Nice interview. Seems to me though that the sound is influenced by Velvet Underground & Nico. To a greater extend than Stray Cat Blues, which MJ gives as an example of Velvet-influence.

Great article - thanks. Lovely shot too.

On the same topic this is a great interview with Waddy Watchel telling a very entertaining SFM story (from 1 min 40 onwards)...

I am just the devils advocate here...but is this is a real interview, or did the journalist write an article made up of remarks from various interviews? There's quite some wording that's exactly the same as from previous interviews over the years, and the part about the instrumentation sounds like the journalist had a look at IORR...


I agree.... + Andy Rogan Always stated (and boy do we have a lot of real experience, VHS and DVD evidence), Keith is NOT a BIG stringbreaker.

I have NEVER seen him break a string. NEVER. Not during Concert or watching a video.

Ronnie and Mick are but Keith??? No.

Discuss

You're a rag trade girl, You're the queen of porn, You're the easiest lay on the white house lawn!!

Great read!

Great story. And great picture!

Street Fighting Man is one of my favorites. And I still remember those days when I got "Did Everyone Pay Their Dues?" on a bootleg in the 70's, it was fascination to hear the song in an early stage.It got lost on the last tour, but surprise surprise it is back, and I hope they play SFM on every show as long as they tour! It is the kind of song you never want to end, like JJF...

Bjornulf

i am sure they will play it at the Ziggodome ,Amsterdam, next summer.
Jeroen

Can anyone give a good estimate of when the photo was taken? TIA

Thanks for posting..
Nice interview talking about the good old days.

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MadMax



I agree.... + Andy Rogan Always stated (and boy do we have a lot of real experience, VHS and DVD evidence), Keith is NOT a BIG stringbreaker.

I have NEVER seen him break a string. NEVER. Not during Concert or watching a video.

Ronnie and Mick are but Keith??? No.

Discuss

He broke a string whilst miming at London Palladium in 1967.

I kinda prefer the softer focus production and vocals of Pay Their Dues, also that weird note that appears briefly out of nowhere, pity they nixed that for the re worked song/official release.

Thank you, as ever, bye bye johnny. I just wonder if any of today's musicians go through that kind of creative process. I don't want to do them down, but somehow I don't see it.

The comment about SFM being Charlie's best record resonates with me as I think of the Hyde Park version - the best I've ever heard and a major highlight for me of those two shows.

Great read and awesome picture!

I like the part about "What can a poor boy do?" and Mick returns. To be a fly on the wall.


DP, same guitar as you?

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Mathijs
I am just the devils advocate here...but is this is a real interview, or did the journalist write an article made up of remarks from various interviews? There's quite some wording that's exactly the same as from previous interviews over the years, and the part about the instrumentation sounds like the journalist had a look at IORR...

Mathijs

This happened some 45 years ago. If most of us think back 45 years and try to tell what happened like this, we probably have to did hard in our memory ... I am sure it is a real interview, but over the years the story has been told many times (just check out wikipedia for "Street Fighting Man". So a good journalist would check any story, fill in the blanks, amd make sure it is as accurate as possible, even if the person in the interview migh not remember every tiny detail completely.

The picture is a pro shot in a studio, probably recent, a masterpiece really, congratulations to both the photographer Mark Seliger, but also to the stylist and management who made this true to Keith and his style!

Mark Seliger photos:
[www.managementartists.com]

Some of his great works, Keith, Mick and lots more:
[www.younggalleryphoto.com]

Mark Seliger - Keith photo anno 2011 - another great one:
[nymag.com]

Bjornulf

I think it's very interesting that Keith is talking about this ambitious creative process he had for this song, and his cutting edge approach to sound, a technique that he all but completely abandoned from 1969 on. When was the last time that Keith Richards thought "outside the box" in this way on a Rolling Stones recording session. When was the last time one of their records had a truly interesting guitar sound or sonic texture on it. Why did one of the creative geniuses of the 1960s, suddenly abandon being creative in the studio?

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His Majesty
I kinda prefer the softer focus production and vocals of Pay Their Dues, also that weird note that appears briefly out of nowhere, pity they nixed that for the re worked song/official release.

Love both versions, but I'd have to pick "Dues" because of what you can hear.

I think I like the darker lyrics a little bit more too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-12 17:49 by MingSubu.

Hmm, there's many new to me lil bits in there and I thought I;d read it all by now.

It ain't some slap dash rehash job.

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His Majesty

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MadMax
I have NEVER seen him break a string. NEVER. Not during Concert or watching a video.

He broke a string whilst miming at London Palladium in 1967.

Sure you have! He loses a string in each of the documents called Ladies & Gentlemen -
the Marquee one and the 72 one. Apparently on the same number too (it's Bitch, all right!)

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bv
The picture is a pro shot in a studio, probably recent, a masterpiece really, congratulations to ... the photographer Mark Seliger

That fantastic photo is from a 2011 session used in GQ

Thanks for posting bbj.
Great interview and great pic.

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Maindefender
Can anyone give a good estimate of when the photo was taken? TIA

2011, in time for the September issue of GQ

More from that Seliger session:


[getinthering.fr]

I find it hard to believe Keith's memory is this good. My guess is the questions were pre-submitted and Keith had some time to refresh his memory with the help of a few phone calls to Charlie and others. Only then was the interview done. It may have been an email interview, even though Keith does not do email his assistants do.

IOW this was not a spontaneous interview where you get Keith on the phone and he starts talking and bullshitting with lots of hahahas interspersed

I find it hard to believe Keith's memory is this good.

Geeeeez ..Give the guy a break ... He helped write it...he was there....



ROCKMAN

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Mathijs
I am just the devils advocate here...but is this is a real interview, or did the journalist write an article made up of remarks from various interviews? There's quite some wording that's exactly the same as from previous interviews over the years, and the part about the instrumentation sounds like the journalist had a look at IORR...

Mathijs

yup

A real interview doesn't mean that some background information via former articles or a pre-interview with Keith or someone on his staff didn't happen. That's the way it often works, especially for an article that is this specific.

Why wouldn't the journalist take a look at every available resource on his subject? Some of you make it sound like there's something wrong with that or that it's somehow Keith's fault. If Keith's wording is somewhat the same as he's used in the past, perhaps it's because he has told some of the story before.

It really isn't all that complicated.

Marc Myers talks about last week's interview with Keith.

December 12, 2013

Interview: Keith Richards



One of Keith Richards' favorite Rollings Stones songs is Street Fighting Man. I learned this two weeks ago after pitching him on an interview for my "Anatomy of a Song" column in The Wall Street Journal. He loved the examples I had sent over and agreed to do it (go here for a free read—or pick up Friday's paper). For Keith, talking about music was welcome relief from the endless interviews he has to do where writers start by asking about 1962.

When my phone rang last week at the appointed time, the voice at the other end was unmistakable: "Hey, uh, Marc? It's Keith." Keith's voice has a slow sizzling quality. The English accent is there, of course, but there's also a simmering sass and sincerity about it, especially when the subject turns to guitars and songwriting.

Street Fighting Man is my favorite Stones song, largely because of its urgency, garage sound and the fact that my brother and I fought over the single after we bought it at Kappy's Music World on 181st St. in the summer of 1968. When Keith heard that, he laughed. "Ah, yes, good ol' fightin' brothers, eh? Did the record remain in one piece?" It did and I still have it. Then Keith asked if I liked his choice of song. I told him I did, that the opening guitar riff was almost addictive, like flipping open a heavy Zippo lighter and flicking it just for the sound and action. Keith laughed again. "Like this one?" he asked, flicking a lighter on his end of the phone. Pure Keith.

As the laughter trailed off, Keith almost apologized. "I'm glad 'cause I said to myself, 'Man, I'm going to talk about Street Fighting Man, I hope he likes it." What's not to like? The song predates the writing of Jumpin' Jack Flash and stands out on Beggars Banquet, the album released in December '68 that changed everything for the Stones. It also marked the start of Keith striving for a crisp, dry sound by using an early cassette recorder made by Philips to record basic guitar tracks. After Street Fighting Man, the Stones experimented more in the studio and their output over the five albums that followed became grittier and more muscular.

When I told friends that the interview was due out in few days, all had virtually the same look and remark. Eyebrows went up, a smile formed and they asked if Keith was outrageous or burned out. The answer on both counts was no. Keith likes to play the performer, but when it comes to music, he's a stone cold artist. He knows his blues and R&B history and loves talking about how songs that he co-wrote with Mick Jagger came together.

What was most surprising to me was Keith's analytic intellect. He comes to interesting conclusions through gut feeling and crab-like sensitivity. He had immediate reactions to questions but would doubleback and feel his way through elaboration. Which is similar to his thunder-clap playing style and embellishment. At one point I asked him about his attack on the guitar strings on Street Fighting Man:

"On that opening riff, I used enormous force on the strings. I always did that and still do. I'm looking at my hands now and they look like Mike Tyson's. They're pretty beat up. I'm not a hard hitter on the strings—more of a striker. It's not the force as much as it is a whip action. I'm almost releasing the power before my fingers actually meet the strings. I'm a big string-breaker, since I like to whip them pretty hard."

Street Fighting Man and the album Beggars Banquet signaled an end to the Stones' reliance on Anglican rehashes of Delta blues and the start of a new, tougher style that blended country, Chicago blues and hard rock into a form more suitable for performances at arenas.

[www.jazzwax.com]

That was a great interview, the picture is quite easy on the eyes too. Thanks for posting!

Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind...

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Mathijs
I am just the devils advocate here...but is this is a real interview, or did the journalist write an article made up of remarks from various interviews? There's quite some wording that's exactly the same as from previous interviews over the years, and the part about the instrumentation sounds like the journalist had a look at IORR...

Mathijs

The WSJ has been doing this for a while. I guess it depends on the song they're covering and the journalist, but I got a recent Facebook post by Mike Nesmith where he says he was interviewd by the WSJ about Different Drum.

Wow what a great read. SFM is certainly one of my all time favorite Stones songs. I would love for the WSJ to do more Keith interviews especially about specific Rolling Stones songs.

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MadMax
I am just the devils advocate here...but is this is a real interview, or did the journalist write an article made up of remarks from various interviews? There's quite some wording that's exactly the same as from previous interviews over the years, and the part about the instrumentation sounds like the journalist had a look at IORR...


I agree.... + Andy Rogan Always stated (and boy do we have a lot of real experience, VHS and DVD evidence), Keith is NOT a BIG stringbreaker.

I have NEVER seen him break a string. NEVER. Not during Concert or watching a video.

Ronnie and Mick are but Keith??? No.

Discuss

We know Keith's guitar playing from documented performances; i.e. recorded gigs where he is playing each song once; with a guitar newly strung by a guitar roadie. That diminishes breaking a string to a huge degree.
But Keith in his mind is talking about all his playing, which encompasses way more hours and hours of noodling; countless run-throughs in studio - he could be a major breaker.