My 2 cents after reading LIFE - Keith is a simple boy.

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Rocky Dijon
You know the thing we tend to forget is they're old men in their sixties who are still in a rock band.

they are? only occasionally.

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There's a reason they didn't become respectable conformists who play respectable conformist music.

they don't?

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To an extent, Keith's book makes us villify them for the same traits that produces the music we adore.

to an extent. But I think more artistic traits are responsible for the music than are on display in most of the book.

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dead.flowers
How many times he calls himself alpha male and alpha animal?

And Keith in the book says how he and John Lennon were two alpha males butting heads. Alpha males dominate in multiple contexts. A rock band is a very unique and limited context. I think what John Lennon said of himself (in Hunter Davies' book THE BEATLES) could well apply to Keith. LENNON: "If it hadn't been for the Beatles I probably would have ended up like my father." In his Playboy interview John described his father as, "A man who had lived a life of a drunk and almost a Bowery bum." Not exactly alpha material.

Long and interesting review here from Dan Chiasson in the the New York Review of Books:

[www.nybooks.com]

Just finished the english version, after reading the norwegian one. I found his autobiography to be real explendid - got a renewed respect for the man. Can't understand why some folks choose to judge the book and Keith harshly because of his critisism againts Jagger and Jones. It's a part of the deal - of course Jagger would view it all differently if he ever wrote a book.

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Erik_Snow
Just finished the english version, after reading the norwegian one. I found his autobiography to be real explendid - got a renewed respect for the man. Can't understand why some folks choose to judge the book and Keith harshly because of his critisism againts Jagger and Jones. It's a part of the deal - of course Jagger would view it all differently if he ever wrote a book.

Agree 100%. By the way I don't even see all this bitterness vs. Jagger. Or Jones, for what that matters.


C

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Erik_Snow
I found his autobiography to be real explendid - got a renewed respect for the man. Can't understand why some folks choose to judge the book and Keith harshly because of his critisism againts Jagger and Jones.

Well, I lost - whatever there was still left - all the respect for the man (the person). The Jagger and Jones bashing does not really matter because that's part of him and of his constitution; I just don't like the guy. Spoiled childish little man. That 's my personal opinion of the writer that comes through the book (I guess I'll be soon shown the blade.)

I like guy's music though.

- Doxa

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Title5Take1

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dead.flowers
How many times he calls himself alpha male and alpha animal?

And Keith in the book says how he and John Lennon were two alpha males butting heads. Alpha males dominate in multiple contexts. A rock band is a very unique and limited context. I think what John Lennon said of himself (in Hunter Davies' book THE BEATLES) could well apply to Keith. LENNON: "If it hadn't been for the Beatles I probably would have ended up like my father." In his Playboy interview John described his father as, "A man who had lived a life of a drunk and almost a Bowery bum." Not exactly alpha material.

There is nothing "alpha" about Keith - in the context of a rock band or otherwise. Up until 1974, whether he even truly qualified as a legitimate "beta" is debatable. Jagger is the only alpha in the Stones pack. Jagger has all the trapping of an alpha. Keith is just another "wannabe" and has all the trappings of a "wannabe". He had to bring in a complete "zeta" like Ronnie Wood to even try to maintain his status as a "beta" and in the process relegated himself to a "theta". His autobiography only clarifies the foolish nature of his "alpha" desires and his obvious incompetence at accomplishing his goal of becoming "alpha".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-02-18 18:34 by wanderingspirit66.

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Green Lady
Long and interesting review here from Dan Chiasson in the the New York Review of Books:

[www.nybooks.com]

yes, great review--I was about to post it.

Chiasson accepts the mythmaking as part of the book's project. Probably, as a more casual fan (though fairly well informed), he hasn't been already stuffed to the gills with the myth, so doesn't mind this version.

something odd about the review is how he opines that the group reached their peak in '71-72, but he also writes about them as if they're still going, about what keith "does" onstage, rather than "did."

anyway, he puts the autobiography into a literary context that's useful.

Doxa, you need to read it, to see an even fuller analysis than yours!

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Doxa

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Erik_Snow
I found his autobiography to be real explendid - got a renewed respect for the man. Can't understand why some folks choose to judge the book and Keith harshly because of his critisism againts Jagger and Jones.

Well, I lost - whatever there was still left - all the respect for the man (the person). The Jagger and Jones bashing does not really matter because that's part of him and of his constitution; I just don't like the guy. Spoiled childish little man. That 's my personal opinion of the writer that comes through the book (I guess I'll be soon shown the blade.)

I like guy's music though.

- Doxa

I liked parts of it - especially the first chapters with his dickenslike childhood memories, but I lost the respect I had regained for him while reading The wisdom of Keith Richards, with quotes, that often were both funny, bragging and sometimes wise.

... By the way I don't even see all this bitterness vs. Jagger. Or Jones, for what that matters.

Sure, if you're buying all Keith's bullshit as the truth you don't see any bitterness. It goes without saing that Jagger and Jones are two modestly endowed, talentless, manipulative morons.

Long and interesting review here from Dan Chiasson in the the New York Review of Books

Long it is but far from interesting. Couldn't find any sense it these three long pages

I've started reading it again.

* His Majesty, Prince Jones smiled as he moved among the crowd *

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proudmary

Long and interesting review here from Dan Chiasson in the the New York Review of Books

Long it is but far from interesting. Couldn't find any sense it these three long pages

Well, you can't please all of the people all of the time.

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His Majesty
I've started reading it again.

HM, you might try reading the NY Review piece that Green Lady has posted above. The review doesn't change my wish that keith had been more self-reflective and modest in the book, but it gives a good account for why the book isn't that way.

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cc

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His Majesty
I've started reading it again.

HM, you might try reading the NY Review piece that Green Lady has posted above. The review doesn't change my wish that keith had been more self-reflective and modest in the book, but it gives a good account for why the book isn't that way.

I read it already.

* His Majesty, Prince Jones smiled as he moved among the crowd *

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cc

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His Majesty
I've started reading it again.

HM, you might try reading the NY Review piece that Green Lady has posted above. The review doesn't change my wish that keith had been more self-reflective and modest in the book, but it gives a good account for why the book isn't that way.

Ya, it does! I thought the analysis of the title is a bit overblown, but otherwise, I agree, there are some truly interesting observations on how Keith is writing and what it means for the tone of the book and for our view of Keith.

The Human Riff Abides

This is funny:

Keith Richards' 'Life'
Saturday, 19 February 2011 10:59

Review by Matt Chelsea

No question about it, Mick Jagger did a good job getting the crowd going in his appearance on the Grammys, but where was Keith Richards? While the chances of a Rolling Stones reunion may be getting more remote as drummer Charlie Watts moves further into his 70s, Richards swears he’ll keep playing forever in his amazing book, Life. Sure, Jagger got the spotlight for the moment, but Richards' bio has been drawing attention for months.

In one of the many quotable passages from Life, the Stones' co-founder and writer of some of the best rock & roll riffs of all time explains how he got turned on to pot in the mid-'60s on his first U.S. tour while sharing the bill with acts like Patti LaBelle and the Shangri-Las.

“Beginning in 1965, I‘m starting to get stoned," he writes. "One day I was feeling so ragged getting to the gig, and these brothers were so together, and shit, they were working the same schedule as we were. So I said to one of these guys, a horn player, ‘Jesus, how do you look so good every day?’ And he pulled his coat back and reached into his waistcoat and said, ‘You take one of these, you smoke one of those'... The joint got my attention so much that I forgot to take the Benzedrine.”

The 564-page Life delivers a veritable Beggar’s Banquet of topics, ranging from guitar playing tips to memories of major cultural characters like John Lennon and Graham Parsons to his long-time lover Anita Pallenberg to hanging with Rastafarians in Jamaica. He even throws in a recipe for bangers and mash, and steps aside to allow guest passages from friends and family.

The biggest surprise is how much Richards actually remembers. The butt of many a jibe about being out of it over the years, he was taking copious notes along the way, and the co-writer, James Fox, manages to help dislodge countless stories and characters from Richards' colorful past.

Richards sets the record straight on some key issues: Brian Jones did not really put the band together in the early '60s prior to his death in 1969. Richards says the credit for that belongs to Ian Stewart, the Stones’ long-time keyboard player, who was a minor kingpin in the London bar scene when they were starting out. Richards never did actually go to Switzerland to get a blood transfusion - that was just something he made up to placate the annoying press. Nor did he intentionally snort his father’s ashes later in life.

His first introduction to music came from his grandfather, a lifelong musician with local dance bands. The pair went on long walks and he marveled at the acoustic guitar in his grandfather’s house. It turns out it was left out intentionally to tempt him into music. Richards' grandfather also gave young Keith his first taste of tobacco before he was 10.

Richards credits his band-leading skills to lessons learned as a star of his school's boy choir, where he once sang in a contest in front of the Queen. He became a rebel with a guitar after his voice changed and his teachers quickly forgot all the good things he had done for the school. So he started hanging out, cutting class, and listening to the blues. An illustrator, Richards briefly considered going into advertising before deciding it wasn’t for him. Elvis Presley and later Chuck Berry instead summoned him to the life of a troubadour.

On his way to art school one day, he saw a guy he knew casually carrying blues albums under his arm. It turned out to be Jagger. They struck up a friendship around music and soon the guitar-toting Richards found himself jamming with a tight-knit group of English musicians who worshipped American blues. By his late teens, he was spending all his time on the music, living in a run-down apartment with a bunch of lads, and starting up the Stones.

Richards accelerates the story through the early years of the Stones, when they quickly caught on in London as the anti-Beatles. They didn’t get really famous though until Richards and Jagger wrote "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and the song was released in 1965. Richards was messing around with one of the first fuzz boxes, but wanted the riff to be played by a dirty sax. Instead, they kept the raw-sounding guitar riff.

With money finally coming in, he easily adopted the life of a rock star, buying a country home and collecting toys - his famous skull ring, guitars, a gun, knives and a tricked-out Bentley equipped with a record player, secret compartment for drugs and a pole in the back flying a diplomatic flag of Malta.

Richards was busted numerous times for drugs, starting with the 1967 raid of his estate in Sussex (which also nabbed Jagger). He would elude them all, but not the tax man. Richards spent most of the late '60s on the road, culminating in the deadly concert at Altamont, where the Hell’s Angels turned extremely violent in the face of a riotous crowd. The Stones didn’t even know about the stabbing in front of the stage captured in the movie Gimme Shelter until the next day.

Much of the book focuses on the making of two seminal Stones albums: Beggar’s Banquet and Exile on Main Street. Eager to get away from the onerous taxes at home, Richards went into "exile" by renting a huge mansion in the south of France called Nellcote where they recorded the latter. There, fueled by cocaine and heroin, as well as visits from country rock icon Graham Parsons, Richards constructed his masterpiece - a raw trip into the heart of American blues, country and rock. He'd come up with a new tuning for his guitar, and songs like “Happy," "All Down the Line” and “Tumbling Dice” flowed quickly.

By then, heroin was playing a bigger role than ever in Richards' life. He originally got turned on to it when he and Jagger bought some by mistake while trying to score some coke. Richards managed to kick it a few times and was smart to use just a little when he started up again, instead of returning to the same dose he was taking when he quit. That’s what killed Parsons, he says. The one-time Byrds member, discoverer of Emmylou Harris and leader of the Flying Burrito Brothers was a trusted muse for Richards, but died of an overdose in 1973.

Arrested for heroin possession in Toronto in 1977, Richards managed to get off without jail time by agreeing to do a free concert for the blind. He cleaned up for good from heroin, but still dabbled in cocaine until about 2006, when he had to have brain surgery after falling out of a tree.

He prides himself on never freebasing cocaine or doing crack, unlike fellow Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood, and even claims to be a bit less of a stoner than Willie Nelson: “Willie’s fantastic. He has a guy with a turned up Frisbee, rolling, rolling, rolling. A beautiful weedhead is Willie. I mean straight out of bed. At least I wait 10 minutes in the morning.”

One picture in the book shows Richards at his home in the Caribbean, getting visited by Paul McCartney. The photo is artfully cropped at the bottom, but you can sort of make out a bag of weed or a pipe or something.

Jagger emerges as an enigma for Richards. While he hasn’t set foot into the singer’s dressing room in the past 20 years, he still has plenty of positive things to say about his harmonica playing and skills as a lyricist, and credits him with writing nearly all of “Brown Sugar," one of the Stones’ biggest hits. An only child, Richards clearly sees Jagger as a brother he never had, despite the performer’s affliction with LVS (Lead Vocal Syndrome).

For all of Life's many details, there are is still some missing. Sure, he tells the story of the lyrics to “Jumpin' Jack Flash” - a name taken from Richards' gardener who he used to call Jumpin' Jack - but where did “Sympathy for the Devil” come from? Why does he always wear all the eye liner? Where did he get all those crazy guitar moves? Richards doesn’t say.

Overall, Life ranks as a better read than Eric Clapton’s autobiography, but falls somewhat short of the literary prowess of Bob Dylan’s Chronicles. Richards is more organized about telling his life story than Dylan. He’s more linear about it.

And, of course, one of the book’s strongest threads is weed. Whether he's hanging out with Rastas or just relaxing with Sir Paul, Keith Richards is a real CelebStoner.

[www.celebstoner.com]

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Doxa
Well, I lost - whatever there was still left - all the respect for the man (the person). The Jagger and Jones bashing does not really matter because that's part of him and of his constitution; I just don't like the guy. Spoiled childish little man. That 's my personal opinion of the writer that comes through the book (I guess I'll be soon shown the blade.)

I like guy's music though.

- Doxa

I totally agree. That is my feelings for Keith as well after reading "Life" and Keith used to be a big favorite of mine before this despite his earlier childish bashings of Brian. Mick has replaced Keith for me as favorite and I have realised that I have judged Mick too harsh before. Keith...well, I liked Keith in the 70's when he was Keith and not the myth about Keith. Today he is just a grumpy old man.

has anyone found a good link to a free download of the audio version?

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little queenie
has anyone found a good link to a free download of the audio version?

it was on demonoid, should still be there

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tonterapi

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Doxa
Well, I lost - whatever there was still left - all the respect for the man (the person). The Jagger and Jones bashing does not really matter because that's part of him and of his constitution; I just don't like the guy. Spoiled childish little man. That 's my personal opinion of the writer that comes through the book (I guess I'll be soon shown the blade.)

I like guy's music though.

- Doxa

I totally agree. That is my feelings for Keith as well after reading "Life" and Keith used to be a big favorite of mine before this despite his earlier childish bashings of Brian. Mick has replaced Keith for me as favorite and I have realised that I have judged Mick too harsh before. Keith...well, I liked Keith in the 70's when he was Keith and not the myth about Keith. Today he is just a grumpy old man.

...And when Mick Jagger's bio comes out sometime in the future, you two don't know which leg to stand on. That's my prediction.

JumpingKentFlash

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proudmary
... By the way I don't even see all this bitterness vs. Jagger. Or Jones, for what that matters.

Sure, if you're buying all Keith's bullshit as the truth you don't see any bitterness. It goes without saing that Jagger and Jones are two modestly endowed, talentless, manipulative morons.

I haven't actually finished the book yet (I'm up to the Exile period), which is just over half-way through - and apart from the odd little comment including the silly 'todger' snipe there is nothing but praise for Mick - his stagecraft, writing ability, love of blues, commitment to the Stones etc....

Yes, I'm sure the balance gets tipped later on but when all's said and done Keith clearly has huge respect for Mick - and most of the jibing is surely more out of insecurity than 'biterness'....maybe. But no-one really knows do they. Apart from one person.

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Roll73

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proudmary
... By the way I don't even see all this bitterness vs. Jagger. Or Jones, for what that matters.

Sure, if you're buying all Keith's bullshit as the truth you don't see any bitterness. It goes without saing that Jagger and Jones are two modestly endowed, talentless, manipulative morons.

I haven't actually finished the book yet (I'm up to the Exile period), which is just over half-way through - and apart from the odd little comment including the silly 'todger' snipe there is nothing but praise for Mick - his stagecraft, writing ability, love of blues, commitment to the Stones etc....

Yes, I'm sure the balance gets tipped later on but when all's said and done Keith clearly has huge respect for Mick - and most of the jibing is surely more out of insecurity than 'biterness'....maybe. But no-one really knows do they. Apart from one person.

I'm 2/3's through, and while I'll agree that the tiny todger snipe is fairly minimal, the fact that he publicly talks about it is rude and offensive.

HOWEVER, I find his general behaviour, especially with the kids deplorable. The fact that he still doesn't 'speak' about Tara's death with Anita is pretty telling. He thinks she was responsible (but how could she be, she was a junkie, left to care for a 2 month old while he was on tour).

I used to like Keith, and now I'm finding it very hard.

It would be interesting to get a 'true & honest' opinion from someone else in the group, ie Charlie.

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Green Lady
Long and interesting review here from Dan Chiasson in the the New York Review of Books:

[www.nybooks.com]

Thanks Green Lady. This was easily the most insightful and perceptive review of LIFE that I've read. In fact, it was one of the most remarkable pieces of writing about the Stones that I've ever encountered.

Should be required reading for any Stones fan.

Drew

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treaclefingers
[...
HOWEVER, I find his general behaviour, especially with the kids deplorable. The fact that he still doesn't 'speak' about Tara's death with Anita is pretty telling. He thinks she was responsible (but how could she be, she was a junkie, left to care for a 2 month old while he was on tour).

Huh? I know at least 3 different people that have lost kids and none of them ever bring it up. I am guessing it's too painful. You find that deplorable behavior? Wow, it's amazing the stretch some make in judging others...

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Green Lady
Long and interesting review here from Dan Chiasson in the the New York Review of Books:

[www.nybooks.com]

Great read Green Lady, thanks for posting this. A good take on KR, and a fair one at that. Puts all those who want to deconstruct him back in front of the mirror.

I didn't think the Mick bashing was that big of a deal, I was expecting a lot worse after reading this thread. the only time I think it went a little far was when he was talking about making a bigger bang with Mick... He said something like it was the best time he had with Mick in ages, he didn't know what was going on with him, he was going through a "Lost Looser Phase"... I thought that was below the belt. the guy had just gotten knited and was producing movies and stuff, say what you will about him, Mick Jagger is not a loser.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-19 04:42 by ryanpow.

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I'm 2/3's through,

Me, same with Keith, Bill German, and the big Wymann one.
Dunno how, but managed Ronnie's one in 2 days.
And at the same time I started Ken Follet's 300 million page one.

TE
Oslo

Just wish there had been some real substance to it,rather than continual links to well documented events.I mean if it was based on actual diaries from the period ,wow,great.But instead we get a lot of stuff which has been well covered before.Tell me something new.

Got the impression that the first few chapters had been penned by the ghost writer .The writing style changed there after,and was clearly Keef interview lingo.

So disapointing really.Thought Bill's was more interesting.A lot of fabrication in Keefs book,Tall tales volume 2 maybe.And his coverage of crucial events like Brian's death were barely touched on.

Nice that he mentioned Steve Crotty.Always good to put a name to a face.A loyal hard mate of Keefs indeed.I last saw that guy on the town in Ochos Rios.

As a diary keeper myself,it just dulls a tale if you got no personal entries from actual days and events.But hey this is KR we are talking about.

I liked his candor about his behavior when He started drinking heavilly after kicking Junk. Like His first thanksgiving with Patty. It wasn't the lovable "Aw, that's our Keith" kind of stuff. Heavy drinking can effect your ability to control your emotions and He's no different than anyone else.

also I thought the stuff about Bridges to Bablyon was interesting. I didn't realize the tension between Mick And Keith brought on by having different producers and also the friction between Mick and Don Was. And that period must have some special significance for Keith because he wrote a little piece on each song he did for the album in that chapter.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-20 04:06 by ryanpow.