“When the records started”: the guitar legend that left Keith Richards disappointed
It’s never easy trying to write music that the audience wants to hear. Any artist who knows their craft will need to be the biggest fan of any song they write before they think of showing it to people, but it’s also a tough experience whenever someone is disappointed with what you came up with. Although Keith Richards could be considered a one-man judge and jury on true rock and roll, he remembered that this rock legend sounded a touch lacklustre whenever he picked up one of his albums.
Then again, it’s not like The Rolling Stones were known to knock it out of the park every time they walked into the studio. For all of the anthems that they have given to the world over their career, there are still pieces of their catalogue that are more than a little bit dated, and even Richards has been known to take the mickey out of some of the tunes that he thought weren’t that good during their 1980s period.
When they were firing on all cylinders in the late 1960s, though, they had only started to develop into the bluesmen they are known as today. While they took most of their cues from their heroes like BB King, records like Beggars Banquet were the first time where they sounded like they had that same heartache in their voices when they played. At the same time, why would anyone want to hear that when Jimi Hendrix was lighting up venues across England?
Even though the Summer of Love was paved by acts like The Stones and The Beatles, Hendrix arrived like a bolt of lightning the minute he played in England. There had been blues musicians before him lighting up the circuit, but no one managed to make magic so naturally as Hendrix did, especially when he started incorporating different styles into his records, like on ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ or ‘Little Wing’.
And while The Stones had managed to turn out any blues song that got their hands on, Hendrix had them beat in terms of raw precision when he played. Someone like Eric Clapton could have played ‘Crossroads’ flawlessly, but the pure intensity behind a song like ‘Red House’ left everyone with their jaws on the floor when they heard it.
But while Richards loved listening to Hendrix in the clubs, he admitted that everything sounded way too thin when he picked up the records, telling Rolling Stone, “When I first heard him, he was playing straight-ahead R&B. I first heard him on the road with Curtis Knight, and then I used to see him play at a club called Ondine’s in New York. I thought I was watching someone just about to break. But as far as his being a guitar player, I mean, I was disappointed when the records started comin’ out.”
Granted, seeing Hendrix live compared to listening to him on record are two vastly different animals. Even though the guitar legend could weave together sonics that no one had heard before on Electric Ladyland, nothing compared to him playing with his teeth, putting the guitar over his head to play, or the famous gig when he set his guitar ablaze before the crowd.
Still, no one can deny that Hendrix was a true one-of-a-kind both in and out of the studio. That kind of frenetic energy is what rock and roll thrives off of, and despite Richards holding up as one of the single coolest people in rock history, no Mick Jagger strut could compete with what Hendrix was doing.
