The one song Keith Richards couldn’t live without: “I wanna keep the mood”
There aren’t many guitarists with the premium swagger instilled into the work of Keith Richards. As one half of The Rolling Stones’ songwriting partnership, working as the roll to Mick Jagger’s rock, the guitarist has demanded a place in the musical history books since he and his band burst into the public domain in the 1960s. Ever since that culture-shifting moment, Richards has operated in his own lane, with his own style and his own somewhat cloudy vision.
Richards is an artist who has created some of pop music’s timeless riffs and party-starting rock numbers, and his favourite song shows a man who knows a thing or two about keeping the vibe going. Not many musicians are as keenly intertwined with the very notion of having a good time as Ol’ Keef, but Richards’ is a party we’d definitely want to be invited to. No matter where you are.
There aren’t many institutions in British rock and roll that outstrips The Rolling Stones’ unstoppable guitarist and all-round rock star Keith Richards. But back in 2015, the guitar-slinger met his match when he was invited on to the BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs a show that which has been running since 1942. On the show, Richards is asked to imagine oneself on an unescapable desert island, equipped with only a few luxury items. Luckily, the island does have a jukebox filled with the eight songs of your choosing—these are the songs Keith Richards couldn’t live without, but there was one absolute favourite of the bunch.
Rock and roll may have started in the American deltas, but The Rolling Stones, guided by avid blues consumers Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Keith Richards, did a very good job of establishing the genre on both sides of the pond in the 1960s. It’s a trait that they’ve extended into this century, too, with an unstoppable continuation of their “It’s only rock and roll, but I like it” ethos that sees them continue touring to this day, filling stadiums and selling records as easily as they did in those first moments.
It’s an ethos that Richards has always held close to his heart alongside an unfathomable rebellious streak. Before detailing his favourite tracks to the radio show host Kirsty Young, the singer offered some glistening glimpses into his life off stage too. It’s the kind of story that, if not heard from the horse’s mouth, would be dismissed as mere audial fairytales.
It seems rebellion was in his blood since the very beginning, as Richards details: “The school said ‘you have to go down a year because you haven’t done your chemistry’ [because he’d spent too much time on being in choir]. There was no fairness here. Suddenly you’re 13 and you’re down with the 12-year-olds. So that’s when it started to ferment.” He put that same power into every song he made and every song he loved also had a streak of the same searing intensity.
As part of the eight songs that Richards picked during his time on the show, which included some legendary tracks by Etta James and, of course, his biggest influence, the granddaddy of rock ‘n’ roll, Chuck Berry. The guitarist’s affection for Berry is perhaps one of the most unguarded secrets in rock, but he still pays extra attention to celebrating the icon. What Richards was apparently unaware of was having just slimmed down his huge record collection to just eight songs. Now, The Rolling Stones guitarist was forced to pick a single song as his favourite—the one track he couldn’t live without.
As Kirsty Young explains of the feature called ‘castaway’s favourite’: “If I were to force you to just save one of the discs from the waves that were threatening to be washed away which one single disc…” the guitarist quickly replies, “Oh you’re killing me, Kirsty,” drawls Richards smokey gurgle, “really, that’s unfair.” Young naturally presses. “Okay, because I’m on an island and I wanna keep the mood the same, Gregory Isaacs, ‘Extra Classic.'”
Earlier in the show, Richards spoke about the song and showed his clear love of reggae. While Richards’ love of rhythm ‘n’ blues is known to any who has heard a lick of The Rolling Stones, he picked a reggae classic with Gregory Isaacs ‘Extra Classic’, as it reminded him of a special time. “Gregory Isaacs, well many many years I lived in Jamaica and I’ve always thought that Gregory was one of the best songwriters that came out of that island and a sweet singer.”
“There was a sense in the ’70s in Jamaica that gave me a reminder of the early ’60s in England, that something was happening” Richards concluded: “‘Extra Classic’ was a song where I met my old lady, so I thought I’d carry that through.”
You can read the full list of tracks Richards picked below and find the full podcast here, too. For an insight into one of the most potent songwriters of his generation, it’s a short while well spent. But for now, put on Keith Richards’ most cherished song of all time, Gregory Isaac’s ‘Extra Classic’.
Keith Richards’ ‘Desert Island Discs’:
- Chuck Berry – ‘Wee Wee Hours’
- Hank Williams – ‘You Win Again’
- Aaron Neville – ‘My True Story’
- Etta James – ‘Sugar On The Floor’
- Freddie Scott – ‘Are You Lonely For Me’
- Gregory Isaacs – ‘Extra Classic’
- Nigel Kennedy and the English Chamber Orchestra – ‘Spring from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons’
- Little Walter – ‘Key To The Highway’
