mr. richards cracks a mean whip
i had a dream last night that i had won a contest or somehow otherwise earned the privilege of learning how to play the song "street fighting man" in a special lesson with keith richards.the first matter of business was to make sure my guitar was properly in tune. i had always assumed that the guitars on the song are set to open tunings, much like the lion's share of the rolling stones' catalog. according to dream keef, however, my axe was ready to rock in the standard tuning it was already set to.
"all set, mate. just like that." he strummed his guitar arpeggio-style, letting all the open notes ring.
"ok, cool. thanks, mr. richards."
"go 'head. give 'er a li'l strum."
"ok." i strum my own guitar. my pick has taken on the shape of a car key at this point, which makes the strum a little ugly.
"no, no. see, like this." he strums arpeggio-style again, this time with an upstroke.
"ok." i mimic his strum with my car key pick. this time, i nail it.
"no." a little agitated now. he pulls the same upstroke move again, this time with more force.
"..." i nail it again.
"NO!" again, same upstroke move.
"ok." nailed again.
and so it went, back and forth, him demonstrating the simple open-string upstroke and admonishing me without explanation every time i got it right.
as the absurd exchange stretched out, keef took on the expression he's rocking to the left.
caught up in this ridiculous preliminary, i sadly woke up before the lesson could even get off the ground.
posted by jomilkman @ 3:26 PM
1 Comments:
"His writing is limited to songs for dead blondes."
- - - Keith Richards (about Elton John)
"I'm glad I've given up drugs and alcohol. It would be awful to be like Keith Richards. He's pathetic. It's like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go on stage and look young. I have great respect for the Stones but they would have been better if they had thrown Keith out 15 years ago."
- - - Elton John (about Keith Richards)
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