Keith Richards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Keith Richards

Born December 18, 1943
England Dartford, Kent, England
Alias(es) Keith Richard
Genre(s) Rock 'n Roll, Blues, Country, Reggae, Rhythm and Blues
Affiliation(s) The Rolling Stones
Label(s) Virgin Records
Notable guitars 1952 Fender Telecaster
Years active 1962 – present
Official site Official website

Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943 in Dartford, Kent) is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of British musical group The Rolling Stones.

He was first known to the public as "Keith Richard" because Andrew Loog Oldham, the first manager of the Stones, removed the "s" to resemble the name of pop star Cliff Richard; Richards later restored the "s" to his surname. "The Human Riff" and "Keef Riffhard" are lasting epithets.

In addition to several solo albums, Richards has played guitar on releases by Max Romeo, Hubert Sumlin, Les Paul, Tom Waits, Bono and The Edge of U2, Nona Hendryx, John Phillips and Aretha Franklin.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Keith Richards was born to Bert Richards and Doris Dupree at the Livingstone Hospital, East Hill, in Dartford, Kent, on 18 December 1943 during the Second World War, and lived there through German V-weapon attacks on the city. Richards was an only child. His father Bert was a factory labourer who was slightly injured during World War II. Richards' paternal grandparents were socialists and civic leaders, and his maternal grandfather (Augustus Theodore Dupree) toured Britain as a jazz/big band musician. In interviews, Richards has often cited his maternal grandfather as a strong influence growing up. Richards' mother also introduced Richards to the music of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Another influence was American film and recording artist Roy Rogers, whom the young Richards imitated by dressing as a cowboy and playing guitar. As an adolescent, Richards dressed like a teddy boy.

Richards attended Dartford Technical School, where he was a choirboy until his voice changed in adolescence. Being dropped from the choir aggravated his frustration with school, and at age 15 Richards was expelled for misbehaviour. The headmaster, however, recommended Richards for admission to Sidcup Art College, where he found himself in the company of many other aspiring young guitarists. Richards left the College, and his family home, in 1962. Soon after that his parents divorced; Richards remained estranged from his father until 1982.

[edit] Musical career

[edit] With the Rolling Stones

Richards' musical career has been characterized by a reliance on collaboration and his long association with the Rolling Stones.

Richards had derived much of his early inspiration from Chuck Berry, whose guitar work remained a touchstone for Richards throughout his career. While The Rolling Stones were conceived as a rhythm and blues band, Richards was largely responsible for bringing the rock 'n' roll of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry into the group's repertoire. With Stones founding member and guitarist Brian Jones, Richards developed a two-guitar style of interwoven leads and rhythms. Richards has cited his insistence on the two-guitar sound as a defining Stones characteristic as one of his chief contributions to the group. Jones was replaced by the virtuoso guitarist Mick Taylor (1969-1974), who contributed to some of the group's most well-regarded records, but Taylor's addition also led to a pronounced separation in the duties of lead and rhythm guitar. Taylor's replacement in 1975 was the more rhythmically-oriented Ron Wood. Richards said in the Stones' official book According to the Rolling Stones that Wood is one of the most sympathetic guitar players he has worked with, and elsewhere he has said that his most musically satisfying years with the Stones have been with Wood.

Richards' often uses guitars with open tunings which allow for syncopated and ringing I-IV chording that can be heard on "Start Me Up" and "Street Fighting Man." Richards has frequently used a five-string variant of the open G (borrowed from Don Everly of the Everly Brothers)) which uses GDGBD and is unencumbered by a rumbling, lower E string . On some of the Stones' biggest hits, including "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar," and "Start Me Up", this tuning is prominent. Though he still uses standard tunings, Richards has said his open tunings led to a musical "rebirth".

Richards - who has over 1000 guitars, some of which he has not played but was simply given - is often associated with the Fender Telecaster, though lately his favourite guitar appears to be an ebony Gibson ES-355. On "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" Richards recorded perhaps the first hit featuring a guitar fuzz effect which has since become commonplace. Though in the 1970s and early 80s he used guitar effects frequently, since then he has rarely used effects. Richards considers the acoustic guitar as the basis for his playing, and many Stones hits including "Street Fighting Man", "Satisfaction", and "Brown Sugar" feature acoustic guitar parts.

Richards' backing vocals appear on every Stones album. From 1969's Let It Bleed, Stone's releases often contained a Richards lead vocal, and since 1978's Some Girls each release has had a Richards lead vocal. He has also contributed occasional bass, keyboard, and slide guitar. Richards has always been active in record production for the Stones and for himself, often in tandem with Mick Jagger and outside producers, better known as The Glimmer Twins.

[edit] Songwriting

Richards and Jagger began writing songs following the example of the Beatles' Lennon/McCartney, as directed by Stone's manager Andrew Loog Oldham who was mindful of songwriting royalties and who saw little future for a band that only covered the songs of others. The Stones had a number of hits with Jagger/Richards-penned songs. 1965's "Satisfaction" becoming their first international #1 recording.

Jagger/Richards songs reflected the influence of blues, R&B, and rock 'n' roll, and later incorporated soul, folk, pop, country, gospel, psychedelia, and the social commentary that Bob Dylan made prominent on Top 40 radio. Their work in the 1970s and beyond has incorporated elements of funk, disco, calypso, reggae, and punk. Since 1980 with "All About You", Richards has specialized in slow, torchy ballads.

With scattered exceptions, all Rolling Stones albums from 1966 onwards have consisted of songs credited to Jagger/Richards regardless of how much collaboration occurred. For solo recordings, Richards always credits a songwriting partner, frequently drummer and co-producer Steve Jordan.

[edit] Solo recordings

Keith Richards in a promotional photo for his solo album Talk Is Cheap
Enlarge
Keith Richards in a promotional photo for his solo album Talk Is Cheap

After Jagger vetoed a Stones tour to support their just-released album Dirty Work, Richards formed Keith Richards and the X-pensive Winos in 1988 (first named Organized Crime). The Winos also included Steve Jordan, who played drums on Dirty Work and Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll!, a documentary of Chuck Berry's the 60th birthday concert in which Richards acted as host and musical director. The forming of the Winos was recognition that The Rolling Stones might not record or tour for some time. Richards released a solo single, "Run Rudolph Run", and toured with The New Barbarians in 1979, consisting of Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, bassist Stanley Clarke and Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste. however he resisted a sustained venture outside of the Stones as potentially detrimental to the band. Consequently his solo recordings are fewer than those of Jagger, Charlie Watts, and even Ronnie Wood.

Besides Steve Jordan, the X-pensive Winos featured Sarah Dash, Waddy Wachtel, Ivan Neville, Charley Drayton and Bernie Worrell. Their first release, Talk Is Cheap produced no Top 40 hits, though it went gold and has remained a consistent seller. It spawned a brief U.S. tour - one of only two that Richards has done as a solo artist. The first tour is documented on the Virgin release Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988. In 1992 Main Offender was released, and the Winos toured again through North and South America as well as Europe. Richards' solo career required him to be a frontman for the first time, and the Hollywood Palladium concert video shows a more active stage persona than the Richards seen in the documentary of the Stones' 1969 American tour, Gimme Shelter. After Jagger and Richards set aside their differences, the subsequent 1989 Stones release, Steel Wheels, contained material Richards had started with the Winos, such as "Almost Hear You Sigh". Richards - citing his commitments and those of other Winos as obstacles to a reunion - has not released any solo albums since the Stones reactivated in 1994.

[edit] Recordings with other artists

Though Richards rarely recorded outside of The Rolling Stones during the 1960s, recent years have found him appearing more frequently as a guest star.

His contributions include the 2001 release of John Phillips' solo recording Pay, Pack & Follow, recorded between 1973 and 1979, which Richards helped produce and on which he played guitar on all tracks. Richards also dueted with country legend George Jones on the Bradley Barn Sessions, singing "Say it's not You" as an homage to Gram Parsons, and on a Hank Williams tribute album Timeless ("You Win Again"). He has also appeared as a guest on veteran blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin's About Them Shoes, singing lead vocal on "Still A Fool". In the early 1990s Richards played with and produced a recording of Jamaican Rastafarians, The Wingless Angels releasing the collaboration on his own label, Mindless Records. He has also recorded with Tom Waits, playing guitar on several songs on Rain Dogs (1985), and playing on, singing and co-writing "That Feel" on Bone Machine (1992).

[edit] Rare and unreleased recordings

The Stones recently released Rarities 1971-2003 (2006), which includes sixteen rare and limited-issue recordings. Richards has described the released output of the Stones as the "tip of the iceberg." Many unreleased songs and studio jams including their BBC recordings from the early 1960s are among the most widely-bootlegged recordings in rock 'n' roll. Many bootlegs feature Richards singing, include the post-bust 1977 Canadian studio sessions, 1981 studio sessions, 1983 wedding tapes, among others. Since unreleased recordings often appear as post-career or posthumous releases - and also due to tangled legal complexities - many of these recordings are available only as bootlegs - often as MP3 files on peer-to-peer sharing programs.

[edit] Public image and private life

Photo by Sante D'Orazio, from Talk is Cheap album art work. 1988.
Enlarge
Photo by Sante D'Orazio, from Talk is Cheap album art work. 1988.

To the general public, Richards is perhaps better known for his drug-related outlaw image than for his songwriting contributions. Richards and the Stones cultivated a decadent and counter-culture aesthetic during the 1960s and 70s, and Richards' frank admission that he used narcotics often made him a poster-boy for teens and adults who sought refuge in — as Keith sings in "Before They Make Me Run" — "booze and pills and powders." In a famous 1971 Rolling Stone magazine interview, he discussed his drug use. Ten years later, in another Rolling Stone interview, he expressed little regret about the heroin addiction that almost destroyed his life and music career. To this day, Richards wears a bracelet that resembles a pair of handcuffs, which were fashioned from a key chain Keith found. He has said it was a reminder that he never wants to be arrested again. Since 1979, Richards has worn his trademark silver skull ring, a gift from a friend, London jeweler David Courts, of Courts & Hackett; he has said publicly that it represents the fact that "beauty is only skin deep."[1]

Two famous arrests came ten years apart, the first in 1967 with Jagger and friends at Redlands, Richards' Sussex estate, which placed him in custody and trial before the court of public opinion and Her Majesty. The Times editorial "Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?" helped to get the conviction quashed after two days of imprisonment. The case also began a succession of drug arrests for Richards that continued until the late 1970s.

However, there was a more serious and life-changing arrest in February 1977 at Toronto's Harbour Castle Hotel (Talk:Keith Richards/Archive 1#Regina v. Richards 49 C.C.C. (2d) (1980)). Registered at the hotel under the pseudonym "Redlands", Richards was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for heroin and cocaine possession (he had two ounces of each at the time of his arrest), and was charged with importing narcotics, an offence with a minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment according to the Criminal Code of Canada.

For the next three years, Richards lived under threat of criminal sanction as he sought medical treatment in the U.S. for heroin addiction. During this period, The Rolling Stones released their biggest-selling album (eight million copies), Some Girls, which included their last North American number-one pop chart single, "Miss You". After the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld Richards' original sentence, he paid his debt to society by performing two benefit concerts for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, at the cannabis smoke filled Oshawa Civic Auditorium on April 22, 1979. Both concerts featured The Rolling Stones and The New Barbarians, a band Ron Wood had formed to promote his album Gimmie Some Neck.

Richards and Hansen, photo courtesy Launch Music www.launch.yahoo.com
Enlarge
Richards and Hansen, photo courtesy Launch Music www.launch.yahoo.com

Later in 1979, Keith met and fell in love with Patti Hansen, a top fashion model at the time. In a 2000 Vogue magazine interview, Hansen, who later co-starred with Rick Springfield in the 1984 film Hard to Hold, said she asked Richards for a bottle of Champagne. They have been together as couple since, and married on 18 December 1983, Richards's 40th birthday. They have two daughters, Theodora Richards and Alexandra, who have followed their mother into modeling.

Richards has never distanced himself from actress Anita Pallenberg, the mother of his first three children, and often refers to having two wives, although he never officially married Pallenberg. Together they have a son, Marlon Richards, and another daughter, Angela (nee Dandelion). Their third child, a boy named after Keith's close friend Tara Browne, died several weeks after his birth in 1976.

[edit] Recent news

On 27 April 2006, Richards, while vacationing in Fiji suffered a head injury. At the time there was no confirmation of how this injury happened, but it was speculated Richards fell from a coconut tree or had a jet ski accident. On May 22, official press releases by the The Rolling Stones confirmed that Richards had returned to his home in Connecticut. The Rolling Stones announced a revised tour schedule on June 2, which included an announcement about two cancelled shows and several postponed shows in Europe. Included in the announcement was a brief statement from Richards apologizing for "falling off his perch". Unofficial news reports stated that the band will tour in North America in the fall of 2006, and in Europe in 2007, where some of the postponed dates will be rescheduled.

In August 2006 Richards was granted a pardon by Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for a 1975 reckless driving citation. [2]

Richards is making a cameo appearance as the father of Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp) in Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. [3] Depp has stated that he based Sparrow's mannerisms on Richards. According to castmate Bill Nighy, Richards was so drunk on the set that director Gore Verbinski had to hold his shins steady while he filmed his scenes.[4]

Keith Richards leaving the Amstel Hotel, 31 July 2006, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Enlarge
Keith Richards leaving the Amstel Hotel, 31 July 2006, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

[edit] Chronology of recent events

Richards was initially treated in Suva (the capital of Fiji) then airlifted to a private hospital in Auckland, New Zealand on 3 May 2006. The The New Zealand Herald and Reuters reported on May 8 that Richards underwent brain surgery to relieve a blood clot on the brain. The operation normally involves drilling a hole through the skull to drain the clot. Richards' representatives said his operation "was a complete success", although necessary to relieve headaches the musician was still complaining of since the original accident.

On May 11, Richards was officially discharged from Ascot Hospital in Auckland. A statement was released to the press where Richards publicly thankedthe hospital and its employees for their treatment.

On May 13, The New Zealand Herald published an online article summarizing the two weeks of conflicting news reports about Richards' accident and condition. On the 16th, press reports coming out of London quoted Richards' son Marlon Richards that his father had been given the 'all-clear' to fly. Marlon told Britain's Daily Mirror that his father was back to full health, but could not say anything more.

[edit] Solo discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

  • "Run Rudolph Run" b/w "The Harder They Come" (December 1978)
  • "Take It So Hard" (October 1988) #3 US Mainstream Rock
  • "You Don't Move Me" (November 1988) #18 US Mainstream Rock
  • "Struggle" (February 1989) #47 US Mainstream Rock
  • "Wicked As It Seems" (October 1992) #3 US Mainstream Rock
  • "Eileen" (January 1993) #17 US Mainstream Rock

[edit] Notable collaborations

  • The New Barbarians: Buried Alive (recorded 1979, released 2006) - the band's 1979 Largo MD concert (guitar, piano, lead and backing vocals)
  • Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Man Standing: The Duets (2006) - "That Kind of Fool"
  • Ronnie Spector: Last of the Rock Stars (2006) - "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" (duet) and "All I Want"
  • Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played (2005) – "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl"
  • Toots & the Maytals: True Love (2004) – "Careless Ethiopeans" (duet)
  • Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons (2004) - "Love Hurts" (duet with Norah Jones), "Hickory Wind" (duet with Jim Lauderdale), "Wild Horses" (with the Sin City all-star ensemble)
  • Willie Nelson & Friends: Outlaws & Angels (2004) – "We Had It All" (duet with Willie Nelson), "Trouble in Mind" and "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On" (with Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Nelson, et al)
  • Hubert Sumlin: About Them Shoes (2004) – "Still A Fool" (lead vocal), "I Love the Life I Lead" and "Little Girl"
  • Willie Nelson & Friends: Stars & Guitars (2002) - "Dead Flowers" (with the Lost Highwaymen)
  • John Phillips: Pay, Pack & Follow (recorded 1973–1979, released 2001) – Album co-producer; guitar on most tracks
  • Timeless: Tribute to Hank Williams (2001) – "You Win Again"
  • Wingless Angels (1993) – Album producer
  • George Jones: Bradley Barn Sessions (1993) – "Say It's Not You" (duet)
  • Tom Waits: Bone Machine (1992) – "That Feel"
  • Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus (1992) - "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me (lead vocal and guitar)
  • Johnnie Johnson: Johnnie B. Bad (1991) – "Key to the Highway" (lead vocal, guitar, co-producer), "Tanqueray" (guitar, co-composer),
  • Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1987) – Soundtrack of Chuck Berry concert film (additional material released on DVD June 2006)
  • Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) – Producer on Aretha Franklin's version of the title song
  • Sun City, Artists United Against Apartheid (1985) – "Silver and Gold" (guitar, co-composer) with Ron Wood and U2's Bono and The Edge
  • Ron Wood: Now Look (1975) - "Breathe on Me", "I Can't Stand the Rain", "I Can Say She's Alright" (guitar, backing vocals)
  • Ron Wood: I've Got My Own Album To Do (1974) - "Sure the One You Need" (co-composer, lead vocal and guitar), "Act Together" (co-composer, guitar, backing vocals); guitar and backing vocals on most other tracks

[edit] Rolling Stones lead vocals

Richards contributes guitar, piano, bass, backing vocals and lead vocals on Rolling Stones records, as well as producing and co-writing songs. Yet his lead vocals are memorable tracks for many fans and this list identifies those songs:

[edit] Popular lead vocal bootlegs

Song unreleased by the Rolling Stones or Richards in any market world-wide. Verification of the track should be documented by citing some sources, such as The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions 1962 - 2002

  • "Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Blue" (early version of "Dandelion") (recorded 1966, unreleased outtake)
  • "Gimme Shelter" (recorded 1969, unreleased "Let It Bleed" outtake, 1969)
  • "Rip This Joint" (recorded 1971-1972, unreleased "Exile On Main Street" outtake, 1972)
  • "Scarlet" (recorded 1974, unreleased solo demo featuring Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin on guitar)
  • "I Got A Letter" (recorded 1974, unreleased "Black And Blue" outtake)
  • "Holding On" (recorded 1976, unreleased solo demo)
  • "Bad Luck" (recorded 1977, unreleased solo demo)
  • "I Can't Help It" (recorded 1977-1978, unreleased Some Girls outtake)
  • "I Think I'm Going Mad" (recorded 1982, unreleased Undercover outtake)
  • Crushed Pearl (1985) Dirty Work outtake
  • Breakin' (1985) Dirty Work outtake
  • "Too Much" (1985) Dirty Work outtake
  • "Deep Love" (1985) Dirty Work outtake
  • "Don't You Tell Me" (with Bobby Womack) Dirty Work outtake
  • "Almost Hear You Sigh" (1987) Talk is Cheap outtake
  • "Love is Strong/Strange" (1993) Voodoo Lounge outtake
  • "You Got it Made" (1993) Voodoo Lounge outtake

[edit] Bad Luck Solo Album

This list comprises all the songs recorded between 1974-1979 that could have been included on Keith Richards aborted 1979 solo album Bad Luck. [citation needed]

(#) Keith Richards solo studio session (##) Rolling Stones outtake

  • "Scarlet" (recorded 1974, Olympic Sound Studios)#
  • "I Got A Letter" (recorded 1974, Musicland Studios)#
  • "Holding On" (recorded 1976, London, unidentified studio)#
  • "Bad Luck" (recorded 1977, Interchange Recording Studios)#
  • "Apartment #9" (Paycheck/Austin) (recorded 1977, Interchange Recordings Studios, Toronto)#
  • "Say It's Not You" (Dallas Frazier) (recorded 1977, Interchange Recordings Studios, Toronto)#
  • "She Still Comes Around" (Glenn Sutton) (recorded 1977, Interchange Recordings Studios, Toronto )#
  • "Sing Me Back Home" (Merle Haggard) (recorded 1977, Interchange Recordings Studios, Toronto)#
  • "Worried Life Blues" (Estes/Merriweather) (recorded 1977, Interchange Recordings Studio, Toronto)#
  • "Oh, What A Feeling" (Don Everly) (recorded 1977, Interchange Recordings Studios, Toronto)#
  • "Six Days On The Road" (Green/Montgomery) (recorded 1977, Interchange Recordings Studios, Toronto)#
  • "I Can't Help It" (recorded 1977-1978, Pathe Marconi Studios)##
  • "I'll Let You Know" (recorded 1978, RCA Studios)##
  • "Your Angels Step Out Of Heaven" (recorded 1978, RCA Studios)##
  • "My First Plea" (Jimmy and Mary Reed) (recorded 1978, RCA Studios)##
  • "Serious Love" (Dunbar) (recorded 1978, RCA Studios)##
  • "Let's Go Steady Again" (James Alexander) (recorded 1979, Compass

Point Studios)##

  • "We Had It All" (Seals/Fritts) (recorded 1979, Pathe Marconi Studios)##
  • "Key To the Highway" (Broonzy/Segar) (recorded 1978 or 1979 demo)#

Note: This list is provisional, many Richards bootlegs were never recorded for consideration as release, but simply studio tune-ups. Those tracks should not be included here. The additions should be based on confirmed sources like a published book or interview. Those tracks with [citation needed] may lack such sourcing.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger | Keith Richards | Charlie Watts | Ron Wood
Former members
Brian Jones | Bill Wyman | Mick Taylor | Ian Stewart | Dick Taylor
See also
Chuck Leavell | Darryl Jones | Andrew Loog Oldham | Allen Klein
Related articles
Discography | The Glimmer Twins | Nanker Phelge | Rolling Stones Records | Rock and Roll Circus
Categories
The Rolling Stones | Members | Albums | Singles | Songs | Tours
This box: view • talk • edit
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../k/e/i/Keith_Richards_53f8.html"