Mick Jagger & The Red Devils - The Famous Blues Session
 This is a recording I found out about via Dan Leroy's book The Greatest Music Never Sold. I
remember reading an online review of the book where someone complained
that a chapter about Mick Jagger's solo work from his later career
shouldn't be a concern of anyone, but they must not have read the book
because Mick has very little to do with the story.
The Red Devils
were a blues-rock band from LA featuring members of The Blasters (Bill
Bateman, drums) and The Knitters (Johnny Ray Bartel, bass) but the
majority of the focus fell on the band's vocalist and harmonica player,
Lester Butler. Not to ignore the other band members (Dave Lee Bartel and
Paul Size, both guitarists), but Lester got a lot of hype for his
presence and the band got signed to Rick Rubin's American Recordings
where they released one album, King King in 1992, and an EP in 1994. The
album is considered a classic and Rubin gets props for recording the
band live without overdubs to capture their vibe, but he had bigger
things in store for the band.
While producing Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit, it was decided
that the Devils would back Mick on a collection of classic blues covers.
What followed was described by the band as Mick, whom they had just
met, essentially becoming one of the guys and they all fell in love with
him. An album's worth of songs were recorded but sat in the vault with
no promise of release. Mick had said he loved the recordings and might
release them as an album unto itself, but his relationship with the band
became strained when he stopped communicating with them regularly. A
few shows were performed in the UK with the Devils as his backing band
but, apart from that, zilch.
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