my vote goes to "stone alone" by bill wyman....love all the "insider" stories straight from the source

True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth is by far the best in my opinion. The worst is definitely Old Gods Almost Dead by Stephen Davis. I found Bill's book very boring at times. Booth's book is very well written from a guy who spent a lot of time hanging with the band.

I enjoyed Symphony for the Devil and According to the Rolling Stones, but am quite sure there will be those who will call them worthless rags. I look forward to their suggested reading list for the most accurate and thoughful book on the Stones.

According to the Rolling Stones...Exile & STU.

ROCKMAN

Leonard Keringer Wrote:
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> my vote goes to "stone alone" by bill
> wyman....love all the "insider" stories straight
> from the source


I thought it was very anti-climactic and disappointly dull. I expected better. I enjoyed the one he put out a couple of years ago more.

I liked Chet Flippo's book "lipstick, powders and chemicals" (or whatever its called, it was republished as "its only rock n roll" some years back), Bob Greenfields "Journey through america" and Stanley Booth's "true adventures".

The two keith bios by Barbara Charone and Victor Bockris were fun to read although I think both tend to deify him a bit too much, but interesting character that he is, that in itself makes them worth getting

good topic - the rolling stones chronicle by massimo bonanno feb 11, 1978 high times interveiw Question to Keith - Have you ever been in a dangerous situation with drugs? Keith Richard: No. I dont know if ive been extreemly lucky or if its that subconscious careful, but Ive never turned blue in somebody elses bathroom. I consider that the height of bad manners, ive had so many people do it to me, and its really not on as far as drug etiquette goes, to turn blue in somebody elses john. goes year by year and when possible day by day listing all concerts and releases through 1995

Have any of you read Booth's book? Nothing has even come close to that. In fact, that might be the best book written about any rock and roll band ever.

Booth's book is awesome. I bought it when it first came out.

I like Bill's books, too, just because of all of the stats/numbers and little details of certain dates etc.

Agree with Gazza.
Also "old Gods" is indeed the worst trash written.
The 72 tour book is fun to read. Also the one by Tony Sanchez. The Cahrone Keith book is excellent.
But IMO the best book on the Stones for a certain period is "All The Rage" by MacLagan.
There are two samll books: one by McCabe on "Performance" - EXCELLENT!
Another by Perry on "Exile" - also EXCELLENT
Another fave is the OOP by Dalton "The Rolling Stones", the grey one with great great pics and texts. It only goes up to 72. And the big book also OOP the "Files" something, cant recall is good.
Oh and the Marianne Faithful autobio is totally cool.
The big antici[ation for the Wyman autobio was a letdown. he showed himself to be a huge whiner; his bank account and his running count on the birds he banged are an embarrassment. I thought we were going to get all kinds of inside stories on recording sessions etc. When he doesn mention these things it is always in the context of him, Wyman being done wrong. Just very petulant.
His second is lightyears better.
The Jagger bios are just about all terrible.

Loads, will mention more later -
but one of my absolute favorites is
Nankering With The Stones with James Phelge.
Outrageous!!!

"According to the Rolling Stones" is a must.

Bill´s "Rolling with the Stones" is great too as an introduction.

Jools Holland´s "Rolling Stones - A life on the Road" must be mentioned too.

I would strongly recommend these titles:

James Phelge: Nankering with the Rolling Stones
( hilarious funny and honest account of the early years at Edith Grove + the first years of success )

Stanley Booth : True Adventures of the Rolling Stones
( brilliant book about the 69-US-tour and the early Stones-period with emphasis on Brian Jones - a tour-de-force - one of the best books in the field of rock n roll - a great cultural portrait of this period )

Robert Greenfield : Journey through America with the Rolling Stones
( 1972 US-tour - read it and watch the @#$%&-movie - almost as great as Booth´s book )

If you´re rich - or if you simply want state of the art books - then turn to this page [www.genesis-publications.com] - most Stones-titles are however sold out ( but can probably be found elsewhere ).

There are other good books out there, but also an immense amount of pure nonsense.

One book not about the Stones, but about us - the fans - MUST be mentioned as well : "Love You Live - Fanfare From the Common Fan" ed. by Marilou Regan & Hans Oosterbaan. An amazing project and a very interesting and beautiful publication with hundreds of pictures not published anywhere else. Get it directly from the authors ( there´s a homepage out there ) or - if you live in Europe - get it from your local bookseller and don´t pay more than € 40.........

For what its worth, "Up and Down with the Rolling Stones" by Spanish Tony Sanchez was the first book I read on the Stones when I was 9 years old and it was eye opening experience. While I would agree the Spanish Tony is a dirtbag, he lived in Keith/Brian/Anita's world during their most productive and destructive times of their lives from the mid to late 60's to to the mid 70s. For better or worse, Spanish Tony is a small part of the Stones story and his first hand account of him as Keith's personal drug monger is pretty interesting.

Mike aka Spanish Tony

SpanishTony Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For what its worth, "Up and Down with the Rolling
> Stones" by Spanish Tony Sanchez was the first book
> I read on the Stones when I was 9 years old and it
> was eye opening experience. While I would agree
> the Spanish Tony is a dirtbag, he lived in
> Keith/Brian/Anita's world during their most
> productive and destructive times of their lives
> from the mid to late 60's to to the mid 70s. For
> better or worse, Spanish Tony is a small part of
> the Stones story and his first hand account of him
> as Keith's personal drug monger is pretty
> interesting.
>
> Mike aka Spanish Tony


Sanchez' book was a great read... couldn't put it down even though you knew you were reading from a "Sammy the Bull" type rat.

I wonder if that book is still even in print ?

My copy has long since disappeared, but I think it's called "The Rolling Stones: The Illustrated Record" by Roy Carr. He also did an excellent, similar book about the Beatles.

love the roy carr book (first stones book i ever got back in '75)...also, love the "exile on main st." book...i like this writers insight on exile...best to all

I think the Carr book was published in '76. I think it's current through Black and Blue. Don't know if a second edition was ever published. I know MY copy, a big coffee-table paperback thing, FELL APART! All the pages just fell out loose from the binding! I kept it around for a while anyway, because it had such a wealth of great information in it.

also enjoy the rolling stones: 30 years of music and memoribilia by geoffrey giuliano...mainly for the pics of all that great stones memoribilia (i have the collectors disease!!!) best to all stonesniks

Alright Leonard, a super cool topic! My favourite Stones book? Hmmmm, let's see here out of the ones that I have:

Rolling Stones: Images of the World Tour 1989 - 1990

The Rolling Stones: A Visual Documentary by Miles from Oct 1960 to July 16, 1993 so it's a bit dated! lol

The Rolling Stones Album by Geoffrey Giuliano - Lots of rare collectable stuff! Tons of bootleg albums too!!

The Rolling Stones Unseen Archives by Susan Hill

Blown Away by A.E. Hotchner

Stone Alone by Bill Wyman

Keith Richards: The Biography by Victor Bockris

And I used to have this old paperback one that fell apart on me! I believe it went up to the Black and Blue period. Actually, it should be around my apartment somewhere! I also used to have The Unauthorized Biography of Mick Jagger. I foolishly loaned that one to a friend who never gave it back! But I still have the dust cover to it! lol Lesson learned!!

But my fave is probably the Rolling Stones Album just because of all the bootlegs that are in there! I feel like a kid in a candy store everytime I look at that book. So many bootlegs that I need!! I put the names and authors of the books above so that whoever wants to look for them will be able to find them easily. Anything to help out fellow Stones fans!

Before I go, here's one more book for recommended reading - The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions by Martin Elliott. Good read and lots of song history!

i also love...the rolling stones: black and white blues, 1963 ....beautiful little hardcover of early photos...in my opinion, a must have...yeah stones89 all those bootlegs we all need...well some people say the hunt is better than the catch...but the catch is great too!!!....best to all

CreedenceLives Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>> Sanchez' book was a great read... couldn't put it
> down even though you knew you were reading from a
> "Sammy the Bull" type rat.
>
> I wonder if that book is still even in print ?
>


are you kiddin'? LOL...that book gets reissued every time the Stones get high profile again and go on the road..usually with a new subtle title to make it more 'snappy' like "I was Keith Richards' Drug Dealer".

The Roy Carr one was a good read. I never owned a copy but remember reading it many many years ago. Another similar style and similar sized book from that era was David Dalton's "The First Twenty Years"...anyone remember it? It was basically a collection of great interviews with the band accumulated over the band's career

As a collector and archivist, I love the non-biographical research books thats written by historians such as Nico Zentgraf, Felix Aeppli, Dieter Hoffmann, Martin Elliott and guys like that.

What about the Kris Needs book on Keith - Before They Make Me Run ?
I really like that one too, especially the interviews from the 80´s.

------------------------------
[rockandrollcentral.net]
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I got the following ones:
According to the Rolling Stones
The Unseen Archive
Rolling with the Stones
Stone Alone
Images from world Tour 89/90
The Rolling Stones in Concert - Linda Martin
Not Fade Away - The Rolling Stones Collection-G Guiliano
The Rolling Stones- David Carter
The Rolling Stones a Life on the Road
The Life and Good Times of the Rolling Stones- Philip Norman
The Rolling Stones chronicle-Massimo Bonanno
The Rolling Stones the first twenty years-David Dalton
The Rolling Stones- Philippe Bas-Raberin
The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones S. Booth
The Rolling Stones In their own words~
The Rolling Stones - Luis Troquel
The Rolling Stones Complete
Jagger Unauthorized - C. Andersen~
Mick Jagger- C. Sandford
Keith Richards - C Sanford
Keith Richards- V Bockris
Keith Richards in his own words
Ron Wood - The Works


But theres one I lost and I want to get a new copy but it´s hard to get
Annie Leibowitz with the Stones in 75!!
Does anybody where I can get a copy
My favorites??

The Rolling Stones- Philippe Bas-Raberin my first ever book about the Stones

Keith Richards- V Bockris
but especially The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones S. Booth !!
What a BOOK!!!




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-09-11 22:30 by Riffbuk.

Booth's "True Adventures" is excellent, if limited in scope.

Also would reccomend his "Rhythm Oil," which is a collection of essays--including one on Keith and the Winos. More significantly, it features his late 1970's piece on the New Orleans Jazzfest, which was breathtaking even before recent events.

Another book which is very difficult to find, but so great is Robert Palmer's "The Rolling Stones" which was published by the Rolling Stone (magazine) Press and which runs through 1981. He has an amazing critical ear for the Stones and a gift for presenting the drama and imagery of their blues influences.

riffbuk...have you been looking on ebay for the leibowitz book on the stones?...you never know...best wishes

Ringo Kid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What about the Kris Needs book on Keith - Before
> They Make Me Run ?
> I really like that one too, especially the
> interviews from the 80´s.
>
> Ringo
> *************
> www.rraf.net
> *************


Its a nicely written and affectionate book, but absolutely riddled with factual mistakes. If you can see past that though, its a fun read

Thanks for the tip Leonard Keringer, I´ve been searching around, but nothing yet!But thanks anyway

So many to choose from that are good-very good,but,for great ones,my choices echo Gazza's---

"Keith Richards" by Victor Bockris,even though a tad sycophantic at times,is a riverting read. Being the very first book i ever got on the stones(way back in 1994),I still have a great affection for it,and,it is very detailed,well written,anecdotal & just a rollicking good read!

The Barbara Charone one was one I'd looked for for a long time. Finally picked it up last year in a dusty ol' 2nd hand music store in Dublin,and,it was worth it. Not the most balanced book in the world,given Charone's obvious admiration & devotion to our Keef,but,very in-the-know as she spent a lot of time with the Family Richards in the mid-'70's.

"A Journey Through America" by Robert Greenfield & "20 Years Of lipstick,Handcuffs and Chemicals" by Chet Flippo are recommended. Brilliant accounts of those legendary '70's tours,hugely anecdotal,in-the-know & addictive reading.

"Nankering With The Stones" by Jimmy phelge. An Hilarious & thrilling account of those rough'n'tough early days. A Classic!!! 'Nuff said*

"Up and Down With The Rolling Stones" by Tony Sanchez. Some hate it,some love it. I'd be with the former,I love it. Decadent,druggy,messy,trashy & shocking. Dark & Exploitative,yes,but a thrilling read.

There are many on Jagger,and for me,the best would be Christopher Sandford's one,originally titled "Primitive Cool" but now reprinted under some other name. Very detailed & IMO the most rounded yet of bio's on Sir Mick.

Very,very honourable mentions go to---

"Black & White Blues 1963"
"A Visual Documentary" by Miles
"On The Road" by Annie Leibovitz



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-09-12 01:57 by IrelandCalling4.

I thought Booth's book was EXTREMELY self-indulgent...most of the text was him name-dropping all the famous people he knew, or talking about himself rather than the Stones!! In fact, I will go so far as to say his book pissed me off!!

Thanks NO NERVOUS BREAKDOWN for mentioning my friend's book, " Love You Live Rolling Stones, A Fanfare From the Common Fan". Marilou Regan compiled this book, a collection of personal stories about the Stones written by fans all over the world. It truly was a labor of love but it is an AMAZING BOOK! The photos are from the fans! I actually contributed a chapter called " PLeased To Meet You" complete with a pile of my concert photos. Some of the stories are incredible; it makes you realize that others take the Stones as seriously as you do! Certainly a book worth having for Stones fans, especialy fans who know the history of the band.

<Have any of you read Booth's book? Nothing has even come close to that. In fact, that might be the best book written about any rock and roll band ever.>

Unfortunately, this book is full of errors. Seems like it's hard for anyone close to Keith to write, because they've partyed too much

Really, there are so many wrong facts in this book that I can't even finish it...