Savage Distortion

IT'S GOOD TO BE KEITH





I remember the exact moment that I became a Stones fan. I was riding shotgun in Tony Alva's tiny white Colt (another post about Tony squeezing his XXL frame into tiny cars is way past due) driving through Rockland county listening to Sticky Fingers, and I think it was 'Dead Flowers' that pushed me over the edge. This was 1984, Metal was busy dying, and I was primed for something new, or old as it were.

Both of my brothers were Stones fans, but I had always kept myself at arms length from Mick and Keith. I even remember once saying that Keith Richards was a shitty guitar player - he didn't shred like my Metal heroes. I believe I said the same thing about Neil Young.

All that changed in 1984. Two years after that car ride I owned the entire Rolling Stones back catalog.

In the late mid-eighties I spent a lot of time driving up and down 95 from D.C. to New York and back. I made six mix tapes, five 90 minute, and one 60 minute cassette tapes, all Stones, no repeated songs.

It was during that time that I realized that you could fill up one side of a 90 minute tape with Keith Tunes.

Starting with 'Let It Bleed' (69), on almost every record Keith sang one.

I connected strongly with this material.

Keith has a true voice. He sounds like Keith. His delivery is flawed, honest, and often breathtaking.

The CD has replaced the Audio Cassette in my life. Vinyl is still the Master, but the mix tape, or CD, is still a big factor in my life of listening.

Recently, I tried to recreate the 'Best Of Keith' mix.

The advent of two LPs with the X-Pensive Winos, and newer Stones tunes like 'Thru and Thru' have changed the dynamic of the Keith Mix. I no longer qualify songs like 'Memory Motel' and 'Salt of the Earth' where Keith splits the lead vocal with Mick - great as they are - to make room for the solo stuff.

The track list looks something like this:

Make No Mistake - Talk Is Cheap (Winos)
You Got the Silver - Let It Bleed
Eileen - Main Offender (Winos)
How I Wish - Talk Is Cheap
Coming Down Again - Goats Head Soup
Locked Away - Talk Is Cheap
Time Is On My Side - Live at the Hollywood Palladium (Winos)
Too Rude - Dirty Work
Thru and Thru - Voo Doo Lounge
Whip It Up - Talk Is Cheap
Little T&A - Tattoo You
Wicked As It Seems - Main Offender
I Wanna Hold You - Undercover
Big Enough - Talk Is Cheap
Before They Make Me Run - Some Girls
Connection - Live at the Hollywood Palladium
Sleep Tonight - Dirty Work

That's seventeen tunes, mayhap they won't all fit on a CDR, and it's likely that Tony knows a tune or two that I've left off - most likely from the latter LPs (Steel Wheels, Voo Doo Lounge, Bridges to Babylon, and Bigger Bang).

It's a work in progress, though I can't think of a tune on the list that I could leave off in good conscience.