Is Ron Wood genuinely a guitar giant who has avoided having his own contribution to rock music in general hidden by his association with Keef?

Who?

No!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry but no. RW is a classic case of having the right drinking buddies at the right time. He was a pretty good bass player with The Jeff Beck Group and a perfectly sloppy lead guitarist for The Faces/Rod Stewart. He joined the Stones at the time when their own quality control was going downhill and Keef needed someone to a) party with and b) cover up for his own drug-orientated technical inadequecies.

He did all of Cliff Richards guitar solos on the Summer Holiday soundtrack, don't you know! Only joking!

Have to disagree here...Ronnie Wood is a great 'sideman' maybe not the greatest technical guitar player of all time, but on the other hand doesn't have to prove anything to anyone on here for God's sake! He's in one of the greatest rock bands of all time for f*cks sake!
BUT!!! must admit to preferring the Stones when Mick Taylor was in the band..so what the hell do I know anyway!

He's a far better painter than he is a guitarist - I'm having him round to do my kitchen ceiling next week as a matter of fact.

Spot on, Schizo. Sideman's the key word here. Apart from anything else, Woody & Keef are too similar (in more ways than one!), and although most Stones fans probably don't care about virtuosity, there's been none at all since MT quit. Some great riffs for sure, but no memorable solos. Ditto the Faces.

can somebody suggest a few things we can listen to to judge - how do we tell what's Keef and what's Woody ?

it was almost all downhill after brian jones and mick taylor in my opinion

I don't agree - he's actually a fantastic guitarist and much better than Keef Richards. He's just a bit of a tosspot, that's all.

Woody & Keef are both greats because they've got a lot of feel, which is important for the type of music they play. Whether or not any their any of their playing is memorable is not as important as the overall contribution they make to the sound of The Stones and The Faces. It's hard to think of two (white) bands with more raw feeling.

Ron Wood - 'The King of 'Neckerchief Rock', is a fine r&b guitarist, full stop.

He did however make a damn fine album with Bobby Womack called 'Now Look'. It's definitely worth a listen if you can ever find a copy, that is.

Cheers
MC

think "fantastic" is too strong - as G Dixon says he has "feel" , good raw playing exemplified by some Faces performances as well, but not particularly memorable, original or technically proficient. A strong contribution to r 'n' b and excellent at tossing pots.

Ron Wood, if he could.........would almost certainly want to bring back Ronnie Lane.

Great guitarist? Don't think so, but, frankly who cares, he helped produce a great *sound* with the Faces, and that's enough for me.

Good thread!

Woody does tend to be written off as a good time boy, sometimes rightly so. I'd agree that he was a perfect fit for the Faces and (to a lesser extent) the latter day Stones. I'd agree that the Stones began to drop off the radar after Some Girls (yes, boring viewpont to take, I know, sorry) but I don't think that was necessarily RW's fault, more that Keef was starting to lack discipline and Mick was more interested in becoming a businessman.

I'd also agree that Mick Taylor's presence took the Stones to a new level; shame they couldn't see their way to giving him a cut, he might have stayed.

Having said all that, Woody's Now, Look (recently re-released by Warners at a budget price) is indeed excellent and enjoyable....though not because of the guitar work.

he was on top form with the Move but that Wizzard stuff was way over the top. silly haircut and makeup.

if you listed to Rod Stewert's 1st 4 albums, especially Never A Dull Moment, Wood's contribution gives the album a raw edge that was missing from his later albums. So yeah, I rate Ron Wood.

'ow d'yer 'now it was 'im though?

I don't particularly rate Ron Wood's lead guitar-playing, although he is very good at what he does. He is a good riff-merchant, which allows him to work well with Keith; The Stones were never really about widdly guitar solos anyway. I doubt very much that Ron Wood cares what we think either, not do I imagine he'd claim to be any kind of guitar-god. I reckon he'd consider the whole thing to be BS.

Fair point AH, but on the other hand we don't care that Ron Wood doesn't care.

I lost interest when he became one of those ubiquitous showbiz celebs, bragging about his drug intake, etc. The Faces, though, were great, and he was a large reason for that. Anyone who played that perfectly-distorted guitar on Cindy Incidentally is ok in my book.

Keef and Ronnie vs. Ade Belew and Robt Fripp - in the two guitar players in one band that play in such a way as to fill in the missing notes so completely that they sound like one amazing player doing it all on their own?

Two versions of the ancient art of weaving as Keef would say.

Look, just because he's not flashy or a jazz-standard soloist doesn't mean he can't be considered great. For the type of music he plays - rough-hewn r'n'b-based rock and boogie, which in itself is essentially rhythmic, he has few peers. If you find it too difficult to distinguish between him and Keef, then check out The Faces four albums and you'll see what I mean. Highly competent, consistent, authentic and right on the money.

Martin, I was not criticising Ronnie. I reckon he is one of the unsung key guitar players, often overlooked because he can fit into any situation without drawing attention to himself. He and Keith mesh so well that at times it is hard to figure out who is playing what. One way of distinguishing them is to listen out for the steel guitar, slide work, sitar guitar and other stringed instruments that Keith steers clear of. He definitely carried the lions share of the last Stones tour. If he had not been there Keith would have been completely hung out to dry. The opposite of the 40 Licks tour almost.

His bass playing is fairly nifty as well as can be heard on Emotional Rescue, Undercover and Dirty Work on various tracks. He was just right for Jeff Beck when Rod still sang with him. He was a keystone to the Faces. The soundtrack to Maloneys Last Stand with Ronnie Lane had some great tracks on it.

His solo albums suffered thanks to his inability to sing. The New Barbarians could have been contenders if they had a decent singer. That gig in Largo has the best/worst version of honky Tonk Women ever, best if you like it loose and rough around the edges. The rest of it is hard to listen to more than once as they(he and Keith to those who have not heard of the New Barbs) are both patently hammered out of their brains. At least they had a great back line.

He played on Rods best tracks when Rod went "solo".

Mick Taylor was an entirely different style of player. He was there to pull off solos on top of Keiths rock solid rhythm playing. I reckon he was playing hammer ons way back before they became fashionable, at least it sounds like it on the Lost Brussels boot. He was there to be flash, Ronnie was brought on board to add texture. This he has done so well that he has been overlooked!

He and Keith work incredibly well together, just like Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp. I reckon he deserves much more writing credit than the self serving Mick and Keith gave him.

They are both fine guitarists and they compliment and support one another. Jeff Beck admires Ronnie and so should we. They are like a cheese sandwich, without one you have cheese, without the other you have bread; bring the together and you have something tasty! ;-)