Archive for Mick Jagger

Rick Rubin: ‘I hope Mick Jagger/Red Devils comes out’

Posted in red devils with tags , , on February 16, 2020 by J.J.

With the recent reissue of Mick Jagger’s four solo albums on 180 gram vinyl, it’s time again for everyone to lament that the Mick Jagger/Red Devils 1992 blues sessions have still not been issued officially.

Everyone including Jagger’s producer.

“It’s incredible, (but) it’s up to Mick,” Rick Rubin said in an Ultimate Classic Rock story from 2016. “He’s the artist. … He gets to do what he wants to do. But it’s great, and I hope it comes out.”

Red-Devils-with-Mike-Jagger-from-late-last-century

Legendary producer Rubin had success with everyone from the Beastie Boys to Johnny Cash to Slayer to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But outside of “King King,” it seemed he was snakebit when it came to the Red Devils (the band’s aborted second Def American album, unreleased Cash sessions, and the often-bootlegged Jagger recordings were all helmed by Rubin).

The blues session was recorded in June 1992 during the making of Jagger’s third solo record, 1993’s “Wandering Spirit.” Since then, just one song, “Checkin’ Up On My Baby,” has been officially released from those tapes.

And while the Red Devils session has taken on mythic proportions in Jagger lore, the forgettable “Wandering Spirit” is out again 27 years later, on two 180 gram LPs, with no bonus tracks.

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Never heard, never sold

Posted in red devils with tags , on May 2, 2015 by J.J.

Unfortunately, most Red Devils press these days is of the “best band to never …” variety.IMG_8641

The group is mentioned in another book with the focus again on the aborted Mick Jagger solo album.

“The Greatest Albums You’ll Never Hear” by Bruno MacDonald covers much of the same ground as the essential “The Greatest Music Never Sold” by Dan LeRoy.

The difference is the sheer number of albums MacDonald covers, and how he breaks it up decade by decade. Where LeRoy focused on a handful of long-wished-for dream records, MacDonald tackles all kinds of albums that have never been released — including some it seems were never even recorded.

For Red Devils fans, the Mick Jagger solo record is taken on in just one column of text, and is clearly not a main event in the book. It breezes through the usual talking points, with no new info offered.

The Dan LeRoy book is still the essential reading for hardcore Red Devils fans.

You can likely find “The Greatest Albums You’ll Never Hear,” now several months old, still out in stores.

From "The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear"

From “The Greatest Albums You’ll Never Hear”

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Classic Rock: Finding the real story in the grooves

Posted in red devils with tags , , , , , on April 9, 2014 by J.J.

Photo Apr 07, 8 56 57 PM

With Classic Rock 195 now out in the U.S. — the U.K. Queen cover replaced by Slash — The Red Devils’ story is being read by more people than ever before.

Seeing high praise from Billy Gibbons and Rick Rubin, not to mention the Mick Jagger and Johnny Cash connections, it is hard to fathom the band won’t belatedly pick up a few new fans.

Photo Apr 07, 1 10 56 PM

Reaction to the magazine last month, where it was first released in Europe, was strong. Seeing the band’s young faces, so vivid on glossy paper, tucked among rock royalty through the pages, was a treat.

Described on the U.S. cover as “cult heroes,” The Red Devils’ story is so much more than that. “King King” was just a moment in time; the lifespan of the “famous” Red Devils — Butler, Bateman, Bartel, Bartel and Size — was only about two years, the length of “The Kid’s” stay in the band.

The Red Devils’ legacy is built on woulda-coulda-shoulda: How many bands are featured in a book called “The Greatest Music Never Sold” and a magazine article subtitled “The greatest bands you’ve never heard”?

Unfortunately the band’s bullet points — a little neighborhood blues band gets discovered, finds fame, tours the world, breaks up, the singer eventually dying much too young — are almost too easy to tell. It doesn’t play as well for the real lives found in between the grooves. And a four-page article, or one chapter of a book, cannot contain the whole story.

I still believe the real story lies somewhere on those nights, playing for a barroom full of friends and fans, creating music and memories that would still be as vivid nearly a quarter century later.

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Red Devils coming to Classic Rock magazine

Posted in red devils with tags , , , on January 5, 2014 by J.J.

More than 21 years after “King King,” The Red Devils are ready for international exposure again.

UK journalist Paul Rees has taken on the Devils for an article for an upcoming edition of Classic Rock magazine.

The story comes on the heels of a feature in the November 2013 Classic Rock on unreleased albums. Rees wrote an item on the Mick Jagger blues album. No new ground was broken, but it serves as a prelude to a larger feature on the Devils.
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1992: Red Devils find the Size that fits

Posted in paul size, red devils with tags , , , , , on February 24, 2013 by J.J.

Very nice article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the early days of Paul Size in the band.

RED DEVILS FIND THE SIZE THAT FITS
by Dave Ferman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Sept. 11, 1992

Texas-born blues guitarist Paul Size readily will admit that he’s been real lucky so far in his musical career.

Born in Dallas and raised in Denton, Size, 21 just weeks ago, was happy playing blues and R&B in Denton bars backing legendary singer Pops Carter; he was playing the music he loved with good buddy Jon Moeller (now guitarist for Texas Heat) and just having fun.

Then a friend told him the Red Devils — Los Angeles’ hottest blues band — was looking for a new guitarist. Size packed, journeyed to California, auditioned, got the gig, and less than a year later the Devils (having gained a rep as the favorite El Lay band of Mick Jagger, the Black Crowes, Bruce Willis and other slumming celebs) have a CD, “King King,” out on Def American, have cut 13 tracks with Jagger and spent the summer touring with the Allman Brothers, Little Feat, Bob Dylan and Los Lobos.

“Yeah, I was walking into something pretty big without knowing it,” says Size by phone from South Carolina on the eve of the band’s final date with the Allmans (the Red Devils headline Dallas’ Trees on Thursday). “We just kind of clicked together — the band needed a guitar player and they decided to keep me.”
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Paul Size on getting robbed at Mick Jagger’s birthday party, more

Posted in paul size with tags , , , , , on February 7, 2012 by J.J.

As part of the interviews for his 2011 book “Jagger: Rebel, Rock Star, Rambler, Rogue,” author Marc Spitz has uploaded some of his audio interviews to SoundCloud.

Paul Size was a prime source for Chapter 19, “The Red Devils’ Blues,” which once again tells the tale of the Devils, the King King, Jagger’s blues mojo and the ill-fated Jagger/Devils album that never really came to be.

In this clip, Size talks about playing Jagger’s birthday party in London — and getting robbed for his troubles. The elusive Dave Lee Bartel makes a cameo in the story to save the day in ultimate rhythm guitar fashion.

Spitz next draws comparisons to The Red Devils to two other blues-based “color” bands: The White Stripes and The Black Keys, then Size gives his take on the Jagger sessions, and if he’d like to see them released officially.

Paul Size fans will get a chance to see him in action as he joins Big Pete as special guest at the Simi Valley Cajun and Blues Music Festival May 27.

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“If they’re buying drinks, then you’re making money”

Posted in red devils with tags , , , on May 22, 2011 by J.J.

Thanks to Paul Brown of the UK for this clip from the May 1993 edition of Rock Compact Disc Magazine. Interesting for Lester Butler’s pulling back on the Mick Jagger stories by this point and laughing off the image of Jagger being “whisked away” from the Devils after the session.

Note also the alternate publicity shot: In color, with Bill Bateman obscured by Jonny Ray Bartel. (Click on the image to read the article.)

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Rowdy morning on KCRW + 1 new song, 1992

Posted in red devils with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2010 by J.J.

A great “new” tape has surfaced of The Red Devils performing live in the studio on San Diego radio station KCRW’s long-running program “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” showcasing a new tune, different arrangements, and an interview with the band.

Jon Miller up in Seattle dug the tape out of storage, and sent a copy along to nofightin.com, and it’s a good one. Though the recording is incomplete — picking up toward the end of a searing version of “I Was Wrong” — it is impressive for what’s there, including a rowdy trio shuffle new to nofightin.com.

LISTEN: The rare “Blues in the Morning” shuffle with Lester Butler, Mike Flanigin and Bill Bateman [MP3] [Updated March 4, 2016, to reflect correct personnel]

The airdate, as marked on the original cassette dubbed live from the radio, is dated 12/7/92, though host Chris Douridas mentions that the Devils’ segment was taped the previous Friday. The timeline is corroborated by the Dec. 7 Los Angeles Times review of a Friday evening gig in L.A.

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Rubin bio gives hints of producer at work

Posted in red devils with tags , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2010 by J.J.

Simply calling Rick Rubin a “producer” misses what has made him such an important modern musical figure: He has been a guru, shaman, caretaker, curator, therapist and friend for many artists, coaxing some to produce their greatest music ever. What he does simply cannot be reproduced.

Using already-published interviews as a backbone, author Jake Brown constructs a discography-based look at Rubin’s career in the recently released book “Rick Rubin: In the Studio” (ECW Press). Not a tabloidy tell-all, “In the Studio” instead is a gearhead’s delight, giving some insight into the famed Rick Rubin recording process.

Red Devils fans, however, will be let down — the Devils’ Rubin-produced “King King” is not mentioned save for a discography at the back of the book. The lone mention of the Devils in the text is a graph about the Mick Jagger blues sessions, not even noting that this “Los Angeles blues ensemble” was a Def American band.

However, there are some insights that can be gleaned into “King King” by studying Rubin’s other works and his philosophy — his less is more, or “production by reduction,” style.

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The Greatest Music Never Sold

Posted in red devils with tags , , , on February 21, 2009 by automatic32

There’s a relatively new book out on the market that it seems not many people know about, or at least not many of the people who hang out here, and that needs to change.

Journalist Dan LeRoy, who has written for the likes of the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Newsweek, among others, took it upon himself to pen a fantastic little collection of stories about rock albums that have been finished but never released. Titled “The Greatest Music Never Sold,” LeRoy tells the story behind nine major rock artists’ albums that are done, in the can, completed, ready to rock, yet sit on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.

What does this have to do with the Red Devils, you ask? Awesome as they were, they never wore the mantle of Major Rock Artists. As such, nothing they did on their own should even merit a mention by Mr. LeRoy. However, the Devils, being generally wonderfully talented musicians, attracted the attention of major artists and individuals in the industry, Rick Rubin being the obvious example. It’s through this side door that the Devils snuck to make their name as more than just another bar band or run-of-the-mill neo-classic blues outfit. Rubin brought the Devils formally in touch with the likes of Mick Jagger and Johnny Cash, and the former is the reason we can be so grateful to LeRoy.
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