Although not technically the end of their run as a great band, the mid-80s did mark the end of The Rolling Stones as elite album makers. “Dirty Work” was an interesting and good enough “death knell record,” on which time, distance and bad habits began to show their effects. It is unclear how much Charlie Watts, who was kicking addiction, appears on that album. It seems quite clear, though, that all five Stones were not in the studio together frequently. Mick showed up for his job but left before they had a chance to tour. After all, he had a solo album and career to consider. Ultimately, and surprisingly, It was Keith who proved to be the responsible one holding “Dirty Work” together. 

Tired of the drama and unqualified for any other career, Keith did the previously unthinkable. He stepped out as a solo artist and frontman. This was a shock to fans for several reasons. For one, it marked a formal and public break in Keith’s solidarity with the unit. Sure, Mick had done it first and even Ronnie and Bill had flirted with the single life, but Keith was considered by many to be the heart and soul of the band. Additionally, in contrast with Mick’s obsessive, immaculate, controlling nature, Keith was always considered loose and reliably unreliable. So, the idea of Keith running the show with any semblance of organization or intention seemed unlikely. And finally, of course, there was the matter of his voice. Keith Richards can’t sing very well. In fact, he can barely sing at all.

None of this, however, stopped Keith from casually assembling the players, buying a small fortune of wine, and getting into studios in Montreal, France and Jamaica in 1987 and 1988. His main collaborator was virtuoso drummer, Steve Jordan, who had played a great deal on “Dirty Work.” The other players, including Ivan Neville, Waddy Wachtel, Charley Drayton and Sarah Dash, came to be known as The X-pensive Winos. Functionally led by Jordan, the drummer, who worked to create dynamic structure under and around Keith’s deconstructed riffs, The X-Pensive Winos often sound like an ace Free Jazz band playing with mis-assembled Rock and Roll parts. There is still no band in the world that sounds like them.

I’m not a guitarist. But, I’ve read and listened a good deal about how Keith plays and thinks about guitar -- about the tunings and open chords and fewer strings. Intuitively, I understand and can hear his “sound.” But there is something more elemental and less technical in how Keith goes about constructing riffs and songs. It’s a patience and a search for something higher than the melody and lower than the rhythm. It’s something that Keith helped name in a duet with Tom Waits. It’s called “That Feel.” Keith is all about That Feel. He and Tom Waits sing about it on “Bone Machine”: 

But there's one thing you can't lose

And it's that feel

You can pawn your watch and chain

But not that feel

It always comes and finds you

It will always hear you cry

I cross my wooden leg

And I swear on my glass eye

It will never leave you high and dry

Never leave you loose

It's harder to get rid of than tattoos

In 1988 Keith finally released “Talk is Cheap,” his solo debut with the X-Pensive Winos. In interviews from that time and from the 2019 expanded reissue, he would talk a lot about what he learned about being a frontman when he recorded and toured in support of the album. He sent an olive branch to Mick, acknowledging the weight of always being “on” and always being “the guy.” On the other hand, he also talked about how Mick was always pushing for faster, relentless, more contemporary songs. Mick wanted more drive. He wanted straight lines to the goal. The most famous Stones’ songs achieve Mick’s goals -- think “Satisfaction,” and “Jumpin Jack Flash.” But many of the band’s most enduring songs are not linear. The guitars swell and fade. They can be jazzy and loose. Much of “Sticky Fingers” and “Exile on Main Street” fall into this latter class. Those songs are not built on “Drive” but on “Feel.” And to hear Mick try to tame the weirdness and openness of That Feel with his very controlled vocal delivery is part of the Stones’ wonder.

“Talk is Cheap” is unencumbered by any of Mick’s drive and control. It is entirely Feel. Many critics have referred to the music’s offhanded, demo-like quality. The implication of these takes is that Keith was more casual in his approach and setting modest expectations on his solo debut. It has been called a “masterpiece of underachievement,” but I reject this perspective. I do not think the opposite of “controlling” is “casual,” nor do I think the album sounds “demo-like.” All of the playing is extraordinary. The recording itself sounds clear and rich. There are many layers to sort through and the engineering and mix give all of the players their space. The vocals are mixed almost impossibly back, suppressing the album’s iconic weakness, Keith’s voice. On the other hand, the front of the album is taken up by the guitars and, even more so, Steve Jordan’s percussion. On an album with Keith Richards’ name on the cover, where each song was co-written by Keith Richards and the other guitarists are Waddy Wachtel and Mick Taylor, it is, amazingly, the drums that hold “Talk is Cheap” together. They are the equivalent of Mick Jagger’s voice here.

For those who’ve not heard the album, it is hard to describe, but also, completely singular. With few exceptions, the songs are built around the big, open, upside down riffs that Keith is known for. But these riffs stay open and frequently get broken down into parts. They are not insistent. They repeat but they also are played at different tempos, seemingly searching for a groove or idea to hook onto. Unto itself, it can sound a bit like noodling. But the rest of The Winos fill in the space and add a bed for Keith to have a tumble on. At times, “Talk is Cheap” sounds like the deconstructed Blues of Pussy Galore or Royal Trux. In other places, it genuinely sounds like a Jazz playing with The Stones’ kit. Frequently, they will find a groove and lock into it for a spell. But, even then, the songs have the quality of a mess of ideas coming together for inspiration and then breaking back down. On top of all of this, is the singer, who has literally no ability to hold a melody and is more interested in the sound than the meaning of words. And when the occasion arises, he also sings with a slightly Jamaican Patois. All of this openness and searching and improvisational nature, though, is in service of That Feel. And “Talk is Cheap” has plenty of That Feel.

Before I revisited the album, I only recalled two tracks -- “Take it So Hard,” the modest hit single with the familiar Tattoo You-ish riff and “You Don’t Move Me,” a lovable jalopy of a Blues rocker that may be a break-up song about Mick Jagger. By Pop standards, both songs are weird and ragged sketches, with an elusive beat, random handclaps and instruments coming in and out. That being said, they are also by far the most fully formed and structured songs on the album. By comparison, the rest of the album can sound practically like late Coltrane or 70s Miles.

The songs that cold open with a fully constituted riff, like “I Wish,’ “Struggle” and “It Means a Lot,” all sound like they were taken from the early 80s Stones’ playbook. The riffs are so good and so familiar that you half expect the famous Windows 95 Super Bowl ad that featured “Start Me Up” to follow. Then, when that doesn’t happen, you wait for Mick’s voice to kick in. It doesn’t. Maybe he’s backstage doing something with somebody. So, the band keeps vamping. And you keep waiting. The drums and some keys move forward. The drums are all over the place. Very terse but also acrobatic. You wait some more. Keith tosses off a few words so far back in the mix that the backing vocals are actually in front of him. Given that he is only nominally the singer and that the songs are taking their own shape, Keith may briefly ignore the Rock, Blues and Jazz of it all to try on his Reggae voice. It never works but it’s OK. You wait for everything to come together. And wait. Meanwhile, you realize the Winos have found a groove. A rich and complicated groove. And it’s not like The Stones where Mick whips Keith to stay on the verse, the bridge and the chorus. It’s a tight groove amid a sloppy song. It gets constructed and deconstructed. And by the time it ends, you realize that you really dig it. It’s quite a beautiful mess and it takes a unique sort of talent and trust among the players to make that sound.

At its best, “Talk Is Cheap” is just that -- a beautiful mess. “Whip It Up,” with Bobby Keys on sax, sounds a lot like “Sticky Fingers,” but with less of the druggy, fin de siecle DNA.  And on “It Means a Lot,” the album closer, Keith plugs right into Jimmy Page’s set-up, but with the Marshall amps dialed down. When Steve Jordan steps in and up, the band sounds a good deal like Led Zeppelin. But rather than standing on a stadium stage, bare chested, it sounds like Keith and the gang are sitting on a very comfortable couch, on an expensive Persian rug, in the moment, finding That Feel.  

It is easy, but incorrect, to conflate a song’s written structure or its vocal performance with the rigor or quality of the music. I love great vocals. I love a big chorus or a great verse bridge verse transition. But some of Rock music’s greatest revelations are born from improvisation, breaks in structure or the subjugation of vocals. I’m not talking about Albert Ayler or John Cage or Phish, for that matter. I’m thinking about Van Morrison on “Almost Independence Day” and The Stones on “Moonlight Mile,” the spiritual forebearer to Van’s song. Like much of the music on “Talk is Cheap,” those songs find the singers and the band searching for the magic chord, finding their way to an idea. Unlike “Almost Independence Day” and “Moonlight Mile,” there is not much vocally compelling on Keith’s solo debut. But, like those genuinely majestic songs, there is a real journey that the band goes on to find That Feel. They plug in and ride wave after wave, trying to find shore, together. Though his name graces the album’s cover, the record is decidedly a band affair. If anything, it is Steve Jordan who is at the center of the sound and Keith injecting ideas from the outside. Keith sounds unfussy as both the guitarist and the boss -- the complete opposite of Mick.

“Talk is Cheap” is the best of Keith’s solo albums. But it’s hardly a great album. The playing is frequently superb even though the songs are only occasionally excellent. In retrospect, it functions mostly as a sort of regression analysis of The Stones. Alongside Mick’s solo work, it serves to show us the benefits of the Glimmer Twins’ different writing and management styles. It’s a Sophie’s choice -- the talented and lovable leader, who might not have his shit fully together, or the charismatic chairman, who is practically undefeated, but may also be a prick. Thankfully, many years later, we’ve not had to choose.

by Matty Wishnow