The guitarist Keith Richards called “one of the great riff masters”
There’s no arguing: Keith Richards is one of history’s finest guitar players. As the lead guitarist and one of the principal songwriters for The Rolling Stones, he’s given the world a long list of timeless anthems and instantly recognisable riffs. He’s written guitar lines that generations of player will be inspired by and cut their teeth learning. But when it comes to who inspired Richards himself, he bows to someone else.
It’s a beautiful thing, really, the way music sits as one glorious ecosystem of inspiration being shared and exchanged. Richards, undoubtedly, sits at the top of that food chain as perhaps the biggest and most beloved guitarist still out there and rocking today. It’s tough to find a rock player who won’t praise the Stones’ guitarist or share their gratitude for his work. “His songwriting and playing were revolutionary for pretty much every guitar player ever,” Devon Ross recently told Far Out, as one of the countless new generations plays that look up to him.
In many ways, Richards feels like the ultimate rock guitarist, the very epitome of the thing. His merge of blues elements with a clear, fuss-free ethos has led to a timeless and endlessly catchy riff. It feels like the world will never tire of the ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ riff or the ‘Gimme Shelter’ intro. Perhaps that’s because they don’t try to be too intricate or extreme, instead focussing on being hooking and exciting. In that way, he’s always been blurring the line between rhythm and lead guitars, concentrating on making the best song as a whole product. He famously said, “Solos come and go, but riffs last forever.”
That seems to be an attitude he picked up from another player, who he called “one of the great riff masters.” If Richards sits on a throne atop the rock pyramid, he sees the AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young as being sitting right up there next to him.
“I’ve always liked AC/DC, all right?” Richards said in 1988 as a rare compliment from a man often quicker to share his musical dislikes than his likes. But he’s had an enduring flame for the heavier rock band.
While AC/DC have always fashioned themselves differently to the broad rock and roll appeal of the Stones, the connection makes so much sense sonically. If you switch directly to ‘Highway To Hell’ or ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ after listening to a few Stones hits, the guitar lines feel like ones Richards would write. They’re big and anthemic but never overblown. They never smother the song, but instead, all the parts work in perfect harmony.
That seems to come from Young working with the same ethos as Richards, casting off the strict roles of rhythm versus lead guitar to instead make a powerful and catchy wall of sound. Richards reflected that thought in his memorial post for Young, as he wrote in 2017, “Malcolm was one of the great riff masters and one of the greatest rhythm guitar players of all time.”
It’s a case of a game-respecting game. As Richards shares his love for Young, the rarely given compliment from the Stones’ guitarist means a lot. As Slash once said, “There is no one like him [Malcolm Young]. Put it this way, Keith Richards loves him and Keith Richard hates everything.”
