I was just wondering if anyone has read the book
& has any feedback.

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2009/2009-May-21/carmel-authors-new-book-is-a-tale-of-the-rise-and-demise-of-two-british-dreamers/1/@@index

Sorry if it's been posted before...

Legends of the Fall


Carmel author’s new book is a tale of the rise and demise of two British dreamers.

By Paul Wilner
A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a band called the Rolling Stones. Not the geezers who’ve been making worldwide tours with Mick Jagger’s leering face staring down from a JumboTron at the boomers who’ve shown up in rented limos, but the original band of British ne’er-do-wells who turned a passion for blues-soaked American music and a disregard for the opinion of just about anyone else into… whatever it ultimately turned into.

Few people have had a better ringside view of the rise and fall of these elegantly ill-behaved gentlemen than Carmel-based writer Robert Greenfield, the author of Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones and S.T.P.: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones.

Greenfield’s new book, A Day in the Life: One Family, the Beautiful People & The End of the Sixties (Da Capo Press), is a departure from his past efforts, which also include biographies of Bill Graham, Jerry Garcia and Tim Leary and his current authorized project, the biography of Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun. He’ll discuss the book and sign copies Sunday, May 24, at Henry Miller Library.

It’s the tale of Tommy Weber and Susan (“Puss’’) Coriat, two of London’s beautiful people who became caught up in the excitement, and tragedy, of the times, and – separately – paid the price.

Fittingly, Greenfield first met Weber at Villa Nellcote, where he was interviewing Keith Richards during the drug-fueled madness surrounding Exile.

A charming sports car driver and perennial dreamer, Weber endeared himself to the Stones’ inner circle by smuggling a huge quantity of cocaine into France, strapped under the shirts of his six and eight year old sons, Charley and Jake, as a wedding gift to Mick Jagger, who was about to marry Bianca.

Although the gesture would probably now be seen as child abuse, the Stones admired his bravado, even though the blow was promptly confiscated by Keith Richards – Mick found another supplier.

Thirty-five years later, Greenfield reconnected with Jake, who has since become a successful actor, co-starring with Patricia Arquette in the television series Medium, and with Tommy, “who still had great charisma and style,” the author recalls.

“We spoke several times and it became apparent that there was a book there. This is not a gossip book on any level, and it’s not about celebrity misery – ‘Look, how Jake Weber grew up!’ It’s about two people at an incredible moment when a class structure that had been in place for hundreds of years in England began breaking up, in part because members of the upper class starting taking LSD, freaking out and breaking the grounds of conventional society.”

Freaking out is an apt term for Puss Coriat’s experience; as a result of her internal journey she ended up being hospitalized for LSD-induced schizophrenia, and ultimately taking her own life.

But not before, in a incident that Greenfield incredulously describes as “a coincidence out of a penny novel,” she ended up in the same mental institution as Richards’ then girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg, who had come there to kick her habit. Instead, the two women ended up partying together and having a brief affair. (Tommy also got it on with Pallenberg; the woman got around.)

“The world was so much smaller then, and all these people knew each other,” Greenfield says. “They became pop aristocrats. It was so bizarre that Puss ended up in the same facility as Anita.

“The great tragedy was that she was trying to help Puss get to France and put the family back together again, but was unable to leave England because her family was running her life, and the trustees controlled the money.”

Like many people around the Stones, Tommy ultimately experienced his own exile from Main Street, in part because of his relationship with Anita, and later developed a heavy drug habit. He died, years later, hanging out with youthful rockers in the British town of Rugby, who liked him, Greenfield says, “because he was one of these guys who – as Charlotte Rampling, who Tommy also had an affair with – put it, created something around themselves that people wanted to be a part of. That’s something that’s lost in this world.”

“In this day and age, it’s really hard to find a story that no one knows,” he says. “Everything’s been Tweeted, Twittered or blogged – we have so much media! The good and bad news here is that the book is about two people who no one has ever heard of who I think deserve to be remembered.”

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a band called the Rolling Stones. Not the geezers who’ve been making worldwide tours with Mick Jagger’s leering face staring down from a JumboTron at the boomers who’ve shown up in rented limos, but the original band of British ne’er-do-wells who turned a passion for blues-soaked American music and a disregard for the opinion of just about anyone else into… whatever it ultimately turned into.

This is exactly what's wrong with this band nowadays, and why I hate them. Nobody besides these boomers in rented limos (and their offspring) can afford a decent seat at their shows anymore. How many stories have the older members on here told about how they got an upfront ticket to one of the shows on the 69-81 tours for a reasonable price, and sometimes at the last minute? How they got a good deal from a scalper right before the show? How they walked down to such and such place on their lunch break and bought good tickets? How they borrowed their mom's car, skipped school, and camped out to get tickets? You never hear of stories like this happening now. And why is that? BECAUSE NOONE UNDER THE AGE OF FIFTY CAN AFFORD TO GO TO THEIR F-UCKING SHOWS ANYMORE. How can anyone on here not see how wrong it is that this is no longer a possibility, and how wrong it is what the Rolling Stones have turned into? A souvenir T-shirt should not cost the better part of your paycheck. It's no longer rock n roll, it just business, pure and simple. The business has taken over the music and the experience, it's all finally dead. And all anyone on here wants to talk about is how great they still are and how cool Keith is, when all that coolness ever was was just an unrealistic ideal that we dreamed up to begin with to make our own lives seem more interesting. Why do you all continue to give these guys more money, just to see tired versions of the same songs you've seen and heard a million times. And then complain about how badly Keith and Ronnie played. What do you expect, THEY ARE ALMOST 70 AND ARE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY NOW, despite whatever crap Keith tries to say to the contrary. I love their music as much as anyone here, they are always in my top three fave bands, I grew up listening to them, but I have no desire at all to pay to see these ridiculous spectacles they try and pass off as a rock n roll show. It ain't rock n roll, and hasn't been since the 81/82 tour, and even that one pushed the limits. And god forbid anyone have an opinion like mine and go against what all the sheep and cattle believe. Is there anyone, ANYONE, at least willing to admit I might have a point, or that can at least see that my point of view, while maybe not the same as yours, is just as true and valid? Or am I so jaded at 40 that I have no choice but to believe that Rock n Roll is dead because I can know longer buy into the bullshit of my idols like so many others still do? And before anyone calls me a troll, or says I'm sixteen, or can't get laid, or any of the other useless and pointless insults usually said to people who dare to voice a less than stellar opinion of the current state of this band, and rock n roll in general, I feel this way, I'm angry like this, because THESE GUYS ARE BREAKING MY F-UCKING HEART BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY HAVE TURNED INTO, AND HAVE HELPED TURN THE WHOLE SORRY INDUSTRY INTO.

The book was a good quick read. A few chapters on the boys.

I finally find a quote for a siganture: A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a band called the Rolling Stones. Not the geezers who’ve been making worldwide tours with Mick Jagger’s leering face staring down from a JumboTron at the boomers who’ve shown up in rented limos, but the original band of British ne’er-do-wells who turned a passion for blues-soaked American music and a disregard for the opinion of just about anyone else into… whatever it ultimately turned into.- Paul Wilner

Quoted for truth!

well said boogie..

Quote
boogie69
A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a band called the Rolling Stones. Not the geezers who’ve been making worldwide tours with Mick Jagger’s leering face staring down from a JumboTron at the boomers who’ve shown up in rented limos, but the original band of British ne’er-do-wells who turned a passion for blues-soaked American music and a disregard for the opinion of just about anyone else into… whatever it ultimately turned into.

This is exactly what's wrong with this band nowadays, and why I hate them. Nobody besides these boomers in rented limos (and their offspring) can afford a decent seat at their shows anymore. How many stories have the older members on here told about how they got an upfront ticket to one of the shows on the 69-81 tours for a reasonable price, and sometimes at the last minute? How they got a good deal from a scalper right before the show? How they walked down to such and such place on their lunch break and bought good tickets? How they borrowed their mom's car, skipped school, and camped out to get tickets? You never hear of stories like this happening now. And why is that? BECAUSE NOONE UNDER THE AGE OF FIFTY CAN AFFORD TO GO TO THEIR F-UCKING SHOWS ANYMORE. How can anyone on here not see how wrong it is that this is no longer a possibility, and how wrong it is what the Rolling Stones have turned into? A souvenir T-shirt should not cost the better part of your paycheck. It's no longer rock n roll, it just business, pure and simple. The business has taken over the music and the experience, it's all finally dead. And all anyone on here wants to talk about is how great they still are and how cool Keith is, when all that coolness ever was was just an unrealistic ideal that we dreamed up to begin with to make our own lives seem more interesting. Why do you all continue to give these guys more money, just to see tired versions of the same songs you've seen and heard a million times. And then complain about how badly Keith and Ronnie played. What do you expect, THEY ARE ALMOST 70 AND ARE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY NOW, despite whatever crap Keith tries to say to the contrary. I love their music as much as anyone here, they are always in my top three fave bands, I grew up listening to them, but I have no desire at all to pay to see these ridiculous spectacles they try and pass off as a rock n roll show. It ain't rock n roll, and hasn't been since the 81/82 tour, and even that one pushed the limits. And god forbid anyone have an opinion like mine and go against what all the sheep and cattle believe. Is there anyone, ANYONE, at least willing to admit I might have a point, or that can at least see that my point of view, while maybe not the same as yours, is just as true and valid? Or am I so jaded at 40 that I have no choice but to believe that Rock n Roll is dead because I can know longer buy into the bullshit of my idols like so many others still do? And before anyone calls me a troll, or says I'm sixteen, or can't get laid, or any of the other useless and pointless insults usually said to people who dare to voice a less than stellar opinion of the current state of this band, and rock n roll in general, I feel this way, I'm angry like this, because THESE GUYS ARE BREAKING MY F-UCKING HEART BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY HAVE TURNED INTO, AND HAVE HELPED TURN THE WHOLE SORRY INDUSTRY INTO.

hey man, yes indeed i feel the same way, but why are you writing your opinion on this thread where no one is going to see it. Cut and paste and start a new thread about your subject matter . . . and then the discussion will fly. Hope you do it, because this stuff NEEDS to be said!

What do you mean ... no one is going to see it ??!!


Keef just phoned me and he's F N pissed!!

Boogie:
I feel exactly the same way. Saw them in '81 and it was a drunken debacle of great rock n' roll. Ever since 1989 it has been a soulless dash for money. I have never seen a better band but they're disdain for their audience is palpable. They see us as cash cows. I won't go to see them anymore...it's over, baby...

Jake Weber : [en.wikipedia.org]

I know that this is an old thread but I just read this book. Some text on Nellecote.

Greetings from the Jersey Shore.

Well said Boogie. I've seen the Stones on every tour from 78- Licks. I didnt go to ABB tour. Just couldnt do it. I've seen enough. I went to see the Scorcese movie and I felt like I was watching the death of a band. I would only go see them now in a small venue.

They sort of "lost" me when Steel Wheels came out. There have been some moments since but overall, their live and studio sound has been pretty lame and tame. Fireworks, TVs, blow up dolls, Darryl Jones, Blondie Chaplin...the Rolling who?

Stones....you will always be my favorite band but at this point... Thank God for Social D and Rockabilly!

It took them a while to get going, but there were some triumphal moments on the Steel Wheels Tour. It was the last time the core of the rhythm section, wyman/richards/watts were locked in together. Unfortunately the vastness of the stage kept the intimacy low.

The 1999 No Security Tour was singularly fantastic. Dodger Stadium in 2006 was the best I've ever seen Mick, and I've been going to see them since '78. He's not as fluid, but he's a better performer.

Get off this 'rock is dead' B.S. Rock has been dead for a couple decades. The Stones are one of the few survivors. Yes, it's getting near the end. So let's enjoy them while we can. They're not going to come to your local bar and play. They put on quite a show for the money they charge. Mick, for one, makes no pretense he was in it for anything but the money.