bobby keys : definition of bobby keys and synonyms of bobby keys (English) Robert Henry 'Bobby' Keys (born December 18, 1943, Slaton , Lubbock County , Texas , United States ) is an American saxophone player, and has performed with other musicians as a member of one of the notable horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by The Rolling Stones , [1] The Who , Harry Nilsson , Delaney Bramlett , George Harrison 's All Things Must Pass , Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker 's Mad Dogs and Englishmen . Keys has been a touring musician since 1956. Life and career Keys started touring at age fifteen with Bobby Vee and fellow Texan Buddy Holly . [2] [3] Keys is best known as being the main saxophone player for The Rolling Stones , playing on every album from 1969 until 1974, and from 1980 to present, and performing on all Stones tours since 1970.

Keys has played on hundreds of recordings, including many uncredited performances such as on Dion's " The Wanderer ." He is known for his relationship with The Rolling Stones , both in playing (for example, the saxophone solo on the 1971 hit " Brown Sugar ") and friendship with Keith Richards [4] - the two were born on the same day - (there is a film of him and Richards throwing a television set from the 10th floor of a hotel somewhere during the 1972 American Tour , as seen in the Stones' unreleased 1972 concert movie Cocksucker Blues ). Keys met the Rolling Stones at the San Antonio Teen Fair in 1964. Keys recorded with them around 1969 on their track " Live with Me ". Keys, along with the addition of Mick Taylor , made their debut on Let it Bleed . Mick Jagger and Keys, became close in the early 1970s, with Keys serving as an attendant at Jagger's wedding.

Together with Jim Price on trumpet, Keys toured with the Stones in 1970, 1971 and 1972, and with Steve Madaio and Trevor Lawrence on the first half of the 1973 European Tour , at which Keys was thrown out after missing some shows, according to legend due to Keys filling a bathtub with Dom Perignon champagne and drinking most of it. Allegedly this caused a falling out with Mick Jagger , and Keys only guested on some shows of the 1975 and 1978 tours, missing the 1976 tour, and performing only two tracks on the 1981 tour, on which Ernie Watts was the main sax player. Keys returned to fully backing the Stones together with Gene Barge on the 1982 European Tour, and has toured with the Stones on all tours ever since. He is also featured in the 1971 concert movie, Mad Dogs and Englishmen , narrating the story of his early life while driving around downtown Dallas.

Other recordings made by Keys was the baritone saxophone on Elvis Presley's " Return to Sender ", and on John Lennon 's first American solo #1 single hit (and the only US #1 in Lennon's lifetime) " Whatever Gets You thru the Night ". From 1973-1975, Keys participated in John Lennon 's Lost Weekend in Los Angeles along with Ringo Starr , Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon . Keys had played with Lennon in the Plastic Ono Band and, while in Los Angeles, he played on Lennon's albums Walls and Bridges and Rock 'n Roll . Additionally, Keys took part in the last known recording session between Paul McCartney and Lennon; A Toot and a Snore in '74 . In the late 1980s, Keys became the musical director for Ronnie Wood 's Miami club, 'Woody's On the Beach.' The first week the club opened, Keys booked Jerry Lee Lewis , Fats Domino and The Crickets . Although more commonly known as a session musician , Keys released two albums of his own in the 1970s; a self-titled instrumental album on Warner Bros.

Records that featured Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Eric Clapton in 1972; and Gimme the Key on Ringo Starr's record label Ring O'Records in 1975. Still rocking in 2011, Keys appeared on December 16 with the Athens, Georgia, band Bloodkin in their "Exile on Lumpkin Street" show at the legendary Georgia Theater (which re-opened in August 2011 in its spectacularly remodeled and enlarged space after the building was gutted by fire in June 2009); besides performing some of their own music, Bloodkin rocked out with Keys on numerous hits from three of the biggest Stones' albums on which Keys had performed, "Let It Bleed," "Sticky Fingers," and "Exile on Main Street." Selective discography BOBBY KEYS - BOBBY KEYS [1972] - Αντιφωνίες Born: December 18, 1943, Slaton, Texas, U.S. Died: December 2, 2014 (aged 70), Franklin, Tennessee, U.S.

Genres: Rock, jazz Instruments: Tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone Years active: 1956–2014 Associated acts: The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Warren Zevon, Joe Cocker, Joe Ely, Sheryl Crow, John Lennon, Leon Russell, Plastic Ono Band, Harry Nilsson, Paul McCartney Robert Henry «Bobby» Keys (December 18, 1943 – December 2, 2014) was an American saxophonist who performed with other musicians as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Nilsson, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker and other prominent musicians. Keys played on hundreds of recordings and was a touring musician from 1956 until his death in 2014.

Life and career Keys was born at Lubbock Army Airfield near Slaton, Texas, where his father, Bill Keys, was in the U.S. Army Air Corps. His mother, Lucy Keys, was 16 when she gave birth to Robert Henry (Bobby), her first child. By 1946, Bill Keys got a job for the Santa Fe Railroad in Belen, New Mexico. The family moved to Belen, New Mexico, but young Robert stayed with his grandparents in Slaton, Texas, an arrangement he was quite happy with. Bill and Lucy would have three more children, Gary and twins Debbie and Daryl. Lucy Keys went on to become a state senator in New Mexico. Bobby Keys started touring at age fifteen with Bobby Vee and fellow Texan Buddy Holly. Keys met the Rolling Stones at the San Antonio Teen Fair in 1964. He is known for his impressive resume as a musician (his contributions include the saxophone solo on the 1971 hit «Brown Sugar») and his friendship with Keith Richards. Keys and Richards share the exact same date of birth.

There is a film of him and Richards throwing a television set from the 10th floor of a hotel during the 1972 American Tour, as seen in the Stones’ unreleased 1972 concert movie Cocksucker Blues. Both Bobby Keys and Mick Taylor made their debuts with The Rolling Stones on the Let It Bleed track «Live With Me«. Keys and Mick Jagger became close in the early 1970s, with Keys serving as best man at Jagger’s wedding. Together with Jim Price on trumpet, Keys toured with the Stones in 1970, 1971 and 1972. He formed the horn section on the first half of the 1973 European Tour, with trumpet player Steve Madaio and Trevor Lawrence (sax), before he got thrown out. According to legend, Keys filled a bathtub with Dom Perignon champagne and drank most of it. Allegedly this caused a falling out with Jagger, and Keys only guested on some shows of the 1975 and 1978 American tours, missing the 1976 European tour completely.

He performed only four tracks on the 1981 tour, on which Ernie Watts was the main sax player. Keys was reinstated as main sax player for the Stones on the 1982 European Tour, together with Gene Barge. Keys toured with the Stones on all subsequent tours up to his death. In late 1969 Keys toured with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends with Eric Clapton and George Harrison. The year 1970 was an extraordinary series of notable performances. Keys started the year working on Eric Clapton‘s first solo LP. With Leon Russell he supported Joe Cocker on the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. The live album Mad Dogs & Englishmen was released in 1970, followed by a concert movie in 1971. After work on George Harrison‘s All Things Must Pass and more Sticky Fingers tracks, he joined the Rolling Stones for a European tour.

The 1971 concert movie Mad Dogs & Englishmen, is the filmed record of the 48 cities American tour undertaken in 1970 by the young British blues and soul singer Joe Cocker and the largely American entourage (band, choir, friends, wives, children, groupies and a single dog named Canina) that accompanied him. The entire group numbered almost 40 people. Keys is heard on John Lennon’s first American solo number 1 single hit (and the only United States number 1 in Lennon’s lifetime) «Whatever Gets You thru the Night«. Keys’ most famous contribution to rock history may be his roaring, lasciviously melodic solo on «Brown Sugar«, from Sticky Fingers. He was also prominently featured on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”, “Happy”, and other Stones songs. From 1973-75, Keys participated in Lennon’s Lost Weekend in Los Angeles along with Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon. Keys had played with Lennon in the Plastic Ono Band and, while in Los Angeles, he played on Lennon’s albums Walls and Bridges and Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Additionally, he took part in the last known recording session between Paul McCartney and Lennon; A Toot and a Snore in ’74. He also played the tasteful solo on Leo Sayer’s 1977 international hit «When I Need You» from the Endless Flight album. In 1989, Keys became the musical director for Ronnie Wood‘s new Miami club, Woody’s On the Beach. The first week the club opened Keys booked Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and the Crickets. In the early 90s Keys was a resident of Miami and had a band with former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, Stones pianist Nicky Hopkins, Ivan Neville, Calvin «Fuzzy» Samuels and others called Tumbling Dice. Although better known as a session musician, Keys released two albums of his own in the 1970s: a self-titled instrumental album on Warner Bros. Records that featured Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Eric Clapton in 1972; and Gimme the Key on Ringo Starr’s record label Ring O’Records in 1975.

Keys appeared on December 16, 2011, with the Athens, Georgia-band Bloodkin in their «Exile on Lumpkin Street» show at the Georgia Theater, which re-opened in August 2011 in its remodeled and enlarged space after the building had been gutted by fire in June 2009. Besides performing some of their own music, Bloodkin rocked out with Keys on numerous hits from three of the biggest Stones’ albums on which Keys had performed, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St. In 2013 he played with the Rolling Stones at their Glastonbury Festival debut, headlining on Saturday, June 29. Keys played on their 14 On Fire tour with Roskilde Festival in Denmark being his last ever gig for the Stones. Personal life Bobby Keys is survived by his wife of 30 years, Holly, three sons, Jesse, Randy, and Huck, one daughter Amber, and three grandchildren, Jordyn, Ashlyn, and Chauncy. Keys died as a result of cirrhosis at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, on December 2, 2014.

Selected discography An eponymous solo album was released by Warner Bros. in 1972. He also appears on: The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Let It Rock EP (UK), Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup, Emotional Rescue, Flashpoint, Stripped, No Security, Shine a Light, Live Licks, Sweet Summer Sun Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen George Harrison: All Things Must Pass John Lennon: Some Time in New York City, Walls and Bridges, Rock ‘n’ Roll Keith Richards: Talk Is Cheap, Live at the Hollywood Palladium Ringo Starr: Ringo, Goodnight Vienna Ronnie Wood: 1234, Gimme Some Neck, Mahoney’s Last Stand B.B. King: B.B. King in London Barbra Streisand: Barbra Joan Streisand Carly Simon: No Secrets, Hotcakes Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll Delaney, Bonnie & Friends: The Original Delaney & Bonnie: Accept No Substitute, On Tour with Eric Clapton Donovan: Cosmic Wheels Dr.

John: The Sun, Moon & Herbs Eric Clapton: Eric Clapton Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson, Son of Schmilsson, Pussy Cats, Duit on Mon Dei Warren Zevon: Warren Zevon Joe Ely: Lord of the Highway John Hiatt: Beneath This Gruff Exterior Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate & Anna McGarrigle Keith Moon: Two Sides of the Moon Leo Sayer: Endless Flight John Lennon and Paul McCartney: A Toot and a Snore in ’74 John Lennon: Whatever Gets You thru the Night Marvin Gaye: Let’s Get It On (deluxe edition) Sheryl Crow: The Globe Sessions Yoko Ono: Fly Graham Nash: Songs for Beginners References 1 Huey, Steve. «Biography: Bobby Keys». AllMusic. Retrieved May 1, 2010. 2 Varga, George (December 2, 2014). «Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys dies at 70». UT San Diego. Retrieved December 2, 2014. 3 «Bobby Keys, Longtime Saxophonist for Rolling Stones, Dies».

Voice of America. Reuters. December 2, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014. 4 «Bobby Keys Interview». Austin Chronicle. Retrieved December 2, 2014. 5 «Bobby Keys Biography». Philbrodieband.com. Retrieved December 2, 2014. 6 Richards, Keith; Fox, James (2010). Life. London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-85439-5. 7 3 December 2014: Leo Sayer has paid tribute to his friend Bobby Keys who passed away at age 70. Keys, the sax player for the Rolling Stones since 1969, also played on Leo’s global hit ‘When I Need You’. In a statement Leo remembered his friend saying, “R.I.P. Bobby Keys. Bobby played the solo on “When I Need You”, 20 secs of tenor sax that no other player has ever been able to emulate.

We toured together in the mid 70’s, and Bobby was always fun to work with, a great musician everybody now knows as the sax man with the Rolling Stones. I’m so proud to have known you ‘Texas’!” 8 «The Rolling Stones headline Glastonbury 2013». Nme.com. June 30, 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2013. 9 Gold, Adam (2014-12-02). «Rolling Stones Saxophonist Bobby Keys Dead at 70». Nashville Scene (City Press LLC). Retrieved 2014-12-02. Rolling Stones Saxophonist Bobby Keys Dead at 70 The musician who appeared on «Brown Sugar,» «Live With Me» and countless others played with the band for more than 40 years By Patrick Doyle Rolling Stone December 2, 2014 Bobby Keys, the larger-than-life saxophone player who toured with the Rolling Stones for more than 45 years and played on studio classics like «Brown Sugar» and «Live With Me,» has passed away. He was 70.

«If you believe in the magic of rock & roll, which I devoutly do, it isn’t in the individual,» Keys told Rolling Stone in 2012. «I’ve played in bands with A-team players around, but unless they can play together, it doesn’t do any good.» «The Rolling Stones are devastated by the loss of their very dear friend and legendary saxophone player, Bobby Keys,» the band said in a statement. «Bobby made a unique musical contribution to the band since the 1960s. He will be greatly missed.» “I have lost the largest pal in the world and I can’t express the sense of sadness I feel, although Bobby would tell me to cheer up,» Stones guitarist Keith Richards said in a statement. «My condolences to all that knew him and his love of music.” Keys was born in Slaton, Texas, where he discovered the powerful sound of bandleader King Curtis. «He approached his [sax] solos differently than your jazz cats – most of ’em were pretty snooty jazzberries who thought rock & roll was just a waste of time.

But King Curtis, he played sax the way a guitar plays, like James Burton would play a lead on a song. It was how he played and how he attacked the notes and his phrasing that was different than the normal.» In Lubbock, Keys befriended Buddy Holly, playing with him briefly as a teenager. «I kind of weaseled my way into the perimeter of the garage,» recalled Keys. «He was the first guy I heard play electric guitar and it impressed the hell out of me.» By the early Sixties, a teenage Keys was backing pop star Bobby Vee, hitting the road on Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tour. «Rolling down the highway with Little Anthony and Little Eva and Major Lance and Billy Stewart and Freddy Canon. It was really cool. I was still a teenager. We played armories and gymnasiums and things like that. It was great training.» He first crossed paths with the Rolling Stones in 1964 at the San Antonio Teen Fair.

He was skeptical of the English rockers, but said, «I went out and listened to them and there was some actual rock & roll going on there, in my humble opinion.» «You got to realize that the vision, the image, according to 1964 US Rock and roll standards, was mohair suit and tie, and nicey-nicey ol’ boy next door,» Keys said in Richards’ autobiography Life. «And all of a sudden hear comes this truckload of English jackflies singing a Buddy Holly song! Damn! I couldn’t really hear all that well, amplifiers and PAs being what they were, but man I felt it…it reminded me so much of the energy I heard from Buddy and I heard from Elvis. There was something in there that was the real deal.» Keys reconnected with Mick Jagger at a Delaney and Bonnie session in the late Sixties. He backed them on some of the band’s most iconic albums, including Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street.

His most famous studio moment — 1971’s «Brown Sugar» — was originally supposed to be a guitar solo, but in a spontaneous moment, Jagger and producer Jimmy Miller suggested they add saxophone. «It was the first take – I just really shut my eyes and play,» said Keys. «I listen subliminally. I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes. I pull a lot of the stuff that I play off the rhythm tracks – and Keith Richards has been one of the main contributors to my inspirational playing.» Born on the same day as Richards, the two became fast friends. Keys became Richards’ late night partner and accomplice in offstage antics, once throwing a television out of a hotel balcony in 1972. But his wild ways became even too wild for the Stones. On their 1973 European tour, he missed a commitment and Richards found him in his bathtub full of Dom Perignon. «He’s got a cigar, bathtub full of champagne and this French chick with him,» Richards recalled in Life. «And he said, ‘Fuck off’.» Keys stopped touring regularly with the band, instead playing clubs billed as «Mr.

Brown Sugar,» and joining John Lennon for his famous «lost weekend.» (He had previously recorded with the Plastic Ono Band on songs like «Power to the People.») «Sometimes in the afternoon, I’d roll a little hash and John and I would listen to music and then he’d have to go home because [Yoko] would be getting suspicious of his whereabouts,» said Keys. «And she knew that I lived in the neighborhood and she knew that I was up no good!» But Keys never completely slowed down.» I’ve been smoking pot for over 50 years, and I never let a day go by unless I’m in jail,» he told Rolling Stone in 2012. «I am a devout pothead. I have been, will be, don’t see a damn thing wrong with it except the cost. Legalize it.» He played with the band off and on over the following years, but had a contentious relationship with Jagger. He finally rejoined the band for good at rehearsals for the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, when Richards snuck Keys into a rehearsal.

«He’d been out for 10 years or so, apart from some one-night gigs,» Richards recalled. «It took me that long to get him back in. And when I did, I didn’t tell anyone first….We’re going to play ‘Brown Sugar.’ I just told Bobby, when we play ‘Brown Sugar,’ come in on the solo. So it was solo time, and Mick just looked round at me and said, ‘What the fuck?’ And I just said, ‘See what I mean?’ When it was over, Mick looked at me like, well, you can’t argue with that.» Aside from the Stones themselves, Keys was the biggest personality in the Stones’ sound. Keys continued to play with the band on their most recent 14 on Fire tour, but missed the band’s recent Australian tour. Keys was reportedly battling cirrhosis. «But these guys, man, they’ve just got that natural thing about it,» Keys told Rolling Stone. «That’s part of the music that I come from, cause I can’t read music, I have no idea what’s gonna come out of that horn half the – I mean, I have an idea now. But I can’t read music.

That’s not where I come from musically. I come strictly from feeling, and that feeling comes from rock & roll.» Bobby Keys obituary Bobby Keys playing with the Rolling Stones in 1973. Bobby Keys, left, playing with the Rolling Stones at Newcastle City Hall in 1973. Photograph: Ian Dickson/Redferns Adam Sweeting The Guardian Wednesday 3 December 2014 Saxophone player for many of the greats of rock’n’roll, including the Rolling Stones The saxophonist Bobby Keys, who has died aged 70, played with a remarkable list of rock’n’roll greats including Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Warren Zevon. Most of all he will be remembered as a regular collaborator with the Rolling Stones, whom he first met when they toured the US in 1964. Keys performed with the Stones on numerous tours and on all their major albums, beginning with Let It Bleed (1969), and was on stage with them at their Glastonbury performance last year.

His saxophone solos on Brown Sugar and Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (on the album Sticky Fingers, 1971) were the most celebrated of his many recorded performances with them, but in both sound and attitude, Keys became an embodiment of the band’s hedonistic spirit. Keys was part of the Stones entourage on the Côte d’Azur in the early 1970s, and was an integral part of the famously debauched Exile on Main Street recording sessions. Keith Richards recalled that the song Happy was recorded by just himself and Keys, with the producer Jimmy Miller on drums. Keys was in his element. “Yessir, buddy! The south of France, pretty girls, a young man in his 20s, a rock’n’roll musician, that’s a mighty good combination,” he said, as he put it, adding that, “there were whisky bottles around, there were scantily clad women around. It was rock’n’roll, son.” During this time Keys had an affair with Nathalie Delon, estranged wife of the French actor Alain Delon.

Keys was born at Lubbock army airfield in Hurlwood, Texas, coincidentally on the same day in 1943 that Richards was born in England. Keys’s father, Bill, was in the US army air force. When Bill and his teenage wife, Lucy, moved to New Mexico, Bobby stayed in Slaton, Texas, with his grandparents. He saw Lubbock-born rock’n’roller Buddy Holly play when he was 10, which inspired him to take up music. In his teens he played briefly with Holly. By the early 60s, he was touring with the pop singer Bobby Vee on Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars, alongside such artists as Little Eva and Major Lance. He was playing with Vee when he first met the Rolling Stones at the San Antonio state fair in Texas. In his autobiography Life, Richards remembered the meeting and described Keys as “my closest pal (we were born within hours of each other).

A soul of rock and roll, a solid man, also a depraved maniac.” For his part, Keys confessed to being dubious about the Stones recording Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away, but then concluded that “the band was really, really good, and they did Not Fade Away actually better than Buddy ever did it”. In the late 60s Keys joined Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour (and appears in the subsequent concert film) and toured with Delaney & Bonnie in a band that also included Clapton and Harrison. Keys renewed his association with the Stones when they were recording Let It Bleed, and he was summoned to play a solo on Live With Me. He and the trumpeter Jim Price also featured on the hit single Honky Tonk Women. In December 1969 he recorded his famous solo on Brown Sugar, though the song wasn’t released until two years later.

Having played on Clapton’s first solo album and Harrison’s solo debut, All Things Must Pass (both 1970 releases), Keys recorded the 1972 instrumental solo album Bobby Keys (featuring Clapton, Harrison and Ringo Starr), and worked steadily with the Stones until the outlandish lifestyle got the better of him during their 1973 European tour. Richards discovered him in a bath full of Dom Perignon champagne along with “this French chick” when he should have been preparing for that night’s concert. This angered Mick Jagger so much that Keys – who also sought treatment for heroin addiction around this time – was virtually written out of the Stones’ subsequent 70s tours, though he returned for 1982’s European shows and was fully restored for the Steel Wheels campaign in 1989. When not with the Stones, Keys sometimes played club gigs under the pseudonym of Mr Brown Sugar, and released the solo album Gimme the Key in 1975. He became part of Lennon’s entourage during his “lost weekend” separation from Yoko.

He played on Lennon’s albums Walls and Bridges – which generated the US chart-topper Whatever Gets You Through the Night, featuring a memorable Keys performance – and Rock’n’Roll. He also appeared on the bootleg-only album A Toot and a Snore in 1974, supposedly the only recordings to feature Lennon and Paul McCartney together after the Beatles split. In 1979 Keys was part of Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood’s band The New Barbarians, who toured the US and supported Led Zeppelin at the Knebworth festival, and he also appeared with Richards’s band X-Pensive Winos at their intermittent appearances in the 80s and 90s. In the late 80s Keys was music director for Wood’s Miami club, Woody’s on the Beach. Lately he had been fronting his own band, the Suffering Bastards, comprising former members of bands such as the Black Crowes and the Georgia Satellites. In 2012 he published his autobiography, Every Night’s a Saturday Night. Keys’s last performance with the Stones was at the Roskilde festival in Denmark in July, as part of the 14 On Fire tour.

He dropped out of the tour’s Australia and New Zealand dates last month for undisclosed health reasons. According to Michael Webb, keyboard player with the Suffering Bastards, he had been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. He is survived by his wife, Holly, and son, Jesse. • Bobby (Robert Henry) Keys, saxophonist, born 18 December 1943; died 2 December 2014 Bobby Keys: five great performances with the Rolling Stones, John Lennon and more The great saxophonist, who has died aged 70, added a touch of style to countless records – here are five of the best Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys dies aged 70 Dion and the Belmonts – The Wanderer It can be hard to ascertain who played on the original rock’n’roll records. One version of events – held to by Keys himself – asserted that he played on Elvis Presley’s Return to Sender. Another insists it was Boots Randolph. A more significant performance, anyway – assuming it is, as is claimed, a young Keys – is the sax part on Dion’s The Wanderer.

For a start, it’s a better record than Return to Sender, swaggering like a young buck on the street: it sounds like a guy wandering the streets in search of action. Second, the sax break is crucial to the song: it provides the main instrumental hook of the chorus, and the solo is an explosion of delight. There’s something about the saxophone that simply sounds lewd, and the solo in The Wanderer is one long wolf whistle. He never forgot his love of and loyalty to the original rock’n’rollers: when, in the 1980s, he became musical director of Ronnie Wood’s Florida club he promptly booked Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and the Crickets. Joe Cocker – The Letter The Letter wasn’t an oldie at the point Joe Cocker recorded it for his live album Mad Dogs & Englishmen in 1970 – it had been a hit for the Box Tops in 1967. Cocker’s arrangement slowed it down into a swampy, funky groove, with the brass of Keys and trumpeter Jim Price giving it a bracing power.

It also afforded Keys the chance to cut loose, with a stylish, lyrical solo, that doesn’t outstay its welcome, but feels like the glue holding this slightly ramshackle performance together. Keys had an instinctive feel for the funky blues, one that scores of stars demanded for their own records. The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar Keys is most famous for his association with the Stones, and Brown Sugar was his most famous moment. To the end of his time touring with them, the moment he stepped forward to take his hard, cruel solo in Brown Sugar was greeted with a huge cheer. He and Keith Richards had been born on the same day, and the closeness of their relationship was attested to in Richards’ autobiography, Life. In his own memoir, Every Day Is Saturday Night, Keys recalled that the mayhem continued into the 1990s, when a Stones tour stopped at a golf resort hotel, and he decided to play a round: “When I hit my ball it hooked into the trees, ricocheted – and landed smack dab in the middle of his breakfast. So he shot it. He’s standing there on his patio with a pistol in his hand and smoke coming out of the muzzle.

He was holding this smoking shell that used to be my golf ball. He said: ‘That’s a 10-stroke fucking penalty, and if you ever do it again I’ll do the same to you! You ruined my fucking breakfast!’ He was getting ready to eat his eggs Benedict.” Rolling Stones – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking It seems a shame not to have anything from Exile on Main Street, in which Keys’s saxophone is such a key element in the sonic gumbo, but arguably his greatest single performance came on this track from Sticky Fingers, when he gets the best part of two minutes to unfurl a solo, backed by Ricky Dijon on congas. It starts with a pair of flutters before a line starts to reveal itself, delicately and with restraint. Aptly, given the song’s title, it sounds like someone waiting outside a door. It builds in intensity, but with care, for the backing never gets too obtrusive, until he allows it to fade into Mick Taylor’s guitar. A masterpiece. John Lennon – Whatever Gets You Thru the Night Keys was beloved by the Beatles as well as the Stones.

He worked on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass as well as on this, Lennon’s only US No 1 during his lifetime. This is funky Keys: he crops up repeatedly through the song, but the 15 seconds he gets at the intro are the crucial part: in that brief burst of horn he gets to set the song in motion. Get it wrong and he kills the song dead. But Bobby Keys rarely got things wrong on record. His closeness to Lennon was not just musical: he was one of the players in Lennon’s “lost weekend” in Los Angeles, from 1973 to 1975, along with Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon. Bobby Keys: The Lost Rolling Stone Interview The legendary saxophonist shares his favorite memories from a career spent playing with John Lennon, Buddy Holly and the Rolling Stones By Patrick Doyle Rolling Stone December 2, 2014 Legendary saxophone player Bobby Keys has passed away at age 70. Keys was best known for touring with the Rolling Stones for more than 45 years, but his career extended far beyond the band, from a childhood friendship with Buddy Holly to a role in hits by the Plastic Ono Band and George Harrison.

In 2012, I spoke with Keys around the release of his book Every Night’s a Saturday Night, discussing his long career and wild past. I know you went on a lot of those Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tours early in your career. What were those like? I was pretty fresh out of Texas at the time that started happening, man, and I find myself rolling down the highway with a bunch of people that had records on the Top 10, like Little Anthony and Little Eva and Major Lance and Billy Stewart and Freddy Cannon. I was listening to some of these very same people less than a year earlier on the radio. Your seating position on the bus sort of determined your status on the tour. And the band went to the back of the bus. How was the sound at those shows? It was before the Stones created the modern way of touring. It was really bad. I mean, amplifiers weren’t as big as they are now. There were no monitor systems or anything like that. There’d be a mic for Anthony and another one for the Imperials. And then they had another mic set up for the horn section.

But it wasn’t anywhere at all as elaborate as it is today, where every single thing is mic’d. Even the drummer’s underwear. Who blew you away on those tours? I always loved Little Anthony and the Imperials. They were like the precursors of the Temptations. I loved their music. Besides that, we shared a common interest in pot. It must’ve been hard to find pot in those days. Well, it was for me because I didn’t know anyone! But I got to be friends with the guys in the Imperials. I’d ask Sammy or Clarence or whoever’s gonna go see the Man to pick me up a bag. And back then, they used to bring it to you in these little penny candy sacks, little brown paper bags. A baggie full of that was like 10 bucks, man and it was [laughs] not like today. It’s much stronger today, right? I’ve heard that back then it wasn’t that strong. Ehh. I’ve been smoking pot for over 50 years, and I never let a day go by unless I’m in jail. I am a devout pothead.

I have been, will be, don’t see a damn thing wrong with it except the cost. I used to buy this stuff for 90 bucks a kilo. That’s over two pounds. And now, man, they’re selling ounces in New York for about 500 bucks an ounce. Hydroponic grown… it’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. Legalize it, get the tax from it, the country’s broke. Hell, we’ll make an immediate recovery. I myself alone would be sponsoring a great portion of that. And I’ve got a number of friends who feel the same way. You knew Buddy Holly early on. What was he like? I didn’t know Buddy real well because he was older than me. There’s a big social difference in a four or five year age difference. I remember one afternoon, he was out on his front porch and he was sitting in rocking chair. And I just wandered over across the street from my aunt’s house. And he was saying, «You know Robert, I believe I’m gonna make it.» And I look him and I say, «I don’t think so, I just don’t see it, pal.» I was just kidding.

Buddy was a pretty energetic fella. He was the first guy I heard play electric guitar, and it impressed the hell out of me. In your book you write about playing on «The Wanderer.» You really just wandered into that session? Yeah, as a matter fact I did. I really didn’t know if it was me on the record until about six months ago. Another horn player I know talked to Dion about it. He said he remembered me there, but I was a little out of tune and they had another guy come in the next day and play the exact same part that I did. But I can’t tell the difference. I think it’s me [laughs]. I know how I sound. But that was the first time I ever heard myself on the radio on a hit record. What was that like? Well, son, that was just like getting the keys to the new car. It was a lot of fun, it made me feel real good. Did you think that song was going to be a classic? No, I didn’t! But you know, the first session I did with the Stones was an accident. I just happened to be wandering down the hallway of the same studio.

I was there with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends and the Stones were there doing the overdubs on, what the hell was it… one of those early albums. One of those good ones. They were still on Decca at the time. What the hell was it… had a birthday cake on the front of it! Let It Bleed. Yeah, that was the first time I recorded with the Stones. I just happened to run into Keith in the hallway. And the guy that had produced Delaney & Bonnie and Eric Clapton’s live album, Jimmy Miller, was also there producing the Stones album. I had met him in England when I was there before. Anyway, he suggested to Mick that this track they had, they were kind of wondering what to do, maybe they put a saxophone solo on it. So they came down to the studio, in Studio B where I was with Delaney & Bonnie and said, «Hey, get your horn and come on to Studio A.» So that’s what I did. A couple of takes, and there it was. Voila! My first Rolling Stones record.

In your book you talk about the 1970s when everyone still lived in England, when you could go over to Ringo’s house or Ronnie’s house or Keith’s house or Rod’s house. What was that like to be in the middle of that? Well, I’ll tell ya, I went around smiling a lot. It was great fun because it was like one big sort of fraternal boys club. There was nothing sinister going on. It was like everybody had shiny brand new records out that they were selling and everybody was bopping up and down King’s Road and going to pubs and clubs and there was a lot of music going on, man. Everybody was wearing shiny pants and alligator shoes. It was really cool. Everybody still lived there. I was staying with Jagger, and there was always folks driving by there. And Keith just lived down in the next block. It was a party! It was great! It was wonderful! If somebody said, «Sit down and map out your rock & roll fantasyland,» that would’ve been about it. Can you talk about how the «Brown Sugar» solo came together? That came together at Keith and my birthday party in England.

I guess that would’ve been 1970 of 1971. Originally «Brown Sugar» had a guitar solo, Mick Taylor put a guitar solo on it. In fact, some of the very early pressings came out with the guitar solo on it. But there was a birthday party with me and Keith and Eric Clapton and George Harrison and Ringo and Keith Moon, a whole bunch of other people. And we started to have a jam session. I don’t remember exactly what the process was now, but we ended up playing «Brown Sugar.» And I just played that solo on it. And Jimmy Miller, who was there that night, and Mick said, «Can you do that again?» I said, «Hell, I don’t know what I did then, but if I did it once I can do it again.» I think we made a date – we didn’t do it the night of the party, but I came back in and did the solo. It was the first take. Any other sessions with the Stones that really stand out to you as your favorites? Oh, man.

Well, I gotta say, the time in the South of France [for Exile on Main St.] stands out, pretty much. That was about a six-month-long session. It’s hard to say. I loved the sessions I did with John Lennon for «Whatever Gets You Thru The Night.» That was one take. I try to play the best I can every time I play. But there’s just some folks that seem to draw a little bit of that extra special out of you. And that’s what I’ve felt, primarily with the Stones and with John. And Delaney & Bonnie and Joe Cocker! What’s your favorite gig you ever played with the Stones? I think 1972 Madison Square Garden in July with Stevie Wonder opening the show. I remember plastering a cop right smack in the face with a lemon meringue pie. I remember it was a conclusion of the Stones’ tour in ’72 and New York was definitely Rolling Stones’ town. And I think we played three or four nights at Madison Square Garden, and it was the last night. You’ve played with a lot of legendary acts. Is there something about the Stones that’s different – a certain magic when they play?

They’re not the greatest virtuosos at their instruments, but when they play, they really have a sound. Yeah! It is. If you believe in the magic of rock & roll, which I devoutly do, it isn’t in the individual. I’ve played in bands with A-team players around. But unless they can play together, it doesn’t do any good. And you can take guys who may not stand on their own up against a bunch of individuals they might be compared to, but you put ’em together, man, and they are unique unto themselves in a way that no one else can touch. You can get the finest A-team musicians in the world, put ’em together, and there’s no guarantee it’s gonna swing. But these guys, man, they’ve just got that natural thing about it. That’s part of the music that I come from, cause I can’t read music, I have no idea what’s gonna come out of that horn half the time. I mean, I have an idea now. But I can’t read music. That’s not where I come from musically. I come strictly from feeling, and that feeling comes from rock & roll.

Bobby Keys – Bobby Keys [1972] (Full Album) Bobby Keys’ self-titled debut is a bit of an odd beast. He’s got one of the most amazing résumés in rock music as a sideman, so it’s no surprise that there’s quite a lineup on this album. Appearing are George Harrison, Jack Bruce, Ringo Starr, and possibly Eric Clapton, amongst many other famous players (proper credits would have been nice). Horn charts were by Keys’ cohort Jim Price (who also played trumpet and keyboards) and the album was produced by Keys, Jim Gordon, and Andy Johns. It sounds great on paper, but the sound is more like backing tracks in search of a song, and only slightly more than a jam session with nice horn charts. It’s not bad, it’s just a bit disappointing. The liner notes indicate that the album took almost a year and suggest that Keys was not entirely into it. He only played live on one track («Altar Rock») and it opens and closes as a bit of a proto-smooth jazz snoozer. Keys was also quick to note that the album was not the beginning of a solo career and kind of knocks his own playing.

Of course, some people are better sidemen than bandleaders, but this was also a time of notorious partying (recording began after Keys, Price, and Nicky Hopkins wrapped up the Exile on Main St. tour). That said, the album isn’t bad, just a bit on the slight side. The horn charts are great and there are some nice solos, particularly on guitar on what was once side two of the album. If you like the sound of the «Apple Jam» LP from All Things Must Pass (which also featured many of the players here), you’ll probably like Bobby Keys. (Review by Sean Westergaard) Bobby Keys – Bobby Keys [1972] (Full Album) Tracklist: 00:00 Steal From A King 4:52 04:52 Smokefoot 3:51

Question: Who is a saxophone player from Slaton, Texas, who has performed with musicians such as Bobby Vee, Buddy Holly, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen?
Answer: Bobby Keys