Download Now The True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones Penned By Stanley Booth Issued As Paperback

sicuro che Stanley Booth avrebbe voluto intitolare questo libro "Volevo essere Truman Capote o in seconda battuta Tom Wolfe invece sono nato con qualche anno di ritardo e mi tocca correre dietro a questi cinque stronzi", e sì, perchè il pennino del buon Booth è intinto in quell'inchiostro profumato di new journalism che insieme al jazz e al burro d'arachidi è l'unica cultura originale d'oltreoceano che riesce a dare odor di nuovo persino a storie che si son sentite mille e mille volte in fondo la materia è fragile: uno scrittore "confederato" in bolletta innamorato di Faulkner e del suono di Memphise con un debole per dipendenze tossiche e groupie alla ricerca di un qualche anticipo sulla pubblicazione si unisce ai Rolling Stones nel loro tour di conquista dell'America in una delle loro annate migliori, il 'e a imbastire, non senza difficoltà gli ci son voluti quindici anni per rimettere insieme migliaia di appunti e a cacciar via le malefiche scorie Jagger/Richards uno dei cinque libri più belli intorno alle più popolare delle arti del secondo.
In queste cose è sempre lo sguardo che conta e qui lo sguardo fatto di camere di albergo, interni di macchine, sale da musica, ristoranti, sale prove, come una cinepresa che aspira all'indifferenza della documentazione ma non riesce a scansare la malefica empatia siamo dalle parti del Cocksucker Blues di Robert Frank di pochi anni dopo o per restare nel campo delle parole dei dylaniani "Diari del Rolling Thunder" di Sam Shepard un altro dei cinque libri imperdibili quasi che a contare non siano gli show ma i tempi morti, le attese, la presa di possesso da parte degli eroi mitologi dei luoghi della quotidianità che da poveri oggetti d'uso toccati dalla mano degli Dei di una religione laica diventano caverne sacre e un po' sinistre.
E' anche un libro che restituisce intatatta quell'atmosfera naif di quando il rock era un giovanotto ingenuo seduto in mezzo a quell'elastico teso tra businness e comunicazione tra industria e movement.
Che poi si voglia vedere nelle violenze di Altamont che chiusero quel tour chissà quale simbologia della fine, è, a mio parere, solo chiacchiericcio da moralisti americani che han bisogno di leggere segni nel cielo per giustificare ogni rinascita in peggio e quali emissari migliori di una compagine di tossici e sex addictet come gli inglesi Rolling Stones che sia l'assassino di Kennedy o le torri sbriciolate poco importa.
In mezzo a questo bailamme di tensione emotiva Booth infila, a dividere i capitoli in presa diretta, la storia del Grande Assente, quel Brian Jones affogato l'anno prima in piscina ma morto per troppa esposizione ai crudeli effluvi Jagger/Richards, e l'ho letta come una vendetta a freddo dell'autore, una sorta di risarcimento per quel tot di vita che quel tour gli ha rosicchiato via.

E' un libro d'archeologia questo, sarebbe impossibile da scriversi oggi: immaginatevi un povero scribacchino in bolletta costretto a seguire che so i Radiohead in tour, passerebbe le sere a fare raccolta differenziata, a mangiare tofu, a intrattenersi con groupie che regalano libri di Murakami e fanno sesso con la maglietta di Emergency addosso e a subire i malefici influssi del si minore che è certamente più pericoloso di una dipendenza da eroina.
Stanley Booth, a young American writer, was lucky or cursed, depending on your view enough to join "The Greatest Rock And Roll Band In The World" on their 'comeback' tour of the U.
S. in late.

This is really three books in one a concise history of the band, a field report from the doomed Altamont concert in Decemberand a diary of the tour.
Booth devotes a lot of space to the then recently deceased Brian Jones, interviewing his parents in Cheltenham, UK and giving Shirley Arnold's who ran the Stones' fan club account of his funeral.


Booth seems a decent writer to me and has some nice turns of phrase, particularly when describing the aftereffects of whatever drug he has sampled the previous night.
He also manages to make the monotony of tourtravel somewhat interesting no mean feat,

My only slight complaint would be that Booth injects himself into the events a bit too much, I suspect he's an interesting guy but at times, the book threatens to become "The True Adventures Of Stanley Booth".
Thankfully, he reins it in and there's much to savour in the book, both for the casual and hardcore Stones fan.
I really enjoyed it and to me, it's up there with Stephen Davis's "Hammer Of The Gods" and nearly up there with Peter Brown's "The Love You Make" and Hunter Davies's Beatles bio.


though I do need to read Ian McDonald's "Revolution In The Head" Not ONLY Excellent, but also qualifies as an Anthropological Chronicle.
. . albeit a tad WARPED, which is NOTHING compared to the 'STP Bacchanalia we all endured amp participated in, . . myself, Stanley amp Ethan a writer, a photographer amp myself as a "Minister Without Portfolio", . .
ANY "Fan" of Modern Music has to add this book to their library, I have. The author dominates the book so much you learn very little about the Rolling Stones that you couldn't read in a gossip column.
His version of the history of The Stones focuses more on drugs and women than the music, a choice that may sell the book to the public but is hardly a fair assessment of The Stones' contribution to musical history.
We hear Mr. Booth whine about his contract, bitch about his life situation and about how many joints he lit, but very little about the subjects of the story.
His quotes at the beginning of the chapters are both irrelevant and selfpromoting, His elevation of the symbolic importance of Altamont comes across as absurd and pointless, Avoid this book at all costs, There is not, nor will there ever be, another book on The Rolling Stones that you can read five or even ten times and be rewarded, every time.
I know whereof I speak,

Ethan Russell

posted: I liked this book, but feel that it is over rated, This may be due my expectations which hoped for more insights into the Stones themselves, This book read more like a concert report to me, and I expected more, The author's use of heavy and intellectually artistic quotes from music and literature to start off chapters annoyed me, I felt that the quotes were meaningful moments that attempted to flesh out and even mask the surface and boring material in the chapters.
Take these interesting quotes out, . . and it leaves a hole in the book that can't be replaced because these interesting,deep moments don't really materialize in regular fashionwith the Stones.
Some of the most interesting personal material came in stories about the author'snot the stoneslife, I did enjoy the book! It's just,man, . . I know that there has got to be much, much more to the "true adventures" of the rolling stones than what was in this book.
Way, way too long! He talked about the same things over and over again, How much drugs, sex, and rock and roll do you need to repeat to get the message across Not a whole lot of new info, really, but hardcore Stones fans might like it.
In the mid's Stanley Booth wrote apparently on spec a sensitively descriptive, narrative piece on Furry Lewis, the onelegged Memphis bluesman, a piece that was not published until Playboy brought it out inbut it seems by then to have been enough to secure Booth an agent, aassignment to go to London and cover the Rolling Stones, and ultimately, a bookcontract to tour with the Stones in the aftermath of the death of their bandmate, Brian Jones, and the free July,Hyde Park concert at which they memorialized him.


Booth's book is an account of traveling with the Stones in America from Augustto the December,date on which they offered a free concert at Altamont with the Flying Burrito Brothers, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane amp CSNY a concert at which four people died, plus one, Meredith Hunter, murdered, apparently for dancing with his white girlfriend in the presence of the Hells Angels.
Booth continued to travel with the Stones for several years after this, but this book not published until, under the dumbbunny title Dance With the Devil, while one half its chapters narrate in oral history the formation of the band, its growing popularity, and its legal troubles and alienation from Jones, in its other half offers a "history's first draft" of that American fall with the Stones, a crucial one both for the country it was The Days of Rage and for the band itself.


The book has

many flaws, too many to recount here, Its brilliance will not be gainsaid, It provides a documentary account by one flawed eyewitness to the Stones' scene, as that scene is besieged by sharks, hangerson, groupies, "birds", pimps, mezzes, frauds, pulp heads, and fans, among whom, the author must of course sort himself out.
A moment of unprecedented access to the Stones, and to the basic generosity that worked itself out in the collaboration of Mick Jagger and Keith Richard.
The moment was beyond ripe, and Stanley Booth made himself a very productive little fruit fly, I resist the metonymy by which destination Altamont is made to substitute for something idealistic in the counterculture nonetheless, as agents of that particular form of what Robert Christgau calls "mass bohemianism," the Rolling Stones will not be resisted, indeed, listening to them, one may still reflect on what is most exigent in that form they so beautifully exemplified.
Chilling account of Altamont, etc, from one who was there, and everywhere,
Among its many other virtues, the book is in part an ode to the legacy of Brian Jones, the tragic protagonist whose travails caused Booth to cross paths with the Stones in the first place suitably, it ends at his gravesite.
In between, it pays deserved tribute to the intrepid spirit of Keith Richards, the late Gram Parsons and too many more to tell.

It is up there with the masterpieces of nonfiction of its period Mailer, Tom Wolfe and Capote and the presence of the author as a first person character is always earned, never forced.
If anything, these days it feels less showoffy than some of the authors just mentioned,
Those who complain that the book is in some sense a substitute for the raw energy of a Stones performance are missing the point it's hard earned passion is the equivalent of putting together a great album, something its subjects have largely failed to do in the intervening years.

Rock and roll "literature'' is almost an oxymoron as Frank Zappa famously put it, it's people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk.
Booth somehow manages to capture the spirit of a time with accuracy, love when it's warranted, but absolutely no sentimentality.
Riveting. Problematic in many ways because of when it was written, but compulsively readable, The Rolling Stones are very press savvy and have been for most of their career, Jagger especially, has always been good at managing his public persona and giving the media titillation rather than depth, Even cojoined twin Keef often remarks in interviews that Mick is a very guarded and calculating guy, even to those close to him.
Keith himself is another master of the machine and has helped build his reputation as much on his welldocumented brushes with the law and pushing the boundaries of selfinflicted abuse as on his manipulation of the media.
So then, Stanley Booth is given the opportunity to hang out with the band on theirAmerican tour and we are given what Booth got an insider's view of the band, albeit with all the distance, control, and doubletalk that Jagger, Richards, Watts, et al have mastered over the years.


Many have complained that this book doesn't offer enough exploration of the mechanisms that make these gentlemen tick, but that's the point.
No writer can. The closest chance we have had is when Bill Wyman wrote his autobiography, but he cleverly did these guys sign some bloodcontract to not kiss and tell avoided gossip and backstabbing and stuck, rather painstakingly, to just the facts.
The bottom line is that a book about the Stones that will reveal what has heretofore been kept closely guarded is unlikely.
Keith's upcoming autobiography will doubtlessly be full of his own increasingly inflated tales, much to Richards' delight as yet another book will emerge, chockfull of his tongueincheek mischief and misdirection.


Wisely then, Booth decides to write about what he does know his own history that took place when he was with the Stones, and that is what makes this book so unique.
It isn't a fawning piece of hero worship nor is it a nasty tellall, The author delves largely into his mission to write the book and cojoins the difficulties therein with the tour itself, which needs no additional embellishments since the drama coming out of that tour is legendary.
The simultaneous backstory of Brian Jones that arcs above the tour's increasing chaos is brilliantly done so that the two paths tragically meet and we are left with a thoughtful analysis of what has made and will continue to make the Rolling Stones the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.
Booth is a fan of the band and we get his excitement about the shows and the adrenalin rush that surely buzzed through the band and out to all who were close enough to the maelstrom.
Conversely, we also get the reality of the daytoday drudgery and business that revealed that life on the road isn't all spotlights and ovations.
To repeat, you get what Stanley Booth got the view from someone on the wings who witnessed firsthand a historic tour and one of the high points in the long history of this band.
My only wish is that Booth, or someone like him, could've done the same thing with thetour, Alas, by that time, already wiser and scarred from Altamont and the subsequent and welldeserved fallout, the band cocooned itself even more and the one book that did emerge STP was less sympathetic and more cynical, just like the band had become.


In this genre, overflowing with garbage and uninspiring vanity pieces, Stanley Booth's book stands out for its honesty and professionalism.
While I admit that I have only read a handful, it is still the best one I've ever read of not only the band, but rock and roll in general.

If I had to name a tenyear period of music that is not only my personal favorite, but that I believe has had the greatest impact on modern Western music, it would without question be.
The beginning of that time period seems to have marked a quickening of the momentum of the's, which was reflected in the music.
The Beatles engaged in more complex musical creativity with "Rubber Soul" in, as did Bob Dylan with his rock trilogy of "Bringing It all Back Home", "HighwayRevisited", and "Blonde On Blonde".
The Stones too had recorded their first full album of original material in ', released in 'as "Aftermath", Many other artists were heading in new directions as well, and the music really did reflect the times in a way that hasn't been done since.
There was authenticity and a belief in the spirit of change that was an inherent part of society, and was thus reflected in the music.
Black music had always been based on social commentary, . . the blues/spirituals/jazz being the oldest truly original American music, and the decade of ''saw artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone and Tina Turner turning towards more socially conscious and bold lyrics rather than staying restricted to the mold of pop hitmakers.
Booth refers to the people the musical audience as believing "that dancing and music could have a major role in changing the structure of society.
They may have been naive, but they were much more interesting than the sensible people who came along later, "

Music does have an unexplainable mystic nature about it that I strongly believe can impact personal change, and maybe societal change too, but not society as we know it or change as we know it.
Music to me is more personal healing, reflective and able to communicate in a way that speech alone cannot, Hence why many of us have music as a part of our lives, it touches something that nothing else can,

Stanley Booth is one of the greatest rock bio writers, and this book is an excellent illustration as to why.
His way of capturing the Stones 'tour was not just about the band, but is also about giving the reader a sense of the context/setting i.
e. time period in which the tour took place, He takes us right up to the infamous Altamont concert, which was an effective mark and abrupt halt to the spirit of the's.
The music would continue to express a great deal of unmatched creative power for the Stones and many others into the early's, but eventually commercialization fully coopted whatever was left, slowly moving many genuine authentic artists into the realm of indie music.


When I first started in radio, I worked at a station that played's,'s and's music, and I've always had an appreciation for the Stones, but over the years they've become my favorite band.
Life has made it that way, as I've learned to know what the blues and bluesbased music is all about which is to say adversity and the expression of the pain that accompanies it.
It is a knowledge that requires a certain amount of life experience but not necessarily age to understand,

Ultimately the music to which we find ourselves listening can tell us a lot about who we are.
It is interesting to think back on the artists I've enjoyed over the years, and why I've enjoyed them, This is what this book is about expressions of an author who loves music, and attempts to portray the reason why he loves it by tying it to a time period, a mood, the experiences of the artists themselves, and the society that listens to them.
If you read one book about The Rolling Stones, or even Western music in the's, this should be the one.

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