Keith Richards put his spin on Jimmy Reed’s 1961 blues classic, “Bright Lights, Big City,” for Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album. It’s one of 34 songs intended to “capture the electric energy of Grand Theft Auto VI’s world of Vice City and Leonida” on the video game’s soundtrack, due out Nov. 19.
Reed took the original version at a medium tempo, imbuing Jimmy Reed, Jr.’s guitar line with swinging swagger, as he slurred the lyrics and let his voice tremble while singing about how he and his baby were bowled over by the big city’s bright lights. Richards, who has always sung his blues songs with a vocal quiver that owes a debt to Reed, plays the guitar with a little more force than Reed did and affects something of a Mississippi-via-Dartford drawl on the vocals.
Where the original featured Reed’s searing harmonica solo, Richards plays it straight all down the line into the fade. Whether part of those sessions or recorded at another time, Richards has been on a roll with his solo contributions to those albums.