Keith Richards: Under the Influence

"Under the Influence" is an intimate portrait of Keith Richards, the music lover. It is highly recommended to Rolling Stones fans and music aficionados. After over fifty years of Richards's career in pop music, this is the film that finally describes the music that made the man avoiding all the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll gossip. It is a significant and welcomed change from decades of accounts tainted by a meaningless narrative of debauchery that satisfied the lowest of rock'n'roll fans' desires and kept many others hungry for good and true music story. The 81 minutes of the film go very fast in a journey that brings the viewer through the main genres of American popular music: blues, country, rock'n'roll. Richards visits New York, Chicago and Nashville and recounts his fascination for American music and his encounters with the legends that inspired the Stones, from Muddy Waters to Howlin' Wolf and Chuck Berry. The interview briefly covers several other aspects of the musician's work like song-writing, recording processes, solo career and the use of different instruments. The film contains also precious footage of studio recordings with Tom Waits and Richards's house sessions in Jamaica with the Wingless Angels. Richards in his short, sometimes convoluted, phrases conveys all the devotion and deep appreciation for what music can bring into one's life. A strong sense of the passing of time and mortality brings in another novelty for a Stones documentary and makes Keith Richards's testimony somehow touching. Great little film on a great music soul.

It's a Casual Affair, Hanging Out with Keith as He Talks About Discovering "The Blues", and How He and Mick Jagger Formed What Became "The Greatest Rock n Roll Band In the World',

Only Because "The Blues" had so Moved Them, that They just Wanted to "Turn-On" Other People to the "Pleasure"

Man, Their Motivation Succeeded Beyond All Measure.

Their Dedication was so Great, that "The Stones" Told the Popular Teen Show "Shindig", "You Want "^The Rolling Stones", well, "Only if you also Book "Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters".

The Show Reluctantly Said Yes (American Media and Culture were Still "Segregated" in Mind and Soul).

It Became a "Spearhead" of America's Musical Culture Changes in Attitude and Gratitude for Forgotten Folks who were Forced to "Paint Ceilings" and Do Other-Things with Little Regard for Their Artistic Contributions.

The 80+ min Show is Short but Sweet.

With its Main Focus, the Lifetime Love, Advocacy of and Affection For the Musical Contributions, and to Touch on Other Forms of Music that He Embraced and Included in His Prolific Out-Put that was the Engine that Drove His Career as a Performer from a "Labor-of-Love" Grounding.

This Doc. Is an "Elementary School" Primer.

Most of the Historical Happenings, and His Personal Story are Now Well Known. His "Book" is Simply Called "Life",

and has Keith Articulating His Personal Definition in the Common-Man-Vernacular..."Life is a Funny Thing".

While Admittedly "Wasted" a Lot of the Time, and His Image of "Him Walking Down the Street with Jack Daniels and Cigarettes by HIs Side. Is One He Can't Shake..."Image never leaves you, it's not like a shadow, it's there 24-7".

But it Certainly Can Be Said...Keith Richards did Not is Not "Wasting His Life".

The Infamous "Drug-Use" and Partying is Only Mentioned Sparingly and Waved-Off by a Few Sentences Like...

"My Father is a "Straight" Guy and He can't "Process" that His Son was "Busted for Drugs".

But He and Keith have Traveled Around the World Together for the last 20 Years. Keith Proudly Comments..."I enjoyed showing Him the World and He enjoyed seeing it".

It's a Casual Affair, This Documentary, and Keith Invited a Few of His Musician Friends to "Hang Out". And You're Invited too. But Keep in Mind that it isn't Going to Get any Deeper than...

"I Know it's Only Rock n Roll but I like it, Love it, Yes I Do!"

This is a great movie. More serious than I expected. A lot of facts disclosed. If you haven't read Keith's book, you really should. I see they are going out on tour again, I'll be interested to see the reviews. Watch it!

I've always considered Keith the real driving force in the Stones, now that I'm aware of how important he was to the creation of songs for the band. There's an audio clip here of him crafting the melody of "Street Fighting Man" with his overlaid acoustic guitars and Charlie Watts drumming, where you can pretty much hear the fully-fledged song and Keith then casually says, "And Mick just came in to finish it off...", presumably with the lyric and good as Jagger's lyrics often were, there's no question that it's the riffs which really made the songs, at least in my opinion they did.

Richards is also the only Stone to make a really good solo album, if you listen to his "Talk Is Cheap" and "Main Offender" albums, plus he wrote a really good autobiography "Life" some years ago so far me, I'd rather catch a documentary on him than his old mate Mick.

This Netflix production, as the name suggests, talks to the man about his main musical influences, which in order appear to be the blues, rock and roll, country and reggae music so the film takes him to places like New York, Chicago, Nashville and Jamaica allowing the man to regale us with his love for each musical style as well as inserting some vintage clips not only of some of his own musical heroes like Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, but also of him interacting with them too. There are some nice anecdotes about how modest Muddy was and how demanding Chuck was although one or two of his other tales appear a little on the tall side.

Of course, he had a new record out at the time called "Crosseyed Heart", so we get to see him playing with his solo band demoing tracks for the album and chatting informally with his band members. Debunking his caricatured image of the drunken stoner, just as he did in his book, I find a lot of what he says quite sage, especially at the end when he stresses the importance of his family to him. It was warming to hear him talk about reconciling with his twenty-years absent father who'd walked out on him and his mum before he became famous. Occasionally he rambles on a bit about the magic of music and it's obvious that he's the main man the way everybody around him seems to wait for him to stop speaking before laughing with him, plus the producer gets his infrequent collaborator Tom Waits to spout a lot of adulatory BS in Richards' name, but Keith definitely comes over as a decent, grounded guy, as evidenced by him stopping his chauffeured limo to sign autographs for his fans.

I'd have appreciated a bit more length and depth to this documentary but you suspect at ten times the length you'd still only be scratching the surface of the man.

The title does seem to make reference to Richards' infamous excesses, but the documentary doesn't really go into that at all. Have just heard so much about Keith Richards and his drugs, so kinda wanted some context on why he has that reputation, but oh well.

It is a fairly nice watch. I think if you're a fan you'd probably love it, but I'm guessing most big fans of Richards will have already watched it. It's paced leisurely, and is kind of just Richards talking/rambling about his past, present, and his love for music.

You could do better as far as music documentaries go, but you could also do a lot worse.