Mick Jagger & Keith Richards - The Team

There has been quite a lot written and said of this partnership: Arrogant, greedy, unhuman bastards... Keep it coming...

However, it would be interesting to also praise their qualities as artists.
Therefore, based on purely artistic grounds: How do you rate them?

P.S. This is NOT a bashing thread!

 

I think they're great. If I can't have Lennon/McCartney then Jagger/Richards is the next best thing.

 

Jagger's never been my cup of tea, but he's a great vocal stylist (even if, like me, you find it too fake, it's now 'his' undeniably), along with being one of the very best showmen in music. Richards also is a top musician, but unlike so many good guitarists he's also invested a character into his playing that has become one of the most distinctive sounds in the business. And between them they've written some great songs - not as many or as consistently as the likes of Lennon and McCartney, but their best are some of the best ever.

 

I have always felt that the Stones' forte was more on their playing -- their particular groove or whatever you want to call it -- than on the actual song writing.

Don't get me wrong. The song writing is good but they way they play those songs is where the real magic lies IMO.

 

They are the best songwriting team in rock for me. Gimme Shelter.

 

a great songwriting and performing team. among the very best, ever.

they may be terrible people in real life, I have no idea about that.

 

Wow!...................

 

I know, they're only rock and roll, but I love them!

 

A magnificent partnership - up there with Lennon/McCartney.

Yes, you could call them greedy, ruthless and materialistic, but remember that they were badly screwed over by Allen Klein (and others I'm sure)...

 

This.

 

The thing about Jagger and Richards that I find most fascinating is that while on one hand they are obviously quite different people, and in that sense are another example of how different people can fit together to accomplish a common goal (rather like Lennon and McCartney in at least that respect), but at the same time they were both extremely committed to the music. Looking back at them the Jagger persona for good or ill looms so large it can hide what from all evidence was and is his commitment to the music. Keith's book made clear despite all the little zingers and not so favorable observations about Jagger that Keith knew all along how committed Mick was to the whole project. Their early days living with Brian and going over and over all the blues and rock and roll records they could get set a pattern.

Jagger as the group's marketer went along with his role as front man. But the way he usually (but not always) made it seem like it was relatively effortless for him belies that they were (for the most part) a hard working partnership. (There were times when that was not so apparent, due here to drugs, there to personality conflicts, other things - but for the most part the "hard working" label is accurate.)

 

Like Lennon and McCartney they were also known for writing apart quite a bit as well. For example, Angie is all Keith and, as I recall, Brown Sugar or Bitch is all Mick.

 

I dunno know there are quite a few others to consider for me...

Lennon/MCartney
Difford/Tilbrook
Fripp/Sinfield
Brooker/Reid
Bruce/Brown
Henley/Frey....

 

Rock wouldn't be the same without them ... period. The joy they've brought to fans or whatever adjective you want to use more than overshadows the negatives.

 

it would have been cool if they had given mick taylor some of his songwriting credits...

 

Felix & Oscar, Kramden & Norton, Krusty & Sideshow Mel, John & Paul, Mick & Keith, ALL WONDERFUL!

 

I won't deny their talent, but why did they feel it necessary to rip off Ry Cooder?

 

Well, sorry, but "Angie" is NOT all Keith -- far from it....the guitar is Keith, and the melody line of the first two lyrics in the verse ("Angie....Aaaan-gie") is Keith, but even Keith will tell you that everything else is Jagger including the strings, the lyrics, the storyline, and the arrangement of the verses and the choruses and the bridge, which were pretty much put together by Jagger, working with the building blocks of Keith's idea. If you listen closely to "Angie' you can hear the bleed from Jagger's original scratch guide vocal track, as he was guiding the band through the song and the arrangement as it was being recorded.

"I had the whole chord sequence down maybe a year ago with just the title Angie. It could have been Randy or Mangy or anything, you know, but Mick just picked up on the title and wrote a song around it. He added the strings - all the strings on the album are his idea."

- Keith Richards, 1973

"The basic melody and the title were mine. I don't think you can write really interesting rock and roll songs if you can't get into ballads and slower stuff. Quite often when you write a ballad it ends up as something else. Once we've got a song we tussle around with it, roll in the dirt with it. I'd recently had my daughter born, who's name was Angela, and the name was starting to ring around the house. But I'm into writing about my babies. Angie just fitted. I mean, you couldn't sing 'Maureen'..."

- Keith Richards, 1993

"I think Keith wrote the first line, I think it was his daughter (Angela). It was about love coming to a full stop. The actual name, I'm not sure where it came from, it's not about Angela Bowie. I think it's Keith's daughter's name."

- Mick Jagger, February 2002


But "Angie" is a great example that shows the similarities with some of the Lennon/McCartney composition processes, particularly the Beatles from the later '60s, post-1966 or so. There are many songs where the Richards/Lennon person of the team would come up with a very incomplete, vague, initial germ or fragment of a song, an unfinished sketch of an idea -- a riff, a vague verse structure, or maybe the beginnings of an intro, and the first line or two of lyrics. And then the McCartney/Jagger component of the team is the one who fleshes that idea out, maybe adds more verses or some counterpoint or a middle eight or a little bit more depth to it, takes it in a slightly different direction, and then that McCartney/Jagger person also does most of the heavy lifting needed in the studio, to drag it kicking and screaming across the finish line, as far as production/arrangement/recording/overdubbing goes.

 

Written solely by Jagger - Sympathy for the Devil
Written solely by Keith - You've Got the Silver (I believe), Happy (definitely)
Written solely by Brian and Keith - Ruby Tuesday - no Jagger involvement

While I prefer the more experimental songwriting of Aftermath through Satanic Majesties to the more back to the roots Keith riff based rock and roll that followed, they definitely belong in the top echelon of rock writing teams.

 

They penned many classics no doubt and showed that innovation, while nice, is not real essential in rock.

As with other songwriting teams within bands, they could be faulted for how generous they were in sharing credits with other contributors.

 

I still find it remarkable that Mick wrote Brown Sugar. It sounds eggszactly like a Keith riff. It shows that they are two sides of the same coin.

 

I think they are incredible, Jagger is the archetype of rock frontmen, almost everybody who came after has taken something from his father they realize it or not.
Richards is a goddamn machine, his rhythm and riffs unparalleled, help break down the barriers of two guitars by kicking "lead" and "rhythm" to the curb and sort of paving the way for future twin guitar attacks. He is indestructible and will outlast everybody on this forum.

 

Mick Jagger and Keith Richard(s) musical partnership is a remarkable amazing synthesis of talent, experience, and business savvy.
The Glimmer Twins are the leaders of the best classic Rock N' Roll Band still around!
(However, their music was much better when they collaborated with Nanker/Phelge. )

 

Reed/Cale
Bell/Chilton

 

I'm not a massive Stones fan but Mick and Keith make a spectacular team. Somehow they've written dozens of classic songs and yet kept this loose, greasy kind of vibe, which reeks of authenticity to me. And the fact they're still around....