This thread brings to mind an interview I read last week with Jim Dickinson, who played piano on the Stones' "Wild Horses" (and has produced many bands, and incidentally first took Jimmy Page to Sun studios. Oh yeah, he's also the father of 2/3 of the North Mississippi All-Stars.)
Anyhow, here is the relevant part of the interview:
"Q: Did they(the Stones) influence your style in any way?
Jim Dickinson: It's funny to say this now, 'cause my career has been the way it's been, but in 1969 I was basically an R&B session player and I was just starting to get successful. The thing that I learned that I was on the verge of getting too 'slick,' which is now ridiculous to say 'cause I'm known for my stuff being ragged and barely hangin' together, and I learned that from The 'Stones. The way they made records, certainly that record, they just came in like people off the street. I mean, there was no knowledge of recording - they didn't defer to the rules of the studio in any way - they just did what they f****n' believed in. I thought "wait a minute, who's right and who's wrong here?", y'know, obviously what they were doing was working. The best example I can give - I'm not saying that the songs were first takes, 'cause they played the songs over and over, but the first time they could get thru the song without a major mistake, that was the take. They played it back, listened to it and nobody said "should we do it again?", "should we do this, should we do that?" - none of that second-guessing that I was used to y'know? "
http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimdickinson.html
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