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Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
Tue 18 August 2026 22:07, UK <\/p>\n
While he\u2019s a calmer soul these days, it didn\u2019t take much to rattle Keith Richards<\/a>\u2018 cage as a younger gentleman, and no band was off limits when it came to a verbal takedown.<\/p>\n Even if you were one of Richards\u2019 friends, like Jimmy Page, for example, who he\u2019d known before either were household names, the Rolling Stones guitarist wasn\u2019t going to allow friendship to get in the way of him dunking on Led Zeppelin<\/a>.<\/p>\n While The Beatles are viewed as the sacred cows of the musical world, Richards never rated them as a live band, once saying<\/a>, \u201cMusically, The Beatles had a lovely sound and great songs. But the live thing? They were never quite there.\u201d<\/p>\n Rumour even has it that Richards once drunkenly caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror and hurled an insult at it before realising it was him. The Rolling Stones rocker has been swaggering around since the 1960s with little reverence for anyone but himself and maybe Aretha Franklin<\/a>, the only artist he has praised without stacking the other scale with an insult.<\/p>\n With all that considered, is it any great surprise that he didn\u2019t jump for joy when three kids from California emerged as Creedence Clearwater Revival and laid down a marker in the \u201960s?<\/p>\n Creedence Clearwater Revival crashed and burned within a matter of years of finally getting commercial success. Yet their popularity has continued to be in a state of constant revival as the band upholds a spiritual sense of the era they represent. However, Richards was never truly convinced, even when everybody else was singing \u2018Proud Mary\u2019<\/a> at the top of their lungs.<\/p>\n From the tempestuous end that led to a long-running feud to the visceral vitality of their music, they are an emblem of the American zeitgeist in the 1960s<\/a>, and that remains a thrilling force to behold.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n The appeal of their sound was epitomised best by Bruce Springsteen in 1993 when he inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, stating, \u201cCreedence Clearwater Revival \u2026 were progressive and anachronistic at the same time. An unapologetic throwback to the golden era of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018The Boss\u2019 continued, \u201cThey broke ranks with their peers on the progressive, psychedelic San Francisco scene. Their approach was basic and uncompromising, holding true to the band members\u2019 working-class origins. I stand here tonight, still envious of that music\u2019s power and its simplicity.\u201d<\/p>\n While most of us have just nodded our heads while reading Springsteen\u2019s analysis of Creedence Clearwater Revival\u2019s greatness, Richards would be shaking his head in disagreement.<\/p>\n In his mind, Richards felt that they were a little too simple. While he was being interviewed in an office in 1969, ol\u2019 Creedence were playing on the stereo system. When asked for his thoughts, he initially said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m into a very weird thing with that band,\u201d before his feedback got steadily harsher from thereon.<\/p>\n Initially, Richards was a fan of what he heard from John Fogerty\u2019s pen, explaining, \u201cWhen I first heard them, I was really knocked out\u201d.<\/p>\n However, that honeymoon period didn\u2019t last long, as he shared, \u201cBut I became bored with them very quickly. After a few times, it started to annoy me. They\u2019re so basic and simple that maybe it\u2019s a little too much.\u201d<\/p>\n In some ways, Richards\u2019 analysis played into the unfortunate \u2018Boy Scouts of Rock\u2019 tagline that had begun to beset the band at the time. After all, in the very same Rolling Stone<\/a> interview, Richards laid down the incendiary tenets of his own band, stating: \u201cIt\u2019s always been the Stones\u2019 thing to get up on stage and kick the crap out of everything. We had three years of that before we made it, and we were only just getting it together when we became famous. We still had plenty to do on stage, and I think we still have. That\u2019s why the tour should be such a groove for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking into account Richards\u2019 love to \u201ckick the crap out of everything\u201d, it made sense that he couldn\u2019t relate to Creedence Clearwater Revival\u2019s contrasting outlook on rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. He never thought they were terrible musicians; it\u2019s just anyone who had a softer approach than his own was tediously \u201cbasic\u201d in his mind.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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