The five string man is the legendary guitar player Keith Richards, best known as the co-writer with Mick Jagger for the band The Rolling Stones. Richard’s is also well respected as a musician and has a great love of the blues. He also has played with many other guitar greats including Les Paul and BB King and was nicknamed “the human riff”
Keith decided to remove the low E string on his guitar and to tune the remaining five strings to an “open G” tuning. He described this transformation in the following manner
"With the five-string it was just like turning a page; there's another story. And I'm still exploring. With five strings you can be sparse; that's your frame, that's what you work on. 'Start Me Up,' 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking,' 'Honky Tonk Women,' all leave gaps between the chords."
Rolling Stones enthusiasts with notice that this song is littered with musical references from this band with a nod to Keith’s well documented “chemical explorations” The final outro is a reference to Keith’s excellent autobiography “Life” where the whole Small Change Diaries band sings – “Your life's in paper for all to read”
lyrics
Homemade blues kept you up all night
Mandy’s touch meant you sleep just right
Exiled out on the main line
Rush without traffic made you feel just fine
The grim reapers got no plans for you,
Rocking this world since 1962,
The older folks couldn’t understand,
Why all the kids went crazy for the five string man
When not on stage, you'd rather be flying,
You know which lines this side of dying…
When not on stage, you'd rather be flying,
You know which lines, this side of dying…
Just reached 70, guitar in hand,
The beating heart of this 5 piece band
You got Muddy Waters, on the brain,
All the girls know that, your Love’s in vain,
Gram, Mick, Les and BB too,
Those cats loved to play with you,
Jamming along with this human riff
Your satisfaction is his to give
When not on stage, you'd rather be flying,
You know which lines this side of dying…
When not on stage, you'd rather be flying,
You know which lines, this side of dying…
Your life's in paper for all to read
Your life's in paper for all to read
Your life's in paper for all to read
Your life's in paper for all to read
credits
from Adam Blames Eve CD,
released June 2, 2015
Nick Cody, Jessica Bowie, Garry Jackson, Richard Ferdinando, Rob Sayles (backing vocals)
Nick Cody is a UK artist who is the founder of a number of musical ensembles including The Small Change Diaries, The Caravan of Dreams and in 2021 Nick Cody and the Heartache
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