Tuesday, August 2, 2011

"It's really good to be here and as I always say, it's really good to be anywhere!"







I'm currently reading my 10th Rolling Stones book - Keith Richard's 'Life'. I've read Marianne Faithfull's ('Faithfull') which I adore, Tony Sanchez' 'I Was Keith Richards' Drug Dealer' which was kind of trashy fun, 'Mick and Keith', 'The Rolling Stones' (imaginative title I know), and more whose titles escape me - and they are back home in Australia where I can't reference them.
I've always loved the myth of the Rolling Stones more than the music - hence why I own more books about them, than their albums. The Rolling Stones epic journey was always infinitely more fascinating to me than The Beatles, whose story always seemed much more fractured and disparate - though obviously tangential or even parallel depending on your POV.

I remember being truly (retrospectively) saddened (as well as fascinated) by Brian Jones' death - even though he was a bit of a dick -  and the conspiracy theories that still surround it. I also loved the women that surrounded them Faithfull obvs but also Anita Pallenberg and Bianca Jagger et al.

Keith's book has given me new appreciation for their music though and re-inspired me (for zillionth time) to learn guitar. The insight he gives into unconventional playing is totally inspiring, even to a non-player like me. I should also mention though I've joked that I'm more like Mick Jagger than any of the others (and I do love the man - see above), and though Charlie Watts is my favourite Stone, Keith Richards book makes you understand how he got the girls. The stories he tells particularly in the first 1/4  -its a long book - and his little rants, rave and insights, well they just make you think, this guy, this guy would be a lot of fun to get to know.

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