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Keith Richards belittles rap, metal

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Read an interview with him in this month's Esquire in which he belittles Sgt. Peppers as well. Being either addled or bitter he implies that Her Majesty's Satanic Request was produced at the same time rather than a failed response to the Beatles' psychedelia. Geoff Emerick recounts in his book how jaws dropped at Jagger's house when McCartney and Lennon dropped by and played a test pressing for the assembled Stones and others.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Totally not interested in him or his music but I have to agree with his thoughts on hip-hop (and rap). Music died when that came along. To me, the eighties was the last decade full of great music.

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Pukey2SEP. 04, 2015 - 08:47AM JST Totally not interested in him or his music but I have to agree with his thoughts on hip-hop (and rap). Music died when that came along. To me, the eighties was the last decade full of great music.

So, Grunge and Brit Pop do/did nothing for you? Elbow? Feist?, Joan as Police Woman? Bjork? Arctic Monkeys? Divine Comedy? Anything? Anyone?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Coming from, Keith Richards, I guess he can talk crap if he wants. The Stones have been rocking the world for many decades.

Mc Jagger must be one of the most animated/flamboyant front man ever. Wonder how Jim Morrison would've turned out.

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Wc626SEP. 04, 2015 - 09:57AM JST Mc Jagger must be one of the most animated/flamboyant front man ever. Wonder how Jim Morrison would've turned out.

We know how he turned out: dead.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Hip Hop and Rap are not music. Most rap songs are just plain filth. I can't stand that crap and avoid it like the plague.

-2 ( +3 / -6 )

Hip-hop and rap, yes totally agree. No interest in derivative acts like Metallica. But Black Sabbath and of course the Beatles have important places in the history and development of rock music and a bit harsh of Keef to dis them.

3 ( +4 / -2 )

Not a fan.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKf6HGa8H50 (The Faces/Keith Richards) -> the First Barbarians --> New Barbarians

Last of the classic guitar blues/rock was the Smiths (Johnny Marr). Era ended with that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX0fX47rQMc (Johnny Marr)

Don Arden (Sharon Osbourne's father and Manager for Black Sabbath) "imported" many of the great classic (Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry) blues/rock guitarists to Great Britain). This provided the foundation for Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Beatles, Stones, Jimmy Hendrix in London)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJwKDHAhcU (Joy of the Guitar Riff: Johnny Marr 42:00)

I agree with Keith Richards in these regards concerning the guitar/blues. He is more correct and one could consider the "music" of today not "music" with regards to the blues/rock era which Keith Richards is definitely part of.

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Like, Bob Dylan is a poet. And so is Jay Z, and Kanye.”

Oh Paul when did you go so wrong, putting the two in the same sentence is just wrong!

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"Now all you kids - Get off my lawn!!" Mr. Richards leaves a great musical legacy. Unfortunately, whatever he has produced since the rise of rap and metal has been relatively insignificant in comparison to the merits of those he denegrates.

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I like Keith's candor. I'm not surprised to hear him trash hiphop considering his age. Had he lived through adolescent years exposed to hiphop, I'm sure he'd have been influenced by the genre. We all love music we grew up with and despise others that come after that. Natural law of music-verse.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

tobolskiSEP. 04, 2015 - 10:16PM JST "Now all you kids - Get off my lawn!!" Mr. Richards leaves a great musical legacy. Unfortunately, whatever he has produced since the rise of rap and metal has been relatively insignificant in comparison to the merits of those he denegrates.

"Since the rise of rap (metal started in 1968) . . . " Hell, the last good Stones album was Some Girls, and the Stones were never much of an album band to begin with.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has taken a different approach to hip-hop. He recently recorded a song with rap star Kanye West and singer Rihanna.

Sir Paul: hip-op. Rihanna hip-hop? Really?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I agreed with him on Hip-hop.

0 ( +1 / -2 )

There's very few albums out there with a high percentage of hits on them, or even over 50 pct. Ever heard of "B-side"?

Don't have any Stones albums handy but probably they wouldn't be excluded from that.

There are some good tunes in rap and lots in metal, KR should get off his high horse.

U Can't Touch This!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Hammer_Touch.jpg

2 ( +3 / -2 )

Jim Morrison was the original punk rocker.

As for Keith, well, that is like, your opinion, man.

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There's very few albums out there with a high percentage of hits on them, or even over 50 pct. Ever heard of "B-side"?

Don't have any Stones albums handy but probably they wouldn't be excluded from that.

You must not have ever heard Beggar's Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers or Exile on Main Street. No "b-sides" on any of those records. Probably the best blues-based rock music ever produced.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Stones!

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“Millions are in love with Metallica and Black Sabbath,” he was quoted as saying. “I just thought they were great jokes.”

Hold on there.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my politically incorrect dislike of rap. It's not singing. It's chanting (yelling would be more accurate). No instrumentals. I triple dog dare anyone to listen to Anaconda without the video. It can't be done. The song is just too stupid and amateurish to stand without the butts to dustract from the stupidity.

Buy a clue, Kids. The entire genre is weak.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my politically incorrect dislike of rap. It's not singing.

And singing isn't rap - what's your point? Music is only to be allowed if it's singing?

I triple dog dare anyone to listen to Anaconda without the video.

That song isn't really rap, and it's a crappy sing anyways.

Whether you like it or not, rapping is a skill.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I don't mind Keef, I think he's a bit of a legend, but many of his best know tunes use open G. It's a guitar tuning he took from the blues and enables you to play essentially with two fingers and simple little hammer ons. It sounds pretty good, and that's what matters, but in terms of musicianship, it's much closer to a "joke" than anything played by Tony Iommi. Check out side A of "Sabotage" for a slice of rock heaven, huge mega riffs interspersed with mean Spanish guitar.

Big outdoor gigs were in their infancy when the Beatles played Shea Stadium. They apparently used a very big sound system for the time, but it was drowned out by the screaming girls. Apparently the band couldn't hear themselves. Proper amplification for big gigs started a couple of years later at Monterey Pop. So in short, it's just another cheap shot from Keef, someone who's been amply rewarded for his talent.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Agree with him or not, the man has a lot of credibility to stand on when it comes to music. His views on both Metal and Hip-hop are, of course, extremely simple, so despite being partly true, they are also blanket statements that don't apply to all artists of those genres. I do like his colorful descriptions, though.

Now if only he would so adamantly decry drug and alcohol abuse.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Wonder how Jim Morrison would've turned out.

He "broke" on through the other side.

Not a fan of Keith's music, but have to agree with his views on rap and hiphop. How anyone can call that music boggles the mind.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I don't mind Keef, I think he's a bit of a legend, but many of his best know tunes use open G.

No quarrels with your opinion about KR, but don't bash the open G tuning. Like any alternate tuning, it expands the options you have with a guitar. That's one of the things that makes guitar such a great instrument. It's as easy or as difficult as you want it to be, and many of the greatest players have used alternate tunings liberally.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What Keith Richards doesn't realize is that he has several black widow spiders living in his hair. Scary.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Now if only he would so adamantly decry drug and alcohol abuse.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/keith-richards-guilty-but-free-19781130 (free concert for blind after heroin/Canada incident)

"Keith Richards is an intensely creative person who is often wracked with emotional pain," said Cooper. "He had a poor self image, problems with other people. His everyday life can be hell." Cooper quoted from a biography of Baudelaire to the effect that art is created from "pieces of the shattered self.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/times-keith-richards-almost-died/

In 2007, Keith Richards made international headlines when he told New Musical Express (NME) that he had mixed his dad’s ashes with cocaine and snorted them. He later claimed the remark was taken out of context, and his reps denied it. But in his autobiography ‘Life,’ the guitarist confirmed that he did, indeed, snort dear old dad — but not mixed with cocaine. Richards claimed that some of his father’s ashes blew onto a table while he was trying to spread them, and rather than just brush the residue off, he opted to stick his finger in the residue and snort it, which is a relief — ’cause, y’know, now that he’s explained it, that’s not at all creepy.

==> He needs to move to Portugal (do not enforce drug laws)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Gotta love grumpy old men..."back in my day..." Tone deaf"...lol... my old man, rest his soul, used to go on about the Stones and the Beatles; how they couldn't hold a tune, etc: not like Dick Powell... different generations : )

Sabbath a great joke? Sabbath's first album alone is far greater than anything thing that the Stones ever did...actually all their albums are but then again I'm not really a Stones fan so take my comment with a pinch of bitterness. I'm not really up with recent Rap but some of the stuff I listened to, 20+ years ago, was excellent...a reflection of where the artists came from... something I can't say about a so-called Blues band from London. Anyway, ask my kids who the grumpy old man is and they'll point the finger directly at yours truly.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Any sort of music that praises those who are uneducated, thuggery, rape and drugs, is not music to my ears. Sorry.

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@Jeff Huffman

Her Satanic Majesty's Request probably was a response to Sgt. Peppers but it is far from a failure.

In fact, it is one of the best albums of all time.

I find that these days I can barely listen to The Beatles, but always have time for the Stones.

-4 ( +0 / -3 )

Steals black music >>>> denigrates black music.

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I don't like Rap/Hip Hop because of it's lack of harmonies, lack of intelligent subject-matter, glorification of disrespectful behavior, and because it too often takes the easy way out by sampling REAL music and passing it off as its own.

Metallica and Black Sabbath are hardly the end-all, be-all of Metal, Keith's comment can hardly be characterized as an indictment of that musical genre as a whole. Personally, I think he's full of it...and full of himself.

In the Metal genre, I like a few bands. The best Metal, IMHO, tells a story or relates an experience/emotion...sometimes in a graphic or vulgar way, but always for the purpose of "painting" the story. I'll take Iron Maiden (Book of Souls! Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner! Revelations! Two Minutes to Midnight!) over the Stones, any day!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A grumpy old has-been that should have given up the axe a long time ago. All he's doing with his comments is hyping his newest album. He's 71, and nothing compared to the Tony Bennett - Lady Gaga DVD I just saw and listened to. But I'm just a musician, not a coked-out wrinkled old man.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Paustovsky

Steals black music denigrates black music.

Now, now. Reverse the roles. If Jesse Norman came out and denigrated country music, would you still be all "steals this,denigrates that?" Even as a white person, I would agree with her if she did.

Richards would be the first to laud the accomplishments of black music in the 20th century, which is why he copied it in the first place. He called Robert Johnson the "supremo." He also said this in reference to Howlin' Wolf: "We have been blessed by the music that we listened to, and let's see if we can actually spin it back around and make American white kids listen to Little Red Rooster."

The guy is being honest about how he feels, and it has nothing to do with race. Note how he also put down the Beatles, the whitest of white bands ever.

He likes what he likes. Don't bring race into it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Black SabbathSep. 05, 2015 - 01:19AM JST Jim Morrison was the original punk rocker.

You're funny. Either that or you're confusing punk with some other musical style.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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