What would Keith Richards do_ - Jessica Pallington West [48]
“Every sound … vibration has a certain effect on you. You can make certain noises that automatically make you throw up. And there is nothing you can do about it."
“Music is a necessity, because it’s the one thing that will maybe bring you up and give you just that little bit extra to keep on going."
“It takes certain mysterious cycles for things to come together to produce consistently good music."
“There’s something about music. When you like it, you want to find out where it came from."
“You don’t have to be a fucking star. Music is something from your own heart for your own home."
MUSIC and its SOCIAL and POLITICAL IMPACT
“Music’s the best communicator … And I doubt anybody would disagree … that some major shifts in superpower situations in the last few years has an awful lot to do with the last twenty years of music, or just music in general. It’s like the walls of Jericho again."
“You can build a wall to stop people, but eventually, the music, it’ll cross that wall. There’s no defense against it. I mean, look at Joshua and fuckin’ Jericho—made mincemeat of that joint. A few trumpets, you know."
“Why should rock ’n’ roll music suddenly appear in the mid-fifties, catch hold, and just get bigger and bigger and show no signs of abating?"
“The music business, in any given year, is ninety-eight percent crap. If you know that, and can avoid the posing … you might fail totally ‘making it’ … but it’s not going to hurt you to go for that two percent. But go for the other ninety-eight and you’re lost."
“[Music] is why the iron curtain went down. It was jeans and rock ’n’ roll that took that wall down in the long run. It wasn’t all those atomic weapons and that facing down and big bullshit. What finally crumbled it was the fuckin’ music, man. You cannot stop it. It’s the most subversive thing."
“Forget economics, forget democracy or dictatorships or monarchies. The most fascinating relationship is between people and music and how it can do what it does with no apparent sweat. Who knows what it can do? It’s a beautifully subversive language because it can get through anything. I don’t care if it’s porous or bombproof or has a Star Wars shield over it—music will get through. That’s my experience."
“Country music comes quite naturally—after all, those melodies basically originate in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland … it’s just that the studs and rhinestones are hard to find in England!"
“I can’t believe that a government would spend two seconds of its time worrying about what rock ’n’ roll band is coming to its country. But they do."
“It’s insinuated its way into the culture of every country in the world. It’s one of the most subversive hidden forces. Nobody can control it."
“There were times when it was like the Stones were holding a gun at the head of the world. Other times, it felt like the other way round."
MUSICIANSHIP
“This stuff relies on muscle and sweat and the human touch. The music I play needs energy and power; I’m just trying to make it grow up a little within its parameters."
“Do you want a miracle, every fucking day? We work the way we work. It’s none of your fucking business whether it’s slow or fast. Get the fuck out! What do you mean, ‘dead slow’? Did anybody moan at Beethoven how long it took him to write?"
—on being told the Stones
record music “dead slow”
“You always want to check out what the local cats are doing. And what goes in must come out, in one way or another. You have to be careful what you listen to, if you want to write songs."
“I’m very wary of trying to please other musicians."
“Any band that doesn’t play live is only half a band as far as I’m concerned."
“I love playing the piano. It’s nice to sit down on the job occasionally."
“You have to start very young to do this and then hope to stay alive."
“I would do it as a hobby even if I was an accountant now. And would probably be better off."