Rolling Stones- Let It Bleed 55th- Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman

So very many impressions immediately come to mind, and conflicting emotions of great joy and  admiration as well as terrible dread compete, when referencing the Rolling Stones’ November 28, 1969 masterpiece, Let It Bleed.  And that goes double for the Stones themselves who made the landmark recording, including poker-faced original bass player Bill Wyman, and then baby-faced twenty-one year old lead guitarist Mick Taylor, who both join me here In the Studio.

The magazine writers at Rolling Stone publication voted as recently as 2020 that Let It Bleed  should rank as the #41 album of all time for the music, but here we add the  stories of recording “Midnight Rambler”, “Live with Me”, “Monkey Man”, and not one but two quintessential rock classics, “Gimme Shelter” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. The fastest selling Rolling Stones album to date, the artistic and commercial successes of Let It Bleed, and even their notorious image are all tied inexorably to one particular event on the subsequent American tour with a single concert appearance near San Francisco at Altamount Raceway. Both Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor were there for the ramp up, the planning, and eyewitnesses to the violence which effectively slammed the door on the Summer of Love and the Woodstock promise of peace. Of special note in this classic rock interview is Mick Taylor’s eyewitness account of what really happened leading up to, and the day of, the murder during the November 1969 Rolling Stones’ performance.  –Redbeard