December 17, 2010

Happy Birthday, Keef!


Keith Richards is 67!



&: Run Run Rudolph (December 1978)

15 comments:

tim said...

Fuckin A Keef!

The X-pensive Winos stuff is good. I enjoyed the DVD a lot a few years back, should give it another watch.

I quite dig his solo album with "Will but you won't" on it....Main Offender. Good tunes!

laura k said...

Yay Keith!

A legend if there ever was one. Possibly the first thing Allan and I ever learned we had in common: love of Keith.

A: "What kind of music do you like?"

L: "I'm a big Stones fan. Actually, more of a Keith Richards fan."

A: *eyes widen* *big smile*

L: *oo, nice smile*

I'm definitely reading Keith's book on my spring/summer break next year.

allan said...

Actually, I think one of the very first things I asked was something like: "Are you a Mick Jagger fan or a Keith Richards fan?" In 1985, there was only one correct answer.

***

Tim: I misheard an announcement about Main Offender before it came out and thought the name of the album was Man Of Thunder. (I may have faxed off a pitch to review it for some magazine and used that title. Oops.)

I still have a full-page Billboard ad for the album that has a dark, shadowy picture of Keith with the small-type words: Not Madonna. God.

***

I love Main Offender -- the rockers, anyway, which I think is exactly half the album. They still feel somewhat unfinished or skeletal, like well-produced demo tapes.

allan said...

At the time of the Exile reissue, I was looking for pics and found this 1966 picture of a 22-year-old Keith -- and was shocked because I think it looks really close to what I looked like at the same age. (L can confirm or deny.)

laura k said...

Actually, I think one of the very first things I asked was something like: "Are you a Mick Jagger fan or a Keith Richards fan?"

No. Didn't happen like that.

allan said...

I asked some type of question like that. I am sure of it.

tim said...

Yeah, I definitely agree re: Main Offender, sounding 'skeletal' - the guitar is raw, the way the snare pops, whenever I listen to it, I picture it happening in an unfinished basement with concrete floors and 2x4 walls up, but no drywall. I dunno why, maybe that's just my mental image of "skeletal."

[OT grammar question: see that period at the end of my post there? is that supposed to go inside the quotations? i think thats the way i was taught in school, that its supposed to go in the quotations/brackets, but it never quite looks right. it also doesn't look right outside them either. hmph. figured i may as well ask the writers!]

allan said...

We saw him at the Beacon Theater in New York on that tour and it was a fooking rhythmfest! Even the shitty reggae songs sounded alright. (Actually, I have some demos from his two solo albums. I should gather them together and put them up.)

It is proper puncutation to put the period inside the quotes (MLA or Chicago style or something). Personally, I don't like it. My theory is that if it is an entire sentence being quoted then put in the . or ! or ?, but if it is only a word or a phrase, I would not.

Maybe Amy and L can weigh in?

tim said...

I originally got into Main Offender because of Words of Wonder, but that quickly got old. 6.5 minutes of that riddim is far too much, and it really isn't good by reggae standards. I love reggae, just not a big fan of Keith's reggae. Cherry Oh Baby is alright, and the song that Mick did with Peter Tosh ("Walk and don't look back") is pretty good, but overall, definitely in the lower quartiles of their catalogue.

allan said...

Cherry Oh Baby = shit.

laura k said...

[OT grammar question: see that period at the end of my post there? is that supposed to go inside the quotations?

Yup. Both AP and Canadian Press style. Commas and periods go inside quotes.

The pic does resemble Allan, but not as much as he thinks.

Allan did not ask me that question. The way I wrote it is the way it went down. Trust me on this.

laura k said...

I like Cherry Oh Baby. I like all (or maybe almost all) of Black & Blue.

This is sacrilege, but I don't like Keith's solo stuff. The slow stuff is dreadful and the rock songs would be good if someone was singing. If I never heard any of it again, I doubt I'd miss it.

He and Mick need each other, that's all there is to it. Neither of them can do anything really good without the other.

allan said...

I like all (or maybe almost all) of Black & Blue.

I'd say you like half, at most.

Hot Stuff
Hand of Fate
Cherry Oh Baby
Memory Motel
Hey Negrita
Melody
Fool to Cry
Crazy Mama

Some of it is good, if I'm in the proper mood, but if it vanished off the face of the earth, I wouldn't miss it at all.

allan said...

Some of it is good, if I'm in the proper mood, but if it vanished off the face of the earth, I wouldn't miss it at all.

My last line got edited off.

Banned!

laura k said...

I'd say you like half, at most.

I like the whole album. It's not a desert island disk by any stretch, but I like it. *shrug*