Songs I’d Like To Hear Keith Richards Sing
While there’s still time
The Grim Reaper’s eventual call to members of the Rolling Stones lingers in the air. Even as they resume their Covid 19 delayed North American tour, their defiance of death seems as great an act of rebellion as the drug scandals that peppered their formative years. As surely as the pandemic has forced us to treasure what joy exists on a day to day basis, my thoughts turn to Rock and Roll — an art form whose continuation degenerates into a caricature of itself.
While the Stones continue touring to the point of risking public embarrassment, you get a sense that they may not quite know what else to do with themselves. During the height of the Mick vs. Keith wars and resulting solo albums, we learned that Keith was the soul of the band. Mick, on the other hand, turned out to be a glitzy celebrity for whom Rock and Roll was a means, not an end.
As Keith’s solo albums treated us to his gravelly, smoky rasp of a voice, he artfully projected his range across bar room rock, funk and ballads. He further cemented his image in our imagination as both a musical genius and ultimate survivor in the face of a, once certain, self — destructive death. As his candle burns low, I created this selfishly personal list of songs I would enjoy his interpretation of that, in no way, reflect his musical…
