Synopses & Reviews
Stanley Booth, a member of the Rolling Stones inner circle, met the band just a few months before Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1968. He lived with them throughout their 1969 tour across the United States, staying up all night together listening to blues, talking about music, ingesting drugs, and consorting with groupies. His thrilling account culminates with their final concert at Altamont Speedway—a nightmare of beating, stabbing, and killing that would signal the end of a generations dreams of peace and freedom. But while this book renders in fine detail the entire history of the Stones, paying special attention to the tragedy of Brian Jones, it is about much more than a writer and a rock band. It has been called—by Harold Brodkey and Robert Stone, among others—the best book ever written about the 1960s. In Booths afterword, he finally explains why it took him 15 years to write the book, relating an astonishing story of drugs, jails, and disasters. Updated to include a foreword by Greil Marcus, this 30th anniversary edition is for Rolling Stones fans everywhere.
Review
"The interesting thing about music to me is that music has always seemed streaks ahead of any other art form of social expression."--Keith Richards
"A close-up look at the hard-driving, passionate musician who was once a choirboy and a convict."--Playboy
"If there's one truth about the Rolling Stones, it's that people tend to die around them. Stanley Booth, God bless him, has lived to tell about it . . . Keith emerges quietly as the portrait of a specific kind of artist--a hard-working, record-mad, true musician."--Sarah Vowell
"Stanley Booth's new bio, Keith, is pretty close to a Stones demythology. Booth gets out of the way and lets the guitarist tell it."--Puncture Magazine
"Booth has crafted a worthy adjunct to his own True Adventures of the Rolling Stones (easily the best chronicle of the band), weaving a tale that's one part straight rock bio and one part Richards-centric view of the rock universe."--Request Magazine
"Booth cuts through the Dionysian thickets of Richards' adult life as gracefully as a blue highway through the Mississippi backwoods. . . . Booth lovingly details forays into the relationship between the artist and his music that are more than just illuminating; they're X-rays that expose the true heart of rock 'n' roll."--David Sprague
Review
"A vivid account of life on the edge." —TheWeek.com
Review
“[Stanley Booths] affection for the band did not keep him from writing about the seamy underside of the Stones world in the 1960s. . . . It is the only book about the Stones that I would recommend both to the general reader and to the most devoted fan. Both will find an epiphany on almost every page.” —Robert Palmer, New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Stanley Booth is the author of Keith: Till I Roll Over Dead and Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South. He has written for Esquire, Playboy, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Athens, Georgia. Greil Marcus is an author and music journalist who has worked for Creem, Rolling Stone, and the Village Voice. He lives in Berkeley, California.