<\/p>\n
Besides being the most underrated songwriter in The Beatles<\/a>, George Harrison was also an incredible guitar player who was fundamental to the band\u2019s sound. He inspired countless guitarists around the world, many of whom, like him, became influential and carved their names in Rock history. Unlike his bandmate Paul McCartney, who gave thousands of interviews during his career, George didn\u2019t talk to the press that much and spoke even less about other artists. However, he did share his opinions on some of them, including The Rolling Stones\u2019 guitarist Keith Richards.<\/p>\n What was George Harrison\u2019s opinion on Keith Richards<\/p>\n George Harrison was called \u201cthe quiet Beatle\u201d by the media and fans during his career and he was always modest when it came to talking about his own guitar playing. When asked in an interview about ELO\u2019s Jeff Lynne<\/a> calling him a \u201cgreat guitar player\u201d and pointing out that Harrison always played it down when praised, he mentioned Keith Richards as one of the greatest Rock and Roll rhythm guitar players, but also said that the Rolling Stones member was not very good as a lead guitarist.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not playing it down. I\u2019m just not playing it up! I think Keith (Richards) is one of the best rock \u2019n\u2019 roll rhythm guitar players. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s very good at lead. But this is what I feel about myself too: What we do is make records, and the records have some good guitar parts on them. I like Keith enormously, I think he\u2019s great, but he\u2019s not Albert or B.B. King. Anyway, the main thing about him is that he has the confidence,\u201d George smiles. \u201cSo even if it\u2019s not perfect he doesn\u2019t care,\u201d George Harrison told Musician<\/a> magazine in 1990.<\/p>\n A few years earlier, George said he liked Keith a lot and that they occasionally sent each other t-shirts. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen Keith for years. He lives, I presume in Jamaica and New York. I haven\u2019t seen him for a long time. (Are you a fan of his playing?) \u201cYeah, I like Keith a lot. We occasionally send t-shirts to each other (laughs),\u201d he said in an interview with MTV<\/a>\u2018s Kurt Loder in the late 80s.<\/p>\n The last time George and Keith saw each other<\/p>\n Although George didn\u2019t enjoy touring, he used to go see other bands playing live. The final time George Harrison and Keith Richards saw each other was at a Rolling Stones<\/a> concert in London. \u201cThe last time I saw him was when he came to a Stones gig in London. He came disguised as Farmer George.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a great horticulturalist. George loved his garden, another sign of a real gent. He came backstage, and he was full of beans then. I just said. \u2018How are you doing, healing and shit?\u2019 And he said. \u2018Okay,\u2019 you know, he seemed all right. I\u2019m quite happy that I last saw him when he was on an up.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued:<\/p>\n \u201c(\u2026) George reminds me very much of Charlie Watts, in that way and in many ways the understatedness. The modesty and just being a gentleman, really. There\u2019s very few I\u2019d give that word to, and I wouldn\u2019t give it to myself. But he was a gent,\u201d Keith Richards told Rolling Stone in 2001.<\/p>\n During that same conversation, which happened after George\u2019s death at the age of 58, Keith praised his late friend, saying he was a musician who really cared about his songs. To him, songs like \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps,\u201d \u201cMy Sweet Lord,\u201d and \u201cSomething\u201d were great examples of that, because, in his words, \u201cGeorge crafted his stuff, very, very carefully and it all had its own feel.\u201d<\/p>\n In his opinion, there are different types of guitar players, like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, who can play as solo artists, and then there are players like George, who can play with bands and be a team player. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s way above being some virtuoso flash artist\u2026 George was an artist, but he was also a f* craftsman,\u201d Keith Richards told Rolling Stone.Richards also thought The Beatles\u2019 producer George Martin didn\u2019t \u2018serve his guitar sound as well as it could have been done\u2019 in the early days of the band.<\/p>\n Keith thinks George Harrison could easily have been a member of The Rolling Stones<\/p>\n Curiously, Keith recently said that John Lennon<\/a> and George Harrison were two musicians who would have fitted into The Rolling Stones easily. \u201cI don\u2019t think John Lennon would have had much problem fitting into the Stones, or George, if you can imagine that sort of thing happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the same generation, and we all loved the same music. When we first heard The Beatles, we were relieved that there was some other band in England on the same track that we were on. And within a few months, that track was the main track,\u201d Keith Richards told The Telegraph<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n Those were the two Beatles members who Keith said he spent more time with. He used to go to George\u2019s house in London with Ronnie Wood and Eric Clapton to \u201cplay guitar and get stoned. The usual,\u201d he said to\u00a0USA Today<\/a>. Their friendship started back in the early 60s, when they have already seen each other playing in the clubs. In fact, it was John Lennon and Paul McCartney who gave The Stones their first hit \u201cI Wanna Be Your Man\u201d (1963). \u201cJohn\u00a0was a particular good friend of mine. Stories that cannot be told (laughs). George\u00a0was a lovely guy, we got\u00a0Paul (a great songwriter) and Ringo, what a guy, what a steady (beat). They came to see us play. We were playing in a pub, at Station Hotel in Richmond, that was our gig.\u201d<\/p>\n Keith Richards continued:<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the only one we really had. Everybody was having a good time. I turn around and there is these four guys in black leather overcoats standing there. This was soon after \u2018Love Me Do\u2019. I mean this was really early on and this is early 60s. From then on we\u2019re always good mates. When George\u2019s new single (was ready) we always made sure we didn\u2019t clash because in those days was like every two months you had to have a new single.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe would collaborate with each other. So we didn\u2019t go head to head, because otherwise it seemed like \u2018you\u2019re either Beatles or Stones\u2019, bullshit. And we are so similar, that\u2019s not true. We all recognized that and it was one of the great things about it. I mean, between the two bands there was never any sense of competition, was cooperation,\u201d Keith Richards said in 2003\u00a0answering<\/a>\u00a0a fan on his website section \u201cAsk Keith<\/a>\u201d (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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