Ink 19

To say Bobby Keys was the greatest rock ‘n’ roll sax player is to damn him with faint praise. To recap his legendary life and career:

• Recorded Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup and five more albums with the Rolling Stones.

• Started his touring life on the road with Buddy Holly and Bobby Vee. Recorded “The Wanderer” with Dion.

• Appeared on classics such as George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, the Faces Long Player, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Second Helping, Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, Graham Nash’s Songs For Beginners, Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson, as well as recording with Dr. John, Delaney and Bonnie, Eric Clapton, Joe Ely, Keith Moon, Yoko Ono, Jim Carroll, Chuck Berry, and B.B. King, among others.

• In fact, the only other sax solo you can remember is “Us And Them” on Pink Floyd’s DSOM by Dick Perry. Keys literally played all the rest except for some guy from Jersey named Clarence.

• Fired by Mick Jagger for filling a bath tub with Dom Perignon on the Stones 1973 tour.

• Recorded two albums of his own, and wrote his autobiography Every Night’s A Saturday Night in 2012. <p>

Dan Baird, who played with Keys and some other Nashville notables in “Bobby Keys and the Suffering Bastards” posted this on Facebook:

He was Yosemite Sam, Keef’s twin, a redneck King Curtis and a bonafide rock and roller of the highest order rolled into one man. He played with all 4 Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elvis. No one else ever did. He cut “The Wanderer” when he was 16. He pissed off Yoko. I’m gonna miss you, you ol’ mother fucker. Bad. Godspeed

You can watch the two here on “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’”.

Godspeed indeed, you Lubbock terror. You made a big honkin’ hole that will never be filled.