{"id":1183,"date":"2008-01-31T14:28:22","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T19:28:22","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-11T09:44:47","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T09:44:47","slug":"ok-asking-for-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ok-asking-for-clarity\/","title":{"rendered":"OK, Asking for Clarity Regarding Keith Richards Is a Dangerous Proposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PDUoOZwv5QU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nIn the <strong>Comments<\/strong> from our <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=keith_richards_most_memorable_guitar_sol&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=keith_richards_most_memorable_guitar_sol&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\">Keith Richards&#8217; Most Memorable Guitar Solos<\/a><\/strong> thread, <strong>Townsman Dr. John<\/strong> responds to my noting the similarities between the slide guitar solo in <strong>&#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221;<\/strong> and any number of solos Keef would play on Chuck Berry covers, such as <strong>&#8220;Carol&#8221;<\/strong>, with the following:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Uh, I&#8217;m not hearing any sluggish Chuck Berry riffs in the solo to &#8220;Let It Bleed.&#8221; In fact, it&#8217;s rather fluid and acts as a call and response to Jagger&#8217;s improvised vocals at the end of the song.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m starting to worry a bit about the growing disconnect between the imaginary Stones you&#8217;re hearing in your head and the Stones EVERYONE ELSE hears.<\/p>\n<p>Or to put it another way, listen without prejudice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry, Townspeople, my skin is thick enough to withstand this attack on my character. More importantly, thankfully, I have digital copies of both &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221; and &#8220;Carol&#8221; handy, which I trust will enable me to <a href=\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0312278659.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg\" title=\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0312278659.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">prove<\/a> the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.showbusinessweekly.com\/images\/435\/The_FactofLife.jpg\" title=\"http:\/\/www.showbusinessweekly.com\/images\/435\/The_FactofLife.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">FACTS<\/a> supporting my comparison. I have posted the songs and my clarification on the next page, where I ask <strong>you<\/strong> to listen to the solos, in particular, and clarify whether I or Dr. John is the one listening without prejudice. In advance of your support, Dr. John and I thank you.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe slide guitar solo on &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221; in question begins at the <strong>3:42<\/strong> mark.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Rolling Stones, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/Letitbleed.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now check out the <em>Get Your Ya-Ya&#8217;s Out<\/em> version of &#8220;Carol&#8221;, and pay close attention to the solo, beginning at <strong>1:25<\/strong>, and Keef&#8217;s call and response with Mick, from <strong>3:05<\/strong> through the end.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Rolling Stones, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/Carol.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Carol&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One thing that comes to mind, beside the fact that Keef&#8217;s solos on &#8220;Carol&#8221; suck, is &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221; is structured along the lines of the chorus of &#8220;Carol&#8221;. Take the 8 bars that make up the chorus of the Chuck Berry song and see if you don&#8217;t find a lot of overlap with &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221;. Before you jump down my throat for stating the obvious, consider that the obvious, in this case, is a <a href=\"http:\/\/images.newsmax.com\/ap\/ab9f316d-b143-43a6-a5ac-6ff30d09d115.jpg\" title=\"http:\/\/images.newsmax.com\/ap\/ab9f316d-b143-43a6-a5ac-6ff30d09d115.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">FACT<\/a>. This in itself is no great revelation, but it may help to <em>clarify<\/em> what I was hearing. <\/p>\n<p>Now, check out the solos. Richards, like his mentor, Berry, starts his typical solo in any song structured along these lines with that exaggerated <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Double_stop\" title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Double_stop\" target=\"_blank\">double-stop<\/a>. Go to the 1:30 mark in &#8220;Carol&#8221;, if you don&#8217;t know what double-stop lick I&#8217;m talking about. Fair enough, no? I think we can agree that this is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catalog-of-cool.com\/fact-cvr.jpg\" title=\"http:\/\/www.catalog-of-cool.com\/fact-cvr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">FACT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>OK? On the second go-round of this solo, beginning at <strong>1:42<\/strong>, after Richards has shot his meager wad of descending country-influenced harmony playing (in the Berry vein, it goes without say), Keef leans <em>heavily<\/em> on that double-stop device. He spends about 10 seconds on this before climbing higher and attempting to find new life in the pentatonic scale. Within 2 seconds, that attempt is aborted and he rides out the rest of the solo dicking around with the double-stop. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.learningthings.com\/mmLEARNINGTHINGS\/Images\/MHC_BRIGHTER_CHILD_FACT_CARDS_DINOSAURS.GIF\" title=\"http:\/\/www.learningthings.com\/mmLEARNINGTHINGS\/Images\/MHC_BRIGHTER_CHILD_FACT_CARDS_DINOSAURS.GIF\" target=\"_blank\">FACT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Before you think I&#8217;m criticizing this approach to soloing, please note that I <strong>strongly<\/strong> identify with Keef&#8217;s plight. As a young guitarist <em>I<\/em> leaned heavily on the lessons of one of rock&#8217;s greatest guitar players, the lesson that <em>When in doubt and challenged by one&#8217;s sausage fingers, start bending the hell out of that double-stop!<\/em> My bandmates can attest to how challenged I find myself to this day and how frequently I try to &#8220;cool&#8221; my way out of a musical dead end by brazenly riding a double-stop until the vocals re-enter.<\/p>\n<p>All right, now let&#8217;s turn our attention back to the solo in &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221;. For nearly 18 seconds, beginning at the 3:42 start of the solo, he rides out that most basic of double-stops. Then at the second go-round, beginning around <strong>4:00<\/strong>, he plays that loopy variation on the double-stop that he rides to glory in the second go-round of &#8220;Carol&#8221;. <em>Can&#8217;t you hear the similarities, Dr. John?<\/em> And again, I&#8217;m not pointing this out to criticize his lack of creativity but only to support my initial assertation that the solo you find memorable in &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221; is right in line with the solo he plays on &#8220;Carol&#8221;. They say you can&#8217;t argue with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.starmediaandbeads.com\/images\/bobby%20womac%20facts%20of%20life%20quad.JPG\" title=\"http:\/\/www.starmediaandbeads.com\/images\/bobby%20womac%20facts%20of%20life%20quad.JPG\" target=\"_blank\">FACTS<\/a>. What say you now, Good Doctor?<\/p>\n<p>I wish I had the bootleg of a wasted Keef guesting with <strong>Rockpile<\/strong> in D.C. in the early &#8217;80s. I think it&#8217;s from his junked-out <strong>New Barbarians<\/strong> phase. He practically mainlines that double-stop over the course of the Chuck Berry cover they play. I think it&#8217;s &#8220;Carol&#8221;. <strong>Andyr<\/strong> would know. <strong>2000 Man<\/strong> probably has that bootleg too and could confirm.<\/p>\n<p>In closing, did I poke a little fun at the particular solo you found memorable? Certainly! But I accept your suggestion as I hope you will now accept my supporting evidence of the tried-and-true nature of Keef&#8217;s solo in &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Comments from our Keith Richards&#8217; Most Memorable Guitar Solos thread, Townsman Dr. John responds to my noting the similarities between the slide guitar solo in &#8220;Let it Bleed&#8221; and any number of solos Keef would play on Chuck Berry covers, such as &#8220;Carol&#8221;, with the following: Uh, I&#8217;m not hearing any sluggish Chuck <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ok-asking-for-clarity\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}