Since the beginning of the Rolling Stones European Tour 2007 I have been reading with grave concern about Keith Richards’ ‘condition’. The debate has raged back and forth: he is a disaster…! he has arisen…! he can’t play anymore…! he’s on fire…! ad infinitum…

I have waited to share my thoughts until well after the Frankfurt concert. I needed time to absorb the experience and reflect on it.

Like most everyone on this board, I love Keith Richards. His essence is the core of Rock and Roll music…the purity of his love for the music and his instinctual approach to rhythm are the cornerstones on which the Stones – the best band this musical form ever produced - are built. He has never been a brilliant musician in the classic sense…the Stones are not known for their technical prowess…but he and his band mates are the best band…the best unit…because they are the purest and most daring practitioners of the ancient form of mixing the Blues with R&B and Soul and whatever else is in the atmosphere at the moment, and distilling it into their own brand of propulsive voodoo. Keith Richards is the quintessence of Rock and Roll.

I’ve read the rest of the Frankfurt reports…over and over…trying to find a context…to come to grips with what I saw. Here is what I can report:

· The IORR people I met were gracious and kind. A real honor for me. Gangster of Love, windmelody, open-G, Anastasia, Heartbreaker…and the cool, calm and collected Mr. BV.

Here is a photo of Anastasia and Heartbreaker…wild ladies from the hinterlands of San Fransisco:




And the redoubtable Mr. BV enjoying a Hessian treat:




· The stadium was full…the 25,000 seats allotted were filled. The setting was great visually. The fact that the big stadium was cut in half by the stage gave the concert the more intimate feel of an arena show. I don’t understand the agenda of some people like Kartoffelsalat who try to create the impression that the place was empty…this is sheer negativity and falseness. The photo he showed was taken an hour and a half BEFORE the start of the concert [you can see it on the photo data]. Why do this and try to pass it off as the crowd at the opening song? Asswipe. Lies, lies, lies, you dirty Jezebel…why, why, why, why don’t you go to hell?

Yes…the pre-concert promotion was abominable. Yes, they were GIVING away tickets before the concert [for the remote nosebleed sections of the stadium]. I actually won a set of tickets a few hours before the concert start. Since I had ordered my tickets months before I gave them to friends…but you get the picture:

Bottom line. If you showed up at the gates you got in…for free.

No questions asked.

To a Rolling Stones concert.

If you had told me this would EVER happen I would have laughed in your face. Until Wednesday the 13th of June 2007. It happened.

But the crowd was alive and kicking and appreciative. I was in the front row on Keith’s side and no one on the vast floor area of the Stadium sat from beginning to end…everyone danced and clapped and sang and smiled for 2 hours. I looked back in to the Tribune areas and people were rocking.

The Stones magic still works.

Here’s a view of the stage from my perspective:



· Mick Jagger is a Champion. He is an athlete. He is a force of nature. His performance was reminiscent of a fighter who gets in the ring and goes for the knockout punch from the opening bell to the end of the 12th round. He REFUSED defeat and WILLED his band to victory – like the captain of a team with crippled and injured players - by sheer FORCE OF WILL he pushed a performance out of his comrades that they did not really have in them. I have loved and hated Jagger for his many talents and transgressions…but I have never respected him as much as I do now. His performance was preternatural. He is a GOD.

Here’s an impressionistic image of the ageless satyr…



· Charlie Watts is the bedrock. The cornerstone. The engine. The pistons and valves and fuses. Nearly flawless. Nothing more needs to be said.

Here’s Mr. Watts from my perspective:



· The sound was atrocious. Horrific. A slab of rough-cut meat on a slab. A brontosaurus roar, indistinct and putrid smelling. An embarrassment. I have said this before and I will say it again. Whomever is in charge of sound for the Stones for this tour has FCUKED my ears up…damn you. I spend a fortune to see this band...and you can't give me decent sound? The roof causes reverb? Then OPEN IT! The stadium is too big? FIX THE SOUND! I've seen 7 concerts on this tour and NOT ONE had adequate sound! No more excuses. I'd like to fire your asses immediately...all of you bastards...


· The Stones are supposed to be a guitar band. But the guitar section has ceased to ignite. Sure, the chords are still there…but it has been years since I have heard a truly thrilling guitar solo from this band. Ronnie was professional [thank God] and occasionally compelling. His slide work was good. But nothing that takes you to another place. Mick, Charlie, the Horns…Darryl [who doesn’t know how to rock, but at least lends the music a fat bottom]…the sheer force of the riffs…this keeps the music coming at you with hurricane force...but the guitar section is now but a memory of what it used to be. It is ALONG FOR THE RIDE…it no longer dictates the speed and crunch and the thunder…it floats along with the tide. And Blondie Chaplin is no longer hidden…he’s out on stage playing guitar.

Blondie Chaplin. Playing guitar for the Stones.

But back to the main point. Keef. He is a shadow…a strange, shambling apparition on stage…a ghost…a spirit…he no longer plays much…he pantomimes…he poses…he smiles weakly…and looks down at us from a very distant place. It broke my heart to see him like this. But one can live in denial, or one can confront uncomfortable truths.

The Keith Richards that I saw on a warm June night in 2007 was an old, exhausted specter of the thrilling rogue of yesteryear. He could hardly play. He lacked focus. He would come and go, as if lost in a fog. At times he would snap to attention and throw out a vicious riff…mostly he just strummed the neck of his axe and tried to pose heroically when a riff came out…often he just seemed to roam aimlessly, taking tentative steps...like a man lost in himself.

His set was a train-wreck. It stopped the momentum of the concert in its’ tracks. People looked at each other and embarrassedly shrugged. The fact that Jagger and the rest of the band continue to indulge him by giving him this spot in the limelight smacks of a patronizing maliciousness. Or utter blindness. His discombobulation is almost humiliating.

It is time to eliminate this part of the concert. When Keith is out alone on stage his maladies and shocking dissipation are too exposed. If Keith insists on going like this then at least do so in the context of hiding within the structure of the vast array of musicians on stage. The sheer spectacle of this shambling phantasm front and center is almost sadistic and gratuitous. I’m sorry if I appear overwhelmed by Keith’s decay. I felt at times like punching the people around me who were humoring him during his set. But I feel protective of this man…he has brought me great joy and happiness…and I cannot stand by and pretend all is well when it is most assuredly not.

I write this with great sadness and regret. But Keef now is reminiscent of Muhammad Ali at the tragic tail end of his career...stepping in the ring with fighters he once would have dispatched in 45 seconds...and absorbing punishment for 12 rounds...his once supernatural skills diminished beyond recognition...and his beauty just a vanished memory.

There were times during his set where I simply felt like walking up on the stage and putting my arms around him and hugging him and saying..."thank you...thank you for everything...you have given us so much...too much...and now it is time to go home...please...for you and your family...we love you...and always will...". I wanted to hide and protect him from the scorn and the stares. And the enablers who indulge him and pretend it is all part of show business...like looking at a debauched freak and getting enjoyment out of his wasted state.

But if it makes him happy to go on, if he insists...if he rallies and bounces back...and even if he does not...regardless, I will be in his corner...cheering him on and hoping that he is happy and that the joy he gave us can somehow now be repaid in his sunset time. I don't like seeing him like this, but if this is the price I have to pay to give back to this man who has given me so much...then it is something I will do. Rock and Roll is a cruel game. I hug you, Keith.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-15 16:35 by Turd On The Run.

Aint BV gonna go nuts with his photo on line?

"I write this with great sadness and regret. But Keef now is reminiscent of Muhammad Ali at the tragic tail end of his career...stepping in the ring with fighters he once would have dispatched in 45 seconds...and absorbing punishment for 12 rounds...his once supernatural skills diminished beyond recognition...and his beauty just a vanished memory."

Here we go again! I'm gonna buyin a truck load of Prozac and give them out to anyone in an IORR tshirt after the gigs.....

Very nicely written, and very sad to read.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-15 19:06 by Erik_Snow.

God, I hope no one ever loves me the way you love Keith...tell everyone in your creative writing class I said hi...

thanks for sharing your eloquent words.

what a great review. all you said about mick, charlie, ronnie and keith is so true.
and i felt the same about keith for the whole show. and i also appreciate mick more than ever.
throughout the whole concert i really feared they might @#$%& up completely somewhere.

Unfortunately a well written and true review. Couldn't done better (and truer). I hope BV will add it to the review page.

wow the truth hurts i know but i agree 100 % great review and here is somnething to back up take a look how keith lost it on stage .. this hurts !!

Brutally true, brutally honest. This whole tour is boring (it's been the same show since the 40 Licks tour...how many years is that?). They are no where NEAR the band they were 10 or 15 years ago. Hence I will not bother to sully my great memories with this embarrasing current situation.

"(it's been the same show since the 40 Licks tour...how many years is that?)"

Eh? Bull! What more do you want? Trapeze artist? magic tricks? Charlie to do a stand up comedy routine?

>>Brutally true, brutally honest. This whole tour is boring (it's been the same show since the 40 Licks tour...how many years is that?)<<

...which is not at all what Turd On The Run wrote above

Duane in Houston Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This whole tour is
> boring (it's been the same show since the 40 Licks
> tour...how many years is that?).

last years European leg was still great (at leat the three shows I have seen)

i also think last year european tour was great, great mick and o.k. keith.

Mick truly is a god. I used to like, but never love, him, finding him somewhat cold and rehearsed...which, let's face it, he is...

...BUT, for a 63 year old man to keep himself in such peak physical condition, to never stop moving for 2 hours onstage, to gyrate and dance and jump and sing without missing a beat, not a trip or a stumble, is simply unthinkable.

Unfortunately, it's pretty clear that Mick and Charlie took the correct path as they got older, while Keith and Ronnie chose to remain adolescents. Poor Keith...I love the man but it's time to hang it up.

Hey, this might JUST cheer you lot up!


A new direction for keith?

Monty Python reworking???

Well put, if heartbreaking, Turd.

there ain't a dry eye in the house....

"No Anchovies, Please"

Did this show start in daylight and end up after dark?

"No Anchovies, Please"

A good review. Totally agree with you. This is how I experienced it too. The truth hurts.

Turd, great written. I wish I could do it this way. But everybody who didn't try to look away has watched it.

The next day while I was reading the great Keith interview in the German newspaper "Die Welt" tears came to my eyes while my thoughts went back to what I witnessed the day before.

Most people thought I was bashing Keith what I wrote about him in the Frankfurt review thread. But it's honest, Keith my hero! I'm really concerned!

Unfortunately, from my experience this is absolutely true. Keith has had some great moments during the beginning of the tour, but he is a sad figure right now. He has not come back after the tree incident, I think his lifestyle has finally caught up with him. Thank goodness Mick has kept them together, it's been his show for a long time now.

stunning, compelling, moving...what a post.

Could not express my feelings better than you did...

This was going to be my first show but I think I won't try it.I don't want to spoil the image of the band I love.

Don't let ANYONE in ANY context make up your mind for you about ANYTHING -- go to the show and see and hear for yourself. Form your own opinion.

What I love most about these "Keith has had it" threads is that if any of the breast beaters who are so courageous that, yes, they can bear the brunt of the horrendous truth, harsh as it might be, had to say one one-hundredth of any of this to Keith's face, they'd piss themselves into clinical dehydration before security could call "911."

Fluck me at last!!! There is someone out there!!!

My lord, that is a killer...good ole Keith....Its such a shame...the greatest rocker ever....

JR

I had exactly the same feeling when I saw them in Werchter. Keith was just... not well. He really looked like he was gonna fall down any minute and not get up again.
A couple of days later in Nijmegen I saw the best Stones concert ever. (I've seen them 17 times now since 1982). Maybe I was just too happy to see Keith playing 'normal' again, maybe it was the rain, I don't know.
But please, everybody, take a look at Start me up at Isle Of Wight. Keith is fine there.
Maybe these days you just don't know which Keith you're gonna get at a show.

Let's not talk him to death.

Great post, 100% agree with every point that was said, feel excatly the same

Very well written post. Hard to argue against it, as I was not there. I would like to believe it's not true and say it's just bashing - but those reports are not really bashing, more a expression of true concern. Thank you for this review!