"Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones (1968)
Dad's Song of the Day #112, Dec. 19, 2025
Oh man…how could I have missed wishing Keith Richards a Happy 82nd Birthday yesterday?
Truly one of my favourite people for literally most of my life, Keith has been a reliable metronome of cool. It’s almost like the music is superfluous to his persona as laughing hedonist, full of late nights, booze, smokes and lots of coke (and stronger).
Once upon a less enlightened, more insensitive time—say the 1980s/90s—many people (of course, not your Dad, of course) would undertake what they called a Dead Pool. This involved predicting celebrities who would die by the end of the year. I suspect that many people reading this are familiar with this cruel enterprise (of course, they never partook, of course).
So, in these Dead Pools from 40-ish years ago, year after year, people would choose the obvious Keith Richard…I mean, obviously: Just look at the guy!! Look at how he lives his life! Obvious…First Round draft pick in every Dead Pool, every year.
So, how is it that he stays on? How could he survive that lifestyle for 82 years? How many drugs? How many bottles of every kind of liquor? How many tens of thousands of cigarettes?… He fell out of a bloody COCONUT TREE, for Chrissakes!
I dunno…Hmmmm….What could it beeeeeee????
Spotify:
YouTube:
This series is for my two 19-year-olds, who moved off to school with the misguided belief they’d escaped their dad’s relentless nostalgia and monopolization of the car stereo. I’m very happy for anyone else to come along for the ride.
The Spotify playlist for Dad’s Song of the Day is located here:
😆