Music The one guitarist Keith Richards was in “awe” of
Not long after The Beatles broke through with their first two hit albums of 1963, a talented rhythm and blues covers band named The Rolling Stones surfaced in the burgeoning London scene. Brian Jones led the band through its foundational years, but all the while, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards began to furnish a fine songwriting catalogue.
Richards is by no means the greatest rock guitarist of all time, especially if we’re focusing entirely on technical ability. The likes of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton are more appropriate contenders for that throne. However, Richards’ oeuvre testifies to the importance of creativity and individuality: most guitarists can play Richards’ riffs, but very few could claim to have created such an iconic catalogue of evolutionarily crucial compositions.
As the phrase goes, “It takes one to know one”. On many occasions, the Rolling Stones guitarist has discussed his favourite guitarists, often meriting creative colour above technical skill.
Richards once discussed The Beatles’ lead guitarist George Harrison as one of his favourites, noting his altruistic approach. “The thing is, you’ve got your Jimi Hendrix, you’ve got your Eric Clapton, and then you’ve got guys who can play with bands,” he said. “George was a band and a team player.”
“People get carried away with lead guitars […] and feedbacks, and it’s all histrionics when it comes down to it. George was an artist, but he was also a fucking craftsman,” Richards concluded.
Similarly, Richards was impressed by the talent within his own band. Before he lost his way, Brian Jones, the Stones’ original bandleader, greatly influenced Richards as a notably talented multi-instrumentalist and budding blues savant.
Sadly, Jones didn’t share Harrison’s team player qualities. “The man was failing. He had been a strong man, but he was wiping himself out,” Richards told Rolling Stone of Jones’ decline in 2010. “Brian demanded, you have to understand. And in a band like this, you also have to be supportive and giving. Having to deal with his jealousy, with Mick and me writing the songs, when you’re working 300-odd days a year — it becomes intolerable, and you can get really nasty about it.
Ultimately, Jones was replaced by Mick Taylor as Richards’ fellow guitarist in 1969. Taylor was just 20 at the time, but his ability to fall seamlessly in line with the band and contribute to some of their greatest records – Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St. – was astonishing.
“I was in awe sometimes listening to Mick Taylor,” Richards wrote of Taylor in his 2010 memoir, Life. “Everything was there in his playing — the melodic touch, a beautiful sustain and a way of reading a song.”
