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Addicted
He's just about the only person who can make fun of it. It's called self irony. And it's a great survival strategy.
When people with no empathy and no knowledge of what happened make jokes about it, it's more like evil.
There's a difference here. I'm sure you understand, when you've given it some thought.

i understand what you say - but whole-heartedly disagree with you, as i'm sure keith would...

He'd never joke about someone else's serious illness. He's got more than his portion of empathy - and the biggest, warmest heart. But he's full of self irony. I've experienced this myself.

So true. He'd never poke fun at Elton John writing songs for Dead Blondes or joke about snorting his Dad's ashes, either.

Bottom line - anyone who made coconut tree jokes was still ecstatic that Keith was okay. Humor doesn't always translate as insensitivity. Hardly the same thing as crass jokes about Mick's dad passing away and the paramedics mistaking Keith for Joe as was seen in an editorial cartoon at the time. Gallows humor is not to everyone's taste, but it isn't mean-spirited so much as it is irreverent and that is certainly something an old Max Miller fan like Keith also embraces.

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Addicted
He'd never joke about someone else's serious illness. He's got more than his portion of empathy - and the biggest, warmest heart. But he's full of self irony. I've experienced this myself.

you have experienced self-irony?

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Rocky Dijon
So true. He'd never poke fun at Elton John writing songs for Dead Blondes or joke about snorting his Dad's ashes, either.

Bottom line - anyone who made coconut tree jokes was still ecstatic that Keith was okay. Humor doesn't always translate as insensitivity. Hardly the same thing as crass jokes about Mick's dad passing away and the paramedics mistaking Keith for Joe as was seen in an editorial cartoon at the time. Gallows humor is not to everyone's taste, but it isn't mean-spirited so much as it is irreverent and that is certainly something an old Max Miller fan like Keith also embraces.

well said. i'm sure keith was laughing along with the rest of us (or i guess just most of us) at the late-night humor and fun poked at him after his incident was made public. this episode was almost too good to be true for the comedians of the day.

Part of an article from today's New Zealand Herald: everyone knows what "pulling a Keith Richards" means. The story has passed into worldwide folklore, whether it happened or not.

Survivor Rarotonga: Hacks on racks

3:20PM Monday May 18, 2009
Alanah May Eriksen

For a group of people whose careers supposedly revolve around observation, not noticing the massive coconut tree we were building our sleeping quarters under was a bit of a blow to the confidence.

When we discovered the wasp nest next to the hut, our professional self-esteem was pretty much destroyed. Deserted islands do strange things to people.

Thinking we'd watched enough to understand how uninhabited islands worked (minus the imaginary polar bears and the other weird phenomena), our group of Kiwi journos spent three hours clambering up palm trees for leaves - at the risk of pulling a Keith Richards - weaving them together and constructing a modest, yet snug, bivouac without doing what is apparently second nature to local Cook Islanders: looking up.

"I always look up," explained one of our guides, Ngaakitai Pureariki, or Ngaa.

"Even when I go to the city, I look up at signs and things like that; you never know what could come down."

In his laidback island way, Ngaa pointed out that if one of the rock-hard fruits were to come loose and fall 100m from its perch during the night, we may not be delivered back to our five-star resort intact, or we'd be a little bit cuckoo-nuts at the very least.

....and so on and so forth: full article here:
[www.nzherald.co.nz]

Maybe Keith just forgot to look up?

Just ta lighten things up a bit .......








The Australian - 20 May 2009



ROCKMAN

I could stick a knife in my heart
Suicide right on stage
Would it be enough for your teenage lust
Would it help to ease the pain? Ease your brain?

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Elmo Lewis
Is he the same? Does anybody really know his condition, mentally or physically?

One might ask that for 40 years already..

I hear from reliable sources that he is back where he was pre-fall - that was a major ordeal and it takes time, especially when you're not 20 years old...

Hasnt he smashed with his car once or twice or more much more serious?

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chelskeith
I hear from reliable sources that he is back where he was pre-fall - that was a major ordeal and it takes time, especially when you're not 20 years old...

Id imagine it would be, and thats excellent news if what you're reporting is correct.

Indeed it would be or are excellent news!

I read somewhere or heard somewhere that he had/has to take darvon or something like that as an anti-seizure medicine and that medicine makes one very sleepy. But who knows how long he is supposed to be taking it. Plus from personal experience, head injuries cause one to be quite tired afterwards for quite some time as the brain heals.

So what's the conspiracy? That I don't think this coconut tree is the truth or that...he got hurt from a coconut tree?

That it's all part of the myth of Keith? Which is it that some of you are harping about?

Well, he's been reported to have appeared "sober" - not the most common term in a vocabulary to describe Keith Richards - quite a lot recently...

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-20 10:39 by Doxa.

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thkbeercan
the tree story always sounded a bit like the one where he fell down a ladder in his library and they had to postpone their planned 98 UK summer tour for a year....

UK summer 98 was postponed because of tax reasons, the mysterious ladder fall caused rescheduling or canceling a couple of dates in May and early June, they kicked off the 98 European leg finally in Nuremberg, June 13, and afterwards they have to cancel or reschedule some shows because of Mick's illness.

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chelskeith
I hear from reliable sources that he is back where he was pre-fall - that was a major ordeal and it takes time, especially when you're not 20 years old...

He's fine - and with a great tan. Very eager to work.
He'll show his "amateur doctors" on iorr.org just how wrong they are.

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Addicted

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chelskeith
I hear from reliable sources that he is back where he was pre-fall - that was a major ordeal and it takes time, especially when you're not 20 years old...

He's fine - and with a great tan. Very eager to work.
He'll show his "amateur doctors" on iorr.org just how wrong they are.

About time. He didn´t exactly prove it the last tour.

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Addicted
He'll show his "amateur doctors" on iorr.org just how wrong they are.

depends on the ticket prices...

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Honestman
Here's the true story.

At this time, Keith wanted to release a new cover version
of Jimmy CLIFF' standard, and he wanted to know why after writing
"The harder they come", Jimmy CLIFF had written "The harder they fall".
So we can say now that climbing on a tree is not easy
and Keith
is really happy because he could answer to this question that shattered him!

That's all

HMN

So, you're saying Keith fell off a CLIFF?

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thkbeercan
the tree story always sounded a bit like the one where he fell down a ladder in his library and they had to postpone their planned 98 UK summer tour for a year....

I seriously don't think that was their excuse / reason for not playing in the U.K. in 1998. They did play during the summer of 1998,well into September,just not in the U.K..

Then I'm right. Good to know.

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tumbled
I read somewhere or heard somewhere that he had/has to take darvon or something like that as an anti-seizure medicine and that medicine makes one very sleepy. But who knows how long he is supposed to be taking it. Plus from personal experience, head injuries cause one to be quite tired afterwards for quite some time as the brain heals.

Dilantin

[en.wikipedia.org]

I read somewhere that the post accident treatment was more problematical because of the quantity (did I say quality?)of drugs which Keith had taken over the years.

In other words, if it had been Cliff RICHARD who had had the accident, the healing process would have been much quicker.

With God on his side?

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Addicted
He's just about the only person who can make fun of it. It's called self irony. And it's a great survival strategy.
When people with no empathy and no knowledge of what happened make jokes about it, it's more like evil.
There's a difference here. I'm sure you understand, when you've given it some thought.

no..it's called self-deprecation...

Awright then. It's obviously obvious - Keith did NOT fall out of a coconut tree. He tripped and fell on a rock, hit his head. Why, of course, is another issue.

There was a time in wich i seriously thought that the brain surgery was because a brain tumor; now he looks healhtier
maybe, by that time, he was takin corticosteroid and anti-comicial treatment; and if he drinks some alcohol..............is very difficult to stand up and play

Anti-comical treatment?><

It not a big secret really. Both Keith and Ronnie (who was there too) have said several times that Keith had a swim, and then he was sitting on a tree branch that was something like 2-3 inches above ground. Problem is he was wet, slipt, lost his balance, fell off the tree branch, and went to the ground. Next problem was there was a solid rock on the ground, and Keith hit it with his head. Accidents happen. It was a serious problem, his family was with him during the operation, and he was told there might be a chance he would never wake up. Luckily the operation went fine.

He was on medication througn the A Bigger Bang Tour, but I don't think the head injury itself is a major problem. The general problem is like with most of us. Age. But I am sure he will be fine for another 3-4 tours.

They have said it before, and it is the fact. When the next world war is over, the survivors will be cockroaches and Keith Richards.

Bjornulf