There is no magic to making great rock ‘n’ roll music. According to Keith Richards, it’s getting the simplicity right that creates the magic. As any fan of The Rolling Stones will tell you, the area in which they triumph above others is the energy that they create. That comes from having a tightness and a band who know their roles. Then it’s just about writing great songs, and that’s all there is to it.
However, at one point in rock ‘n’ roll’s evolution, Richards figured that this point was being lost. “Very soon after Exile, so much technology came in that even the smartest engineer in the world didn’t know what was really going on,” he wrote in Life. “How come I could get a drum sound back in Denmark Street with one microphone, and now with fifteen microphones I get a drum sound that’s like someone shitting on a tin roof?”
It became clear to Keef that the energy of rock ‘n’ roll was lost because bands were divided and could no longer tap into each other’s nuances to create a more visceral mix. As he explains: “The bass player would be battened off, so they were all in their little pigeonholes and cubicles. And you’re playing this enormous room and not using any of it.”
Concluding, he added: “This idea of separation is the total antithesis of rock and roll, which is a bunch of guys in a room making a sound and just capturing it. It’s the sound they make together, not separated. This mythical bullshit about stereo and high tech and Dolby, it’s just totally against the whole grain of what music should be.”
Richards tried to ensure that his own band didn’t fall victim to this craze and kept a sense of musicology in mind. However, he had a firm ally in this battle, with his rhythm section proving to be among the most adept and selfless in rock ‘n’ roll, which is what you want from them, really. While some might not have sung his praises, Richards said on his website, “Bill Wyman’s an incredible bass player.”
Analysing what he brought to band, the guitarist continued: “I’m still always amazed by Bill’s tastefulness in his bass playing, which is not something I think that most people would think of, but when I listen back to what he’s playing behind me, I’ll knock out a song and say, ‘It goes like this Bill’, then I hear what he’s put in behind it, and I’ve got to say this is the most discerning, very sensitive musician. I mean, he might be embarrassed by that. But I’ve got to say, he’s like the top bass player for me, man.”
That same sense of measured simplicity, aimed to serve the song, is also something that typified Charlie Watts. As Ringo Starr even said in praise of his peer, “You look at Charlie Watts in the Stones and there is nothing really said and he’s an amazing drummer but the drummers tended not to get the writing.“ And every drummer is grateful for a bassist who can march to the beat.
