What would Keith Richards do_ - Jessica Pallington West [58]
“The eyes are the whores of the senses."
“I’ve always been suspicious of TV. I’ve always found music and video to be an unhappy marriage."
“MTV turned it into a money-making proposition by making people look at songs. They’re selling records by eyesight, you know? You’re confusing the senses. If you had a blindfold on, you can get into music ten times more effectively than watching preconceived images of what the song means."
“Why can’t video find its own niche in life and get off music’s back?"
THE VOICE
“To me a voice is a means of expression. And any idea about purity or technique—I mean, there’s millions of great voices out there, but they chill me to death. It’s a matter of whether you can touch with it, you know."
WEAVING
“There’s one guy, he’s just got four arms."
“The whole secret, if there is any secret behind the sound of the Rolling Stones, is the way we work two guitars together."
“The ancient form of weaving. Ronnie and I pride ourselves on people saying, ‘Who played that, and who played that?’ Because we figure we’re playing well and nobody can tell who’s doing what—that’s what it’s all about."
“Virtuosity is fine, but my thing has always been what two guitar players can get going together. Or three or four. If you get the right guy to play with, you can sound like an orchestra."
“On our own, we’re both pretty lousy, but together we’re better than ten."
—on who is a better guitar
player—he or Ronnie
WINGING IT
“When it’s time to go on, it’s time to go on, and when you get up there you either croak, puke, fall over, or not."
WOMEN
“Women are a beautiful complication, and I look forward to more complications."
“I like them all."
“Show me a woman who is faithful, and I won’t believe you."
“There’s nothing more disturbing than two chicks whispering to each other."
“If Johnson had just been a little nicer to his chicks, knew how to play the ladies a little better, then he might have been there instead of Muddy."
—on the mysterious, died-too-young
blues legend Robert Johnson
“Because we couldn’t remember their fucking names."
—explaining the choice of the title Some Girls
“Chicks are endlessly fascinating to me. They’re always an education. Women have a different point of view on things and they’re not afraid to point out that I’ve been behaving like an asshole. And I kinda like that."
“A large percentage of American women wouldn’t be half as liberated if it wasn’t for the Rolling Stones."
“I’ve had more close calls with women than with fucking dope."
WORK
“That’s the hardest work of all, bein’ lazy. But you can’t just make a profession out of laziness—you have to work really hard at it."
“There’s this perennial thing that people have—How do you do it? How do you go to an office every day? Compared to that, my job is easy."
“Some people equate good work with being difficult to do, but a lot of the time it’s the easiest thing. It just sort of flashes by you so quick that people virtually tell you. You didn’t even see it yourself."
“I can’t even spell the word."
—on retiring
“I have to work. What else would I do? Lie in bed and go mad?"
WRITING and INVENTION
(see also SONGWRITING)
“I look for ambiguity when I’m writing because life is ambiguous."
“I like ambiguity. Suggestion and insinuation is a deeper way of touching people than trying to be explicit … I don’t think rock ’n’ roll is especially made for preaching."
“If I start to think about what do they want to hear, then I say I’m out of here. The only times people have liked my stuff is when I’ve done it because I like it."
“I don’t write a diary. I’m not baring my soul. I’m trying to distill things and feelings that I’ve had through my life and I know for damn sure that other people have had, and I try and evoke them. You can take what’s happening to you and relate to it, and it will have a totally different meaning to you than it will to somebody else."