give me "Malagueña"

"One note leads to another, and you never know quite what's going to come next, and you don't want to.  It's like walking on a beautiful tightrope."

-------------- [excerpts, Life, by Keith Richards] -------------- Sometimes I still visited Gus.  By that time, because I'd been playing for two or three years, he said, "Come on, give me 'Malagueña.'"  I played it for him and he said, "You've got it."  And then I started to improvise, because it's a guitar exercise.  And he said, "Thats not how it goes!"  And I said, "No, but Granddad, it's how it could go."  "You're getting the hang of it."

In fact, early on I was never really that interested in being a guitar player.  It was just a means to an end to produce sound.  As I went on I got more and more interested in the actual playing of guitar and the actual notes.  I firmly believe if you want to be a guitar player, you better start on acoustic and then graduate to electric.  Don't think you're going to be Townshend or Hendrix just because you can go wee wee wah wah, and all the electronic tricks of the trade.  First you've got to know that [instrument].

--------------------

I think the first record I bought was Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally."  Fantastic record, even to this day.  Good records just get better with age.  But the one that really turned me on, like an explosion one night, listening to Radio Luxembourg on my little radio when I was supposed to be in bed and asleep, was "Heartbreak Hotel." 

That was the stunner.  I'd never heard it before, or anything like it. 

I'd never heard of Elvis before. 

It was almost as if I'd been waiting for it to happen. 

When I woke up the next day I was a different guy....

Radio Luxembourg was notoriously difficult to keep on station.  I had a little aerial and walked round the room, holding the radio up to my ear and twisting the aerial.  Trying to keep it down because I'd wake Mum and Dad up.

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{Life -- Keith Richards -- Copyright 2010 -- Back Bay Books}

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