the mystery of how it was done

"...Works of art have always seemed to me to have a supernatural power, and I believe that visual images constitute a universal language through which the experience of the past is transmitted to the present, and by whose means all lives can be immeasurably enriched."
-- John Pope-Hennessy, art historian and curator at the "Met"  {Learning to Look, 1991, Doubleday}

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

Some of the people I know who knit and crochet voraciously will look at a garment, or toy, or decoration and say, "How can I make that?"  When you read Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards' autobiography, you know he's a person who, when he hears music, says, "How can I play that?"  Or -- "how can I make that sound?"

-------------------------- [Life excerpt-1] -------------------- Almost immediately after we met we'd sit around and he'd start to sing and I'd start to play, and "Hey, that ain't bad."  And it wasn't difficult; we had nobody to impress except us and we weren't looking to impress ourselves.  I was learning too.  With Mick and me at the beginning, we'd get, say, a new Jimmy Reed record, and I'd learn the moves on guitar and he would learn the lyrics and get it down, and we would just dissect it as much as two people can. 

"Does it go like that?"  "Yeah, it does as a matter of fact!"  And we had fun doing it. 

I think we both knew we were in a process of learning, and it was something that you wanted to learn and it was ten times better than school.  I suppose at that time, it was the mystery of how it was done, and how could you sound like that?  ...And then you bump into a bunch of guys that feel the same way.  And via that you meet other players and people and you think it actually can be done.

Mick and I must have spent a year, while the Stones were coming together and before, record hunting.  There were others like us, trawling far and wide, and meeting one another in record shops.

---------------
---------------------- [excerpt - 2] ----------------- Mick and I knew each other just because we happened to live very close, just a few doors away, with a bit of schooling thrown in.  But then once we moved from near my school to the other side of town, I became "across the tracks."  You don't see anybody; you're not there....

Temple Hill -- the name was a bit grand.  I never saw a temple all the time I was there, but the hill was the only real attraction for a kid.  This was one very steep hill.  And it's amazing as a kid what you can do with a hill if you're willing to risk life and limb.  I remember I used to get my Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual and put it on a roller skate, width-wise, and then sit on it and just zoom down Temple Hill.

=============
{excerpts, Life, Keith Richards, Copyright 2010, Little Brown (US)}

-30-