What do you reckon are the best books ever written on the Stones?
I have just finished reading James Phelge book Nankering With The Stones and i think it's a must for any Stones fan.
James recollection about living with Mick,Keith and Brian in Edith Grove is a real insight into the early years of the Stones. It is also a very entertaining read with plenty of incident.I would not have liked to have been the neighbours.

Victor Brokis book on Keith

"A journey through America with the Rolling Stones" is a really good one.
I like wymans Stone Alone and Rolling with the Stones as well.

Taylor's book yet to be written may be a bombshell to the stones camp

Honestly, they all stink!

Always the same old story about how much drug they used and how much groupies were f... .

Maybe BW's is the best.

C

There was a book I read when I was young about Mick Jagger, I can't recall the name but it had a close up of his face on the cover, had lots of pictures and was broken into sections. The last section was about drugs but I also remember it having those shots of him and Jerry Hall hugging naked and had some good quotes from Jagger about songs. He said about Hot Stuff that its crap. He also said that about a lot of other songs that I was surprised about. Not the best book but interesting. Also the book Heart Of Stone was a good read.

Its called, Mick Jagger "In His Own Words"

I like the Spanish Tony Sanchez book, Up and Down with the Rolling Stones. Keith claims it's a bunch of lies, but so what, so is a lot of what Keith says. Talks a lot about the Nellcote era.

Wyman's first book is unbelievably boring to me. Lots of statistics about his sexual conquests.

I think the best thing I've read for a good summation of their careers is the special magazine MOJO put out a year or two ago. Has everything you really need to know.

karl

'Don’t forget, if you’re on your bike, wear white'

Has anyone else read Nankering With The Rolling Stones? James Phelge sounded like a real nutter.Definitely the most enjoyable book i have read so far - i don't know how James remembers in such detail after so many years.

A good thread. They don't all stink, there are some excellent books out there.

1) Stanley Booth - The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones
2) David Dalton - The First Twenty Years
3) Robert Greenfield - A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones
4) The Rolling Stones Anthology (hard to find 70's book)

The best ones, at least for me:

- Robert Greenfield's "A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones"
- Bill Wyman's "Rolling with the Stones", at least the pictures...

[There'll be no wedding today...]

i like stanley booth's book the best...he was pretty much in the middle of the 69 tour and had a good eye for details...i like the sections of the stones roaming around L.A. before the tour started, going to see chuck berry and the flying burrito brothers at the clubs...the practice sessions and the feeling of an unawareness on the stones part that they were in the midst of something that was destined to come completely apart...

the barbara cerrone(sp?) one about keith is also very good, especially the part where keith is trying to get his act together to go to tornoto and the other stones keep sending him telegrams wondering where he is...

My favorite Stones books are: "The Rolling Stones, An Unauthorized Biography in Words Photographs and Music" by David Dalton, also THe Rolling Stones, A Life ON THe Road" byJools Holland, " STP" by Greenfield, The Wyman book, " The Rolling Stones, Street Fighting men," by Stephen Barnard, " The Rolling Stones, UNseen Archives" by Susan Hill ( quite well done!), Love You Live, Rolling Stones" by Marilou Regan. Marilou's book is a personal all-time favorite because it is written by fans for the Stones, telling of their experiences with the band. I happen to have written a chapter in this book, including many photos from my collection. Some Stones books that I don't like but own are " Jagger, UNauthorized by Chris Anderson because it reads like a tabloid, " Heart of Stone", " Golden Stone" about Brian fall into the same tabloid category! I probably have 75 or more Stones books, many I bought just for the great photos! I think I'll go back and read some of them tonight!

The Stones - Philip Norman 1984

wasn't the philip norman book titled symphany for the devil?

Of course there are plenty to choose among...
Wyman is like a dictionary, if you´re into years, hours and dates and hard facts.
Otherwise I´m into this thread´s initiator -
Phelge is the master. This is true heroship, as Keith says.
I mean, the man has once p****d on The Greatest Rock ´n´Roll Band In The World. Literally. Nowhere else the human beings behind the rock myth shine so clear as in this book: "Nankering With The Stones" (incredible hard to get hold of, e.g. in Swedish librarys).

Up and down with the Rolling Stones from Tony Sanchez is my favourit. Love that book.
Keith said about it that Tony can not write but that most of it is really true written in this book.

Stanley Booth, The true adventures of the Rolling Stones is the best.

The complete Recording Sessions (Martin Elliott) is the absolute WORST. He talks about 500 songs the Stones recorded. Almost all the info on the songs is wrong. It's a good laugh if you have some real knowledge about this stuff. Even the books pages are made of old toilet paper (no joke...........)

Presumably you're not referring to the updated version of Martin's book, which is actually pretty good and much better researched.

Funkhouse - Philip Norman's book is utter crap. He's tiresome. Every time the Stones tour he writes a new heralded "updated version" which basically consists of about 4 extra pages that have been written in 20 minutes and where the research has been done by a baboon. Then he's wheeled out by the likes of the "Daily Mail" as "the Stones' biographer" to write some tiresome,cliched and oh-so-observational tripe about the fact that, gosh, they're getting old now. All Stones bios have a significant number of factual errors in them - Norman's more than most. And whats worse, hardly any of them cover the last 30 years of the band's career in anything more than the skimpiest detail. "Old Gods Almost Dead" was an exception to that - but it's trash and full of utter rubbish and mistakes as well. Carey Scofield's Mick bio is another one to avoid, as is Chris Anderson's.

best ones to get depends on the type of book you particularly like - whether its the coffee table-size photo books, biographies or the statistical stuff:

Barbara Charone's Keith bio
Bockris' Keith bio (flawed, but a fun read nonetheless)
Chet Flippo's "lipstick, Powders and Chemicals" (or whatever its called) book on life on tour with the Stones from 1975-79.
Greenfield's "STP" 72 book
Stanley Booth's "True adventures.."
The two officially sanctioned books from the last few years "According to.." and "A Life on the road"
David Dalton - the First Twenty Years

The one that's the most fun is undoubtedly James Phelge's book..I cried with laughter at some of it. Its been ages since I read it, this thread has inspired me to dig it out again.

Gazza Wrote:
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> Presumably you're not referring to the updated
> version of Martin's book, which is actually pretty
> good and much better researched.

No, I'm not. didn't even knew he did another one.....Is it really any good, or can I take a dump with this one as well?

Its very good and I can vouch for the fact that it's much better researched. I have both versions and comparing the two is like night and day..

Ok Gazza, I will check it out.

Gazza,

The Philip Normal book was the first I read about the Stones.Really liked it back then, , I was 14 of 15 years old and it made me wanna listen to the greatest r n r band in the world.
I dont notice much difference between all books i've read, they all use allmost the same 'facts'. Only exception is the Tony Sanchez book, wich is an inside story. But also full of made up story's I think.

Gr.

Up and Down with The Rolling Stones was the first one that I read. Liked it alot
Journey through America I like because it is about the daily happenings during the 1972 tour. Also The book By Chet Flippo on the El Mocambo gigs [77-78] and what was going on during that time i.e. Keiths bust, Margeret Trudeau, ect.