god bless beast, youve read it or most of it, can you weigh in here?

Yes, get to the IMPORTANT part -- how many mentions of the plexiglass?

ha ha ha

stonesrule Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, get to the IMPORTANT part -- how many
> mentions of the plexiglass?


Indeed, you've identified one of the most significant parts of the book.

I am still waiting for my signed copy wherein Ronnie notes The Plexiglass in his dedication.


P

Lorenz Wrote:
> "Mick was growing more and more concerned about my
> drinking and the coke I was doing and although I
> didn't know it at the time, I came close to being
> left out of the Forty Licks tour." (page 301)
>

Wow, this is huge to me. That means that he was doing coke at that time. And probably through the nineties. I always thought that he had stopped with cocaine with Keith in the mid to late 80's. That changes things to me abou Ronnie.

"I came close to being left out of the Forty Licks tour." -Ronnie


I wonder if they were looking at replacing Ronnie? Who could have filled the shoes?
Mick Taylor would be the obvious choice, yet an unrealistic option.
Were there any other candidates?

Blondie

Cheers,
Wuudy

I enjoyed it. Easy to read. Ronnie seems like a likeable guy who takes life as one big party, but he isn't as concerned about his health as he should be. Reading about his family lets you see where he got his drinking habits.

I just don't get it. In the acknowledgements of Mac's book he thanks Woody "in spite of any useful memory whatsoever". So who'd done the remembering for him?

mercy - ever think Mac might be joking? he's been known to do that, you know :E

I really enjoyed reading this book and the bits of sketches among the pages are a nice bonus.

I've been trying to re-read Bill's book and I've got around half way, I keep putting it to one side and reading something else instead. Now I've read Ronnie's book I can see why!

In life Ronnie's glass is (at least) half-full and Bill's is not only half-empty but he thinks someone spat in his beer when his back was turned . Or at least that is how their characters come across from the books.

An easy read...and very enjoyable!

Keith The Beast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lorenz Wrote:
> > "Mick was growing more and more concerned about
> my
> > drinking and the coke I was doing and although
> I
> > didn't know it at the time, I came close to
> being
> > left out of the Forty Licks tour." (page 301)
> >
>
> Wow, this is huge to me. That means that he was
> doing coke at that time. And probably through the
> nineties. I always thought that he had stopped
> with cocaine with Keith in the mid to late 80's.
> That changes things to me abou Ronnie.


Keith and Ronnie stopped taking drugs in the 80's? Eh?

Easy mistake to make, they stopped getting busted for drugs in the eighties.

I liked the book but preferred Ian McLagan's "All The Rage." McLagan's book was as much focused on the music as the debauchery and his style was a little more engaging. McLagan's book was historically accurate while some of Ronnie's chronology is way off (IE: "Maggie May" wasn't a hit around the time the Faces broke up, The "Bridges to Babylon" tour started in 1997, not 1994. When talking about the Jeff Beck group, he makes reference to "The Faces" second tour in '68 or '69 - couldn't a fact checker have caught these and corrected them?) Plus whole chapters of the Stones history is dismissed in a line like "we toured America in 1981 and Europe the following year" (paraphrase)..That's it? Or is that because he was freebasing so much he doesn't remember anything? I realize we're dealing with the "diary of a Rock Ape" (as a friend jokingly suggested he call the book) but less drugs and more music would have made the book better...

Ronnie's book is OK but I prefer Bill's book which is a bit sour occasionally but it has much more substance.

>> couldn't a fact checker have caught these and corrected them? <<

yeah, Ronnie indeed left a lot of room for a fact-checker -
some of that just seems "very Ronnie", though (bless his face!)

Such a fact checker could've only come from IORR...

Erik_Snow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "There's nothing more boring than a musician
> talking about music"


Only thing more boring is when someone is talking about themself and you want to talk about yourself !!!

I really liked it--I've always loved his (and Keith, Charlie and Rod's) sense of humor--and I'm not even British!

There are a bunch of chronological mistakes and I was thrown off by the "Chuch" chapter that was just thrown in out of the blue, but I read it in two sittings. Couldn't put it down. And I have NEVER been able to get through Bill Wyman's autobiography. Tried and tried.

The one thing I didn't like--speaking of Bill--is the description on the inner jacket that reads,"For the first time, a member of the world's most famous rock 'n' roll band tells his-and their-story." Like 'Stone Alone' never existed. The Stalinist tactics of erasing Bill from pictures of the Stones, now acting like Ron's the first Stone to write an autobiography? Like Bill Wyman never existed? I'm sure Ron didn't write the jacket copy but still he had to approve it. It's very weird.

>> Like 'Stone Alone' never existed. <<

easy there - Ronnie's written a brief autobiography before this too: The Works, 1987.

Jack Knife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I really liked it--I've always loved his (and
> Keith, Charlie and Rod's) sense of humor--and I'm
> not even British!
>
> There are a bunch of chronological mistakes and I
> was thrown off by the "Chuch" chapter that was
> just thrown in out of the blue, but I read it in
> two sittings. Couldn't put it down. And I have
> NEVER been able to get through Bill Wyman's
> autobiography. Tried and tried.
>
> The one thing I didn't like--speaking of Bill--is
> the description on the inner jacket that
> reads,"For the first time, a member of the world's
> most famous rock 'n' roll band tells his-and
> their-story." Like 'Stone Alone' never existed.
> The Stalinist tactics of erasing Bill from
> pictures of the Stones, now acting like Ron's the
> first Stone to write an autobiography? Like Bill
> Wyman never existed? I'm sure Ron didn't write
> the jacket copy but still he had to approve it.
> It's very weird.

Hmmm ... technically Wyman wasn't a member of the Stones anymore by the time his book came out, right? So that was the first book by a former member, which would make this the first one by a member. Pretty picky, I know. I do agree that the Stones' glossing over of Wyman's place in the band's history is disturbing.

Jack Knife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The one thing I didn't like--speaking of Bill--is
> the description on the inner jacket that
> reads,"For the first time, a member of the world's
> most famous rock 'n' roll band tells his-and
> their-story." Like 'Stone Alone' never existed.
> The Stalinist tactics of erasing Bill from
> pictures of the Stones, now acting like Ron's the
> first Stone to write an autobiography? Like Bill
> Wyman never existed? I'm sure Ron didn't write
> the jacket copy but still he had to approve it.
> It's very weird.

Yea that's outragous, Jack Knife

Bill was still a Stone when STONE ALONE was published just a few months after the STEEL WHEELS/URBAN JUNGLE European tour wrapped up in 1990. What's even stranger about the whole thing is this is Ronnie's second autobiography. THE WORKS first published in 1987 was a similar but shorter collection of anecdotes, family stories, artwork, and sketches that Ronnie wrote with Bill German, who was an official employee of the Stones organization at the time.

Jack Knife Wrote:

the inner jacket that
> reads,"For the first time, a member of the world's
> most famous rock 'n' roll band tells his-and
> their-story." Like 'Stone Alone' never existed.
> The Stalinist tactics of erasing Bill from
> pictures of the Stones, now acting like Ron's the
> first Stone to write an autobiography? Like Bill
> Wyman never existed? I'm sure Ron didn't write
> the jacket copy but still he had to approve it.
> It's very weird.

I don't think Ronnie spent too much time proofreading the text.

He just sat down for maybe 2-3 days with a ghostwriter who asked him some questions about subjects that he thought would increase the marketability of the book. Ronnie came out with a couple of anecdotes (only those he can remember obviously, and even these stories are not unaffected by the limitations of his point of view), these were put to paper by the ghostwriter, then the book was released.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-11-07 23:17 by Lightnin'.

>> You can't seriously think ... <<

sigh: Jack Knife means Ronnie had to approve the blurb, not that Bill did
(i wouldn't assume Ronnie personally did either, but ... anyway!)
and of course the book is from Ronnie's point of view - it's his autobiography,
not meant to be an objective or encyclopedic historical account.
yeah, it could've used another proofreader or two - but it's an entertaining read anyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-11-08 07:07 by with sssoul.

Re ignoring Wyman, don't believe it's a "plot." But certainly Ronnie and his people are at fault as they have all final approvals of book jacket text etc.

For me, Bill will always be respected as a great bass player, nice human being and a member of the original "groundbreaking" Rolling Stones.

A solid 8. Just finished it. I thought is was a thoroughly interesting read. I wish there was a little more detail in spots (Faces) and a little less detail in other spots. Despite knowing most of the details of the Stones long and winding history, I learned a couple of things I wasn't aware of (sorry, no spoilers). The main thing I came away with after reading this book is a belief that Ronnie Wood probably has more "true" friends than any of the Rolling Stones.

I'd go so far as 9 out of 10. Easy read. Filled in a bit of stuff for me and gave me a better understanding of the way things work around the Stones. Jumps about a bit . One point I would like to raise is that in all of the promotional interviews Ronnie has been doing there has been very little mention of the very sordid drug world he has been wrapped up in. - Considering around 75% of the book is recounting various drug escapades and close shaves I am quite suprised that none of the media has really brought it all up. It all seems to have been - 'Ronnie the Water Gypsy etc.'

An interesting read. Easy to read.

Wish there was more info though on the music aspect of things.

Ronnie writes a book about himself detailing drink and drugs for all to read.

With sub par performances in 2005 some of us on this board questioned just what was going on. Most of those threads were censored/deleted.

Stones, Ronnie, Keith, Jagger, Charlie are all human with human frailties.

Certainly not gods that are above criticism.

Idolatry serves no purpose. At least Ronnie "get's it."