by Robert Wilkinson
Our Thursday Night Show features the music of some greats who had birthdays earlier this week. Keith Richards is the walking, living, breathing embodiment of rock and roll attitude! Since it’s his birthday (along with legendary Stones sax man Bobby Keys) and the other headliners, we have the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Cars on the playlist!
We’ll begin the show with the music of Elliot Easton (December 18, 1953), focusing on his work with the original Cars. While he’s played with numerous other groups and talents since then, let’s jump into his lead guitar work with Rik, Ben, and the band!
Live in 1978, “Good Times Roll”
Live in 1979, a fantastic performance of “My Best Friend’s Girl”
Live on the Midnight Special” in 1978, an extraordinary two-fer! “Just What I Needed” and “Let’s Go” (We were all young and beautiful back then ... “Let’s Go” was a year later in 1979, and it’s a solo clip a few down.)
From 1978, “Moving In Stereo”
Very live, also in 1978, “All Mixed Up”
From 1979, live on “The Midnight Special,” “Let’s Go”
A great performance of “It’s All I Can Do”
Live in the mid-80s, “Candy-O”
The official music video for “The Dangerous Type”
From 1980, “Don’t Tell Me No”
A great live performance of one of my favorite Cars songs! “Since You’re Gone”
Time to shake it! “Shake It Up”
Live in 1981, “Think It Over”
The dynamic “Drive”
Live in Philly in 1987, “You Might Think”
Last year I had a 16 minute clip of their 1985 Live Aid performance, but it’s gone. However, I found these individual clips, so crank it up! The Cars Live at Live Aid - 1985 (Elliot seriously smokes in this set!)
For the encore, an electrifying set! The Cars Live 1978 - Pt 1 (“You´re All I've Got Tonight,” “Good Times Roll,” “ “Bye Bye Love,” and “My Best Friend’s Girl”) and The Cars Live 1978 - Pt 2 (“Nightspots,” “Don´t´cha Stop,” “All Mixed Up”)
For the second encore, from Rock Goes to College - The Cars in 1979, 40 minutes of pure gold! The Cars – Rock Goes to College
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Our next performer is a singular force of Nature! For those who just flew in from Alpha Centauri, Keith Richards (18 December 1943) is a guitarist and songwriter. Half of one of the greatest songwriting teams in history, he is one of the founding guitarists of the Rolling Stones. A disciple of Chuck Berry, Keith is generally considered to have written more memorable guitar riffs and more memorable tunes than almost any other living artist.
So tonight, because of the sheer volume of his creative work, we’re going to listen to songs from the first 10 years of his career. Some are more danceable than others, some are more obscure than others, but they’re ALL written by Keith Richards with lyrics by Mick Jagger.
Many of the early clips are lip synched to the studio originals, but when possible, I found a live performance! Of course, many of the obscure studio cuts are set to random live footage through their career. I’ll start early, and try to find the best from each album beginning with their first, 1964’s England’s Newest Hitmakers, featuring one of the first tunes Keith ever wrote, “Tell Me” (He’s only 20 in this clip!)
From Dec 1964 at the legendary TAMI Show in Santa Monica, a live performance of “Around and Around,” “Off the Hook,” “Time is on My Side,” “It’s All Over Now,” and “It’s All Right” (Of these, only “Off the Hook” was written by Mick and Keith)
From 1964’s 12 X 5 (US), “Congratulations”
From 1965’s Rolling Stones Now, live on Shindig Jan 1965, “Heart of Stone” and some random footage from the era sets the background for “Surprise Surprise”
From 1965’s Out of our Heads, “The Last Time” and “Satisfaction”
From 1965’s December’s Children, “I’m Free” and from TOTP, “Get Off My Cloud” (“I’m Free” is preceded by “Under My Thumb” – originally on Aftermath - in this clip from the 1969 MSG live show)
We bridge that era with the next with two hit singles, “19th Nervous Breakdown” and its flip side performed on the Ed Sullivan Show, “As Tears Go By”
From the Aftermath (1966) era,
Live on the Ed Sullivan show, “Lady Jane”
From July 1966, live in Hawaii, the audio-only track of “Lady Jane”
From the Between the Buttons (1967) era,
“Have You Seen Your Mother Baby (Standing in the Shadows)”
“Let’s Spend the Night Together”
From the Ed Sullivan Show, the Stones giving us “Ruby Tuesday” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together”
“Connection” (This was the first song Keith ever sang lead on!)
From the album Flowers, (1967) a collection of odds and sods (mostly from the Aftermath era) that never made it to US released albums. “Ride On Baby” and “Sitting on A Fence”
From the era that produced 1967’s Their Satanic Majesty’s Request (the Stones attempt at a psychedelic album in the same vein as the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band)
“Why Don’t We Sing This Song Altogether”
From what was arguably the Rolling Stones’ best album, 1968’s brilliant Beggar’s Banquet, marking a culmination of the fusion of R&B, pop, and rock and roll!
“Stray Cat Blues” and “No Expectations” (The first song “Mercy Mercy” was written by Don Covay)
From 1968, a tune Keith wrote for Mick's movie Performance, though the song is performed by Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, and a few other first tier musicians. For your amazement, the scene from the movie where Mick is one spooky dude! "Memo From Turner"
Then came 1969’s Let It Bleed, a remarkable departure in style created at the time of the death of founding member and original “leader” of the band, Brian Jones. This album has an edge that hasn’t quit over the years!
From 1971’s Sticky Fingers,
From 1972’s Exile on Main Street,
Last year I had an amazing clip videotaped at Keith Richards’ birthday concert in 1981, with “6th Stone” Ian Stewart and Small Face Ian McLagan on keyboards doing “Little T&A” but it’s disappeared.
And we’ll close this birthday tribute with three versions of the first real hit Keith sang lead on! From a live show in 1972, “Happy.” From 1999, with Sheryl Crow, “Happy,” and here’s Keith, Mick, and the boys in 1972 cranking it out! “Happy”
Last year I also had a great 60 minute documentary with performances from the 60s but it’s gone, so instead I found this! The Rolling Stones in the 1960s
Here’s another 60 minute BBC documentary that focuses on Keith’s autobiography! Keith Richards – “Life” – 6 Strings and 9 Lives
We love you, Keef! Just stay out of those coconut palm trees!
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It's also the birthday of Brad Pitt (December 18, 1963), Steven Spielberg (December 18, 1946), Bobby Keys (December 18, 1943 – December 2, 2014), and Chas Chandler (18 December 1938 – 17 July 1996). I will give a shout out to the first two as major talents in film, and Bobby Keys was the main sax man for the Stones from 1969 until his death, except for a short period when Mick pitched a fit. So from Let It Bleed on, most of the main sax parts were done by Bobby! RIP sax man!
Now for Chas Chandler. Without him we probably would not have known about Jimi Hendrix. Chas is the one who "discovered" him, found Noel and Mitch, and created, produced, and managed the Experience. From playing bass with the original Animals to being the guiding force behind Jimi, thank you Mister Chas Chandler! For your enjoyment, the Animals!
From UK tv in 1964, the Animals live performing their #1 hit “House of the Rising Sun” which we’ll follow with their first hit, a rave up written by the great Bert Burns, “Baby Let Me Take You Home”
Also from 1964, the Animals cranking out the “B” side to “House of the Rising Sun,” Chuck Berry’s “Talkin’ ‘Bout You,” and their driving top 20 hit “I’m Cryin’”
We’ll close the year with their version of the John Lee Hooker classic, “Boom Boom”
We’ll open 1965 with their first hit of that year which went to #15 US “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
They followed that with a Sam Cooke classic they took to #2, “Bring It On Home to Me”
This one went to #13 shortly after! Rolling Stone says it’s #233 in the top 500 songs of all time! “We Got To Get Out of this Place”
From the same sessions, this one went to #23! “It’s My Life”
From 1966 on Ed Sullivan, the Animals live doing the Sam Cooke classic “Shake”
From late 1966, the studio version of the Donovan R&B stomper, "Hey Gyp"
Our closer is also from 1966! Here’s a great live performance of the reverb, vibrato, and delay drenched #12 hit “Don’t Bring Me Down”
Our first encore is a real score! From 1963, their live album In The Beginning (This one rocks hard! Set list: "Let It Rock," "I Got to Find My Baby," "Bo Diddley," "Almost Grown," "Dimples," "Boom Boom," and "C-Jam Blues")
Our second encore is their entire 1977 reunion album! Enjoy the original lineup doing what they do best in Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted
Copyright © 2018 Robert Wilkinson
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