Dick Taylor

Although his name is not recognized by most rock fans, Dick Taylor was an important figure in 1960s British rock as lead guitarist and frequent songwriter for The Pretty Things, and has deep ties to the general birth of the British blues-rock scene. A teenage friend of Mick Jagger, he attended the same grammar school in the London suburb Dartford, and began playing with Jagger in the early '60s in the group Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys. Keith Richards started playing with them as well, and the group evolved into The Rolling Stones, adding Brian Jones. There were getting to be too many cooks in the kitchen, and Taylor left the band sometime in 1962, though he might have been able to keep his membership if he'd been willing to switch from guitar to bass. Instead he formed another heavily R&B-influenced rock band, The Pretty Things, with singer Phil May, who (like Taylor and Richards) attended Sidcup Art School.



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