Best Keith Richards Rolling Stones Songs
By Frank Hamedl on 23 June 2017
"Some things get better with age. Like me." - Keith Richards
Keith Richards. The Man. The Myth. The legend that won't die. No words can describe the iconic Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. Keith is a force-to-be reckoned with on guitar, being haled as the greatest guitarist of all time, and "rock's greatest single body of riffs," according to Rolling Stones magazine. However, Keith is often overlooked on his vocal performance. Throughout The Stones 55 year career, Keith occasional steals lead vocals from Mick, and always sweeps everyone off their feet. That being said, we want to honor Keith Richards on lead vocals with his top 10 best lead vocal songs. (Note: This only includes Keith's Rolling Stones lead vocal songs, and does not include songs from Keith's solo career).
(All quotes are from Keith Richards, unless noted)
"Music is a necessity. After food, air, water and warmth, music is the next necessity of life"
10. Thru and Thru - Voodoo Lounge
The first song on this list is awarded to "Thru and Thru" of Voodoo Lounge. This blues influenced Keith track has a slow start before the ball starts rolling. It's almost too slow, then out of no where you hear Charlie's powerful drum attack at 2:15 - which is like thunder or a heart attack.
When the song picks up at 3:47, Keith gets into a rock jam accompanied by a background sinister evil laugh - which embodies the Voodoo Lounge theme.
The song delivers a typical Keith line - "I only found out yesterday, I heard it on the new - what I heard really pissed me off, cause now I go those fu**ing blues." - which seems to allude he found out disheartening news about his lover. |
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"Thru and Thru" received a revival in the early 2000's when the song appeared on the season 2 finale of The Soprano's. Keith responded with: "Suddenly everybody was saying, 'What's that wonderful record?' And I'd say, 'Well, it's the last track on Voodoo Lounge.'"
However, what is most bizarre about "Thru and Thru" is its long ending of silence. On the Universal Music's 2009 remastered Voodoo Lounge, the song's length is 6:15 minutes, which leaves and extra 20 seconds of dead silence. What a perfect way to almost end a great album!
However, what is most bizarre about "Thru and Thru" is its long ending of silence. On the Universal Music's 2009 remastered Voodoo Lounge, the song's length is 6:15 minutes, which leaves and extra 20 seconds of dead silence. What a perfect way to almost end a great album!
"Any minute, any hour - I'm waiting on a call from you "
9. Slipping Away - Steel Wheels
Next, "Slipping Away" is the closing track off the Steel Wheels album - commonly nicknamed Steel Wheelchairs.
With Steel Wheels focusing a lot on 1980's harder rock songs ("Sad Sad Sad," "Hold On to Your Hat," "Rock and a Hard Place," and Keith's "Can't Be Seen"), "Slipping Away" often gets hidden and overlooked, as Keith splendidly described the song: "Wow, that song kind of slipped away. It just kind of tailed off at the end of Steel Wheels... But when I got into it, I really liked singing that song. It's got some depth."
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This sentimental ballad is one of the most serious Keith songs and paints the story of loosing connection with a lover, which happens to everyone at one point in their life.
"Guess it's just another dream that's slipping away
Each time I fall asleep It seems I'm just drifting away
Just as you have touched my heart, Babe I wake and we're apart
Yeah and it's slipping away"
8. We Had it All - Some Girls (Deluxe Edition)
One of the lost pieces of treasure from the 2011 Some Girls Deluxe Edition release was Keith's rendering of the country classic "We Had it All."
This somber country tune has been widely covered over since the early 1970's and features Keith on lead vocals, piano, acoustic and electric guitars. Even though the lyrics were not written by Keith, they are powerful and heartfelt: "I remember how I used to touch your hair, while reaching for the feeling that was always there... And I never stop believing in your smile... Yes, you're the best thing in my life I can recall, you and me, we had it all."
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"We Had it All" is one of many great Stones ventures into the country genre, but just slipped reaching out our top Rolling Stones Country Songs. "To me, it's like they're the greatest rock band, and one of the top 5 country bands too... They are a great country band" - Brad Paisley
"I know that we can never lives these times again
So I'll let these dreams take me back to where we've been
Then I stay there with you just as long as I can"
7. You Don't Have to Mean It - Bridges to Babylon
"You Don't Have to Mean It" takes listeners on a vacation to a tropical paradise during their 1990's experimental Bridges to Babylon.
It seems Keith has always been a fan of the tropics, as this song also indirectly foreshadowed Keith falling out of a palm tree in Fiji back in 2006 where he fractured his skull and almost died. Keith sure knows how to vacation!
"Sweet lies - Baby, baby dripping from your lips"
6. The Worst - Voodoo Lounge
Despite its name, "The Worst" is actually one of the best and overlooked songs on the underrated album Voodoo Lounge.
"The Worst" is short, sweet, smooth, and to the point - clocking in at only 2 minutes and 25 seconds - one of the shortest songs produced by The Stones. It has a country and Irish feel to it and shows that Keith has a passion for country music and knows how to perfectly strum an acoustic guitar. The Stones perform country music in their own, unique way, and always make it sound great.
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The lyrical meaning on "The Worst" is hard to decipher, but it seems awfully tragic, as Keith acknowledges, due to his reckless and one of a kind behavior, he should put love aside and won't allow this girl, who loves him, have him.
"Take all the pain, it's yours anyways ...
Somewhere outside, I threw love aside; now, it's a tragedy.
And I said from the first, I am The Worst kind of guy for you to be around"
5. Coming Down Again - Goats Head Soup
"Coming Down Again" might be Keith's darkest and most melancholy song, as well as his finest vocal achievement in his career.
Loneliness is the perfect word to describe "Coming Down Again," an emotional ballad with numerous tearful cries of "Where are all my friends?" Even with the lyrics full of suffering and heartbreak, Keith had to slip a typical crude sexual line in: "Slipped my tongue in someone else's pie, tasting better every time.. Being hungry ain't no crime."
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Keith uses this song to connect deeply to listeners, as everyone experiences a season of emotional loneliness with no one to pick us up. But eventually there will be someone to lift us back up.
Click to read "Coming Down Again" in our Best Rolling Stones Songs When You're Down and Out.
Click to read "Coming Down Again" in our Best Rolling Stones Songs When You're Down and Out.
"Coming Down Again. Where are all my friends? ...
All my time's been spent, coming down again"
4. Before They Make Me Run - Some Girls
Next, "Before They Make Me Run," or originally titled "Rotten Roll," dives into Keith's lifestyle that lead to his famous 70's criminal charges.
This rock and roller is one of the funnest Keith songs and a highlight when preformed live. The lyrics show Keith getting his life on track after run ins with the law after years of heroin abuse: "Gonna find my way to heaven, cause I did my time in hell. I wasn't looking too good, but I was feeling real well... I'm gonna walk before they make me run." While Keith quit heroin, he did snort his Dad years later.
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However, in response, Keith famously has stated: "I've never had a problem with drugs. I've had problems with the police." and "If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet."
"Worked in bars and sideshows along the twilight zone
Only a crowd can make you feel so alone...
Well it's another goodbye to another good friend"
3. You Got the Silver - Let it Bleed
1969's "You Got the Silver" was Keith's first solo lead vocal performance, unfortunately, as well as Brian Jones final Stones permanence.
Besides stealing lead vocals, Keith also steals acoustic and slide guitar, and masterly blends them between 1:02 to 1:30 - which shows the guitar strength Keith has with The Stones.
"You got my heart, you got my soul
You got the silver you got the gold
You got the diamonds from the mine
Well that's all right, it'll buy some time"
2. Little T&A - Tattoo You
The iconic Keith hard rocker "Little T&A" is a total bad-ass song that perfectly represents Keith's essence and lifestyle.
The Chuck Berry influenced track portrays Keith's wild side through various one night stands. They lyrics are suggestive and could be viewed as degrading women and using them just for sexual please: "she's my little rock and roll, tits and ass with soul, baby... you got to shock and show them... Ah, the little bitch got soul."
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Without a doubt, this song made our list of Most Controversial Rolling Stones songs, but even though it contains edgy lyrics, it's one of the best rockers in history.
"She's my little rock and roll;
Tits and ass with soul, baby"
1. Happy - Exile on Main St.
The last on this list - Keith's best song - happens to be on the greatest album of all time: Exile on Main St.
"Happy" came to Keith in a dream while in France, and they dropped the track in a few hours with only a few members of The Stones. Keith later stated: "That's a strange song, because if you play it you actually become happy, even in the worst of circumstances. It has a little magical bounce about it." "Happy" certainty creates a special feeling of warmth that fills your soul.
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"Happy" also contains great lyrics - "Well I never kept a dollar past sunset, I always burned a hole in my pants... I never wanna be like papa, working for the boss every night and day.. I need a love to keep me happy, baby keep me happy" - which teaches us that we all need someone to love to make us happy.
"I need a love to keep me happy.
Baby, baby keep me happy."
Honorable mentions
If you enjoyed this list, check out these songs from Keith's solo album Crosseyed Heart:
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"Music is an incredible power, it can do thing and change people minds,
change peoples hearts, and the way they live"
"It's great to be here. It's great to be anywhere."
"There's very little coherence in what I do"
"The idea of retiring is like killing yourself. It's almost like Harikiri.
I intend to live to 100 and go down in history."
"If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music."
"To make a rock'n'roll record, technology is the least important thing."
"You've got the sun, you got the moon, and you've got The Rolling Stones"