What would Keith Richards do_ - Jessica Pallington West [25]
Keith Illuminates John Locke and Locke Illuminates Keith
“The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.”—Locke
Keith: “I’ve seen everything.”
“To love truth for truth’s sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world and the seed-plot of all other virtues.”—Locke
Keith: “There’s nothing worth lying about … Lying … is a very destructive way to live … I have nothing to hide. I found that’s the best way to get along with everybody.”
“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.”—Locke
Keith: “What have they got a hard-on against a rock ’n’ roll band for? … This shit could change the balance of the world. A five-string fucking guitar and a couple of guys are gonna change that? When all of this shit went down in Europe here the last few years, that’s when I realized it. No wonder they were a little uptight, because they saw more of the potential than I did at the time.”
“All men are liable to error and … under temptation to it.”—Locke
Keith: “This music is all about beautiful fuck-ups and recoveries.”
Following behind Locke: Rousseau.
Like Keith, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) is seen as representative of the time in which he lived—yet he lived outside the norm. And like Keith, he argued for feeling over the strangleholds of too much reasoning, the need for speaking plainly and honestly—in Rousseau’s case, “confessing”; with Keith, “telling it like it is”—no holds barred, taking the dark side and laying it out without hiding it behind a mask or a curtain.
Rousseau’s notion that “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” mirrors Keith’s concept that music—and rock ’n’ roll in particular—gets to the root of a human in his natural state and the core of his being.
Thus: Rousseau equals Keith Richards. Sort of.
Keith Illuminates Rousseau and Rousseau Illuminates Keith
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless. ”
—Rousseau
Keith: “If you can write one song, you can write nine hundred. They’re there.”
“When something of an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.”—Rousseau
Keith: “I’ve watched it from above, saying, ‘I’m a goner. This is it. No way am I going to survive this.’ And by some quirk of fate you’re actually still alive when the whole thing is all over, and suddenly … boom … you’re back in the driving seat again.”
“Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.”—Rousseau
Keith: “Rock ’n’ roll—it’s like a heart machine.”
“Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.”—Rousseau
Keith and Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855):
The two share an interest in investigating the sheer absurdity of the nature of being. Plus a shared interest in bringing the emotions of humans to a heightened state—in line with the emotionally charged honesty of songwriting—and looking at the dark side with compassion, that is, not writing about embroidery. Rather: Express the messier stuff (like “Gimme Shelter” or “Midnight Rambler” ). Humans are limited and fallible, and only through recognizing this can we develop self-understanding and not sink into all-out despair. Individuality and self-acceptance are most important: Let the emotions bleed out.
Keith Illuminates Kierkegaard and Kierkegaard Illuminates Keith
“Be that self which one truly is.”—Kierkegaard
“Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are. ”
—Kierkegaard
Keith: “All I know is myself.”
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”—Kierkegaard
“Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.”—Kierkegaard
Keith: “You have a life. You live it.”
“During the first period of a man’s life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.”—Kierkegaard