Keith Richards on the artist whose death “killed soul music”
It’s no secret that The Rolling Stones were, and still are, deeply inspired by the sounds of the USA. In particular, it was the sounds of soul and blues floating across the Atlantic that first captured their imaginations and united them as a group. So when one of those key, formative artists died, Keith Richards thought the whole genre lay at rest with him.
“Nobody realizes how America blew our minds,” Keith Richards said back in 1971, “Can’t even describe what America meant to us.” It was really this love for the American sound that brought the band together, especially when it came to the partnership of Richards and Mick Jagger.
Their friendship was born out of sharing music. When Richards ran into Jagger as a teenager, finding another kid in their hometown who liked the same underground albums that he did was a revelation. “He’s got every record Chuck Berry ever made and all his mates have too, they are all rhythm and blues fans, real R&B I mean (not this Dinah Shore, Brook Benton crap) Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Chuck, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker all the Chicago bluesmen real lowdown stuff, marvellous,” he wrote excitedly to his aunt afer their first meeting.
But once the band were underway and beginning to break America, their love for blue also expanded into a love for soul. “We first started listenin’ to Otis (Redding) when we got to the States and picked up our first Stax singles,” Richards said.
But then, when one of its leading lights died, Richards thought the whole scene died, too. “Otis(‘s death), man. I mean, that one killed soul music,” he said, mourning the loss of the artist in 1967. By this point, Redding and the Stones had forged a unique friendship. On their early albums, the band routinely covered the soul singer’s songs like ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ or ‘Pain in My Heart’. Then, in 1965, Redding returned the favour when he covered ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’.
Even if Richards felt like soul died along with Redding in that plane crash, his actions say otherwise. It remained deeply influential. The more established the band got in America, and the longer they spent listening to this newfound musical love, the more it impacted their music. Jagger’s Americanised vocal drawl gained a more soulful edge; they started working with people like Merry Clayton on ‘Gimme Shelter’ and invited the likes of soul legend Etta James to share their stage on tour. The soul scene became just as important to them as any other, as important as blues or rock.
