Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2003), Hardcover, 359 pages
Description
Members of the band offer an inside chronicle of their careers as musicians, songwriters, performers, and colleagues, discussing the evolution of their music and their lives.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TobinElliott
This is a monster book, and I honestly didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. But by the end of it, I felt like I had a pretty solid insight into the characters of the four Stones represented in this book: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood.
Written to coincide with
What is is the interplay between the four of them, with some asides to Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman, Andrew Loog Oldham and others, and, of course, the music.
And what you get a sense of, more than anything, is that this is a band that has been doing this longer than any other band on the planet (discounting, of course, those nostalgia bands that still go by the same name, but perhaps have a single remaining member, and haven't released an album of new content in decades). As one of the commentators at the end of one the chapters says, the Rolling Stones wrote the book. They may be old, but no group has ever--or likely will ever--attain and maintain the level of success these guys have.
It's a good book. Well worth the time.
Written to coincide with
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the band's 40th anniversary--I truly believed they did it then because they didn't expect to have a 50th, yet here they are, 53 years later--it's a mostly high-level glimpse into their full history. They cover all the hotspots - the drug bust at Richards' house, Richards' Toronto drug bust, Mick and Keith's falling out, Brian Jones' self-destruction, the murder at Altamont. It's all here, but most of that isn't front and centre.What is is the interplay between the four of them, with some asides to Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman, Andrew Loog Oldham and others, and, of course, the music.
And what you get a sense of, more than anything, is that this is a band that has been doing this longer than any other band on the planet (discounting, of course, those nostalgia bands that still go by the same name, but perhaps have a single remaining member, and haven't released an album of new content in decades). As one of the commentators at the end of one the chapters says, the Rolling Stones wrote the book. They may be old, but no group has ever--or likely will ever--attain and maintain the level of success these guys have.
It's a good book. Well worth the time.
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Language
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
359 p.; 11.42 inches
ISBN
029784332X / 9780297843320