The only two counterculture stars Keith Richards thought of as fellow “pure musicians”
Police brutality, flared trousers, and blokes with long hair strumming acoustic guitars; America’s counterculture age might have begun as a grassroots socio-political movement aimed at dismantling the conservative status quo, but it quickly descended into a marketable fashion sense, much to the chagrin of musicians like Keith Richards.
From their very beginnings, playing dingy blues clubs in London’s obscure backstreets, The Rolling Stones have always been indebted to the rock and roll sounds emanating from the United States. Whether it is the blues mastery of folks like Howlin’ Wolf or Muddy Waters, or the soul sounds that the group soaked up during their first transatlantic trips in 1964, The Stones might have signalled the arrival of the British Invasion, but their material has always had a sheen of Americanism about it.
Inevitably, then, when America’s British Invasion period gradually gave way to a new generation of musicians, hopped up on mind-expanding substances and ideas of political revolution, The Rolling Stones were swept along, to an extent. Like virtually every rock outfit at that time, Richards and co had their own experimentations with LSD, culminating in the fantastic (yet massively underrated, not least by the band themselves) Their Satanic Majesties Request, and even when they returned to their blues-rock beginnings, it was with a newfound sense of political consciousness.
Tracks like ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ and ‘Street Fighting Man’ soon became counterculture anthems, capturing the revolutionary spirit of that era and speaking directly to the kids demonstrating on the streets of Chicago. At the same time, though, those tracks were spurred on by genuine creative inspiration and artistic drive, rather than an attempt to cash in on the trending topics of the day – a quality that escaped a lot of the musicians rising through the ranks during that era, at least in the mind of Keith Richards.
Reflecting upon that time in his autobiography Life, Richards gave a characteristic sweeping dismissal of virtually all other musicians populating the counterculture age. “Of the musicians I know personally (although Otis Redding, who I didn’t know, fits this too), the two who had an attitude towards music that was the same as mine were Gram Parsons and John Lennon,” he declared.
Explaining his selection, the guitarist continued, “And that was: whatever bag the business wants to put you in is immaterial. That’s just a selling point, a tool that makes it easier. You’re going to get chowed into this pocket or that pocket because it makes it easier for them to make charts up and figure out who’s selling.” Concluding, “But Gram and John were really pure musicians. All they liked was music, and then they got thrown into the game.”
Parsons is an obvious choice by Richards; few people captured the spirit of the American counterculture better than The Byrds’ songwriter extraordinaire, with his endlessly expansive sound altering the musical landscape indefinitely. Lennon, on the other hand, was also an undeniably gifted songwriter, but tracks like ‘Revolution’ were seen to have betrayed the revolution during the late 1960s, in direct contrast to the likes of ‘Street Fighting Man’.
Nevertheless, both Parsons, Lennon, and Richards were indeed adept at staying true to their own songwriting voice, without paying a great deal of attention to what would make more of an impact on the charts or revenue streams.
