Rolling Stones – "You Got the Silver" (1969)

You got my heart, you got my soul

You got the silver, you got the gold

In 2010, the BBC’s online magazine ran a story titled “Who, What, Why: How is Keith Richards Still Alive?”

Keith Richards – then and now

Here’s an excerpt from that article:

His name is synonymous with rock 'n' roll excess, his memoirs detail a lifetime spent ingesting a Herculean quantity of illegal drugs and he only gave up cocaine, aged 62, after he split his head open falling from a tree while foraging for coconuts.

At 66, Keith Richards' continued survival is a source of widespread bafflement.

According to addiction expert Dr. Robert Lefever, director of the Promis recovery centre in Richards’ native Kent, there is only one possible explanation for his longevity: “He must have the constitution of an ox.”

Keef with Johnny Depp in 2007's
"Pirates of the Caribbean"

Seven years later, Richards is still going strong.  Sure, he has the face of an exhumed corpse.  But despite taking a licking over the years, he just keeps on ticking.

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I recently heard Dana Carvey tell a fabulous story about Keef to Howard Stern.

Richards hosted Saturday Night Live once when Carvey was a cast member.  During a lunch break one day, Carvey saw the Rolling Stone walk up to a horse who was tied up backstage.

“Look at you,” Richards said as he held the horse’s chin and looked directly into its eyes.  “You’re a fookin’ horse!”  Then he walked away.

I use this line at least once a day.  For example, I might say, “Look at you . . . you’re a fookin’ baby!” to my ten-month-old grandson.  Or when I’m at the farmers’ market, I might intone, “Look at you . . . you’re a fookin’ cantaloupe!”

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The first Rolling Stones song to feature Keith instead of Mick Jagger as the lead vocalist was “You Got the Silver,” from Let It Bleed – certainly the best Stones album ever, and arguably the best rock album ever.

Some sources say that Richards wrote “You Got the Silver” – the last Stones recording to feature Brian Jones (who played the autoharp, of all things) – about his longtime partner, the actress and model Anita Pallenberg.

Pallenberg died a few days ago.  I was writing this post when the news of her death broke.  (I’ll have more to say about Anita Pallenberg and the Rolling Stones in the next 2 or 3 lines.)

Here’s "You Got the Silver”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: