Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has written a letter demanding that two Swedish newspapers apologize to the band and its Swedish fans for publishing a very negative review of an August 3 Rolling Stones concert in Gothenberg, Sweden. The review said Richards looked "very drunk" at the performance.
Now, there’s a shocker.
Richards, of course, is world-famous for looking like a particularly ancient and frightful witch and speaking an incomprehensible blather most commonly heard among street-wandering schizophrenics—and is widely beloved for it all, as a sort of crazy uncle character. Yet somehow the review set him into a state of high dudgeon reminiscent of Arianna Huffington on a bad day. In a statement released today and reported by Reuters, Richards demanded the newspaper apologize:
"Never before have I risen to the bait of a bad review," the veteran rock star said in a statement released on Wednesday.
"But this time … I have to stand up for our incredible Gothenburg audience and for our fans all over Sweden … to say that you owe them, and us, an apology."
I suppose it is ordinarily a bit of an insult to claim that a person was drunk on the job, but in Richards’s case, it’s precisely what we’d expect. In fact, it’s what he’s paid for—to appear to be drunk if not actually to be drunk.
So I greatly doubt that the band’s fans were offended by the reviewer’s claim that Richards was inebriated during the Gothenberg show, even if he wasn’t (although of course he probably was—he keeled over onstage during a Helsinki show on the same tour). After all, no one attending a Rolling Stones concert is expecting Keef to perform with the miraculous precision of a Jan Akkerman. No, they’re just there to have fun hearing the same songs they’ve heard hundreds of times before, performed live by a bunch of nutty rich old codgers.
Here’s hoping Keith gets over it and goes back to being our crazy lovable uncle instead of a crazy scary uncle who writes angry letters to newspapers.
Thanks for the correction, Joe. Actually, I knew it was Dave who had suffered the stroke, but I accidentally typed Ray’s name.
Dave was of course the band’s lead guitarist and a strong element of the band’s early sound, and it says something good about Ray that he never made a solo album until Dave was disabled and Ray would not call his own work a Kinks album.
I hadn’t heard that Dave was better and able to play again, and am delighted to hear it. I agree that as good as Dave is, and as important as he was to the Kinks original sound in the early to mid-’60s, Ray was always the leader and cenral creative force in the band. In fact, their fights were legendary, but they had a very productive working relationship. Dave’s songs on the Kinks albums were usually quite good, and his guitar work is exemplary, but his thin, high voice doesn’t work well over the course of a full album. Together, they made a great team, but separately only Ray was really on the top level.
S.T., thank you for your kind words about Ray, but I do have to tell you it was kid brother Dave who suffered a stroke several years ago. He has recovered & has a new solo album out, although I’m more of a Ray man myself. Other People’s Lives was a great album & there may be a follow up album in the near future.
Good points, Joe. I actually liked Voodoo Lounge, which I thought musically interesting, but as a concert act the Stones are strictly Nostalgiaville. Move on, people!
You know my high opinion of Brian Wilson, of course. As to the Stripes, I’ve never been a big fan, but their latest, Icky Thump, I find myself enjoying to a surprising degree. Usually they seem to me to be trying to hard to be Creative, but on this outing it all works quite nicely.
Well, Ray Davies! The leader, singer, and songwriter for the Kinks is one of the very greatest figures in rock and roll’s history and a true great among popular music songwriters of the entire last century. I suppose you’ve heard his solo album, Other People’s Lives. It’s not the Kinks, of course, because that can no longer be, with Ray Davies unable to play because of a stroke. But although it’s not the Kinks, it’s a truly superb album, often reminiscent of his late 1960s-early ’70s material. Ray is one of the greats.
S.T., maybe Keef’s still affected by that bump on his head when he fell out of that palm tree?
Anyway, I can’t understand why people pay so much money to see the Stones these days. They haven’t been really inventive & creative since Brian Jones died & haven’t been interesting since Tatoo You twenty-five years ago. I just find them boring these days. I feel that I’ve been more entertained seeing Brian Wilson/Smile, the White Stripes & Ray Davies at a fraction of the price of a Stones concert. Finally, may I take the opportunity to wish you a pleasant and restful Labor Day Weekend.