Keith Richards: Wild Horses
The Complete Honeymoon Tapes (bootleg, 1983)
At this late stage Keith can’t escape his fate as a symbol of indestructibility. His leathery frame has long since become a living trophy for anyone who claims allegiance to rock’n’roll’s “live hard” ethos. Keith wears tough well, but his legacy of invincibility feels a little unfounded. If any Stone could claim the mantle of infallibility, wouldn’t it be Mick, who has never experienced a moment that he couldn’t glide over with good looks and a raffish grin? To this day, Jagger eats ‘em and smiles; Keith’s teeth were replaced after they rotted out young. When the 60-year-old Jagger bowed to trends with the Lenny Kravitz-sponsored Goddess In the Doorway, Rolling Stone deemed it a classic; meanwhile Keith hasn’t released a solo record in 15 years. In Toronto in 1977, everyone in the band was on drugs, but only Keith got busted. As Richards faced jail time for heroin and cocaine possession, Jagger assured the press that the Stones would continue to tour if Keith was sent away. Would anyone (let alone a band member) dare say the same about Jagger?
The talk of Keith being the “heart and soul” of the Stones is a lot of lame lip service. The sad fact is that as symbiotic as the Twins are, Keith has always needed Mick a little more. Their relationship illustrates two hard, but fundamental truths of rock and roll: Bands with ace guitarists but no frontman are bands you and I will never hear about. A great song will sink in the hands of a poor singer, but a great singer can make even the worst song fly.
Deep down, I think Richards wishes he possessed the voice to sing a bigger share of all those classic songs he wrote. Keith fans might think him impervious, but I think that deep down he’s always carried a little shame about his voice. A reedy, wounded instrument, it might have made him an excellent high lonesome tenor had he grown up in Appalachia, and not in Kent, England, where his role models were the rich hollers of Muddy Waters and Elvis Presley. Maybe that’s why Keith has always responded so deeply to country music?
“Wild Horses” is a song about making promises sung from the point of view of someone who will never keep them. It is so clearly Keith’s song, and it is so moving to hear it in his hands alone. His importance to the Stones is summed up in the way he whips the groove in a listless song with just a few well-timed guitar strokes. And while Jagger gives “Wild Horses” a great dramatic read, you know it belongs to Keith because he sings it as a man resigned to the injured soul of the song’s lyrics.
