Overshadowed by bandmates

Marty,
I agree with you, he was really not the right fit for the band...too good, although he's been playing with them on tour recently.

Trivia question, on Get Yer Ya Yas Out, in Sympathy for the devil there is a long guitar break with two different guitars. Which one is Keith Richards and which one is Mick Taylor? The first solo is from right channel, the second from the left one.

Agree again Marty---Mick Taylor's playing is excellent on the Stones albums, but not quite in the same spirit as everybody else---too sober!

Nick Lowe is a long-time favorite of mine as well (and Rockpile the only "Super Group" I really like, though The Traveling Wilburys would be were it not for Tom Petty, who seems oddly out-of-place), and I just got some news on him. He's going to be doing a U.S. tour, and his backing band will be Los Straitjackets, the Instrumental Band on the same label as Nick, Yep Rock. What makes this of particular interest to me is that I used to be in a Band (The Hillbilly Soul Surfers) with their bassist, Pete Curry. We've known each other since the first day of 7th grade!

Here's a Ry Cooder/Keith Richards/Stones story ya'll may find interesting: Brian Jones had died, and he had yet to be replaced (by the way, one of those who auditioned for his job was none other than...Dave Edmunds!). Cooder got a call to come over to England to do some jamming with them. He went in and played along on some new songs they had ready, finding it odd that Keith wasn't around. One day he showed up early, only to discover Keith playing along with the tapes that had been recorded with Ry playing, learning Ry's parts! He packed his bags and returned home. I'm tellin' ya, Keith has been coasting for a long time, trading on his legend and image.

I recently watched the Keith documentary on Netflix. It was enjoyable and I liked Keith as a person, but I was underwhelmed by his playing. I guess his value is higher as a songwriter than as a player. I used to admire his guitar solo on Heart of Stone, but apparently that's John McLaughlin and not Keif.

I attended the tribute show for Gram Parsons at The Universal Amphitheater in 2004. Unbelievably, Chris Hillman was not there (though Emmylou was), but Keith closed the show. He also performed "Love Hurts", a song associated with Gram though his version was merely a rather weak imitation of the great Everly Brothers original, as a duet with Norah Jones. Keith was kind of pre-occupied with Norah, doing his whole "lascivious Uncle" shtick on her. VERY leeringly, too. Really creepy.