“Immortal”: The one artist Keith Richards said would last forever
It’s impossible for any great artist to predict where their career is going to be in the next few months, let alone years. The music industry has never been predictable, and whether it’s new forms of technology or trends shifting towards different styles, there are always going to be artists that seem like the biggest thing in the world only to get thrown out once the hair styles start changing. Although Keith Richards fits in that comfortable middle ground of being eternally cool, he only got there by following in the footsteps of the kings of rock and roll swagger.
But like all good rock and roll, Richards also got that way by studying the blues. Every single one of The Rolling Stones’ best records had to do with making songs with the same 12-bar foundation, and listening to the way that everyone from Robert Johnson to Buddy Guy played guitar, it’s easy to see pieces of it rub off in the way that Richards approached his guitar playing using open-G tuning.
That’s all well and good, but being a travelling musician means much more than being decent on one’s instrument. The biggest names in rock and roll were the ones that grabbed you by the throat and demanded that you pay attention, and when looking at the kind of artists from the first wave of rock and roll, it was every parent’s worst nightmare whenever people like Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
Aside from the blatant racial prejudices that most Americans still had at the time, the primal feeling that came out of early rock and roll would have been construed as dangerous for kids. This was no way for a proper child to behave by any means, but every one of The Rolling Stones were ones to dance a little too close to the fire, and Richards got burned a few times when absorbing those early rock and rollers.
He may have chosen the guitar as his main instrument, but Jerry Lee Lewis was everything a rock and roll wild man was supposed to be. Despite the implied sliminess that came with his romantic background, songs like ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ were the first time white audiences got to see someone let loose like that, kicking his stool over and demolishing his piano until it was practically sweating.
“Jerry Lee’s one tough sonofabitch. I mean, none of us are immortal, but if one of us is, it’s gotta be that guy. The tragedies he’s been through. How much can be thrust on one guy?”
Keith Richards
Lewis may have departed from this Earth, but Richards always felt that the spirit he had would last forever, saying, “I’ve been listenin’ to him since ‘Crazy Arms.’ He’s part of my staple diet. As necessary as vegetables are. Jerry Lee’s one tough sonofabitch. I mean, none of us are immortal, but if one of us is, it’s gotta be that guy. The tragedies he’s been through. How much can be thrust on one guy?”
If Lewis can’t be around to carry on his tradition, though, Richards was always more than happy to spread the word of his genius. He was far from the only person to bang the hell out of a piano, but both he and Little Richard were proof that while their instruments were a lot more heavy-handed than a guitar was, that didn’t mean they still couldn’t make it sing in just the right way whenever they played.
And for all of the great pianists that came after him like Billy Joel and Elton John, all of them will forever be living in Lewis’s shadow. The rock and roll world had barely been a blip on the radar when he started, but this was the moment where the genre came into its own and either terrified or intrigued everyone who listened to it.
