The Rolling Stones classic that Keith Richards ‘stole’
Despite being an artistic medium which should be relaxed and freewheeling, the music business is fiercely competitive. There are chart battles every week as artists fight it out to receive a plaque in the post to acknowledge their creative endeavours of the last two years. However, this competitiveness also extends to inner-band dynamics, as Keith Richards can attest.
Bands fall into two different camps. In some cases, they are led by the sheer creative force of one individual who calls all the shots and makes the rest of their bandmates follow their instructions. On the other hand, groups can come together to be a true collective and operate collaboratively, fuelled by the spirit of democracy. Over their time as a band, The Rolling Stones have fallen into both categories during their vast 60-year history, with Richards having periods at the driving wheel and in the passenger’s seat.
Due to external issues unrelated to the band, Richards spent a decade in the creative wilderness, with Mick Jagger taking control to keep the band alive. However, there were other times in his career when a powerful determination led him to work at a breakneck speed and focus all of his energy on his music career.
When they recorded Exile on Main St, songwriting efforts were primarily shared between the Glimmer Twins at this period of their history. One area of duty that wasn’t up for debate was vocals, which was Jagger’s designated role. Although Richards has sung on many Stones songs, they are often album tracks rather than hit singles, and only one Billboard Hot 100 song features him on lead vocals.
The track is ‘Happy’, a joyous explosion of emotions that finds Richards shining. The Exile on Main St. effort was recorded during their infamous stay at Villa Nellcôte in Southern France and only took a portion of the afternoon to create, which is quick even by The Stones’ standards. In truth, the main reason it was completed so quickly was selfishness on Richards’ behalf. After writing the song, he felt compelled to nail down his vocals immediately because there was no way he was handing over ownership of ‘Happy’.
During an interview in 2010, Richards explained the song was finished before any of his bandmates knew it existed. He recalled: “I’d ‘stolen it’ and captured it before anybody else knew it existed. So that was it.”
Richards knew that if Jagger heard it, he’d want his voice on the recording. Therefore, the guitarist laid it down secretly to ensure that it remained in his possession and that his voice would appear on ‘Happy’ when released into the world. While this was a sneaky move from Richards, it was a decision he deemed necessary.
For Richards, it remains one of his all-time favourite Stones tracks. He once recalled, “I play ‘Happy’ quite a lot, more often than any of the others. I love playing it.” Richards continued: “It’s not usually my genre,” Richards noted. “I’m not known for happy and joyful stuff. I’m probably more aligned to Lucifer and the dark side.”
Richards admitted that he’s “not known for happy and joyful stuff” and is usually influenced by the darker side of life. Despite sounding uplifting, ‘Happy’ was written while the guitarist was at his lowest ebb and was his way of getting out of a slump. “Some of the best songs, some of the happiest ditties in the world come out because you’re feeling exactly the opposite,” he once explained.
The guitarist continued: “Sometimes you write to counteract that feeling. I was feeling anything but happy when I wrote ‘Happy.’ I wrote ‘Happy’ to make sure there was a word like that and a feeling like that.”
Writing ‘Happy’ was Richards’s attempt to trick himself into entering that state of mind and allowing that feeling to become all-encompassing. This factor is another reason he was unwilling to negotiate on vocal duties, as the track saved him during one of his darkest hours. Richards wasn’t fuelled to create the song in secret solely by a burning desire to hog the limelight; instead, it was a desperate bid to lift his spirit.
