I am really into this book Keith wrote, Life. The man is very interesting, and I admire his ability to have risen from a poor background to be one of the very best blues and rhythm guitarists ever. I also believe he is being honest in saying he has always admired black musicians and the blues, and he has been friends with many black people throughout his career, even in the very early days when it was not cool to be that way.

Throughout his book, he has made slanderous comments about gays. In chapter eleven, for instance, he refers to all the people at Studio 54 as a room full of faggots in boxer shorts, waving champagne bottles in your face. Truman Capote was similarly bashed. On the other hand, he has befriended other gays, such as Robert Fraser. He seems to think it is OK to be gay if you keep it hidden, do not flaunt it, keep it hidden, or are able to render a service to him such as getting him smack.

I always have believed that one should, with anyone you admire, take the good along with the bad. However, this aspect of Keith I do not like at all.

He also calls him and his bandmates a bunch of English fairies at the beginning of the book. I wouldn't take his comments so literally, he comes from a different generation in his use of slang. I can't see any evidence of prejudice against any group from Keith. Unless you count punk musicians.

I don't agree with you. I think what Keith says in his fantastic book "life" is ok - the homosexuals who were at Studio 54 would quite probably say the same. You lot have been given plenty of freedom and almost more than equality, but you have to stop being too serious, have a joke, have a laugh, don't be ridiculous. I would prefer it if we keep this site more to the music please...

"till the next time..."

Star

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Starr
...You lot...

...You're getting into all sorts of trouble here, Star.

In keeping with the recent trend, shouldn't this thread be entitled Keith's Greatest Homophobic Comments?

Isn't a phobia a fear of something. I don't think Keith is afraid of gay people.

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More Hot Rocks
Isn't a phobia a fear of something. I don't think Keith is afraid of gay people.

Its true. Why on earth would Keith be afraid of happy people? Makes no sense.... Maybe he is afraid of Homo Erraticus. prog rock scares a lot of sensible people

[jethrotull.com]

I think it's more a matter of Keith disliking annoying people, rather than people who happen to be gay. Let's face it, the Studio 54 crowd could be pretty annoying.

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Isn't a phobia a fear of something. I don't think Keith is afraid of gay people.

Good point.

Well, I don't know. Bill implied that Keith was bumming fags in the early days....

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71Tele
I think it's more a matter of Keith disliking annoying people, rather than people who happen to be gay. Let's face it, the Studio 54 crowd could be pretty annoying.

I never understood the whole disco scene. Everyone there grew up is the greatest time for Rock and Roll. The 60's and 70's. Then they turned their back and turned too disco. I can see Keiths point. Where did these people come from? There weren't born in 1978?
How could you grow up with the Beatles and British Invasion and guitars gods and then listen to Gloria Gaynor.

I'm talking about everybody that loved rock and turned to disco instead. I never understood why.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2014-05-15 19:20 by More Hot Rocks.

Robert Fraser, Christopher Gibbs, etc., didn't keep their sexuality hidden.

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71Tele
I think it's more a matter of Keith disliking annoying people, rather than people who happen to be gay. Let's face it, the Studio 54 crowd could be pretty annoying.

I never understood the whole disco scene. Everyone there grew up is the greatest time for Rock and Roll. The 60's and 70's. Then they turned their back and turned too disco. I can see Keiths point. Where did these people come from? There weren't born in 1978?
How could you grow up with the Beatles and British Invasion and guitars gods and then listen to Gloria Gaynor.

Now thems fightin words...what's wrong with Gloria Gaynor? Not all disco music was crap, some of it was quite fun, especially if you liked to dance.

No, I agree - the way Keith uses the words faggots etc. seems clearly derogative to me.

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latebloomer

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71Tele
I think it's more a matter of Keith disliking annoying people, rather than people who happen to be gay. Let's face it, the Studio 54 crowd could be pretty annoying.

I never understood the whole disco scene. Everyone there grew up is the greatest time for Rock and Roll. The 60's and 70's. Then they turned their back and turned too disco. I can see Keiths point. Where did these people come from? There weren't born in 1978?
How could you grow up with the Beatles and British Invasion and guitars gods and then listen to Gloria Gaynor.

Now thems fightin words...what's wrong with Gloria Gaynor? Not all disco music was crap, some of it was quite fun, especially if you liked to dance.

oh geeeeeeez Edith...

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SweetThing
Well, I don't know. Bill implied that Keith was bumming fags in the early days....

Bumming for cigarettes....when you're Down In The Hole, perhaps? Or maybe not!

Keith also spoke bad about David Bowie being a poser, and hinting about him being gay, both in his book and elsewhere. Bowie is not gay though but Keith Richards is too slow figure that out




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-05-15 19:33 by Erik_Snow.

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SweetThing
Well, I don't know. Bill implied that Keith was bumming fags in the early days....

Bumming *and* pinching

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latebloomer

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71Tele
I think it's more a matter of Keith disliking annoying people, rather than people who happen to be gay. Let's face it, the Studio 54 crowd could be pretty annoying.

I never understood the whole disco scene. Everyone there grew up is the greatest time for Rock and Roll. The 60's and 70's. Then they turned their back and turned too disco. I can see Keiths point. Where did these people come from? There weren't born in 1978?
How could you grow up with the Beatles and British Invasion and guitars gods and then listen to Gloria Gaynor.

Now thems fightin words...what's wrong with Gloria Gaynor? Not all disco music was crap, some of it was quite fun, especially if you liked to dance.

oh geeeeeeez Edith...

Okay Archie, I've been suitably chastised. Was only trying to lighten the mood anyway...you can hate disco to your hearts content, for all I care.

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flilflam
I am really into this book Keith wrote, Life. The man is very interesting, and I admire his ability to have risen from a poor background to be one of the very best blues and rhythm guitarists ever. I also believe he is being honest in saying he has always admired black musicians and the blues, and he has been friends with many black people throughout his career, even in the very early days when it was not cool to be that way.

Throughout his book, he has made slanderous comments about gays. In chapter eleven, for instance, he refers to all the people at Studio 54 as a room full of faggots in boxer shorts, waving champagne bottles in your face. Truman Capote was similarly bashed. On the other hand, he has befriended other gays, such as Robert Fraser. He seems to think it is OK to be gay if you keep it hidden, do not flaunt it, keep it hidden, or are able to render a service to him such as getting him smack.

I always have believed that one should, with anyone you admire, take the good along with the bad. However, this aspect of Keith I do not like at all.

You gotta be kidding me.

I don't think Keith is anti-gay in a political or free-to-be-who-you-are sense. But he's always been a bohemian rock 'n' roll gypsy kind of guy who neither embraced the peace & love hippie kind of thing, nor the glam disco trend. (Apart from loafing around in Morrocco for a week and using silver eye shadow)

He probably still doesn't care about "petty morals", but being 70 years old you're likely to have some outdated attitudes at some point.

Are you for real RoughJusticeOnYa ? I didn't know it was offensive or "trouble" to use the phrase "you lot" and I refuse to be dragged into some ridiculous game...
...as I said earlier, it would be preferable to lighten up and "keep to the music" - that is what this site is about, not political correctness which in my opinion, has gone way too far. I will not post again on this stupid thread.

Star

Does anyone really believe that Keith Richards is afraid of anything at all.

Nate

As for Studio 54 in the late 70s....many discos at that time....Keith's description , while the use of the word "Faggots" may put some off, is pretty accurate.

I was 16 the first time I went there. It was wild. I'd never seen anything like it. I don't know if "faggots" were there but there were a hell of a lot of queens running around in various states of dress.

One night, the disco singer Sylvester was there and he was hitting on me. It was frightening! I went to high school with a couple of gay kids but this was ridiculous.

These clubs were some of the few places that gays could be themselves or at least any way they wanted to back then.

I love the Nile Rodgers' Chic material, and the material he's produced for other artists, i.e. Bowie, Madonna, Stevie Ray Vaughan; you can tell that, beneath his disco sheen, Nile and Bernard Edwards were seriously into blues, Hendrix, The Beatles, and The Stones.

I cannot abide some of the other stuff, probably on the snobbish principle that Candi Staton cut her best stuff with Rick Hall down in Fame Studios, Muscle Shoals, and that Young Hearts Run Free is tosh. Likewise, Sylvester and Kool & The Gang do nothing for me either.

Concerning this post, I think Keith despised Studio 54 because it was a sham, all false and cosmetic, fake. Even Nile Rodgers skewered it with Le Freak, because that was written when he couldn't get in to Studio 54.

I think Keith isn't homophobic, after all you cannot be homophobic and dig the blues, i.e. Lucille Bogan, Bessie Smith, and they were construed as lesbians.

Cool stories, Cafaro. Studio 54 seems to have been pretty wild for sure.
Perhaps Mick Jagger's semi-association with that club annoyed Keith to some degree.

But considering that the Stones spend the better part of the 60's battling against Western establishment for their right to have long hair and dress as they pleased, it's pretty hard to image Keith being homophobic (although it isn't impossible).

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flilflam

I am really into this book Keith wrote, Life. The man is very interesting, and I admire his ability to have risen from a poor background to be one of the very best blues and rhythm guitarists ever. I also believe he is being honest in saying he has always admired black musicians and the blues, and he has been friends with many black people throughout his career, even in the very early days when it was not cool to be that way.

Throughout his book, he has made slanderous comments about gays. In chapter eleven, for instance, he refers to all the people at Studio 54 as a room full of faggots in boxer shorts, waving champagne bottles in your face. Truman Capote was similarly bashed. On the other hand, he has befriended other gays, such as Robert Fraser. He seems to think it is OK to be gay if you keep it hidden, do not flaunt it, keep it hidden, or are able to render a service to him such as getting him smack.

I always have believed that one should, with anyone you admire, take the good along with the bad. However, this aspect of Keith I do not like at all.

....oh please----enough. Is this the right forum for this? I'm so sick of that agenda.

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71Tele
I think it's more a matter of Keith disliking annoying people, rather than people who happen to be gay. Let's face it, the Studio 54 crowd could be pretty annoying.

I never understood the whole disco scene. Everyone there grew up is the greatest time for Rock and Roll. The 60's and 70's. Then they turned their back and turned too disco. I can see Keiths point. Where did these people come from? There weren't born in 1978?
How could you grow up with the Beatles and British Invasion and guitars gods and then listen to Gloria Gaynor.

I'm talking about everybody that loved rock and turned to disco instead. I never understood why.

The '50s rock 'n' roll influenced the Beatles and Rolling Stones, acts like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Everly Brothers, ELvis and Buddy Holly.

If anything, the '70s was a rock 'n' roll revival period.

John Lennon came out with "Rock 'n' Roll"
Rolling Stones did "It's only rock 'n' roll"
Bad Company did "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy"
Led Zeppelin did "Rock 'n' Roll"

The examples are almost too many to mention, there's certainly enough doubt to say the '60s and '70s are the best time for Rock 'n' Roll, as far as I know, just shortening the genre's name to "Rock", says it was not.

"Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie"

On this topic, I always think of one thing John Lennon said about Mick Jagger. No way could JL say such a thing nowadays. <----- Without coming under serious criticism for saying such a thing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-05-15 22:04 by BroomWagon.

I think Keith is a product of his time, so some of the terms he uses might have a sting to them, but he is not homophobic.