But neither was he as middle class as his best pal Mike Jagger, who wasn't exactly Hampstead Garden Suburb himself. So forget that class shit, man.The point is to have it basic but loving. Dad might not register your existence as a sentient creature but Mum will, in spades And hey, being an only child doesn't hurt any. Self-sufficiency is an important quality in both cowboys and pirates (especially when Mum's forked out for a Stetson, six-guns and holsters, and lets you wear 'em to bed).Musical input? It is of vital importance to have had a cool grandpa with a cool name: Theodore Augustus (Gus) Dupree, saxophonist, guitarist, fiddle player, band leader, "the funkiest old coot you could ever meet". And it is an advantage to have been a decent boy treble and sung for Queenie in Westminster Abbey. Once you've nailed Stainer's Crucifixion, the intro to "Tumbling Dice" is a piece of pizza.But above all, you must have timing Ideally, you should turn 13 in 1956 Elvis has his first UK hit in May of that year Blam! Everything changes America, blackness, loudness.
Suddenly, the Spangles shortage doesn't seem quite so life-threatening. After that it's a short step for the inquiring mind: Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson - watch those blues boys export their wares up that estuary like so much contraband.Hmm, smuggling - now there's a way of life.. The Look Keith Richards did not always look like that. In fact, until 1965 - two years after the Stones' first hit - he was a spotty herbert with sticky-out ears. Sure, Sidcup College of Art had taught him a thing or two about the fetishising gaze; yeah, a pair of Cuban heels give you a lift. But a spotty herbert is a spotty herbert is a spotty herbert, until... well, until you take charge of the situation.Keith begins to become Keef around the time of "Satisfaction", his first great authorial moment.
It is also around this time that Brian Jones, nominal leader of the Rolling Stones, starts to lose the plot in the face of Keith's colonising creative relationship with Mike (now Mick) Jagger Keith is now the fulcrum of the group. Over the next three years, as Brian slides into disorientation and complete uselessness, Keith assumes Brian's role as director of musical operations, nicks his girlfriend and pinches his style.There's a famous photograph of both Brian and Keith, out for a mince in early '67, the one looking ripe for a good slapping in his frock coat, broached cravat and floppy hat; the other, dressed almost identically, looking decidedly sinister (slap him at your peril - surely that can't be a Maltese Cross hanging off his breast pocket!). One of these men will be dead within 18 months, the other widely considered the coolest white man on the planet.Hard-ass androgyny is the key. From the moment Richards "rescues" the German model/actress/countess Anita Pallenberg ("Glenda Hindenberg" to her best mate Marianne Faithfull) from Jones's trembling clutches, the die is cast.
