I mean when did his production lean over to rock/jazz ballads? The Stones are no stranger to ballads of course over the years - so it's not a new thing in any way.
But somewhere down the line his focus turned more into ballads. Or am I just wrong in my assertion here?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-10 03:15 by bv.

pretty sure he has always been... love keith's ballads

Slipping Away set the template for what people think of in modern times as a Keith ballad.

all about you

You Got the Silver

There is an album (vinyl bootleg) named "A Stone Alone". It is a must for any Stones fan. I played it to the pieces when I got it, some time in the 80's. There are many slow songs there, Keith do love to do ballads, just like Mick do love the blues. My favorite "A Stone Alone" track (link below just randon, not from Stone alone I think):

Apartment No 9

There are many threads on IORR about that album, it has been copied by all the well known bootleggers, but I think may be it was a TSP originally, i.e. Germany /Luxembourg, a beauty.

Keith Richards 1981 Long View Farm demos, piano and vocal

The below picture is a copy of the original bootleg, the original is "clean", just the Keith picture, and the title "A Stone Alone":



Bjornulf

good choice bv

my favorite from the longview session and a beautiful vocal (one of his best) from keith






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-10 04:58 by ProfessorWolf.

Although it's easy to pinpoint You Got The Silver as the beginning, for me it started with Coming Down Again. That song is brilliant. Considering the previous four albums, Coming Down Again was a huge change in direction: a brilliant and beautiful ballad on a fantastic yet misfit album.

Arguably Wild Horses, Angie and Memory Motel could fit, even Beast Of Burden, but as far as Keith singing it really set root with All About You, and then years later, Sleep Tonight and Slipping Away.

Few way far in between, he went on a bit of a run with The Worst, Thru And Thru (maybe?), Thief In The Night, How Can I Stop, Losing My Touch, This Place Is Empty... and, of course, the excellent Tell Me Straight.

Mick would never allow such a thing but a Keith Stones compilation would be quite a treat, all the tracks yet alone ballads, perhaps throw in something unreleased, like You Got It Made. Unreleased tracks aside, a public playlist on Spotify would be one form of acknowledgment - Mick can't get something like that shut down.

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ProfessorWolf
good choice bv

my favorite from the longview session and a beautiful vocal (one of his best) from keith

Indeed one of his best.
I love the So Sad / Cathy's Clown combo as well.
Crushed Pearl is also great.

The jazzy ballads started with All About You on ER, I'd say.

These are two of my favorite Keith ballads:

Coming Down Again
Nearness of You

Keith Richards - a ballad singer?

The Honeymoon Tapes prove he is. And "Make No Mistake" remains one of his best songs.

Yes, his ballads are outstanding.

All About You
Slipping Away
How Can I Stop
We Had It All

These are the ones, I like very much and try to cover them, which works fine for me and is definitly joyfull.

Talk Is Cheap was a turning point in that he primarily used his lower vocals register throughout, a different voice from the vocals we were used to on Happy, BTMMR, etc. and of course his high harmonies with Mick.

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teleblaster
Talk Is Cheap was a turning point in that he primarily used his lower vocals register throughout, a different voice from the vocals we were used to on Happy, BTMMR, etc. and of course his high harmonies with Mick.

I'd say the turning point was All About You.

Wild Horses, Coming Down Again, Angie, Keith's been writing ballads for Mick and himself since the 60s, Ruby Tuesday.

Keith's heart is in ballads as BV shows above with Apartments No 9, Send Me Back Home etc.

My personal favourite is his performance of Love Hurts with Nora Jones, arguably Keith's best live vocal.

Love Hurts.
[youtu.be]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-10 20:05 by keefriffhards.

Talk is cheap & Main Offender

- make no mistake
- Locked away
- How I wish
- Hate it when you leave

Some of my absolute Keef favorites !

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keefriffhards
… My personal favourite is his performance of Love Hurts with Nora Jones, arguably Keith's best live vocal.

…until Waiting For The Man. Not a ballad, but excellent vocal, can’t get enough of that one!

The thing I was aiming at were the different focuses of the songwriting duo in the band. If Keith's main contribution to the band these days are slow ballads and
Jagger comes in with 30-40 upbeat pop/rock demos: Which is the end result of that? Seems to me they are striving in different directions. Is that a good or bad thing?

Not really sure where you get the fact that keith's main contribution are slow ballads... Glimmer twins keep writing rockers and ballads as just witnessed

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umakmehrd
Not really sure where you get the fact that keith's main contribution are slow ballads... Glimmer twins keep writing rockers and ballads as just witnessed

Maybe you're right but it seems to me that Keith's output lately is very ballad orientated (his latest solo album being one example). Nothing wrong with that though.

Losing my t7ouch...

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Stoneage

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umakmehrd
Not really sure where you get the fact that keith's main contribution are slow ballads... Glimmer twins keep writing rockers and ballads as just witnessed

Maybe you're right but it seems to me that Keith's output lately is very ballad orientated (his latest solo album being one example). Nothing wrong with that though.

8 of the 15 tracks on Crosseyed Heart are clearly not ballads.

Crosseyed Heart
Heartstopper
Amnesia
Trouble
Nothing On Me
Blues In The Morning
Something For Nothing
Substantial Damage

Arguably lover's Plea and Love Overdue aren't technically ballads either.

I think of Crosseyed Heart the way of Tattoo You, it's got some rockers and i nice mix of ballads, like all the best Stones albums.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-11 02:23 by keefriffhards.

Let's not forget his cover of Hank Williams' "You Win Again". That one could actually go down well received in a Stones concert located in a major country music market.

It goes right back to his eclectic musical influences as a kid.

You never lose the love for what you grew up with.

Why didn’t he save a couple of the best songs from Cross Eyed Heart for Hackney Diamonds There are some great songs like Whole Wide World and Heaven on it , but Keith contributed less than his usual to the album

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Taylor1
Why didn’t he save a couple of the best songs from Cross Eyed Heart for Hackney Diamonds There are some great songs like Whole Wide World and Heaven on it , but Keith contributed less than his usual to the album

Because Keith didn't know the Stones would make another album, at 80 years of age at the time of HD release he might have been dead by then for all he knew.
Plus Keith possibly contributed lots of songs to an alleged almost finished Stones album that got cancelled/shelved.

Even Charlie said i don't know what happened to the album in an interview, Ronnie and Charlie just shrugged their shoulders and laughed.

They had clearly been working on an album for a long time with Charlie.
Keith saying periodically for years in interviews that he was working on a Stones album. This goes back years to when Keith said he's got 3 killer riffs. Those riffs are not on HD.

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Taylor1
Why didn’t he save a couple of the best songs from Cross Eyed Heart for Hackney Diamonds There are some great songs like Whole Wide World and Heaven on it , but Keith contributed less than his usual to the album

Well, there was no plan of a new Stones album - the idea of it occurred I think not until 2015 - and Keith had material ready to go. It would have been pretty odd that he would go 'oh, I don't release this in the case The Stones might release something some day'. Like we now know, he would have needed 9 more years to wait to see his songs finally released. And even then, he already hold it back a year or so to not clash with Stones activities.

Besides, the circumstances that lead to the album were pretty special at the time. Keith had thought about retirement, seemingly almost stopped playing guitar. There was no any certainty of any Stones activities in future. The unfortunate troubles of of his beloved wife plus his relationship with Mick had been in all time low due to LIFE. I think making CROSSEYED HEART was like a healing process for Keith. He got his chops back, probably his mind and inspiration too, got ready for The Stones activities. Most of all, he probably wanted to prove to himself, to Mick, and to the world, that he is still up for it, do not yet count him out.

- Doxa



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-11 13:56 by Doxa.

But what goes for the initial question, my personal experience is that "Sleep Tonight" was the track that made me thinking - 'aah, this is just another Keith ballad, a normal day in the office'. Before that him making these slow songs was not a norm, but more like 'cool to hear him doing something not so obvious, but extraordinary'. Especially "All About You" was something completely different. TALK IS CHEAP aside, after DIRTY WORK hearing "Slipping Away" on a Stones album sounded already like a cliche.

So for me Keith as a ballad singer/crooner as something like a norm - being essential to him - happened during the latter part of the 80's. But that also marked me those norm album ballads losing their special appeal to me. This doesn't mean some of those aren't good - some even wonderful, like the latest - but they are not something I am so excited about hearing on Stones albums.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-11 14:44 by Doxa.

Same with me. I don't mind the odd ballad, or two, on an album. But more than that and I'm just bored. And I don't think every slow song from Keith is a masterpiece.