lead guitarist.

Taylor: Yeah, that's true. You're right. But no I really haven't thought much about that. I know I don't consider myself a sort of specialist slide player or anything. I have done a few sessions lately where I've played slide guitar, but I've played lead as well.

R&RD: When Eric Clapton was in the Bluesbreakers, he seems to have been celebrated throughout England. There was the "Clapton Is God" graffito and so on. Was he that highly regarded?

Taylor: Amongst musicians, yes he was. He was the best blues gultarist around.

R&RD: When did it dawn on you that you had those same kinds of virtuoso abilities?

Taylor: I suppose when I joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, or maybe even before that.

R&RD: Your schoolmates in your first band must have held you in awe.

Taylor: Wen no, all of them went on to become professional musicians themselves. There was a bass player who used to play with Jethro Tull named John Glascock, who died a few years ago, and his brother, the drummer, and he now lives and plays in Los Angeles. I think the other guitar player in this group went on into the music business for awhile too.

R&RD: How did you become a member of Mayall's Bluesbreakers?

Taylor: I was chosen as the result of a phone call. He called me up and said he needed a guitar player and that was because, a couple of years before that, I had been to see a show he was doing in a community center in a college type place in Wentgarden City which is near Hatfield. Eric Clapton didn't show up for the gig and I went backstage during the interval and asked if I could sit in with them and he said yes. He must have been quite impressed because he took my number and got in touch with me a couple of years later when Peter Green left.

R&RD: What was it like standing in for Clapton that first time?

Taylor: It was great! I knew most of the songs by heart...

R&RD: John Mayall was obviously the coach for three of the most important blues players to come out of England. You replaced Peter Green, who had become something of a legend in his own right, and he had a very different blues approach from you and Clapton. How would you characterize the differences in the styles of you, Clapton, and Green?

Taylor: I don’t think they are that different actually. I think there are more similarities than differences.

R&RD: Was Peter Green as big an influence on you as Clapton?

Taylor: I never knew Peter Green at all. He was very highly regarded of course, but he wasn’t really an influence on me, because as I said before we all listened to the same music. We all were influenced together at around the same time by the source of that music rather than each other. The only new guitar player who came along that really influenced everybody and influenced me too was Jimi Hendrix.

R&RD: What about Jeff Beck? He was doing many of the innovations most people credit to Hendrix before anyone.

Taylor: Yes that’s true. He’s always been one of my favorite guitar players.

R&RD: Describe what it was like working on your first album, Blues Crusade? Taylor: It was great and we did it all in seven hours! The whole record. It was like playing on stage – we just set the equipment up in the studio and it was “one-two-three-four here we go.” There were hardly any breaks between the numbers and, like I said, it was all recorded and mixed in seven hours.
R&RD: Why can’t they do it like that any more? Some groups now spend a year in the studio.

Taylor: I know. It would be much more simple wouldn’t it?

R&RD: In spite of the rush the engineering on those Bluesbreakers albums seems to be quite good.

Taylor: It had to be because everything was done so quickly. There wasn’t really any room for any mistakes. You just set up and the engineers got set up and they got good sound and you just did it.

R&RD: When you first went on the road with Mayall you were still at a very tender age. You were thrust into a spotlight few could handle following Clapton and Peter Green. How were you received by your audience at first.

Taylor: Not too big to start with. I was probably considered to be too young and not quite good enough. But that soon changed in a couple of years, especially when we started touring America.

R&RD: What kind of following did Mayall have in America at the time? Taylor: It was pretty much in England to start with, but we started to do some pretty big shows with people like Jimi Hendrix and Albert King, and we played at the Fillmore East and Fillmore West, we played everywhere really. We did very long tours. It was the beginning of John Mayall building up a big following in America too. A lot of people [in America] had heard of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers because I think by the time we toured America Cream was around as well, and people knew about Eric Clapton playing with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

R&RD: Bare Wires, your second album, marked quite a departure for the Bluesbreakers. We find your playing maturing quite a bit, you are playing slide here for the first time, and Mayall has changed the sound by adding a horn section…

Taylor: Yes, there was more of a rhythm and blues jazz influence on that one. He, like the rest of us, listened to jazz too, and he wanted to incorporate some of that into his music as well. R&RD: At this point were you featured playing more slide guitar in your live shows? Taylor: No, at that time it was still something that I played very rarely. It wasn’t until I got with the Rolling Stones that I started to play a lot of slide guitar.

R&RD: You did an instructional video with Arlen Roth a few years ago discussing some of your guitar techniques. I find it interesting that most slide guitarists use “open” bottleneck tunings of E, A, and G, yet you normally use the standard guitar tuning, which most people find far more difficult in playing slide.

Taylor: Well I do use the standard tuning, but I also use the open bottleneck tunings too. I believe Duane Allman used open tunings – most guitar players do. I think it is more interesting to play slide in the standard tuning and try to do what you can and switch from slide to regular lead guitar. You can’t do that in an open tuning. It’s much more versatile, because you’re not restricted to an open blues tuning. An “A” tuning more or less confines you to an Elmore James style and a “G” tuning more like a Delta blues kind of thing. I don’t consciously avoid it, but I do often play slide in a regular tuning unless it’s a sort of Mississippi Delta blues song, which requires an open tuning.

R&RD: What about a song like “Alabama” that was on your solo record?

Taylor: That’s in an open tuning, done in an open “E.”

R&RD: In the mid-60’s nearly every guitar player used a Gibson Les Paul exclusively. You used one, so did Clapton, Peter Green, and Jeff Beck. Now the trend seems to be towards Fenders. Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Vaughan, and Albert Collins all use Fenders.

Taylor: Well they are good guitars. The Fender turnaround comes from the Jimi Hendrix influence I think. I use a Fender Stratocaster nowadays with slightly different pickups and a Les Paul.

R&RD: Blues from a Laurel Canyon is considered by many to be a minor classic blues record. It features all-original writing from Mayall and some of your best and most versatile playing. What are your recollections of this album?

Taylor: It was a very popular album, I know that. It coincided with John Mayall’s move to America and that’s why all the lyrics are about Laurel Canyon and Sunset Boulevard and Los Angeles, California. It was about that period in his life when he decided he wanted to move to America. As far as my work with John Mayall I suppose this is my best work. I have to agree with you there.

R&RD: How do you feel about the two live albums you are on of Mayall’s?

Taylor: I thought they were o.k. The sound quality is not very good because of the method they used to record, which was a simple cassette machine-type thing with a condenser microphone in it on top of John Mayall’s Hammond organ, without even an ambience mike or anything like that. But of course they are an accurate representation of what was happening because they are sort of live historical tapes of what was going on at the time.

R&RD: Do you know if there is much unreleased Bluesbreakers material still lying around in the vaults somewhere?

Taylor: I don’t think there is too much, but there is some rather interesting live stuff that he has – I know that.

R&RD: Why did you leave John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers?

Taylor: Well, I wanted to leave for one thing. But John decided to change his format once again and decided to use just an acoustic guitar player, saxophone player, bass player, and no drummer. This was not what I wanted to do at all and we just sort of went our separate ways at the same time. But I did not know that the Rolling Stones had been looking for a guitar player for two or three months, and I suppose John Mayall must have mentioned to them that I was leaving him and I might be a good person to replace Brian Jones. So that’s kind of what happened.

R&RD: You were more or less asked to audition for the Stones weren’t you? You were invited to record for a few sessions so they could size you up, am I correct?

Taylor: Well, I went down to the studio and they were doing a couple of tracks for Let It Bleed, which I played on, and later on that night they asked me to join the band. It all happened in the same evening. I said, “Well, I’ll think about it for a couple of weeks.” (Laughs) I became a member of the band the next day. (Laughs again)

R&RD: Had you known Brian Jones and were you intimidated at all about having to step into his shoes?

Taylor: I didn’t know him at all, nor did I ever meet him before he died. On a musical level I wasn’t intimidated at all. I felt I was their equal as a musician…in fact I ended up feeling superior, but that’s another story.

As I’ve said before, they were just an R&B band until they began writing hit singles. So we all had the same roots -- I was a bit younger than them. I wouldn't say I was intimidated, but I was nervous for a while when I joined. Not so much because I was stepping into Brian Jones' shoes, but just because the whole experience of playing with a band that big was so different than playing with John Mayall.

But in some ways it might have been easier for me to do that first tour in 1969 than the rest of the band, because they hadn't toured America for several years. At least during that period they were off, I was on the road working the whole time. Once I got on stage with the Rolling Stones I came into my own.

R&RD: What was it like going from a respected ensemble like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers to the most infamous rock and roll band in the world?

Taylor: (In typical British understatement) Well it certainly was different. Like you said it was joining a legendary rock and roll band with a bunch of rock stars instead of a traditional blues band. But it all came down to the same thing. One thing that always impressed me about the Rolling Stones was how much they were into the blues and rhythm and blues. It was and probably still is their inspiration.

R&RD: On just a personal basis, what were those first few months like for you as a Rolling Stone?

Taylor: They were very hectic. We were rehearsing all the time, we did that Hyde Park concert, and then shortly after that we did a tour of America.

R&RD: Given that you were only about 20 years old at the time, weren't you sort of frightened by the Stones' circus-like atmosphere, high-powered accountants, and all that entourage mentality?

Taylor: No, I soon got used to it.

R&RD: Were any of them helping you along during your first year?

Taylor: How do you mean "helping me along"?

R&RD: Well, did they try to shelter you from some of the harsher aspects of being a Stone?

Taylor: (With a touch of bitterness in his voice) No, absolutely not! They didn't shelter me from nothing. They didn't "gimme shelter" at all. (Laughs)

R&RD: Musiclly this must have been a change for you, going from the blues purism of Mayall...

Taylor: It was an exciting change musically actually. I developed a lot as a musician and as a person and as a guitar player when I was with the Rolling Stones. I was with them for six years, during which time we toured the world and made five or six albums, which are now considered to be some of their finest. A lot of things happened. Six years is a long time -- at least it seemed like a long time then.

R&RD: In the Bluesbreakers you were probably the main visual attraction of the group. Mayall has said that kids came from all over and sat on the front rows to watch your fingers as you played. What was it like to go from being this kind of focal point to taking a back seat to Jagger and Keith Richards in concert?

Taylor: I think the thing with kids coming down to watch me play used to go on in the Rolling Stones too. I think I became sort of widely recognized as a good guitar player in my own right. Other people didn't just come for my guitar playing, obviously, but I think it was kind of like a highlight during that period. On-stage anyway.

R&RD: There was a concert movie that came out in the 70's called Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards entirely dominated this film and I bet there weren't 10 shots of you...

Taylor: But they didn't make the movie, it was whoever made the movie, that's the way they saw it. It didn't bother me at all. In fact it would have bothered me a lot more if they had been concentrating on me. Me, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts greatly appreciated the relative amount of privacy we had. We were glad all the attention was on Mick and Keith, and after all it would have been anyway because they were the Rolling Stones. They are the Rolling Stones, basically. They wrote all the songs, it was their band.

R&RD: What were the musical ingredients you feel you added to the Stones?

Taylor: Apart from my talent as a guitar player? I don't know, I mean Keith Richards and me, although we both had different kinds of styles complemented each other in a very natural instinctive way and made the group sound interesting and different sometimes.

R&RD: In the film Gimme Shelter, which documented the disastrous Altamont concert, we see a very frightened Mick Jagger who doesn't know what to do and a Keith Richards who is very angry and wants to continue to play. The Mick Taylor we see is someone who seems bemused and doesn't quite know what's going on. Am I right?

Taylor: No, I had an absolute awareness of what was going on. I think we all did. There was a certain point in the show where we said to each other "we had better keep on playing, otherwise this could get even worse." Of course it did get worse, but we all felt that to stop playing would have been even worse. There could have been a bigger riot and even more trouble.

R&RD: Were you guys scared out of your wits up there?

Taylor: Well, it wasn't one of my more memorable or enjoyable gigs (laughs). I think they would all say that -- we just had to get through it.

R&RD: What was your reaction when you found out someone had been murdered?

Taylor: It was very depressing -- you can just imagine.

R&RD: What was your relationship like with the other various Stones members?

Taylor: We were good friends, all of us were. I suppose Keith was who I hung out the most with.

R&RD: When you first joined the Rolling Stones you were a health food convert...

Taylor: (interrupts) No I wasn't, but that's what got reported, but it's not true.

R&RD: Everyone knows about Keith Richards' many problems, from his numerous drug busts to his very visible deterioration from heroin. It has been rumored that when you left the Stones you had a few of these kinds of problems yourself. Did you find it impossible to keep away from that whirlwind of vice that goes hand in hand with the Stones?

Taylor: Yes I did find it impossible. I went through similar things to Keith myself, but it didn't end when I left the Rolling Stones. It was part of my lifestyle too, I guess...

R&RD: Keith, it would appear, has gotten somewhat back on track. Is it true that you've been able to get some of your problems behind you?

Taylor: I have yes.

R&RD: The rumors I've heard are that addictions to alcohol, cocaine, and heroin are all part of your past problems. True?

Taylor: I will answer you by saying that, yes, they were a problem, but now they are not. I'm not going to illuminate on my personal life, not tonight. Maybe some other time. (Laughs an unnaturally long time.)

R&RD: Do you at all miss being a part of this huge thing that was the Stones?

Taylor: No, I don't really anymore. I did for a long time, but I don't anymore because I have my own band together and I'm touring around playing in clubs and playing in theatres. I just got back from a tour of Europe. I'm actually enjoying playing more than I ever have and I'm singing and playing really well.

R&RD: What about the social life of the Stones -- the Truman Capote, Lee Radziwill, Margaret Trudeau jet set climate -- were you at all a part of that?

Taylor: No, not really. Bianca used to be a good friend, but that had nothing to do with the social life of the Rolling Stones. I know what you're talking about but those people used to just come around for a few gigs on one tour, but there was no real social life as such or lasting friendships that were formed.

R&RD: Probably the two most important albums you worked on with the Stones were Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street. Sticky Fingers seemed to be a very well-planned record, almost calculated. Exile on the other hand is known and loved for its looseness, rawness, and haphazard feel. Would you care to comment on them?

Taylor: Well, they were both Rolling Stones records and they were both good. I don't see them that intellectually or anything, as one being more orchestrated and one being more raw. Exile On Main Street was done in a much rougher sort of way. We did it in a basement in Keith's house in the south of France and it took a long time. Lots of songs were made up as we were playing. I think Sticky Fingers was a bit more planned in the sense that most of the songs were together before we started recording.

R&RD: Following your tenure with the Stones, what did you do afterwards?

Taylor: Immediately after the Stones I played with Jack Bruce for about six months. We did a tour of Europe and did a bit of recording in England and hung out together a lot, but we didn't accomplish very much. We didn't stay together very long.

R&RD: There wasn't a record that came together was there?

Taylor: No there wasn't one. It was basically because we just didn't stay together long enough to make one.

R&RD: Musically, wasn't this quite a departure for you. Bruce was into a more avant garde jazz thing at this time wasn't he?

Taylor: We were playing his music, and his music is jazzy, bluesy, all kinds of things. It was a departure, yeah, but I didn't really think about it. It was just something to do.

R&RD: You did a solo album in 1979 on the Columbia label that received good notices but did not sell well. There has been some controversy about going far over budget, wasting an inordinate amount of time in the studio, and a lot of wasted musicians...

Taylor: There was no controversy. It happened just the way you say. I won't argue with your statement at all. It was a pretty good first attempt, I think, and I learned a lot from it. I'm hoping to do a new record very soon, actually, with my own band, which I'm looking forward to a lot. I've been playing with a band now on and off for about three years and I'm really ready to get back into the studio and do something. So it won't be a solo project in the same sense as the other one was. I got offered a great record deal by CBS in 1979 and they basically said, "do whatever you want, take as long as you want." And so of course I did. It's good to have deadlines and limits, especially when you don't exactly know what you are doing.

R&RD: In the interim period there have been no more albums, but you have played impressively on several other people's albums including Joan Jett, Joe Henry, and Bob Dylan. Has this been fulfilling to you.

Taylor: Very fulfilling, especially the one with Bob Dylan. That was great. It came about after he came to a show I was doing at a place called the Roxy on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1982 with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, during the time we got back together for a couple of years, and I met him backstage and he asked me if I would be interested in recording with him when he ws ready to make an album. Of course when he was ready to make Infidels in New York I went to New York and was involved in that record. About a year later he went on the road in Europe and he asked me to put a band together. I enjoyed that.

I think I'm playing the best stuff I've ever played right now but I haven't got anything on record just yet. Max Middleton (the celebrated pianist on Jeff Beck's Rough and Ready and other albums) is someone I've known for a long time. We've done some good instrumentals together and various things we've written together that are good. When we first played together it was more of a fusion kind of thing, but over the years we've become more of an R&B band, with me singing a lot. I enjoy singing a lot now even though I didn't do it much in the past. It's a necessary part of what I want to do.

R&RD: Who are some of the younger guitar players who you find interesting.

Taylor: I can't think of anybody.

R&RD: Well, why don't I run down a few names? Stevie Ray Vaughan?

Taylor: He's o.k. I like him.

R&RD: What about Jimmy Vaughan?

Taylor: (With more enthusiasm) I like him a lot. I think he's a very tasteful blues guitar player. He's great. I like the Thunderbirds.

R&RD: How about Albert Collins?

Taylor: I heard him a long time ago when I was listening to my first blues records.

R&RD: Changing the subject here, I would like to ask the Million Dollar Question. Exactly why did you leave the Rolling Stones? There doesn't seem to be a definitive answer.

Taylor: That's really too complicated for me to go into right now. My reasons were many and varied and that's all I can say. They were mostly personal reasons, not musical reasons, no artistic differences or anything silly like that. I suppose I did have a musical vision I wanted to pursue, but it's taken me a long time to realize that. I had no clear cut vision when I left the Rolling Stones. It was mostly personal problems, my own mostly.

R&RD: I found it interesting that you were invited to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony with the other Stones to collect an award. How did that come about?

Taylor: Because I was included, that's why I was invited to the reception. I don't know whose idea it was, I don't know who the nominating committee are for that, but I suppose I was with the Rolling Stones long enough to have made a difference to what they did during that period. Everyone else was getting one so I was included too. It was fun but I didn't get a chance to speak to the guys.

R&RD: I suppose you know that the awards show has given rise to rumors that you will be rejoining the Stones?

Taylor: I've heard those rumors too, but I don't think there's any truth to them at all. I think they are busy making a record at the moment and they are hoping to get it down so they can go on and tour by the end of the year. I haven't been asked to play on the album or to go on tour, but if I were asked to play I'd play.

R&RD: Final question. How would you like to be remembered when all is said and done?

Taylor: Just as a good guitar player.