Keith Richards stones me
Still my little rock ‘n’ roll
Guitar, the amps, soul
Keith turns 68
Not quite as old as he looks
But he’s gaining ground
Rock’s reigning duo
Nearly half a century
Keith’s wrinkles, Mick’s lips
Dartford, Kent, birthplace
Of both Glimmer Twins; must be
Something in water
Sang in school trio
As a lad. How well? One time
They gigged for the queen
Rebel kids should know
Working class mum named Doris
Bought Keith’s first guitar
And his grandpa Gus
(Billed “Gus Dupree and His Boys”)
An inspiration
So were folks’ records
Satchmo and Duke Ellington,
Billie Holiday
Scotty Moore and Chuck
Caught Keith’s ear; he developed
His own classic style
No flashy solos
Likes having a guitar mate
“The … art of weaving”
So some overlook
That’s he’s one of the greatest
Chords, rhythm, best riffs
Acoustic guitars
Amped to sound electric, drive
Some of rock’s great songs
Yeah, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,”
“Street Fighting Man,” guitars
Acoustic all through
Don’t forget he writes
The great songs, too, with Jagger
No end to the hits
Knows he’s channeling
Life’s deeper mysteries, says he’s
“Antenna … not God”
Not his job to sing
But he does that too, I say
He’s got the silver
Earned his bad boy rep
Drug charges used to hound him
All around the world
Once fell out of tree
Cracked his coconut, delayed
A Stones tour six weeks
But he’s cleaned up act
Relatively, anyway
The last few decades
Yeah, today’s also
Wedding anniversary
#28
He’s well read, would like
To be a librarian!
Helps good causes, too
Survivors like him
Often have depth, many sides
A lot going on
Keith — a man in full
It just goes to show you what
Clean living can do
Keith was the last main Stone unturned for me, though I haven’t written about Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, Ron Wood, Ian Stewart and some others. The earlier sets on Mick and the release of “Exile” have plenty to do with Keith, too. You can find them here by plugging “No moss” into the little search slot on the upper right of this page, along with my string on Charlie Watts. And type in “Bill Wyman” if you want to read about him.
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