Good morning!
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the New York Times…
Bobby Keys, a Texas-born sideman whose urgent, wailing saxophone solos wove a prominent thread through more than 40 years of rock ’n’ roll, notably with the Rolling Stones, died on Tuesday at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 70.
His family announced the death, without specifying a cause.
A self-taught musician who never learned to read music, Mr. Keys was a rock ’n’ roller in every sense of the term. Born (almost literally) in the shadow of Buddy Holly, he was a lifelong devotee and practitioner of music with a driving pulse and a hard-living, semi-law-abiding participant in the late-night, sex-booze-and-drug-flavored world of musical celebrity. […]
Mostly playing tenor and sometimes baritone saxophone, he recorded with a Who’s Who of rock including Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Country Joe and the Fish, Harry Nilsson, Joe Cocker and Sheryl Crow. He toured with Delaney and Bonnie and was recording with them in 1969 when they shared a Los Angeles studio with the Stones, who were making their album “Let It Bleed.”
* He was our greatest ever rock saxophonist, and here he is at his very best. Turn it up…
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 9:15 am:
By far my favorite Stones tune! Great way to start the day.
- Slugger O'Toole - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 9:19 am:
==He was our greatest ever rock saxophonist,==
There are likely some E-Street Band fans that would respectfully disagree. /s
- William j Kelly - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 9:29 am:
Amen! The ledgedary Bobby Keys!
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 9:32 am:
“There are likely some E-Street Band fans that would respectfully disagree” J. Geils had some pretty darned good players too.
- vise77 - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 9:39 am:
So sad to hear of his passing, but what a life he led, and what joy he brought to so many.
- Loop Lady - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 9:42 am:
Some time ago you asked what was the greatest Stones song ever…I change my selection to this song…an extraordinary composition…sympathies to his family and friends…
- Skeptical - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 9:54 am:
Flashback!
- Ginhouse Tommy - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 11:07 am:
There wasn’t a sax player in the J Geils Band only a smoking harmonica player. Keys was a session player on a lot of rock records here and across the pond.
- Ginhouse Tommy - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 11:56 am:
He was also the sax player on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour with Joe Cocker which they made into a movie.
- Keyser Soze - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 1:01 pm:
Great tune….one of the Stone’s best. Did Keys also play on “Satisfaction (I can’t get no)?”
- charles in charge - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 1:40 pm:
Keyzer, that’s a guitar through a fuzzbox on “Satisfaction,” not a saxophone. In Keith’s book, he wrote that he originally recorded the guitar as a placeholder for a horn section, but they ended up keeping it.
- Loop Lady - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 2:24 pm:
see the NYT obit for details…
- William j Kelly - Wednesday, Dec 3, 14 @ 3:42 pm:
Fuuuuuuunky!