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August 25, 2005
Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones: Longevity Through Constant Improvement
In this morning’s Wall Street Journal Jim Fusilli reviews ($) the opening of the Rolling Stones’ latest tour, which occurred earlier this week at Boston’s Fenway Park. As Mr. Fusilli observes in his review, the Stones have survived and thrived for better than four decades because of a relentless quest to innovate within the bounds of their chosen blues-drenched rock and roll discipline:
Much like a jazz group, they toyed with tempo and meter while tossing in unexpected filigrees and embellishments that kept their old music fresh and new songs as intriguing as the band’s standards.
The band’s driver is 62 year old guitarist Keith Richards, who is still striving to get better:
Mr. Richards says he’ll continue to look for new ways to make the music better every night during the bank’s 57-gig tour.
"That’s my modus operandi," he says. "It’s instinctive by now. What happens depends on what happens when I drop down and listen."
The Rolling Stones are one of the music industry’s more profitable enterprises. While the human tendency might be to relax and coast, particularly if you're 62 and universally acclaimed, that’s not what Richards and the Stones have done. They are constantly trying to improve, testing the possibilities of their music. Their tendency to not be content keeps them fresh, vital, relevant.
It’s an example for all of us.
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