A talented rhythm and blues cover band named The Rolling Stones emerged in the growing London scene not long after The Beatles broke through with their first two hit albums in 1963. Brian Jones led the band through its formative years, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards began to provide a strong songwriting catalog.
Richards is far from the greatest rock guitarist of all time, especially if we only consider technical ability. Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton are more deserving contenders for the throne. However, Richards’ oeuvre demonstrates the value of creativity and individuality: while most guitarists can play Richards’ riffs, few can claim to have created such an iconic catalog of evolutionarily significant compositions.
“It takes one to know one,” as the saying goes. On numerous occasions, the Rolling Stones guitarist has discussed his favorite guitarists, frequently elevating creative flair over technical prowess.
Richards once mentioned The Beatles’ lead guitarist George Harrison as one of his favorites, praising his humanitarianism. “The thing is, you’ve got your Jimi Hendrix, you’ve got your Eric Clapton, and then you’ve got guys who can play with bands,” he told me. “George was a band and a team player.”
“When it comes down to it, people get carried away with lead guitars […] and feedbacks, and it’s all histrionics.” “George was a fucking craftsman as well as an artist,” Richards concluded.
Similarly, the talent in his band blew away Richards. Brian Jones, the Stones’ original bandleader, influenced Richards as a notably talented multi-instrumentalist. Jones was a budding blues savant before he lost his way.
However, Jones lacked Harrison’s team player qualities. “The man was in trouble. “He was a strong man, but he was wiping himself out,” Richards said of Jones’ decline in 2010. “Brian demanded that you understand. You also have to be supportive and giving in a band like this. When you’re working 300-odd days a year, dealing with his jealousy, with Mick and me writing the songs, it becomes intolerable, and you can get nasty about it.
In 1969, Jones was replaced as Richards’ fellow guitarist by Mick Taylor. Taylor was only 20 years old at the time. His ability to blend in with the band and contribute to some of their greatest albums—Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St.—was astounding.
“I was in awe sometimes listening to Mick Taylor,” Richards wrote of Taylor in his memoir Life, published in 2010. “Everything was there in his playing — the melodic touch, a beautiful sustain, and a way of reading a song.”
Watch Keith Richards and Mick Taylor do their thing in the video below.
