THE TIME BETWEEN the recording and release of It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll in 1974 and the recording and release of Black and Blue in 1976 marked another critical and volatile juncture for the Rolling Stones, and much of the turmoil revolved around the newest Stone—Mick Taylor. Mick’s arrival in 1969 reenergized the group and put them back out on the road. The first three albums he contributed to—Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St.—are regarded as a trilogy of the group’s finest work.
So why did this partnership last only a little over five years? Multiple reasons, of course. Some combination of drugs, interpersonal jealousies, recording studio squabbles, and, most important of all, an unhappy lead guitarist.
Taylor recalled the period in a 2010 interview with Gibson Guitars:
MICK TAYLOR: Most of 1974, I took a long holiday in Brazil, which was wonderful, and then I came back and we started doing recording on It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll fairly quickly. The very track we recorded, that I remember anyway, at Musicland Studios in Munich was “Time Waits for No One.” And it was done very quickly, so that was a song where most of the song must have been written before we even got into the studio, by Mick. ’Cause although it always says “Jagger/Richards,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that they both always write the songs. You know, there are some songs, maybe, that Keith had written on his own, like “Happy,” but by and large most of the songs, especially when it comes to lyrics, are written by Mick.
That’s a much gentler and more diplomatic recollection than the one he gave to Gary James in 1974:
Time waited for Mick Jagger, but not Mick Taylor, who officially left the band in December of 1974
MICK TAYLOR: I was a bit peeved about not getting credit for a couple of songs, but that wasn’t the whole reason [I left the band], I guess I just felt like I had enough. I decided to leave and start a group with Jack Bruce.
Then even more telling:
MICK TAYLOR: I never really felt, and I don’t know why, but I never felt I was gonna stay with the Stones forever, even right from the beginning.
And in an interview with Mojo magazine in 1997:
MICK TAYLOR: 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.
An eyewitness backs up this assertion:
ANDY JOHNS: Mick Taylor became discontent with his situation. On the 1973 tour of Europe I spent quite a lot of time with him and he would say, “They won’t let me write any songs. Any time I have an idea I’m blocked out.”
Mick made a fateful, tactical mistake when he neglected to inform the Stones of his thinking until December of 1974. The group was due to start recording a new album and was in the planning stages of another US tour when Taylor announced his decision. Our best storyteller about these events is the man who had the most to gain from Mick’s departure:
RON WOOD: I remember the night. There was a party going on for Eric Clapton and unknowing to me, I was in the backseat with Mick. And Marshall Chess and Mick Taylor were in the front seat, whispering and very heavy and all this. I wondered what was going on. And apparently that night he told them he was leaving and I knew nothing about it. The Stones didn’t want to break up the Faces. They didn’t want to say, “Hey Woody, leave that lot, come with us,” which was very nice of them really, because they could have been cutthroat about it.
Even when we arrived at the party I had no idea what was going on. And later on in the evening, Mick Taylor split. And I asked Mick, “Where’s he going?” And he said, “I don’t know.” And I thought, “That’s very unusual. He’s only been here an hour. The whole party’s just about to happen.” So I just ruled it out that he wasn’t feeling well or something. Mick was giving me these kind of tester questions, saying if it was possible that you could join, would you? And I said, sure, yeah. I definitely would but I still got the thing going with the Faces and Rod, blah blah blah. I don’t want to mess that up because they’re too good friends of mine. So Mick said, “What do I do?” I said, “If you really get desperate and you need me, find me wherever I am in the world and tell me you want me to do it and I’ll do it.”
The official news came out in two bland “Put on a Happy Face” press releases on December 12 and December 16: “Mick Jagger in Munich, where the Rolling Stones are engaged in the initial stages of recording their next album, confirmed that guitarist Mick Taylor would be leaving the group.
“He said, ‘After five and a half years Mick wishes a change of scene—wants the opportunity to try out new ventures, new endeavors. While we are all most sorry that he is going, we wish him great success and much happiness.’
“Asked about the possible replacement Mick Jagger smiled: ‘No doubt we can find a brilliant six foot, three inch blond guitarist who can do his own makeup.’”
Then four days later from Mick Taylor: “The last five and a half years with the Stones have been very exciting, and proved to be most inspiring. And as far as my attitude to the other four members is concerned, it is one of respect for them, both as musicians and as people. I have nothing but admiration for the group, but I feel now is the time to move on and do something new.”
Then, just five days after that, Mick Jagger asserted:
MICK JAGGER: I suppose it was a bit inconsiderate of him to inform us a day before we were about to enter the studios . . . but maybe he hadn’t made up his mind until that point . . . I received a call from the office that Mick Taylor wasn’t coming to the Munich sessions. Then I received a call saying Mick Taylor wasn’t going anywhere anymore with the Stones.
My favorite version of Mick leaving is the one given to me by Bill Wyman:
BILL WYMAN: I think he was resentful about not being able to contribute songs, or getting credits on things that he thought he had contributed to. He was trying to assert his strength a bit more than it really was. He was a new member and therefore obliged to accept things in a certain way because they had been like that for ten years. And I think he was being pushed by some people to be a stronger member of the band, rather than laid back like Charlie and I are. It was like a poker game, where you only have a pair, and you bluffed. And the bluff was called, and that was the end of it, because once someone says, “I’m leaving,” you don’t reinstate them again when they feel like it. It was a very inconvenient time he did it, and I didn’t think he did it very politely.
The timing was definitely an issue for him.
BILL WYMAN: It was the day before we went in to cut an album, yeah. We finished up that album [Black and Blue] using all kinds of people that just dropped by; it was very inconvenient for us. We all really liked him a lot, but he did tend to get very, very moody and frustrated. It’s the frustration that he didn’t deal with outside the band, you see. Like I was saying before, I had many frustrations, but I dealt with them by doing other things outside the band. You have to do that. He didn’t, and in the end he had to leave to do some of the things he wanted to do . . . which he could have done within the band, with no effort at all. And it shows, because it took him three, four years to cut an album, which was the first thing he was gonna do as soon as he left the band. And then it wasn’t a success, so I’m sure he wished he hadn’t left, I dunno . . . Maybe. It was a great period in our history because he brought something fresh and new—some brilliant playing—to the band.
As Kenny Rogers put it: “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em . . .”