Where It All Began: Listening to 'Life' with Keith Richards
Keith Richard's memoir, 'Life,' is a great memoir, but more than that, it is cultural history, the veritable transformation of the world through music by someone who had a hand in the transformation itself.
Keith would have just said, "They pay me to do this?"
More reflective and insightful than anyone could reasonably expect, 'Life' is as much a book about the times Keith Richards lived in as it is his story. He tells of meeting Mick jagger, yes, but more importantly about their common - and at the time unusual - taste in Chicago blues. Mick had ways of getting records from Chess and other blues labels before anyone else had them and he and Keith played and played and played them to figure out how it all worked. At first they just wanted to be the best blues band in England.
And for a while, maybe they were.
That all changed practically overnight with the release of their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry's 'Come On,' which went to number one on the English music charts in a matter of weeks. From that moment on, the Rolling Stones were something else: Rock 'n' Roll band, yes, but also phenomenon, symbol of an exploding society, stimulus of cultural change, object of ire and desire.
Thus began years of non-stop touring - with hardly a day off from 1962-1964 - and the development of 'Keef' and Mick as songwriters. Always with one ear on the great blues players of the day, truly their heros, especially the guys from Chicago. Because they played so much, the Stones got really tight and the two fans' songwriting became more and more fluid, as Richards explains:
"Because you've been playing every day, sometimes two or three shows a day, ideas are flowing."
For a record collector, the book is especially interesting. For instance, the first record Keith Richards ever bought for himself?
"I think the first record I bought was Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally,' Keith Richards remembers. "Fantstic record, even to this day. Good records just get better with age. But the one that really turned me on, like an explosion one night, listening to Radio Luxembourg on my little radio when I was supposed to be in bed and asleep was 'Heartbreak Hotel.' That was the stunner. I'd never heard it before, or anything like it."
More than fifty years ago.
Walking into the chain CD store today while Petra and her mom shop, I spy a two CD compilation entitled, 'Essential Chicago Blues,' on sale for a few bucks. Many of the guys Keith writes about are here: Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and others. A fine companion to the book and to early classic Stones covers like Bobby Womack's 'It's All Over Now,' Irma Thomas' 'Time Is On My Side,' or Willie Dixon's 'Little Red Rooster.'
All big hits for the Stones. That's where it all began.
Keith would have just said, "They pay me to do this?"
More reflective and insightful than anyone could reasonably expect, 'Life' is as much a book about the times Keith Richards lived in as it is his story. He tells of meeting Mick jagger, yes, but more importantly about their common - and at the time unusual - taste in Chicago blues. Mick had ways of getting records from Chess and other blues labels before anyone else had them and he and Keith played and played and played them to figure out how it all worked. At first they just wanted to be the best blues band in England.
And for a while, maybe they were.
That all changed practically overnight with the release of their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry's 'Come On,' which went to number one on the English music charts in a matter of weeks. From that moment on, the Rolling Stones were something else: Rock 'n' Roll band, yes, but also phenomenon, symbol of an exploding society, stimulus of cultural change, object of ire and desire.
Thus began years of non-stop touring - with hardly a day off from 1962-1964 - and the development of 'Keef' and Mick as songwriters. Always with one ear on the great blues players of the day, truly their heros, especially the guys from Chicago. Because they played so much, the Stones got really tight and the two fans' songwriting became more and more fluid, as Richards explains:
"Because you've been playing every day, sometimes two or three shows a day, ideas are flowing."
For a record collector, the book is especially interesting. For instance, the first record Keith Richards ever bought for himself?
"I think the first record I bought was Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally,' Keith Richards remembers. "Fantstic record, even to this day. Good records just get better with age. But the one that really turned me on, like an explosion one night, listening to Radio Luxembourg on my little radio when I was supposed to be in bed and asleep was 'Heartbreak Hotel.' That was the stunner. I'd never heard it before, or anything like it."
More than fifty years ago.
Walking into the chain CD store today while Petra and her mom shop, I spy a two CD compilation entitled, 'Essential Chicago Blues,' on sale for a few bucks. Many of the guys Keith writes about are here: Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and others. A fine companion to the book and to early classic Stones covers like Bobby Womack's 'It's All Over Now,' Irma Thomas' 'Time Is On My Side,' or Willie Dixon's 'Little Red Rooster.'
All big hits for the Stones. That's where it all began.
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