Last year around this time, AG posted Noisey’s terrific Guitar Moves interview with Keith Richards, which found the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist talking about the chords he learned to play by listening to old blues records. He even grabbed an old Martin to demonstrate a few riffs.
Posted today, Part 2 of that interview finds Richards talking about the Rolling Stones’ songwriting and recording processes, taking host Matt Sweeny (and us) behind the curtains to reveal the genesis of such classic Stones songs as “Under My Thumb” and “Sympathy for the Devil.”
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“Mick came in with a song — it was a great song, I mean, the whole song was there, you know: ‘Please allow me…’ — but it was very sort of Dylan-esque,” Richards says in this clip. “It was like a ballad. And you go through the process in the studio … with everybody going like, ‘No, no [laughs], let’s rethink. What if we push the beat up a bit?’ ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea.’ Suddenly, I’m on bass, it’s a samba.
“But that, to me, is the beauty of recording … You go in with some semi-conceived idea of what you think this song is supposed to come out like, and it comes out like something totally different, because it’s been filtered through all of the other guys in the band.”
Richards also discusses his biggest influences, Chuck Berry and Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore, and meanders through many other topics. Richards doesn’t actually play a guitar in this episode — for that, watch Part 1 of the interview — but he imparts some deep, rich wisdom that all guitarists, songwriters, and band members can learn from. — Mark Kemp