Blog #5
I never realized how cool Keith Richards was until watching “There’s Two Sides to Every Story.” As a musician myself, it was amazing listening to a legend talk about how he got started in music and working with the Stones. I can totally appreciate the interviewer’s nervousness and fanboying because it would definitely be nerve-wracking to meet such a guy.
Most of the interview consists of Richards and the interviewer just talking about his past and jamming some licks, but there are a couple of moments where he drops some mad music knowledge on us that can be applied to more than just guitar. The standout quote from Keith Richards in this interview is his “two sides to every story” quote. Referencing the relationship between the left and right hand in guitar, he says that if the two sides don’t connect, you’re only getting part of the story. In guitar, the left hand dictates melody and your right hand rhythm (granted you play right handed). If both of your hands aren’t in sync, the song will fall apart or sound muddled. However, I think Keith was referring to a deeper connection that unifies the hands to the instrument and the player to really feel a groove and really make a song.
Keith adds on to his comment about harmony referring to studio recording time. He told the interviewer that the recording process is like a canvas, and many people go in to record and want to smother paint over every inch of the canvas. The secret to the Stones’ success, he says, is that they didn’t cover the whole canvas. They stayed in their lane and created great music by doing what they know, individually, really well – covering the canvas with each of their own special little parts. What I got from this is that harmony is so important in whatever you’re working on and especially in your art because if you try to do too much, it will probably end up lesser compared to a balanced and thoughtful approach.