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Name: Travellin' Man
E-Mail:
Subject: RE: RE: A little levity......
Date: Saturday, August 08, 2015
Time: 10:51:53 PM
Remote Address: 193.200.150.82
Message ID: 296739
Parent ID: 296738
Thread ID: 296626
Thank you CR! That WAS good for a few laughs. Felt good.
I read the Keith interview and my position is not to one extreme or the other. What is crystal clear about Keith, not from just this interview, but from many such interviews, is he is highly competitive. While I consider him to be competitive to a fault I also remember it is that competitive drive which helped make him such a unique standout guitarist, and songwriter, who contributed so much to The Stones music We love.
Many of the greats in our time had, or have, personality flaws from being so competitive. Michael Jordan is competitive to a fault for example. He could never turn off that competitive nature even away from the court. Tiger Woods has virtually no personality for being so focused on being the best at Golf. Nick Saban and Bill Belichick are control freaks who are often condescending to the press when the press are simply doing their jobs. All these people are over the top competitive and while it can sometimes be ugly, that competitive nature is part of why they are all so good at what they do. (Well Tiger has sucked by his standards lately, but you know what I mean.)
Albert Einstein was ridiculously smart and good at what he did but it's my understanding he was awful as a husband. She was treated more like a maid than a wife.
With the great ones you rarely see balance in their life. That is my point.
As frustrating as it might be to read some of Keith's opinions, which I believe originate from his highly competitive nature, it does not really upset me. I take his calling Sgt Pepper "rubbish" like TSMR, as a way of saying both albums were "equal". Both bad, as opposed to conceding the Beatles were better at the Psycedelic genre than the Stones. His competitive nature surfacing. Same thing with never admitting he answered an ad to join a band Brian Jones was starting. My guess is Keith filters many things through that competitive filter of his. Yet that competitiveness made him a great musician and songwriter. We all benefited from that side of his competitive nature.
There is another Keith too. As Keno noted much of the interview is the Keith we love. This was my favorite part of the interview:
>So you're actually the second-best guitarist in Weston, Connecticut.
I'd go for that. He's a far better guitar player than me.
I don't think so.
No—I mean technically, classically. I ain't trained that way. I force the thing to do as it's told.<
I saw exactly that in Raleigh. That was the look on his face as he prepared to nail the opening to Satisfaction. "You're going to do exactly what I tell you to do guitar!" And he seemed to WILL the music out of his guitar.
I don't know that any of the Stones, past are present, are exactly angels. Certainly Keith is no angel and he doesn't mind telling a fib hear or there to enhance the myth.
He's a rocker not a guru.
I think he looks a little silly bashing SPLHCB. Overrated maybe, but certainly not rubbish.
I think any attempt to rewrite history concerning the origins of the band are ultimately futile too. There is so much info out there to counter the rewrite.
In that sense Keith looks a little silly as well.
None of this prevents me from still liking Keith Richards overall. Yet I do not find him credible as a Stones historian though he most certainly "was there". That competitive side of Keith gets in the way of true accuracy.
Again, rarely are the great ones balanced. Often they are competitive to a fault.
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