The artist Keith Richards called “everything you wanted in a songwriter”
Only a handful of songwriters can hope to achieve what Keith Richards has done throughout his career. While he has taken on the mantle of the immortal rock star these days for his seemingly ancient status, Richards’ partnership with Mick Jagger showed the world the darker side of rock and roll, from the strains of ‘Gimme Shelter’ to the lude atmosphere of ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. Then again, Richards could still acknowledge when he worked with a master of his craft.
Jagger and Richards weren’t initially keen to write their material for the first handful of Rolling Stones albums, usually sticking to the blues covers they had been playing in the London clubs at the time. Once they got the itch to write, thanks to The Beatles, they quickly became the dual heads of the band, turning any simple musical idea into classic songs like ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and ‘Satisfaction’.
Although Richards was the rock and roll troubadour of the group, his taste was far more eclectic than just the blues. Outside of the sounds of the Mississippi Delta, Richards was drawn to the world of country music, going so far as to write the occasional country tune with Jagger like ‘Dear Doctor’ or ‘Wild Horses’.
As Richards was starting to emerge as a country player, Gram Parsons was getting his start in southern California. Joining The Byrds for the album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Parsons was developing into the rock and roll version of a cowboy, singing tales of heartache on his acoustic guitar that would leave anyone in stitches. Although Parsons’s time in The Byrds didn’t last, his next project with The Flyin’ Burrito Brothers led to him and Richards striking up a friendship.
Hanging out with the band while they were making Exile On Main St, Richards admired the way that Parsons crafted his tunes, telling Rolling Stone: “Gram worked very much like I do, which is to knock out a couple of chords, start to spiel and see how far it can go, rather than sitting around with a piece of paper and a pen”.
While Jagger was never close to Parsons, he and Richards would occasionally jam on various country tunes in between work on songs like ‘Tumbling Dice’ and ‘Shake Your Hips’. After failing to get The Flyin’ Burrito Brothers off the ground, Parsons would eventually move on to a brief solo career before passing away from an overdose of morphine and tequila.
When memorialising his fallen friend, Richards thought that Parsons was the complete package for a rock and roll frontman, explaining, “I think he was just getting into his stride when he died. In a way, it’s a matter of lost love. Gram was everything you wanted in a singer and songwriter. He was fun to be around, great to play with as a musician”.
Richards would never get to say goodbye to his friend correctly, though, with a handful of Parsons’s friends taking his body to Joshua Tree and setting him ablaze as per his wishes. Despite not having a proper send-off for Parsons, Richards has carried the spirit of the country-rock staple ever since. The country influence isn’t always apparent in Richards’s songs, but when listening to something like ‘Coming Down Again’ from Goats Head Soup, you hear the strains of Parsons’s finest work.
