Mick Jagger on Keith Richards' Autobiography

[Classof2015]

<p>Anyone see this on Slate? “Please allow me to correct a few things”. Interesting…</p>

[JHS]

<p>[Mick</a> Jagger responds to Keith Richards about his new autobiography. - By Bill Wyman - Slate Magazine](<a href=“http://www.slate.com/id/2273611/]Mick”>Imagine if Mick Jagger responded to Keith Richards about his new autobiography.)</p>

<p>Thanks for calling my attention to it. It’s amazing.</p>

[katliamom]

<p>very interesting - thanks</p>

[greenwitch]

<p>Did you hear the radio interview of Keith Richards on NPR? Amaaaaaaazing! He apparently plays guitar in his sleep. That’s how we got “Satisfaction”.</p>

<p>I ordered a copy of the bio for H’s birthday. The audio version, which Keith Richards himself reads. I can’t wait to see H’s face, he doesn’t know anything about this!</p>

[JHS]

<p>A teaser, to get more of you to wade into this hilarious, moving document:</p>

<p>

Keith likes to talk a lot about his getting clean from heroin. It is not correspondingly apprehended that he replaced the heroin comprehensively with liquor. Given a choice I select the slurring alcoholic over the comatose junkie as a lifelong professional partner, and I say this with some knowledge of the two alternatives. But neither is strictly desirable.

</p>

<p>

I am forced into the role of martinet, the one who gets blamed for silly arbitrary rules. (Like, for a show in front of 60,000 people for which we are being paid some $6 or $7 million for a few hours’ work, I like to suggest to everyone that we start on time, and that we each have in place a personal plan, in whatever way suits us best, to stay conscious for the duration of the show.)

</p>

<p>

I sound, now, like the accountant who earns my bandmates’ jeers. But I don’t remember Keith complaining about these sums, or, incidentally, that it took me 20 years to remember to give Ronnie a full share, just as we both pretended not to hear when Mick Taylor, or Ronnie, asked for credit for songs they’d written.

</p>

<p>

I think about “How Can I Stop” which may end up being Keith’s last great song.</p>

<p>“How can I stop … once I start?” he murmurs, over and over again. “How can I stop once I start?”</p>

<p>It’s about rock ‘n’ roll, of course, and playing guitar, and his tenure, and mine, in our unusual coalition. It’s also about heroin and everything else he can’t stop ingesting. But again it’s about Keith himself, who once started never did stop—through the fame, the songs, the concerts and the women and the drugs; and the violence and senselessness, the addictions and the deaths, the ruined lives, the petty and large-scale cruelties. At the end Keith got Wayne Shorter to do a sax solo that is itself almost an out-of-body experience, perhaps the loveliest moment on one of our records. It goes on and on over the last two minutes of a very long track, and the end is almost a … an exaltation, perhaps? I am lost there. It’s something I’m not sure I ever saw evidenced in real life, and something that isn’t in his book. It’s the sound—or at least the closest thing Keith Richards will ever admit to it—of a conscience.

</p>

[JHS]

<p>A colleague just pointed out that this article is in the “joke” section of Slate called Low Concept, so in all likelihood a well-done fictional piece</p>

<p>[Low</a> Concept 2010 - Dubious and far-fetched ideas. - Slate Magazine](<a href=“http://www.slate.com/id/3457/landing/1]Low”>http://www.slate.com/id/3457/landing/1)</p>

<p>Sigh. Too good to be true. Still worth reading.</p>

[worknprogress2]

<p>Spent too much time reading Rolling Stone yesterday. The piece on Keith Richards’ book, Conan O’Brian, etc. </p>

<p>Interesting stuff.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Thanks for the link.</p>

<p>I thought the really interesting part was Jagger’s reflection on the musical/creative arc of the Rolling Stones, which echoes my thoughts exactly. </p>

<p>Best “tidbit” was the acknowledgement of the role of Mick Taylor (IMO, the band has been terrible since he was replaced with Keith’s drug buddy Ronnie Wood, who can’t play guitar at all). I was particularly intrigued to learn that Mick Taylor wrote one of my favorite Stones songs, Moonlight Mile.</p>

[greenwitch]

<p>I was wondering it it was real. Definitely worth reading though. </p>

<p>Keith describes his relationship with Mick as being like brothers. Of course they fight, of course they get along anyway. You can listen to the interview here:</p>

<p>[The</a> Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards Looks Back At ‘Life’ : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130722581]The”>Keith Richards On The Stones, The Songs And 'Life' : NPR)</p>

[greenwitch]

<p>You can read the interview, but listening is more fun, especially when he talks about guitar technique. Here’s a tidbit:</p>

<p>

GROSS: You write how, you know, in the early '80s, this is right after you had kicked heroin and you said, Mick seemed to like one side of me being a junkie, the one that kept me from interfering in day-to-day business. And you say that after you kicked, you wanted a more active say in what the band did.</p>

<p>Mr. RICHARDS: Mm-hmm.</p>

<p>GROSS: But apparently Mick Jagger didn’t really want you to have one. Do I read that right?</p>

<p>Mr. RICHARDS: Yeah, that was that he got used to holding the reins and that became - that was a bit of a shock to me at the time, but I lived with it. And anyway, we, you know, actually what happened is that we ended up sharing the reins again. But at the time, yeah, that did shock me or disappointed me. I say, I mean shocked, I’m beyond, you know. But, and Id leave it at that, quite honestly. It was a bit of a surprise to me at the time and also but it gave me more of an insight into Mick himself. You know, I said, hey man, you know, all right, go for it, you know.</p>

<p>(Soundbite of laughter)</p>

<p>Mr. RICHARDS: I mean, it’s only rock n’ roll, honey.</p>

<p>GROSS: So, just one more question about this, which is, when you were performing on stage together during this period of great friction, do you feel it on stage? Did you try to prevent the audience from feeling that friction?</p>

<p>Mr. RICHARDS: No, get out of here. This is a bunch of guys that have been together for yonks, you know, I mean, you don’t carry stuff like this onto the stage. These are things that just happen and you deal with them and you get it over with, you know, forget about it. It’s, I mean, this is not angst or big deal, you know.</p>

<p>You know, of course, guys have fights. Brothers have fights all the time. That’s what its all about. It’s, you know, to pick one thing out and say, like, oh, it’s a festering wound, what rubbish. No, you know, we’re brothers. We get along and we fight sometimes and I don’t think I can express it any better than that. Mm-hmm.

</p>

[Youdon_tsay]

<p>Loved the NPR interview when I heard it the other day. So, the consensus is Slate’s Jagger piece isn’t true? A little confused.</p>

[fendrock]

<p>I would say it’s pretty clear that the piece was written by Bill Wyman, “in the voice of” Mick Jagger.</p>

[Youdon_tsay]

<p>Ah, trying to decided whether to spend the time to read it …</p>

[mathmom]

<p>I very much enjoyed Terry Gross’ interview with Richards. He came off as pretty sharp, funny, and likable. (Now if you want to hear a really funny interview try her interview with Kiss’s Gene Simmons.)</p>

[Youdon_tsay]

<p>I have a girl-crush on Terri/Terry Gross. She makes everything sound so interesting. And so many of those interviews aren’t even face to face.</p>

[Classof2015]

<p>“So, the consensus is Slate’s Jagger piece isn’t true? A little confused.”</p>

<p>Me too Youdon’tsay! It was not at all clear that it was “written in the voice of” MJ. But after the 3rd jab at Jann Wenner, I did start to wonder…regardless, as JHS said, it was entertaining and well written.</p>

[DonnaL]

<p>It had me completely fooled for a couple of pages, until I thought it began to sound way too suspiciously much like it was written by a professional writer. (Not to mention that I have trouble imagining the real Mick Jagger being that reflective, and even self-deprecating.)</p>

<p>It would have been nice if it were real.</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>I so wanted that to be real! Well played.</p>

[eadad]

<p>Not real it’s Wyman’s imagination at work…read the comments below the article</p>