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Topic: Keith Richards Keeps the Stones Rolling Return to archive
01-18-03 08:37 AM
CS Keith Richards Keeps the Stones Rolling
By BEN RATLIFF


Keith Richards is the formula for the Rolling Stones as well as its claim to spontaneity. The best moments of the Stones' show at Madison Square Garden on Thursday were introduced by his riffs, which appeared suddenly, bright and cutting and emphasizing the weak beats of a rhythm. They sliced through the music's laggardly atmosphere.



When you're nearing 60, you don't cross through New York City four times on a yearlong world tour unless you have astounding amounts of money to make. (In September the band played at Madison Square Garden, Roseland Ballroom and Giants Stadium; this "Forty Licks" tour will soon continue in Europe through August.)

A few years ago one witty reviewer wrote of one of the band's 90's albums that it sounded as if the Stones had eliminated the in-between steps and recorded it inside a bank. But at some point in the 1970's, through its music and its publicity, the band really did create a kind of delicate golden mean, balancing rock, money, sloth and sex; our culture has grown up understanding the proportions, and the context of popular culture prevents the group from seeming like venal laughingstocks.

Really, the Rolling Stones are predicated on good songwriting. The Stones rehearsed about 130 songs for this tour, and also revolved various sequences of songs that are deep-catalog although certainly not obscure. On Thursday at midconcert they played a triptych of songs from "Let It Bleed," flashing a giant image of the album's cover above them before and after the set.

An unsmiling Mick Jagger spent the show on his tiptoes, flopping from the elbows out and the knees down; he's still a great antivirtuosic dancer, if not the electrifying singer he was. The steady-enough rhythm section — the drummer Charlie Watts, the bassist Darryl Jones and the keyboardist Chuck Leavell — hit some tempos that felt wrong (a too brisk "Angie," a mellow "Monkey Man") but also some that felt beautifully right, particularly a nasty, leisurely "Can't You Hear Me Knocking."

The same song pointed out the difference between the two guitarists, Ron Wood and Mr. Richards. Mr. Wood re-enacted the iconic solos recorded by Mick Taylor, his predecessor in the band; when casually improvising, he was a totally banal musician. Mr. Richards barely soloed, but when he did, each phrase had a spindly power and was based in rhythmic ideas. For long stretches, he parked in front of the drum set and locked into a groove.

The lasting image of the show, which was a run-through before another one to be broadcast live on HBO tonight, wasn't the red confetti during "Jumping Jack Flash." Nor was it the catwalk from a big stage to a small stage in the center of the arena — a device from the last tour — nor the thrashing return to the A section of "Midnight Rambler" after a five-minute slow-blues sojourn. It was Keith Richards, looking like a ragbag sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels, sweetly smiling for the audience and embracing his guitar: a startling, cuddly scene.
01-18-03 02:28 PM
Pants Make the Man "For long stretches, he parked in front of the drum set and locked into a groove."

Oh, how I love it...Let me count the ways...

Otherwise, most of that review was crap, IMO.
01-18-03 03:09 PM
Monkey Woman You are so right, Pants! What he said about the rest of the band is ridiculous.
"[Mick]'s still a great antivirtuosic dancer, if not the electrifying singer he was"
Antivirtuosis my foot! And Mick's always electric. Even when dancing on a departed fan's ashes! LOL
01-19-03 01:43 AM
Pants Make the Man And that guy is talking about bank accounts, but meanwhile, there's Ronnie, Keith and Charlie, making love with their instruments on a nightly basis, in front of thousands. Not fucking...making love. Now, Mick...Mick is getting into some raunchy sex on that stage. He even came on stage tonight with his zipper down!

So the passion is still there, IMO.
[Edited by Pants Make the Man]

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