Keith Watch--What The Band Say

Reliable news on the condition of Suffolk Punch hero Keith Richards is difficult to find, but working on the safe assumption that one should never believe the English gutter press, let's suspend the disbelief that comes from anxiety and the natural paranoia that arises whenever money is involved and accept, with caution, the statement made by the Rolling Stones themselves, which says Keith is talking again, he never had a second operation following his fall, and the rumours of brain damage were inaccurate. Wags in the blogosphere and elsewhere are asking how anybody could tell--though people who know Keith, like Johnny Depp, report that his "Sixties casualty" reputation is a myth and he's actually sharp as a nail-- but the idea of the mind that dreamed the riff for "Satisfaction" being permanently mashed is almost painful for me to contemplate. You might say I should get out more; I say you should stay in more, with better music.