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latebloomer
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.

This is not the point. the thing is, Keith sounds articulate, with fresh memory and giving really interesting info, as opposed to the lack of of content we all know of from his recorded interviews.

So we're comparing different things. This is indeed one of best Keith's interview in many years. All thanks to the intelligent journalist, it seems. The rest is credit to the photographer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-13 09:21 by Torres.

^ Some of the criticisms over whether it was an "actual" interview versus whether the journalist filled in researched details from other sources are analogous to the criticisms one would level toward a mimed television performance to a pre-recorded backing track. People want the "live" version. As we used to say 30 years ago, "Is it live, or is it Memorex?"

But, in this case, what does it matter? All the information is there so that the reader gets the fullest possible picture of how the song came to be.

Very nice interview. Thanks.

Here's another take on French sirens:

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stonehearted
All the information is there so that the reader gets the fullest possible picture of how the song came to be.

Exactly.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-13 16:13 by bv.

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stonehearted
^ Some of the criticisms over whether it was an "actual" interview versus whether the journalist filled in researched details from other sources are analogous to the criticisms one would level toward a mimed television performance to a pre-recorded backing track. People want the "live" version. As we used to say 30 years ago, "Is it live, or is it Memorex?"

But, in this case, what does it matter? All the information is there so that the reader gets the fullest possible picture of how the song came to be.

Yes, that is the point I was trying to make in my usual rambling way.

Wonderful interview...and I LOVED the attendant videos...'Did Everyone Pay Their Dues?'...WOW!!!!!!!

Who is playing that wild guitar in the background?

Yeah, that lead guitar in "Pay Your Dues" is pretty wild for that time and reminds me a bit of the Baker Street solo for some reason.

I don't think it would be Keith (or Brian) and it sort of reminds me of Ollie Halsall.

Maybe Jeff Beck?

If it's Keith playing the lead, then he could have been the first EVH if he kept playing like that.
















Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-13 16:30 by howled.

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Turning To Gold
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?

1969 nah... His guitar tones were groundbreaking on Some Girls and Tattoo You as well as Talk is Cheap. On tour in 2014 his tone is awesome but the last 2 recordings not too interesting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-13 18:32 by DoomandGloom.

JOHN LENNON: "With I AM THE WALRUS...I had this idea of doing a song that was a police siren, but it didn't work in the end [sings like a siren] 'I-am-he-as-you-are-he-as...' You couldn't really sing the police siren."

From [lifeofthebeatles.blogspot.com]

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DoomandGloom
1969 nah... His guitar tones were groundbreaking on Some Girls and Tattoo You as well as Talk is Cheap.

Nowt ground breaking about any of those guitar tones.

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His Majesty

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DoomandGloom
1969 nah... His guitar tones were groundbreaking on Some Girls and Tattoo You as well as Talk is Cheap.

Nowt ground breaking about any of those guitar tones.

Huh... How many MXR products were sold after SG????? Same boxes Eddie V. later used.... Talk is cheap helped revitalize the loud Tele tone... Influenced everyone..

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DoomandGloom

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His Majesty

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DoomandGloom
1969 nah... His guitar tones were groundbreaking on Some Girls and Tattoo You as well as Talk is Cheap.

Nowt ground breaking about any of those guitar tones.

Huh... How many MXR products were sold after SG????? Same boxes Eddie V. later used.... Talk is cheap helped revitalize the loud Tele tone... Influenced everyone..

All in yer head.

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howled
Yeah, that lead guitar in "Pay Your Dues" is pretty wild for that time and reminds me a bit of the Baker Street solo for some reason.

I don't think it would be Keith (or Brian) and it sort of reminds me of Ollie Halsall.

Maybe Jeff Beck?

If it's Keith playing the lead, then he could have been the first EVH if he kept playing like that.

It's possibly Rick Grech on electric violin. Atleast that's what it's sometimes been credited as.

It being a guitar brings up some possible issues with how high they would have to play on fretboard. Could be guitar and by Keith, but if it is then I think some tape speed manipulation took place inorder for him to play that fast and that high. Ie, recorded at lower pitch/speed, thus easier to play, sounds faster and higher when played back at normal speed/pitch.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-13 19:44 by His Majesty.

Turning to gold:

Listen to Moon Is Up on VL for some interesting studio experiments.

so it's a sort of melodic onomatopoeia. who knew.

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DandelionPowderman
Listen to Moon Is Up on VL for some interesting studio experiments.

Amen to that. Cool little gem.

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Rev. Robert W.

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DandelionPowderman
Listen to Moon Is Up on VL for some interesting studio experiments.

Amen to that. Cool little gem.

Yep, and its offspring Infamy as well.
Thru & Thru also comes to mind

Here is Keith "string-breaker" Richards in fire:





The face impressions of Brian and Mick are priceless...

- Doxa

The pay your dues lyric line also sounds like Keith to me, with his Lenny Bruce obsession. Lenny talked a lot about paying dues for what he'd done.

Great read - this ought to be his next book - song by song!

Two things:
- Saw him break a string on Oct 8 Steel Wheels, KC, first chord of CAGWYW.
- Who decided he should pose with a Gretch? When was the last time he played one of those????

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His Majesty

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howled
Yeah, that lead guitar in "Pay Your Dues" is pretty wild for that time and reminds me a bit of the Baker Street solo for some reason.

I don't think it would be Keith (or Brian) and it sort of reminds me of Ollie Halsall.

Maybe Jeff Beck?

If it's Keith playing the lead, then he could have been the first EVH if he kept playing like that.

It's possibly Rick Grech on electric violin. Atleast that's what it's sometimes been credited as.

It being a guitar brings up some possible issues with how high they would have to play on fretboard. Could be guitar and by Keith, but if it is then I think some tape speed manipulation took place inorder for him to play that fast and that high. Ie, recorded at lower pitch/speed, thus easier to play, sounds faster and higher when played back at normal speed/pitch.

I don't know what it is.

The lead is full of bends and hammer ons from what I'm hearing, and it's similar to that sort of guitar style.

Here is Rick Grech playing electric violin with Blind Faith and it doesn't sound much like it but it's in a different range.

Fascinating...
Thanks, Johnny

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treaclefingers
I have to admit I liked that interview...first time in awhile with Keith.

Good job KEEF!

Me too. He's probably wrong about late 1966/early 1967 but that hardly matters to him, just the fans.

one of the best tracks , especially live.

From 1969 till 1976 and some shows 1978 the last track of the setlist. For me besides JJF the best song to end up a show

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mstmst
- Saw him break a string on Oct 8 Steel Wheels, KC, first chord of CAGWYW.
- Who decided he should pose with a Gretch? When was the last time he played one of those????

The Gretsch looks good, no matter whose decision it was.
The most recent shot I have of Keith using that guitar on stage is from the 2007 Hall of Fame show.

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Doxa
Here is Keith "string-breaker" Richards in fire:





The face impressions of Brian and Mick are priceless...

- Doxa

DAMN Doxa, this needs it's own thread...FANTASTIC!

Keith IS the band on this one, just love it, thanks for finding and posting.

(Not sure about cutting and pasting this link..)

Here's a link to an audio interview from around a year a ago on NPR, when Keith discussed the same topic:

LINK

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schillid
(Not sure about cutting and pasting this link..)

Here's a link to an audio interview from around a year a ago on NPR, when Keith discussed the same topic:

LINK

Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood are celebrating 50 years of The Rolling Stones this year. The band released a compilation today titled GRRR!, which spans five decades of work, plus two new songs.

We asked each of the Stones to choose a song from the band's impressive catalog to discuss. Today, we begin with Keith Richards and his pick: "Street Fighting Man."


YouTube
For the 1968 track, Richards recorded an acoustic guitar through a cassette machine, naturally overloading the audio of the equipment with distortion.

"So you had this very electric sound, but at the same time, you had that curious and beautiful ring that only an acoustic guitar can give you," Richards tells NPR's Melissa Block. "It was just a bizarre way of making a record. And everybody, of course, is looking at me like I'm nuts. You know, I'm in the middle of this enormous studio with a little cassette machine and bowing before it with an acoustic guitar, and they go, 'What the hell is he doing? We'll humor him.' "

Sitars And Toy Drums

Just as crucial to Richards' unconventional cassette recording was Charlie Watts' equally unconventional drum kit.

"[Watts was] the only one at the time who got what I was going for," Richards says. "He actually brought along a little practice drum kit that fits in a little briefcase. Basically, you opened up the briefcase and there was a little cymbal and a tambourine and a pair of sticks. Charlie stuck with me on this track. I'm the rhythm player. I'm not a virtuoso soloist or anything like that. To work together with the drummer, that's my joy. This record, to me, is one of the examples of what can happen when two cats believe in each other."

Then there's the late Brian Jones, buzzing and droning through the track on sitar and tamboura.

"Brian was a master of picking up the weirdest instruments that happened to be around," Richards says. "Other records — he was playing bells. He was amazing at being able to master, at least for a certain song, a sound or an instrument that had nothing to do with guitars or anything. He was a great experimenter, Brian Jones. He threw a lot of flavors into a lot of our records that wouldn't have occurred to any of the rest of us."

The Rolling Stones performing live at halftime of the Super Bowl XL.
All Songs Considered
Hear The Rolling Stones' Brand New 'One More Shot'
'Still Working On Them'

"Street Fighting Man" was banned by some U.S. stations. It was called "subversive," but Richards says it wasn't meant to be provocative.

"I wanted the [sings] to sound like a French police siren," he says. "That was the year that all that stuff was going on in Paris and in London. There were all these riots that the generation that I belonged to, for better or worse, was starting to get antsy. You could count on somebody in America to find something offensive about something — you still can. Bless their hearts. I love America for that very reason."

Richards says he has no doubt that "Street Fighting Man" will be a part of the upcoming Rolling Stones tour, likening that song and other Stones hits — "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Brown Sugar" — to the expensive sports cars from Maserati and Ferrari. ("You had the chassis," he says, "and now you remodel the body.")

"They're always interesting to play. You're not playing the same thing ever with songs like that. There's no de rigueur — sorry, I've just got back from Paris; I'm trying to get rid of my French," Richards says, laughing. "These riffs were built to last a lifetime, and I'm still working on them, you know?"

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Doxa
Here is Keith "string-breaker" Richards in fire:





The face impressions of Brian and Mick are priceless...

- Doxa

What great find. beautiful. Brian seems to hear it right away. @ :45.