Doc Shoe's Music Blog

“No Dark There” by Wingless Angels

What would you call this?  Proto-Reggae?  Rastafarian Folk?  Anyhow, here’s some Jamaican musicians jamming in Keith Richards’ basement, with Keef adding a bit of guitar.  This is one of the most achingly beautiful records I own, and one of my favorite to play when I’m baked.  Highly recommended by Tom Waits in that issue of Mojo he edited a couple years back.

“Hurricane” by Keith Richards

Keith Richards wrote this song after Katrina hit New Orleans.  Figured I’d post it for the folks dealing with Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath.  Here’s hoping we get it right this time.

“Rockawhile” by Keith Richards.

Regardless of how you feel about the Stones, you need to respect Keith Richards, and if you haven’t checked out any of his non-Stones projects, let me make my case.  Follow the links to listen to these records I’m ranting about:

The problem with most Rock is that it’s missing the Roll.  That’s what Keith Richards provides for The Rolling Stones, and what he provides on his other musical ventures.  There’s the solo albums with the X-Pensive Winos: this one, Talk is Cheap, plus Main Offender and Live At The Hollywood Palladium, each perfect examples of rhythm-oriented Rock & Roll.  There’s Wingless Angels, a sort of Proto-Reggae/Rastafarian Folk group he plays with.  At those New Barbarians gigs he did with Ronnie Woods, Keith was able to provide a foundation for the sonic mayhem.  He cut a version of the Reggae hit “Pressure Drop” with Toots & The Maytals, he covered Hank Williams’ “You Win Again” with so much soul it hurts, and—I almost forgot!—he stumbled into the legendary one-gig-only supergroup The Dirty Mac, alongside Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, and John Lennon.  He plays guitar on your favorite Tom Waits albums (here he is on “That Feel”).  Oh, and even with the Stones, Keith sings the songs Mick Jagger could never sing, like “Happy,” “Thru And Thru,” “You’ve Got The Silver,” and “Little T&A,” just to name a few. 

“Little T&A” by The Rolling Stones

“You Win Again” covered by Keith Richards

Here’s Keith Richards covering Hank Williams.  If you’re waiting for me to say something more, that means you’re not listening to this song already.  Where the fuck are your priorities, man?

“Thru And Thru” by The Rolling Stones

“No Dark There” by Wingless Angels

It’s been a loooooong time since I posted this band.  They’ve got a Proto-Reggae sound, a sort of Rastafarian Folk that Keith Richards loves, so he invited these local musicians to record an album in the basement of his home in Jamaica.  Oh, and Keef contributed some guitar, too, but that’s beside the point.  The same way listening to Folk and Blues can help you understand the heart of Rock & Roll, this music brings me closer to an understanding of Reggae—primitive, soulful, and utterly beautiful.

The Dirty Mac was the ultimate supergroup, featuring John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell (the supernaturally gifted drummer from The Jimi Hendrix Experience).  They only came together for one show, a TV special called The Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus, which never aired, presumably because many of the acts—like Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, The Who, and especially The Dirty Mac—upstaged the Stones themselves.

Anyhow, The Dirty Mac played a Beatles song, “Yer Blues,” and they killed, they were awesome, but then they launched into another number called “Whole Lotta Yoko” and you can see where this is going, can’t you?

Press play.  Listen.  Starts off great, doesn’t it?  And then they introduce a violin into the mix—not bad at all, eh?  But wait, wait for it, wait for it—there.  Hear that sound?  Does it sounds like an alley cat having its guts pulled out?  Yep.  That’s Yoko Ono’s contribution.  She got to hang out with the coolest band in the world, and she fucking ruined it.  Of course, that’s arguably what she did to The Beatles, so we should’ve seen this coming.

Today is for Keith Richards, the Human Riff.  We’re all familiar with his work with The Rolling Stones, of course, but I particularly dig his side projects.  I’ve already posted some of his work with New Barbarians, The Dirty Mac, and the Reggae band Wingless Angels, for example, but have you checked out his band The X-Pensive Winos?  They released two studio records—Talk Is Cheap and Main Offender—and this one, Live At The Hollywood Palladium, a record I could listen to all day.  Come to think of it, that’s exactly what I’m doing today…

Nothing against Mick Jagger, but most of my favorite Rolling Stones songs are the ones Keith Richards sings.  I have an explanation for this, but I’ll bore you with it later.  For now, here’s a rare live version of a great song you might remember from the Stones’ Grammy-winning Voodoo Lounge album.  That record was kind of uneven, like most of their later records, but there is nothing wrong at all with this song.  It is unimpeachably cool.

Here’s a great song Tom Waits did with Keith Richards.  They actually first worked together on the Rain Dogs album several years earlier.  Which is cool, but I’d worry about what might happen when you leave those two in a room together with a bottle of whiskey.  Anyhow, here’s Tom Waits on working with Keith Richards:

There was something in there that I thought he would understand. I picked out a couple of songs that I thought he would understand and he did. He’s got a great voice and he’s just a great spirit in the studio. He’s very spontaneous, he moves like some kind of animal. I was trying to explain “Big Black Mariah” and finally I started to move in a certain way and he said, “Oh, why didn’t you do that to begin with? Now I know what you’re talking about.” It’s like animal instinct.

(via heymanromeoisbleeding-deactivat)