There might be a rub between two members that makes each song work, but none of us would be talking about a duo today if they didn’t have a kickass band behind them, and Bob Dylan knew that people like The Rolling Stones had a magic that couldn’t be broken when they started.
When the wayward poet started making his way into rock and roll, though, The Stones were already starting to make waves as a blues outfit. Dylan had already branded himself as a modern-day Woody Guthrie figure in many respects, but if there was anything that he taught his fans, his contemporaries, and especially The Stones, it was that it was far more important to be yourself than trying to emulate your heroes. But even if Mick Jagger and Keith Richards did have some magic between them, they weren’t safe from enduring a few tragedies along the way.
Because no matter how much power they had writing their songs, they were always going to be a different band without Brian Jones. He was the one true bluesman behind everything, and while Mick Taylor was a worthy substitute at the time, their classic albums often feel like listening to a different group whenever he and Richards start weaving together guitar parts and stretching their songs out a little bit more.
But as much as Richards is heralded as one of the kings of rhythm guitar, the rhythm section is normally what makes or breaks any classic band, and Charlie Watts was one of the best in the business. Since he approaches the kit the same way a jazz artist would have played it, you can hear him fiddling around with the way that Richards plays guitar half the time. Both Watts and Bill Wyman may have been the quietest members of the group throughout their tenure, but Wyman was always a bit more melodic than he was given credit for.
He might not have liked grandstanding like other virtuoso bassists, but Wyman’s lines are more felt than heard. Hearing him chug through the background and throw in little melodic touches on ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ is what ties the song together, and as much as ‘Miss You’ is a hamfisted attempt for the group to disco, the reason why it ends up working is thanks to Wyman understanding the kind of octave groove that every disco bass line needed at the time.
And while Dylan was far from the most experienced musician in the world, he knew what made bands tick, and when Wyman left, things had changed in his mind, saying, “I’m not saying they don’t keep going, but they need Bill. Without him they’re a funk band. They’ll be the real Rolling Stones when they get Bill back.” Even though Wyman quietly retired years ago, Darryl Jones is certainly no slouch when covering up for him whenever they play live.
But it’s easy to see where Dylan is coming from. He had preferred when the band were raw and had some power behind them, and while they did discover some new magic on records like Voodoo Lounge, there are pieces of it that have a little too much sheen on the bottom of the mix compared to the melodic touches that Wyman would throw in every now and again.
Even though The Stones had a worthy substitute when Paul McCartney guested with them on Hackney Diamonds, there’s a reason why people went nuts for the song that had Wyman and a posthumous Watts back together as a rhythm section. The band never needed to worry about the quality of the basslines going down, but there’s a certain mojo that comes with the original lineup that can’t really be copied.
