"Keith Richards" ...and so much comes to mind to many. Drugs, the gorgeous Anita Pallenburg, Chuck Berry riffs, fights with Mick, blood transfusions, jail; the list goes on and on. When I hear the name I think of a man who is my musical brother, always have. Get into the weeds on what he think music is, his likes, beliefs and even the construction and you have the same thoughts that run through my mind.
Early on in Keef's career he wrote those powerhouse Stones songs that are considered the greatest rock and roll licks of all time. "Satisfaction", "Jumpin Jack Flash", "Gimme Shelter", these songs are the bedrock of the cannon, what the Torah is to the bible. As Keef says he would figure out the lick, maybe the first line or the title then throw the song to Mick and he would take it from there. It is the genius of their work they way they interacted and the reason why they have been productive for over forty years.
But there is another side and if you delve into the Stones catoluge deeply you can see what they (and because Keef is the main catylst, basically he) is about. In the beginning the Stones set out to be the greatest blues band of all time and that was all. They honed their sound by listening to the great Chicago blues musicians such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. On a side note their name itself is because of Muddy Waters. But Keef wanted the blues and nothing else. At the same time they force fed themselves Motown, whose influence can be seen in later songs. Finally later on in life Keef dove heavy into Reggae, Ska and island music. Combine that with the fact that he has been attached to Ronnie Spector (The Ronnettes) and a whole host of Black women through the years and you just know that this limey from Dartford has more soul than the average white man.
And it is evident in his more mature songwriting, this song in particular and the beautiful trade off of lines between him and another Soul Seductress: Sarah Dash. At this point in Keef's life the Stones were believed to be dead. Mick went off on his own in a vile split to pursue his own record career (which would fail miserably) leaving Keef with the creative bug. He would form the band The Expensive Winos with lesser known but probably more proficient and percise musicians and produce two albums, "Main Offender" and "Talk is Cheap". The scope of musicians who contributed to these albums approaches insanity. Patti Scialfa (Springsteen's wife) does vocals, Chuck Leavell (Eric Clapton's band for decades) on keyboards, Bootsy Collins (Parliment) on bass and Ivan Neville on Piano to name a few.
Both this live version and the studio cut of this track are enthralling. Impossible to catorgize it is a mix of that Motown soul, evident in Sarah's breathlessly sultry Soprano and Keith's smokey rasp making love to the mic, that rock beat driven by Steve Jordan's main bass foot and sharp G tuned guitar riffs. Keef states that he never knew how to sing in such a manner until an engineer turned down all the instruments in his monitors so almost all he heard was his voice, thereby forcing him to whisper into the mic.
It works. As does the subject matter. The complexities of relationships, which of course Keef has had his fair share of and the subtleties of his voice mirror the looks across the room and casual but serious glances at certain body parts. This song could be running into your mistress while walking down the street with your wife, it could be finally having those ten seconds alone with the woman you've been pinning for or even contemplating running into the relationship you have just left as she walked to the corner Korean grocery. The whole time Keef is narriating such events and whispering them into your ear. It is what makes life so hypnatizing and fascinating. It is what puts this song in the epic category above all the other more evident ones this great crafstman has constructed over the years. I ask of you to buy his new book and listen to the man himself instead of myself for if you could converse with the Almighty you wouldn't want a conduit to hear what he has to put down.
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