Who's the better guitarist Mick Taylor or Ron Wood? Taylor took them to a new level while Wood stays stagnant.

Also do you think the Stones would have imploded if Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page was hired to replace Brian Jones? The Stones were the best they could have ever become when Taylor joined while still playing with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, I think he was only 19 at the time. He added an air of sophistcation & class to a typical English band at the time. Without breaking through to a higher level of their chosen profession they would have fallen by the wayside as so many of their English brothers did, including the Beatles. George Martin took them to a new level but without him they would have faded away. If you are a nonbeliever listen to the garbage "Sir Paul" puts out. Also"Sir Mick" didn't do much better on his own. Richards may have been a junkie or a drunkard but at least he would still be playing since he has music in his blood & can't help but do anything but play. all of the others would have said oh yeah I played for a while back in the 60's but then I had to get a real job.

Mick Taylor was by far their best lead guitarist, the most technically proficient and the best with a slide. Had Keef's jealousy and Mick's refusal to cut him in for a proper share of the songwriting credits not caused a rift, then the Stones would have had more classic albums in the 70s, instead of going into decline.

Ron Wood has never seemed more than a journeyman, to me. Not a great guitarist by any means - I have Stones DVDs where he's clearly playing the wrong leads over Richards' rhythms.

Robert Palmer of The New York Times once wrote that "Mick Taylor is the most accomplished technician who ever served as a Stone. A blues guitarist with a jazzman's flair for melodic invention, Taylor was never a rock and roller and never a showman."

Is Ron Wood any of those, I wonder?

Sounds like you've decided the answers to your questions ahead of time.

Just because someone is a great technical guitarist does not mean that they will be a good "Rolling Stone". Being in a band is like being married to 4 other guys while your on tour. Did you choose your wife because she was the best technical cook, or because she was best at washing clothes? I doubt it. You choose someone that you think that you can get along with for years at a time.

Also, why would you need the world's best guitarist in what is pretty much a garage band. Sounds like overkill to me.

Yeah, what Bowzer said....

Gram Parsons apparently had quite an impact on Keith Richards playing during the Exile On Main Street sessions in France. As for taking guitar work to a new level, since copy protection was lifted from the Live Licks CD, I was able to give a fresh listen to it and conclude that the "weaving" (as Keith Richards terms it) has taken guitar duets to unsurpassed levels in recent years. Having someone who's job is to keep several guitars, some with very unusual tunings certainly helps in that. That little black round bodied guitar with the sitar sound certainly helps Ronnie Wood get the riff on Paint It Black sound right. Too often the roots of Ronnie Wood are forgotten. Just listen to his credentials in early Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, and Small Faces albums. More recently I was concerned about the flavour of bass being changed when Bill Wyman was replaced by Jones (the name sure fits) as in Darryl Jones, whose virtuoso playing has a flair that prevented stagnation from setting in. Jones is a more than adequate substitute for Wyman. And for those of us who are Bill Wyman fans, what a body of work he has released in the past two decades. Don't forget to read Bill Wyman's "Rolling With The Stones" or to get the 2 CD set of music that goes with Bill's book "Blues Odyssey". What a body of work would've been lost had Bill Wyman remained content to simply fill in for Darryl Jones on bass.

As for Mick Taylor, I am mostly familiar with his live versions of Rolling Stones material and his work with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It was almost a shame that Mick Taylor had to leave the Bluesbreakers to join The Rolling Stones. But all things considered, and using John Mayall's 70th Birthday Concert DVD/CD as a reference here, one could argue that replacing Buddy Whittington with Mick Taylor would be a crime. As for new levels, guitarists each have their own unique voice when it comes to guitar sound and expressions. Otherwise, guitar playing would be a generic sound akin to playing the same record over and over.

So as for stagnation with The Rolling Stones, it usually takes me a while to warm up to the new material. But over time, the new material settles in, finds its place in one's psyche, and the nostalgia factor takes over from the curiosity factor. Eventually the oldies need a rest and it's time to listen to the recent stuff again. Suddenly with memories of the Biggest Bang dvd come to mind as another video one wishes one had time to watch again and A Bigger Bang (copy protection now removed) comes as an underplayed godsend to listen to at work. By this time A Bigger Bang sounds so good, more recent material becomes truly desirable. Quick, break out Bridges To Babylon and Flip The Switch. Oh boy! Break out the Voodoo Lounge. I haven't heard that one nearly enough and the CD has a bonus track that the LP version didn't have. Yay! Quick, break out Steel Wheels. I need an oldie. Heck, Steel Wheels is almost two decades old now. Welcome back Bill Wyman.