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SoCharlie
Every one of them pushes himself into the spotlight- every one of them has their soloprojects to make money. Brian Jones is a ghost since 1969 and its easy to speak for a ghost.

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emotionalbarbecue
This band has been captivated, fascinated millions of people for decades across the planet so in the end they can not even control the feelings of people towards them not even have an accurate idea of the numerous feelings they elicit on us.


Bill added mysterious ingredients to the potion. He may not even know which ingredients are those ..but they are still there. And of course Stones tours are a bit colder without Bill. If there is a tour and/or they come back to the blues roots as a way of saying goodbye Bill must come back.

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Doxa
Actually, what Bill Wyman writes in STONE ALONE of The Rolling Stones during the 60's is about the opposite version of what Keith writes in LIFE.

Bill had (a least) three clear tendencies in his book:

(1) To tell the world that The Rolling Stones is actually a band which was pretty much the brain child of Brian Jones (he picked all the members one by one, and gave them the image, the style, the attitude, the idea and the mission), and which worked very democratically in the early days, each member (including Bill, of course) enjoying almost equal weight in the whole. The Stones were originally a five-headed-monster, a tight unit that conqured the world together. (Read: all this is against the idea of Jagger/Richards-dominancy of the latter days).

(2) To reveal that Keith Richards and his position within the band is basically Andrew Loog Oldham's brain child. Keith is potrayed as a shy, almost helpless boy who was happy just to be play the guitar with the 'boys', and couldn't even sing, but then strongly with a harsh force pushed by ALO to the front and to the important/privileged position within the band. Wyman gives us a detailed account how Keith's role was created step by step and by the cost of the others (Brian and Bill, that is). ALO made him to sing back ground vocals, pushed to write music, to be filmed and inerviewed more, etc. Brian and Mick, according to Bill' testimony, and in that order, were the original big boys in the band. ALO teamed Keith with Mick, and thanks to that deal, Keith's star grew up next to Mick's natural lead.

[Showing the importance of the artificial background of Keith's leadership is very much to do with the context of the day when STONE ALONE was released: the 80's were a triumph for the whole world recognizing Keith's fundamental role within the Stones (by the cost of Jagger). "Keith is the Stones" was the slogan of the day.]

(3) To show that the originality of Jagger/Richards songcraft is to an extent a myth. Many songs were group compositions a'la Nanker Phelge but Jagger and Richard took all the credit. Bill even gives us examples of some definitive numbers ("Paint It Black", "Jumpin' Jack Flash"). But by dominating the song policy Jagger and Richards controlled the band and its money. Controlling the band, however, happened step by step, once again eary much helped by ALO. By the time ALO left, the band was almost totally in the charge of Mick and Keith (who, ironically, had teamed up with Allen Klein - the deal only Bill was against of!).

Now if we compare that to Keith's version of the happenings, he writes off the central role of Brian Jones totally out of the picture (pointing out, for example, Stu's role instead in the very beginning), not giving much attention to ALO's role either, and clearly doesn't give Bill any weight at all; just tells more or less a story of talented, leader-born blues purist from Dartford who teamed up with a great singer and then, after a bit of outsider encouragement, recognized that he is a natural-talent composer, who would lead the band with his compositions (the singer would finish the lyrics, though). LIFE tells us tha Keith Richards was born to lead the Rolling Stones. It is his band, and only he can know what is good or bad for it. And yeah, he used to do drugs with John Lennon, the leader of The Beatles, his 'equal' in the musical world.

If we now read these stories against each other, one can see that they express an attitude towards each other that is far from that of respect. They seemingly have very different kind of picture of not just from each other, but of themselves (self-picture) as well. Probably Keith is paying back to Bill a bit (I can understand that since some of the claims Bill made are really below the belt!).

- Doxa

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SweetThing


That satire, an imaginary Jagger response to Life piece which appeared in Slate should be an addendum in the last couple pages of LIFE....

[www.slate.com]

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latebloomer
It always makes me cringe when I see these old Keith book threads pop up...sort of like revisiting a painful breakup.

The Stones have obviously moved on, I hope everyone here has as well.