Guns N' Roses vs. Rush!

push me and i will resist wrote:

Satansfuton you are awesome cuz you're a stones fan and you know who bobby keys is!
Waddya know about Gram? Is he on Exhile anywhere ya think or did Mick cut him out?

You might not think I'm so awesome after this, but I've never been really able to get into Gram, Flying Burrito Brothers or Gram's contribution to The Byrds. But I have a lot of respect for Gram. I'm also not a huge Elvis fan, but I respect his talent and influence, I just don't really listen to the music that much. I'd say both men are artists I like in theory, but the actual execution isn't up my alley.

I just don't like country music, I think it stems from being raised in Texas and having country music kind of crammed down my throat. "Alternative Country" from the 60's and 70's I have more respect for, but I just can't always get into it because of the sound. I've enjoyed The Stones country songs though, because they seem pretty tongue in cheek. Especially "The Girl With The Faraway Eyes".

That video still cracks me up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyK1bZZ7E-s

Certainly Gram influenced the Stones, so I appreciate him a lot for that. And his presence at Nellcôte is well documented, such as in this great picture...



... and his influence can be heard all over the album, mostly on the "country side" (Side 2). Officially he's not on the album. I wouldn't put it past Mick to take Gram off the album. Mick was supposedly a little jealous of how close the two were. Or maybe jealousy is the wrong word, but Mick didn't care for outsiders coming in and having influence over his songwriting partner. He wasn't even crazy about Bobby Keys coming into the mix at first. But I don't think it can all be put on Mick, as the story goes, it was Keith who asked Gram to leave Nellcôte, according to the Wikipedia entry (maybe edited by Mick ) for "his obnoxious behaviour and an attempt by Richards to clean the house of drug users as the result of pressure from the French police."

As many pictures as there are of Keith and Gram at Nellcôte jamming together and hanging out, I find it impossible that he didn't lay down any tracks at all. I'm sure they wound up on the cutting room floor. But he could be on there somewhere. Those sessions weren't well documented, it was mainly whoever was sober enough to play whenever somebody got a wild hair up their ass to record something. Many Stones songs from that era don't have a definitive personnel listing (although that have tried to come up with them in hindsight) but you can look at some songs and it will say something like "it's either Charlie Watts or Jimmy Miller on drums" and things like that. So The Stones might not even know if Gram is on the album, but officially he isn't.

Here's an interesting video from the "Ask Keith" segments about Gram. Keith doesn't say anything about Gram playing, or say that Gram influenced him, he seems to think they were kindred spirits leaning in the same direction as opposed to one influencing the other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlczEy9-aZM

Anyway, sorry to derail the thread, but I was asked. Don't EVER get me started on The Stones :nono:

RUSH WINS! RUSH WINNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSS?

Peace