Monday, July 1st
summer in the city
Rolling Stones, “Street Fighting Man” (M. Jagger, K. Richards), live, Chicago, 6/21/19
summer in the city
Rolling Stones, “Street Fighting Man” (M. Jagger, K. Richards), live, Chicago, 6/21/19
summer in the city
As long as Charlie keeps playing drums, I’ll keep listening. He’s the oldest of the bunch and the only one who doesn’t dye his hair. And he’s the only one who sounds as good today as he did decades ago.
Rolling Stones, “Miss You” (M. Jagger, K. Richards), live, Chicago, 6/25/19
only rock ’n’ roll
Rolling Stones (with Katy Perry), “Beast of Burden,” live, Las Vegas, 5/13
Seeing Mick perform these days makes me queasy. When Muddy was nearing seventy, he seemed, onstage, entirely at home in himself. Mick seems like an old guy—he turns seventy in July—who wishes he were still twenty.
Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002), “The Lord Will Answer Prayer,” 1981
More? Here. And here. And here.
**********
lagniappe
Were gospel to be more publicly acclaimed, she [Dorothy Love Coates] might have the stature of a Billie Holiday or a Judy Garland. Instead, for thousands of black people, she is the message carrier.
—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (6th ed. 2002)
***
[I]t was obvious that Keith [Richards] and Gram [Parsons] enjoyed spending time together. . . . [W]e just all cared deeply about the same things. We just loved, for instance, to sit and listen to Dorothy Love Coates, the gospel singer.
(Quotes originally posted 3/28/10.)
Muddy Waters with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, et al., “Mannish Boy,” live, Chicago (Checkerboard Lounge), 1981
Keith and Ronnie understand something many rockers don’t: the importance, in blues, of restraint. They also understand that when you’re a guest you don’t try to upstage the host. Mick, meanwhile, hasn’t got a clue.
one of my desert-island singers
Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002) & the Gospel Harmonettes
“I Won’t Let Go” (AKA “I’m Just Holding On”), live
More?
And here.
**********
lagniappe
Here’s the original recording (Specialty, 1950s).
*****
Were gospel to be more publicly acclaimed, she [Dorothy Love Coates] might have the stature of a Billie Holiday or a Judy Garland. Instead, for thousands of black people, she is the message carrier.
—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (6th ed. 2002)
***
[I]t was obvious that Keith [Richards] and Gram [Parsons] enjoyed spending time together. . . . [W]e just all cared deeply about the same things. We just loved, for instance, to sit and listen to Dorothy Love Coates, the gospel singer.
(Quotes originally posted 3/28/10.)
Subtlety and delicacy aren’t usually associated with hard rock. But those are the qualities that (to these ears) stand out when you unpack this recording and hear the tracks separately. Listen to the guitar, the bass. Sledgehammers? More like sushi knives.
Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter,” 1969
voice (Mick Jagger & Merry Clayton)
***
guitar/1 (Keith Richards)
***
guitar/2 and piano (Keith Richards & Nicky Hopkins)
***
bass (Bill Wyman)
***
drums (Charlie Watts)
*****
all of it
(Yo, Don: Thanks for the tip!)
three takes
“Love Hurts” (Felice & Boudleaux Bryant)
Keith Richards & Norah Jones, live, Los Angeles, 2004 (Gram Parsons Tribute Concert)
*****
Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris, live (radio broadcast), 1973
*****
The Everly Brothers, 1960
Gregory Isaacs, July 15, 1951-October 25, 2010
[Gregory Isaacs’ friend and former manager Don Hewitt] said of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones that when he was introduced to Mr. Isaacs, “he carried on like he’d met Jesus.”
***
In a 2001 interview, Mr. Isaacs reflected on his legacy. “Look at me as a man who performed works musically,” he said. “Who uplift people who need upliftment, mentally, physically, economically—all forms. Who told the people to live with love ’cause only love can conquer war, and to understand themselves so that they can understand others.”
—Rob Kenner, New York Times (obituary, 10/25/10)
Live, London (Brixton Academy), 1984
“Number One”
***
“Night Nurse”
***
“Border”
*****
“Sad Mood Tonight” (1994)
*****
“Kingston 14” (Made in Jamaica, 2006)
*****
Want more? Here: “Gregory Isaacs Memorial Broadcast,” Eastern Standard Time, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University), 11/6/10.
**********
lagniappe
reading table
No battle that can be won is worth fighting.
What makes this guy such a great guitarist?
He doesn’t show off.
“Lead”? “Rhythm”? To him it’s all one.
He doesn’t play over the drummer—he plays with him.
Keith Richards (with Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams, Hank Williams III), “Dead Flowers,” live (TV broadcast), 2002
**********
lagniappe
I’m not here just to make records and money. I’m here to say something and to touch other people, sometimes in a cry of desperation: ‘Do you know this feeling?’
—Keith Richards, Life (2010)
*****
reading table
As the fiftieth birthday approaches, you get the sense that your life is thinning out, and will continue to thin out, until it thins out into nothing . . . . Then fifty comes and goes, and fifty-one, and fifty-two. And life thickens out again. Because there is now an enormous and unsuspected presence within your being like an undiscovered continent. This is the past.
—Martin Amis, The Pregnant Widow (2010)
