KEITH'SRING (1)
HappyHalloween! I'll spare you the story of our pre-Halloween nightmares, butwill try to pass along any happy post-Halloween memories at a laterdate.
In honor of the holiday, Ijust wanted to share (it's a weird form of holidaycelebration/notation, I know, but what the hell) my long-term, persistentnegative feelings about Keith Richards' "trademark" skull ring.
Thishideous, depressing piece of jewelry was, apparently (I never knew this untiltoday) designed by the London jewelers Courts and Hackett for Keith as abirthday present in 1978. Others may not share thisopinion, but I feel strongly that Keith's ring is one of the stupidest, ugliest items ever to appear on human hands anywhere at any time in history.
Keith's fashion sensehas always been imperfect, as has Mick Jagger's. Brian, Bill and (quite a bit later) Charlie were always "streets ahead", as they say, of theirbandmates in this regard. That's ok. Whatever his shortcomings(including not releasing a decent Rolling Stones record in about 40 years),Keith's talent and cool is undeniable and, as Ray Davies said about him acouple of years ago, he's the only member of his musical generation and BritishInvasion set who can still fit into all his old clothes (which he stillapparently owns.)
HappyHalloween! Keith, please lose the ring.
KEITH'SRING (2)
"Overthe past 30 years Keith Richards silver skull ring has taken on its ownmythology and iconic status. The most famous ring in the world has come tosignify not only Keith Richards the man - seen wearing it at every gig and inevery photograph – but Rock and Roll itself. The ring has inspired both aninternational cult following and unlimited fake copies. There have beencountless claims as to who designed and made the original but this is the truestory.
In 1978 thecelebrated London goldsmiths David Courts and Bill Hackett were working on asmall scale silver sculpture of a human skeleton. Using a real skull forreference they carved a perfect miniature replica which they then moulded. Whenthe hollow wax skull was removed from its mould the inspiration for the ring wasborn. Further experimentation led to the creation of the original silver skullring. At the same time an invitation arrived from Keith Richards to hisbirthday party in New York - so Bill and David decided that the new ring wouldmake a fantastic present. From the moment he put it on his finger, the magicbegan and he has worn it ever since."
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