OK, I was in a little feather ruffling mood this morning, so here's one of my favorite rock and rollers Keith Richards talking about the blues. Let the bashing from the blues "purists" begin.
Good post, BoHonk... I've been a Stones fan since the late sixties and certainly am no 'Purist'. Its easy for 'those people' to overlook the contribution of the Stones. So much of the development of blues-based rock gets attributed to Elvis and the Beatles. Sure they did their part, as did many others but, for me, it was the Stones, Ray Charles, and Steppenwolf that turned my head around.
I wonder how the Stones would have panned out if Paul Jones had fronted them? He's had a fair amount of success with Manfred Mann and the Blues Band, but I bet he's kicking himself.
Great vid, H.O.B. I never really understood the mentality of blues 'purists.' Wouldn't being a purist have to entail listening to Howard Levy, Chris Michalek, and Jason Ricci, and then thinking "Well, they're all damn talented, but they're wrong?"
@Mr.M.V.L.U.N. Hard to say... Don't think they would have gotten the same amount of attention though... Jagger was/is some showman. As Fate would have it, what is, was surely meant to be.
It's Keith freakin' Richards. He's lucky he can still find his front pockets let alone find his keys AND remember where he parked the car! He's lucky to remember to pull down his zipper before pissing, and tuck it in before zipping up. ;-)
i forgot to say,what band put out more great songs than mick and keith. i have most of their stuff in my ipod. their greatest track,for me it's "gimme shelter",absolute classic.
One thing a harmonica player can take from Keith Richards is that he often plays a bit flat and off key and slurs his timing and sounds really really cool doing it.
From what I gathered: Original title is "Red Rooster," but often called "Little Red Rooster." I believe that Chester Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf, first recorded it, but it was written by Willie Dixon (who backed Wolf). Do a search for him on You Tube and you will probably find it. http://www.howlinwolf.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howlin'_Wolf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Rooster
for the tune try these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtAg2AwPlL8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjcIDSxLr5s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXrwiJEj7eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN2GE_SWRcY
You know, here in the U.S. there is all this talk about where we will put our nuclear waste where it won't contaminate the world for centuries to come. That got me wondering, how are you Brits going to deal with Keith Richard's body when he dies?
I,m a little bit off topic here but after hearing the interview with Richards,his voice(British/English)in conversation I,ve often wondered how Brits/Irish singers etc. vocals sound I guess you can say American English when singing(recording) yet when you here them talk in a conversation they talk with a different,they,re own accent.Any responses,just wondering?
I know my post was off topic but I don,t understand what punk bands have to do with my post.Brit/Irish/Aussie rock bands sound American in dialect when singing,yet when you hear them interviewed they have very old English(they,re accents) speech patterns,yet on records, when singing, not.No federal case; I just thought someone might have an explanation.
i know this has got outa hand but comin from a english guy who loves playin harp this is a familiar play ground. We seem to love everthing american as regards to blues rock n roll etc.Punk is an interesting one i loved when growin up and i love iggy popp and ramones etc also sex pistols and the clash .But were all here to learn about blues harp and i am not an exception.Kieth richards loved blues music as did many uk musicians like eric clapton and brought it fowarad like many englis h bands did.They had no predjudices about it and saw it for what it was and dont get much recogtition for this what do you think
NiteCrawler- I think it's a cultural expectation. Why do Blues players wear fedoras? Why do Grunge bands wear flannel? Because that's what they have always done. British rock bands copied American accents, American punk bands copied British accents.
Gloth- Green Day plays mostly 3 chord punk, or at least they started out that way. Actually, a lot of the Seattle bands started out as punk. Early Nirvana was very punk too. Your right though, not all Punk bands sound British. Accent is the sincerest form of flattery!
My humble opinion is that the Rolling Stones is the greatest Rock and Roll band of all time (sorry Beatle fans).
I wrote a paper entitled "The infuence of blues in rock and roll" way back in college in the mid '80s for a humanities class. At the time, the blues that I knew of was SRV, Clapton, the Stones, and Led Zeppelin. It was through the extensive research of reading and listening to anything and everything that was "blues" that got me hooked.
The blues started out in the beginning with the likes of Robert Johnson and continued on from there...from the Delta to Chicago...from the East Coast to the West Coast and abroad.
But there was a time in the U.S. where blues popularity declined. It was bands like the Stones that help keep the blues alive. The Stones were heavily influenced by the traditional blues artists. By playing blues covers or blues tinged songs, the Stones spiked the interest of many music fans to go back and listen to the originals. To discover where it all came from. I feel that Stevie Ray Vaughan also did this in the 80's.
Are the Stones a blues band?
No.
But they need to be included in the history of blues through what they gave us in their music.
Last Edited by on Jan 22, 2010 7:02 AM
Stones as the greatest. No i can't go that way. I will still vote Led Zep every time as far as describing LZ a great British Blues Band with Rock n Roll guitar
Saw the Keith Richards interview on a TV program on the history of rock music. Iteresting how they have strong history with the blues.
The same can be said of other genres ie country influencing rock.
There seems a lot of snobbishness from folks who follow certain genres ie Blues is looked down upon by Jazz followers and Country is in Australia looked down upon by followers of just about anything else.
I use the word 'followers' ie it's a very different case where the good muso's are concerned as they seem to pop up anywhere & everywhere & regardless of genre if its good music they are contributing.
Years ago I went to a Blues Harmonica workshop and to my surprise there were a huge number of young females enrolled ie they way outnumbered the handful of guys. An Australian Rock group called The Waifs has a female harp player. You should have seen the looks of disdain and disgust when the instructor informed these young rockers that the style of harmonica they had to learn was country as this is what The Waifs really played.
