The Rolling Stones were a gifted rhythm and blues covers band that emerged in the burgeoning London scene shortly after The Beatles made their breakthrough with their first two hit albums of 1963. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started to develop a penchant for songwriting. While Brian Jones guided the group through its formative years.
The Beatles and Rolling Stones were cordial with one another, despite reports of a rivalry fostered by the media. Interestingly, the Liverpool boys gave their London counterparts the Lennon-McCartney song “I Wanna Be Your Man” for one of their first big hits.
The Beatles’ four-piece dynamic, lacking a single frontman, was different from The Rolling Stones’ five-piece lineup, which featured Mick Jagger at the forefront. Though Jagger lacked a counterpart in The Beatles, Richards had a special bond with George Harrison, the lead guitarist. It turned out that both parties felt the same way.
George Harrison once said of Richards, “You know, really, I think he’s probably one of the best rock ‘n’ roll rhythm guitar players. “He’s not a particularly good lead guitarist, but he’s played. This is what you see, and this is how I feel about Keith and me as well. It’s not a comparison, but in some ways, what we do is create records, which may or may not have excellent guitar parts, songs, lyrics, or other elements. But in general, you create records.
Harrison went on, “He’s not like a guitar player who just goes out and plays guitar, to me”. He composes music and records them, and among those records is one of his best-known songs, “Satisfaction”. If you understand what I mean. It’s the little things, the easy things like that, and I think he’s you know, I adore Keith.”
Richards and Harrison were not technically the best guitarists of their era. But as Harrison once said, virtuosity was secondary to writing hits that became iconic and defined a generation.
Richards once made a heartfelt rebuke of Harrison by praising his selfless approach to lead guitar. “The problem is, there are musicians who can play with bands, like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix,” Richards remarked. “George was a cooperative member of the band.”
When it comes right down to it, it’s all histrionics and lead guitars that people get carried away with. “George was not just an artist, but a fu*king craftsman as well,” Keith Richards exclaimed in closing.
