Posted by Daniel in Dallas on February 22, 1999 at 10:50:43:
In Reply to: Re: Re: comments on Milwaulkee show posted by PeteyBoyBlue on February 20, 1999 at 19:31:17:
I am waiting for Chicago in April as well as a yet to be announced return to Dallas to offer my thoughts on the new down-to-basics set
. But there is a lot of truth to the fact that Bobby Keyes is not well known as a great sax player. Josh Redman is not either. But if you listen to the Cannonball Adderly tune that the Stones have used to get to the smaller stage, there is unbelieveable work by Cannonball Adderly. And that may be what is missing from many reviews by writers and by Stones fans--the ability to distinguish the quality of the sax work inside a Stones show and the sax work that is available in the music world as whole.
Lots of people think that the sax player who made his fame with Springsteen is the cats' meow, but there again is a passion for the music of the headliner with the sax blended into it, with a player who would not stand on his own outside of the band that he became known in.
How could this problem be admitted to by Stones fans? By admitting that our passion for the entire group, even after all these years has been generated by the history of the Stones as well as our own history personally as we evolved with them. We cared less about whether Bobby was great or not great but that he was there--helping to perpetuate the entire sound that we have loved for so long. We worried about his being there not because we would miss his playing; we simply did not want anyone up there playing his sax lines and making the show look like the Stones were attempting to imitate their own sound with replacement personell. We don't want a Bobby Sound Alike on Brown Sugar-- who could hear that and like it?
We have had to endure some difficult changes in the band, and the current members are now our favorites and we do not want any more changes.
I do not want to walk into the Stone show in six weeks and not see Bobby. But I do know that in fifty years the writers will talk about Mick and Keith and not the revolutionary sax lines of Bobby Keys.
For great sax -buy a Bobby Watson CD, or one by Cannonball Adderly or one by the great and young Ron Carter (not the bass player) or even Phil Woods or many others. I could give you list of fifty sax players or more and not even think about Bobby unless my list was "great sax players who have worked for the Stones"
Sorry about the lenthy response--but this is a point worth the comments of all who read--give me your thoughts pro or con.
And don't think for a minute that I am not looking forward to hearing Bobby when I go to see the show.