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Title: Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones by Stephen Davis ISBN: 0-7679-0312-9 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 06 November, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (27 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A well-written and thoroughly entertaining history
Comment: As a long-time fan of the Stones - in spite of it all - I was reluctant to embrace this book that professed to account for the "40-year odyssey" of the Stones' career. No matter where the average listener stands in his or her musical allegiances, there's inevitably some aspect of the Stones' vast output for one to take issue with. Phrases like "Greatest Band of the Sixties," "formerly Greatest Rock and Roll band in the World," and the like are now relied upon by cynics to condemn the Stones as passe, or worse, irrelevant. I was relieved to find that this book, admittedly slightly flawed in its manner of glossing over certain facts, is all-tolled an eminently readable and sympathetic account of the Stones' history. To be honest, I was pulled in by the opening paragraph of the first page and I could not put the book down. If anything, Stephen Davis go goes to great lengths to demonstrate how the Stones - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, primarily - have navigated stardom and contemporary music's evolution while maintaining their identity, their integrity, and remaining true to their roots. The sex, drugs, death, and other detours into the less savory aspects of rock and roll culture are documented throughout Davis's history. Given that the Stones were at the forefront of most of rock's evolution and its cultural progeny, this simply cannot be avoided. However, Davis's account of such aspects as Brian Jones's brilliance and self-destruction, Mick Taylor's involvement, Keith Richards' drug problems, and even Ron Woods' often turbulent involvement with the band is documented objectively and sympathetically. The book's accomplishment is that Davis, like his subjects, always returns to the essence of what makes the Rolling Stones the greatest rock and roll band in the world: The music.
Rating: 5
Summary: It Must Be HARD to be a Rolling Stone! ...
Comment: ... It Must Be HARD to be a Rolling Stone! ... That's all I can say! ... After reading this book, I'm not sure I would EVER want to end up in a touring rock band like The Rolling Stones. It's simply not WORTH all the money in the world! You got to give those guys credit: they all worked their butts off to get where they are, and this book proves it. ... It also comes very close to proving that Brian Jones really was MURDERED, as many of us in America believed all along. It shows how without the crystal-clear vision, unbending will, and immense drive and talent of Brian Jones in the first few years to make The Rollin' Stones a successful working band, they would have NEVER gotten to where they are today - and it's a sickenning crime and a terrible tragedy how Brian ended up, dead, at the botom of his own swimming pool, in his own back yard, surrounded by hostile sycophants and malevolant evil-doers!! ... This book is an absolutely FANTASTIC and FASCINATING read up to the point of Brian's murder. After that, it's a GREAT read up to the point of the departure of MICK TAYLOR. (Speaking of which, have you ever noticed how the song Can't You Hear Me Knockin' on The Rolling Stones 1971 album Sticky Fingers sounds EXACTLY like the song For Mods Only on Chico Hamilton's 1966 album The Dealer? ... What's up with THAT?! ... Maybe Ry Cooder IS right in calling The Stones bloodsucking thieves?) ... From the point when Ron Wood joins the band till the end of the book, it is significantly less interesting - and understandably so. Let's face it, The Stones' greatest albums are AFTERMATH, BEGGAR'S BANQUET, and LET IT BLEED (with Brian Jones); GET YER YA YAS OUT, STICKY FINGERS, and EXILE ON MAIN STREET (with Mick Taylor); and then SOME GIRLS , EMOTIONAL RESCUE, and TATTOO YOU (with Ron Wood). Of them all, BEGGAR'S BANQUET wears the crown - and we all know why! ... If you want to know what inspired and went into making this great music - as well as the circumstances surrounding the lives of the major players (and some of the minor players like Ian Stewart, Ry Cooder, and Gram Parsons) - then you will be satisfactorily rewarded by reading this well-detailed and well-crafted chronology of the ON-GOING carreer of "the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world." ... - The Aeolian Kid.
Rating: 4
Summary: Pretty entertaining
Comment: "Old Gods Almost Dead" is a pretty good read, filled with the obligatory smutty details.
The early days of the Rolling Stones are more thoroughly examined than the 80s and 90s, perhaps because of the lack of sex scandals and drug busts during the past 25 years or so, but it must be said in all fairness that "Old Gods" is not just sensationalism; Davis obviously has a certain insight into the musical side of things as well, and everything is well written and well paced, offering several interesting insights into the (supposed) history of the Stones.
My only problem with this book is that I don't really trust everything Mr Davis writes. He appears to be extraordinarily well informed about what went on within the group during the 60s and 70s, but he also makes some weird claims that makes me question how much he really knows...nothing big, just minor details. I mean, he knows what was said and done at some or other party forty years ago, but he doesn't know Rod Stewart's full name, calling him "Rodney" Stewart (rather than Roderick), and he believes that Bo Diddley's legendary female lead guitarist "the Duchess" was really his (Diddley's) sister, as Bo Diddley claimed (Norma-Jean Wofford, the Duchess, was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Wofford of Pittsburgh, PA, and Diddley introduced her as his sister in order to protect her while on the road).
As I said, it's just minor details. It just makes me wonder if all of these intimate details are to be trusted.
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Title: Rolling Stones Rip This Joint: The Stories Behind Every Song by Steve Appleford, Chris Welch ISBN: 1560252812 Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press Pub. Date: 30 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Nankering With the Rolling Stones by James Phelge ISBN: 1556523734 Publisher: Chicago Review Press Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Rolling with the Stones by Bill Wyman, Richard Havers ISBN: 0789489678 Publisher: DK Publishing Pub. Date: 28 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth ISBN: 1556524005 Publisher: Chicago Review Press Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Hammer of the Gods by Stephen Davis ISBN: 0425182134 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: January, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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