Best Book on The Rolling Stones

So petty. Bill gets it, I think. He has taken the high road since leaving the band. His big book, Rolling With The Stones includes homages to all of his bandmates and presents them in a fair light.

 

I can’t underestimate this problem:

But.....I love it apart from that. I acknowledge it’s a very big “that,” but it’s “official,” & pretty well put together. Beautiful in appearance.

You can get it Cheap!

I recommend.

 

Agree with you both.



Side Note: It’s getting to the point in my life that I now think I love all of Todd’s avatars more than any Rolling Stones book.

See, I didn’t even go off topic.

 

To me this is the equivalent to the Beatles' Anthology.

 

Probably. And there's no denying that Crossfire Hurricane is superior to 25 X 5 but there's a sentimentality factor here. Fans remember these old documentaries like 25 X 5 or The Compleat Beatles and wish they were available in better quality than some old VHS rip on You Tube or something...

I'll always single out Old Gods Almost Dead for praise. I still think it's the best straight Stones bio out there. If only Davis' Zeppelin and Jim Morrison books were as good...

When you consider the amount of books written about every facet of Beatles minutiae compared to the Stones, it is vastly inproportionate. Need more Stones books!

 

#MrGrumpy in post #116 had this to say about it:

"Speaking of accuracy, the horribly titled Old Gods Almost Dead is a cut-and-paste hackfest, and not worthy of mention on this thread."

Five other people mentioned it (do a search) and were more complimentary about it.

 

I remember 25 x 5 quite favourably, although it's a long time since I've seen it, but I thought Crossfire Hurricane was rather disappointing.....

 

I feel like I have this complaint about every musician bio I read, whether self-written or not.

There's this book that methodically goes through every Stones track, in order (https://www.amazon.com/Rolling-Ston...903&sr=8-1&keywords=every+rolling+stones+song), but it's honestly not very good. Lots of subjective commentary and far less band input via archival interviews/comments. Granted, the individual Stones haven't given that many interviews, and no one really asks them questions about deep cuts when they do, so maybe the flaw was in the book's scope rather than any fault of the authors'. But still, I was kinda disappointed. (But surely interviews could've been conducted with some of the auxiliary musicians and/or producers and engineers who participated, but I digress)

I remember reading a book on Yes years ago (https://www.amazon.com/Yes-Stories-Their-Own-Words/dp/0312144539) that went song-by-song through their catalog, but almost exclusively via new and old interviews with band members, and it was a quick but fantastic read. I wish there were more books like this.

 

I only watched Crossfire Hurricane once- doesn't it basically end in 1982 or thereabouts, summing up the next thirty odd years in the last five minutes or so?

I immediately became leery of that "Stories behind the songs" book after reading all the negative comments about it here. I reckon Martin Elliot's Complete Recording Sessions book is probably the book to have for a song by song kinda thing.

 

Probably the best even with some errors because it also covers material not officially released.

 

Yep! I haven't seriously delved into my new copy yet, only skimmed it, but I'll get to it. So many books and records, so little time...

 

Yes to what you say about Crossfire Hurricane and, IIRC, there's not even that much about the '70s.

 

I think I got it for around $10, so it wasn't a big deal, but yeah, it's not worth much more than that. Which is a shame, because it's massive, just...hollow. (Going into and/or guessing the meanings of Stones lyrics gets pretty tedious after a few songs, yet the do it for the whole catalog. I mean, they're about women, right? )

 

I've written about this book before on the forum. I'm with MrGrumpy on this one. It's a terrible book. Just cut & paste from other books, with no original reporting by Davis. He also heavily compresses the Ronnie Wood era, and gives scant attention to the later years. It's been a long time since I read it (at the time of original release), but I recall it containing a number of glaring errors (don't ask me what they are, though).

 

I don't have it but I have read some negative reviews about it.

 

Save your money!

 

Agree, one of the worst. I bought it used for $1.99, read a couple chapters and left it on the Free table at the town dump.

 

Jesus, I don't think Old Gods Almost Dead is that bad...or maybe it's just that there's so few Stones bios it just seems like it's better than it is. Haven't read the thing in years, mind you...

 

Which is about right, I reckon. Since then they've become a touring greatest hits show (albeit a very good one), with the odd nonessential new album.

 

Hi

At a supermarket circa 1980, I purchased a paperback copy of Up & Down with The Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez. So many of its stories fascinated my 15 year old brain. After all these years, snippets still bubble up in my mind. Yesterday I stumbled upon a first edition copy and pulled the trigger.

I remember reading, maybe mid/late '80's, that Jagger sued Sanchez for libel and won. So subsequent editions of the book were expurged. I've googled around about the lawsuit and found nothing.

Anybody know what parts were censored?

Thanks either way.

 

Yea no Wyman but pretty enjoyable all around even still. It doesnt leave anything out (for the most part) and its great for a quick pick up and read (the paperback, at least)

 

That book was interesting.

 

Up And Down is possibly the funniest book I've ever read - I've been quoting it for 35 years.

Stephen Davis is a total hack but for some reason I absolutely love his writing style. I find him eminently readable.

 

To say the least! Up And Down With The Rolling Stones may leave you with the urge to take a long shower when yer done reading it but to give Tony Sanchez his due a lot of Stones 'legends' were hatched as a result of that book. To be fair, Keith doesn't deny that a lot of what Tony described in the book actually happened.

It also occurs to me that Up And Down was, if memory serves, the first Stones book I ever read, when I was fourteen or so. Helluva intro, eh?

 

Me too, at about the same age. Pretty sure my second one was Robert Greenfield's S.T.P.