The whole event is here:

2012 Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award Ceremony

Thanks for posting. They were good to film this and then upload this for all to enjoy.

Fantastic moment when Chuck tells Paul he can't hear a word he's saying...

thank you for posting that fine photo, Gumboot - who took it, please and thank you?

Take a look at Keith's expression at 3:30 or thereabouts - he's well aware that he's in a bit of trouble here!

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Green Lady
he's well aware that he's in a bit of trouble here!

smile: trust a pro :E

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Green Lady




Take a look at Keith's expression at 3:30 or thereabouts - he's well aware that he's in a bit of trouble here!

How sad to see the Human Riff in these conditions

OMG...that is just so bad. Unbelievable that it's Keith Richards @#$%& up classic Chuck Berry in public. Much as I hate to admit it, I gave him the benefit of doubt on the Johnny Depp clip, but this is just plain embarrassing. You just wouldn't turn up if you knew this was the best you could do. How the hell is he gonna play any kind of tour, with setlists of songs far more complex? I seriously think if he does do a tour, it will be 90% posing and 10% playing and then only 5 string barre chords. It is really really sad.



'some things, well, I can't refuse'

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crumbling_mice
OMG...that is just so bad. Unbelievable that it's Keith Richards @#$%& up classic Chuck Berry in public. Much as I hate to admit it, I gave him the benefit of doubt on the Johnny Depp clip, but this is just plain embarrassing. You just wouldn't turn up if you knew this was the best you could do. How the hell is he gonna play any kind of tour, with setlists of songs far more complex? I seriously think if he does do a tour, it will be 90% posing and 10% playing and then only 5 string barre chords. It is really really sad.

Great with someone else here that understand the current status of Mr. Richards.



It´s really sad but true.

What I don't get is why the likes of BB King, Buddy Guy etc were much older, had harder lives etc etc but still good play when they were older than Keith? Keith's the one who has always said there is no reason to stop and that he aimed to be like his heroes playing on until they dropped, is he fooling himself that he is still able to play. Why isn't Jane Rose and the other various people who make up his entourage saying, look Keith you really need to get your playing together and if you can't, then think about quitting live playing....have a look at this clip of you with Elvis Costello...what do think..etc.

It really is hard to watch a guy I grew up admiring so much for his credibility and musical abilities come to this. I'm hoping it was just a blip and he will get it together if and when he is needed for a Stones show/s The worse thing would be for the Stones to play their last gigs with Keith like this. THat would be a very sad ending to the greates rock and roll band in the world.



'some things, well, I can't refuse'

On the plus side, he is looking well; he has clearly made a real effort in the last couple of years to look after himself better and it shows. This appearance has a certain charm for me once you accept that he can clearly hardly play now. The charm is in that he is doing his best and he's still prepared to give it a shot. And that he's there because he loves Berry. Same with the Sumlin Memorial - he sang with great feeling and was there because he loves the blues. It would be nice if he continued such appearances. On the other hand I'm praying there's no more Stones shows - not one show, let alone a tour. He's not up to it and it would be painful, pitiful, pathetic and a truly tragic way to end such an illustrious career.

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JumpinJeppeFlash
Great with someone else here that understand the current status of Mr. Richards.



It´s really sad but true.

Jeppe, quit the superhero act and stop pretending like you were the first person to discover Keith's playing of late. This is absolutely nothing new on this board. We've discussed this infinitely for years going back to the beginning of the ABB tour.

Let's keep knocking him, what fun. If he is not the man he was fair play to him for having a go. He is @#$%& old and he will deteriorate with age like the rest of us. Disgraceful the abuse this great man is getting from so called fans.

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rebelrebel
On the plus side, he is looking well; he has clearly made a real effort in the last couple of years to look after himself better and it shows. This appearance has a certain charm for me once you accept that he can clearly hardly play now. The charm is in that he is doing his best and he's still prepared to give it a shot. And that he's there because he loves Berry. Same with the Sumlin Memorial - he sang with great feeling and was there because he loves the blues. It would be nice if he continued such appearances. On the other hand I'm praying there's no more Stones shows - not one show, let alone a tour. He's not up to it and it would be painful, pitiful, pathetic and a truly tragic way to end such an illustrious career.

Agree 100%

Jeez, some people are reading too much into it.

Elvis gets up to do the song with the semi acoustic and then calls Keith up and gives Keith the semi acoustic and Elvis jumps on an Acoustic.

There was no planning at all.

Keith and Elvis try to call the key and do a bit of tuning up that lasts a few seconds and the guitar tuning is obviously not in sync and was too quick and then Elvis launches into the song.

That is not great preparation.

The Acoustic is so low in volume that it can hardly be heard and I'm sure Keith is not quite sure what key Elvis is singing and playing in due to the guitars tuning and the Acoustic being low in volume.

Keith muddles through and he's playing bar chords with the boogie added 6th and Chuck Berry lead cliches.

It's a bit of a mess, as unplanned jams often end up being.


1: Keith is using a guitar that Elvis has just given him.

2: Elvis's and Keith's tune up between the guitars is not done properly.

3: Keith is playing ok but is not quite sure of the tuning and it's relation to Elvis's singing and low volume Acoustic which he mightn't be able to hear much of.


It's just a unplanned jam and nothing can really be read into it.









Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-03-04 06:09 by howled.

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howled
1: Keith is using a guitar that Elvis has just given him.
2: Elvis's and Keith's tune up between the guitars is not done properly.
3: Keith is playing ok but is not quite sure of the tuning and its relation to Elvis's singing
and low volume Acoustic which he mightn't be able to hear much of.

4: The guitar strap is about four times too long for Keith, and the way it's tied to the headstock makes it hard to work with.
5: The treble's turned way down.

as howled pointed out: this was not a planned performance, or a public one.
everyone - including Keith - has already noticed his playing wasn't great, so people don't have to keep harping on it.

some of us can enjoy the fun of Keith playing an impromptu number on a borrowed guitar while Chuck Berry cheers.
i hope those of you that can't enjoy it for what it is will start a thread where you tell us
what you're doing to make the world a more beautiful place - i'll be ready with due appreciation and respect



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-03-04 11:14 by with sssoul.

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with sssoul

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howled
1: Keith is using a guitar that Elvis has just given him.
2: Elvis's and Keith's tune up between the guitars is not done properly.
3: Keith is playing ok but is not quite sure of the tuning and its relation to Elvis's singing
and low volume Acoustic which he mightn't be able to hear much of.

4: The guitar strap is about four times too long for Keith, and the way it's tied to the headstock makes it hard to work with.
5: The treble's turned way down.

this was not a planned performance, or a public one.
everyone - including Keith - has already noticed his playing wasn't great, so you don't have to keep harping on it.
some of us can enjoy the fun of Keith playing an impromptu number on a borrowed guitar while Chuck Berry cheers.
since you can't, how about starting a thread where you tell us what you're doing to make the world a more beautiful place?
i'll be ready with due appreciation and respect

Hell yes.

You took it the wrong way.

I thought it was pretty obvious in my post that the whole thing wasn't planned and it's not to be expected that Keith sounds and plays wonderfully in an unplanned jam and so judging Keith's playing in this jam is meaningless.

I outlined just how thrown together the jam was and no one can be expected to perform in a great way in these thrown together jams.

I'm not judging Keith's playing much at all.

I said in my post that Keith looks to be doing chords and Chuck Berry things ok technique wise in regards to his arthritis.

Both Elvis and Keith are probably playing guitars that they have never played before and who knows who tuned them and if their tuning was in sync and Elvis and Keith didn't have the time to properly tune up and probably didn't care anyway because it's only an unplanned jam.

All of these things are outside Keith's or Elvis's control and it's only a unplanned jam so I'm saying to don't read that much into it in my post.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012-03-04 11:12 by howled.

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howled
You took it the wrong way.

howled my dear, i was ~*agreeing*~ with you, and adding a few observations of my own.
my suggestion that people can stop harping on the faults in the clip was not directed at you.
it was directed at the ones who are repeatedly criticizing the flaws in the performance
instead of enjoying it for what it is (or just ignoring it, which is always an option!)

i've now edited my earlier post to make it (i hope!) clearer who it was addressed to



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-03-04 14:54 by with sssoul.

Oh, then I took it the wrong way, Sorry

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with sssoul
some of us can enjoy the fun of Keith playing an impromptu number

And I feel lucky that I can

Keep On Rolling

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Rolling Hansie
And I feel lucky that I can

smile: yeah, being blessed and appreciating it is where it's at, baby! :E

This time I would make a brief criticism against "apologists" here. The amount of excuses why this sounded... hhhmmm.. not in quite acceptable level, sounds a bit too much. Damn, those two guys - and especially the elder one - up there are not any beginners or amateurs but damn pros who had made millions of playing many kind of guitars in their life. Elvis did okay, but Keith... yeah... he made a an impromptu tribute by appearing there, which was nice. But damn rusty he was - that's the plain truth - no matter how 'odd' the guitar was, being probably not totally in sync with the other guitar, starp being too long, etc. It is Keith Richards you are talking here, not some damn beginner or amateur. That guy has spent his whole life by playing the guitar and many of them in most strangest circumstances we can only dream of. Playing the guitar 'out of the blue' - especially a kind of stuff you probably know best and been familar for some 55 yaers - is not any rocket science for a guitarist of that level, no matter the circumstances. The problem is somewhere else than in the circumstances. I ask a bit of objectivity here, no matter how much you love the man.

But I think what Keith did there was more than alright in that occasion (context of paying tribute to Chuck Berry, his biggest hero). Even though I see some hope in his delivery, I think it is rather long and tough road for him put his act together in order to do a proper Rolling Stones show. I never want to be in the situation that he performs something as rusty as he does there to people who have paid, say 200/400 dollars/euros to see that. But this is just my view; miracles do happen...

- Doxa

It's hard to play anything on a unfamiliar instrument which is not set up correctly, specially if you have arthritis. I can understand that.

I think Keith is in much better overall shape, physically and mentally, than expected. On iorr lately he's been more or less declared a senile vegetable.

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Bärs
It's hard to play anything on a unfamiliar instrument which is not set up correctly, specially if you have arthritis. I can understand that.

I think Keith is in much better overall shape, physically and mentally, than expected. On iorr lately he's been more or less declared a senile vegetable.

Yeah. Seeing a lot of that. Some people practically have him ready to sit drooling in a wheelchair waiting to die. I get the impression that's far from the case. The total of what he's capable of is being assumed on the basis of a one shot tribute gig, an impromptu jam where he has to deal with an unfamiliar guitar and can't hear the monitors very well, and another impromptu jam with Johnny Depp. We haven't seen how he'd be after a couple months of intense rehearsals with (I hope) the Stones and doing what he's used to. People hang onto the fact that he had some bad gigs after the accident but nobody wants to listen when somebody like me says I saw him later on after the accident and he played great. And I heard many people in the crowd around me make similar comments about Keith being in great form that night. Yes, as of then (2006) his playing was more sparse and simple than in years gone by but it still had that classic Keith Richards feeling that no one else can create . This pared down style is probably what we can expect from Keith at this point. But as long as he continues to put that classic Keith Richards feeling into it, I'll be happy.

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stonesdan60

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Bärs
It's hard to play anything on a unfamiliar instrument which is not set up correctly, specially if you have arthritis. I can understand that.

I think Keith is in much better overall shape, physically and mentally, than expected. On iorr lately he's been more or less declared a senile vegetable.

Yeah. Seeing a lot of that. Some people practically have him ready to sit drooling in a wheelchair waiting to die. I get the impression that's far from the case. The total of what he's capable of is being assumed on the basis of a one shot tribute gig, an impromptu jam where he has to deal with an unfamiliar guitar and can't hear the monitors very well, and another impromptu jam with Johnny Depp. We haven't seen how he'd be after a couple months of intense rehearsals with (I hope) the Stones and doing what he's used to. People hang onto the fact that he had some bad gigs after the accident but nobody wants to listen when somebody like me says I saw him later on after the accident and he played great. And I heard many people in the crowd around me make similar comments about Keith being in great form that night. Yes, as of then (2006) his playing was more sparse and simple than in years gone by but it still had that classic Keith Richards feeling that no one else can create . This pared down style is probably what we can expect from Keith at this point. But as long as he continues to put that classic Keith Richards feeling into it, I'll be happy.

I admit that - like I told some pages ago - also I thought Keith was in a better shape than I thought. But then again, these low expectations - or I would say - being afraid of his real condition, due not come out of nothing. And people don't make critical points just for the sake of it. There is a substance there, and acknowledging that, might even hurt a fan. Rememeber, peopel here are fans of the man talking to each other. I share your thoughts about the feel - but I am afraid that we are have entered to the stage that it is not enough, or at least if the case is whole-scale traditional Stones-style rock and roll. But I gladly welcome this 'aged solo Richards (especially the one at Apollo's). I am the first to say goodbye to the forced Rolling Stones format if we could get in reply some original, touchy Keith Richards. I wish he he could be just him, Keith Richards, a musician - not a Rolling Stone. That's more than enough by now.

- Doxa

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Doxa

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stonesdan60

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Bärs
It's hard to play anything on a unfamiliar instrument which is not set up correctly, specially if you have arthritis. I can understand that.

I think Keith is in much better overall shape, physically and mentally, than expected. On iorr lately he's been more or less declared a senile vegetable.

Yeah. Seeing a lot of that. Some people practically have him ready to sit drooling in a wheelchair waiting to die. I get the impression that's far from the case. The total of what he's capable of is being assumed on the basis of a one shot tribute gig, an impromptu jam where he has to deal with an unfamiliar guitar and can't hear the monitors very well, and another impromptu jam with Johnny Depp. We haven't seen how he'd be after a couple months of intense rehearsals with (I hope) the Stones and doing what he's used to. People hang onto the fact that he had some bad gigs after the accident but nobody wants to listen when somebody like me says I saw him later on after the accident and he played great. And I heard many people in the crowd around me make similar comments about Keith being in great form that night. Yes, as of then (2006) his playing was more sparse and simple than in years gone by but it still had that classic Keith Richards feeling that no one else can create . This pared down style is probably what we can expect from Keith at this point. But as long as he continues to put that classic Keith Richards feeling into it, I'll be happy.

I admit that - like I told some pages ago - also I thought Keith was in a better shape than I thought. But then again, these low expectations - or I would say - being afraid of his real condition, due not come out of nothing. And people don't make critical points just for the sake of it. There is a substance there, and acknowledging that, might even hurt a fan. Rememeber, peopel here are fans of the man talking to each other. I share your thoughts about the feel - but I am afraid that we are have entered to the stage that it is not enough, or at least if the case is whole-scale traditional Stones-style rock and roll. But I gladly welcome this 'aged solo Richards (especially the one at Apollo's). I am the first to say goodbye to the forced Rolling Stones format if we could get in reply some original, touchy Keith Richards. I wish he he could be just him, Keith Richards, a musician - not a Rolling Stone. That's more than enough by now.

- Doxa

You make valid points. There are observed resons to wonder about Keith's ability pertaining to a real Stones tour. But even if he can no longer be the driving force, if he can just play simply with the soul he shows in that rehearsal clip, I'd still be happy to go see them one more time. If sober, Ron can do more of the heavy lifting. And if Mick Taylor comes along too...well, I think it would still be a good show. Let Keith lay back and throw in his simple yet soulfull licks and open tuned chords.

Really sad - he can´t even play a simply r&r standard. He can´t play guitar anymore. So sorry - there will be no Stones-Tour. I think it´s better. He destroys his reputation. ...and his belly - unbelievable. 2002/03 was the last big kick.

Greetings Raluca

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stonesdan60

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Bärs
It's hard to play anything on a unfamiliar instrument which is not set up correctly, specially if you have arthritis. I can understand that.

I think Keith is in much better overall shape, physically and mentally, than expected. On iorr lately he's been more or less declared a senile vegetable.

Yeah. Seeing a lot of that. Some people practically have him ready to sit drooling in a wheelchair waiting to die. I get the impression that's far from the case. The total of what he's capable of is being assumed on the basis of a one shot tribute gig, an impromptu jam where he has to deal with an unfamiliar guitar and can't hear the monitors very well, and another impromptu jam with Johnny Depp. We haven't seen how he'd be after a couple months of intense rehearsals with (I hope) the Stones and doing what he's used to. People hang onto the fact that he had some bad gigs after the accident but nobody wants to listen when somebody like me says I saw him later on after the accident and he played great. And I heard many people in the crowd around me make similar comments about Keith being in great form that night. Yes, as of then (2006) his playing was more sparse and simple than in years gone by but it still had that classic Keith Richards feeling that no one else can create . This pared down style is probably what we can expect from Keith at this point. But as long as he continues to put that classic Keith Richards feeling into it, I'll be happy.

I think he's in shape to play Berry licks like he plays here, the same rough and minimalistic approach:





Keith the musician - not the rock star - is what we are watching in the Elvis clip. Any musician, even technically more prominent ones, can play bad sometimes - given similar circumstances. My main concern is that the open G chords might be too hard for him to play for 2 hours.

I think that people are not criticizing his guitar playing, they are disappointed by Richards as a person - as he appeared before us in the past year and a half. His self-aggrandizement, posturing and spiteful, disrespectful attitude toward Jagger led the Stones to the situation in which the band is right now. People are angry.
Ian Anderson(Jethro Tull) talked about this in a recent interview:
"... I found myself thinking, while reading Keith Richards' book a couple of months ago, it's going to be hard after that kind of exercise of washing a lot of dirty laundry in public like that, for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to get together again and do anything positive. I think dignified silence is usually the best course to take. Putting this stuff in print is just so unnecessary. There's always a rather morbid public sentiment that wants to lap this stuff up..."

I agree with Anderson completely - Mick and Richards can't do together anything positive anymore. They can offer the public labored tour or some shows - but it will be forced effort to save face and the remains of dignity. A new formula, the revision of the concept, the consideretion of the possibilities of each other - all that requires a harmonious relationship
For no apparent reason to talk about it out loud on this forum are not accepted - they pounce on you almost with their fists. Therefore, it's easier to criticize Richards' guitar playing - the more so because he gives a lot of reasons for such criticism.