The Backbone

The other thing I love about Keef's book is his discussion of his musical obsessions and influences. Keith studied the blues of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, as if it they were the Priests of the Holy Grail. He happily acknowledges he learned, mastered and made his own, every guitar riff Chuck Berry ever devised.

We also meet some of the unsung heroes of the Stones saga: Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys and Jimmy Miller. I have always thought that Jimmy Miller was one of the great rock & roll producers. It seems George Martin always got the greatest accolades for his work with the Beatles, but Jimmy Miller's string of albums with the Stones is totally mind-blowing, I mean these are all arguably in the top ten or twenty best rock albums of all time: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, Goat Heads Soup.

As Keith says they are the "backbone" of their work. I still listen to these records today, oh these many years later. And not as some nostalgia trip. They just happen to be some of the best r&r recordings in existence. They stand up today. You can put one of those discs on right now and they kill! And even if it's hard to define what Miller actually brought to the table, the "groove" the "feel", the "vibe," whatever, (maybe he was smart enough to get out of the way?!), the results are undeniable.