“This album holds up,“ Keith Richards says. “I’ve been listening to it and not through the mists of nostalgia either because it doesn’t affect me that way. This is more than the sum of its parts. I really admire it. We were having fun and you can hear it.”
In 1988 Keith Richards released his first ever solo album, Talk Is Cheap, an eleven track masterclass in everything good about rock ‘n roll.
It all began in 1986 when Keith was restless. The Stones were inactive and as Keith says It was one of those “forget about it times”. He’d worked with drummer Steve Jordan on the Chuck Berry film Hail Hail Rock ‘n Roll and was looking for another challenge. He’d never before considered making a solo album and admits to initially being “dragged kicking and screaming” into the studio.
Throughout his storied career with the Rolling Stones, he had always been a one band man. “My central focus had always been that one thing,” Keith says. “I felt like in the Stones I had the perfect vehicle for what I wanted to do. I couldn’t imagine putting something else together would be equally satisfying."
Thankfully he put together the incomparable X-Pensive Winos. From the start, it felt like a band, with guitarist Waddy Wachtel an obvious first addition to Steve Jordan. “Waddy and I are like Ronnie and me,” Keith says. “Within five minutes it’s like you’ve known each other all your lives.”
With Charley Drayton, who plays bass and drums, three became four, then five with singer and keyboard player Ivan Neville. All of them were mutli-instrumentalists, musical all-rounders who set up camp at Le Studio, outside Quebec. Isolated from big city distractions, the music flowed from the start. “There was a roll going on and all I had to do was hang onto it,” Keith says.
To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the album, a special Deluxe set has been announced for release on March 29. The Super Deluxe and Deluxe box sets include special, exclusive housing and folios, extensive sleeve notes by Anthony De Curtis telling the story of the album’s production, release and cultural impact, unseen photo’s and rare memorabilia. Pre-order here.
Talk Is Cheap single CD and vinyl full tracklisting:
1. Big Enough
2. Take It So Hard
3. Struggle
4. I Could Have Stood You Up
5. Make No Mistake
6. You Don’t Move Me
7. How I Wish
8. Rockawhile
9. Whip It Up
10. Locked Away
11. It Means A Lot
Talk Is Cheap Deluxe & Super Deluxe Box Set includes these extra bonus tracks:
1. Blues Jam
2. My Babe
3. Slim
4. Big Town Playboy
5. Mark On Me
6. Brute Force
Talk Is Cheap Deluxe Box Set also comes with
*180g LP album &180g LP bonus material
*the 7” Single (Take It So Hard / I Could Have Stood You Up)
*the 7” Single (Make No Mistake / It Means A Lot)
*CD album & CD containing bonus material
*80 page hardback book featuring Anthony De Curtis essay, new interview with Keith Richards and extensive photos,
*Memorabilia: 1x tour laminate, 2x lyric sheets, original ‘Talk Is Cheap’ playback invite, tour guitar pick and 2x posters
*Housed in a folio pack wrapped in Fender guitar case material
Talk Is Cheap Super Deluxe box set
*Limited & Numbered
*All content matches the Deluxe Box set
*Comes with added special feature, a one-of-a-kind exclusive casing replicating Keith’s favourite Fender Guitar ‘Micawber’
*Features hand-reliced ash wood with original Fender guitar elements, handmande at the Fender Custom Shop in California
