A cuppla books to reco

[vvv]

"What forum?", I wondered, but here is good, I guess, as both books have a lot about dealing with groupies, business people, family and other "civilians", as well as other musicians.

Anywhat, two good reads:

1. Keith Richards, Life (2010), what is about, well, Keef's life.

2. Jan Reid, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominoes (2006), what is about a whole lotta people and bands of the era, with the Dominoes as the center point, of course, but extending to the Beatles, the Allman Bros., etc.

Both were informative and quick reads, and Keef's is hysterical.

[Nick Sevilla]

+1 on the Keef autobiography.

I'm still reading it. HILARIOUS.

Now I understand why my parents' generation is so messed up.

They had the drugs, then the drugs were taken away. No more play time without the guilt.



They had the sex, without knowing about the diseases. Then they were told about all the diseases, after the fact.



And here they thought that being rebels against the "establishment" was the thing to do.

My dad complained for about 20 years about not understanding why all his friends were dropping like flies.

"We were innocent".... really? ... really.... really?!?!

Oops...

[MoreSpaceEcho]

+2 on keef.

and while you're at it, "stones in exile" is streaming on netflix too.

[Jarvis]

See also:

http://www.slate.com/id/2273611/pagenum/all/#p2

[vvv]

Thanx, Jarvis - a great and funny read!

And it mirrors a lot of my thoughts about Keef's life, as we've seen it play, read and heard about it, not least through his songs. "He has no real-life reality" is how I've been describing it.

Made a pretty good book, too.

[@?,*???&?]

I thought 'reco' was short for 'record'. I was gonna offer advice on books on tape and recording thereof. I was expecting a good discussion on rate to record something endless like this.

As for the Keith Richards book, just saw some of a Stones film last night on Palladia from 1972...Mick on his knees singing, spotlight on Keith playing the same chord over-and-over and to the left, off-screen, never in the camera shot the guy playing the incredible solo- Mick Taylor, the true guitar talent of the Stones. NOT the feature of the scene, the band, nor the film. INCREDIBLE DIS-SERVICE.

For rock history the personality of the band was all Mick Jagger. For tipping the hat to one of the best guitar players in history- I vote Mick Taylor.

Have you read the Keith Richards book yet? I wonder how his memory is...

[The Tallman 916]

Mick Taylor was a great soloist who could melodically support a singer, but he wasn't much of a rhythm player. That's one reason for his deflated post-Stones career. And Keith's memory? It's phenomenally good. His story of meeting as teenager Mick Jagger on a London train carrying an armload of Chess records has been told and retold by him in many interviews. In "Life" he publishes a forgotten letter he wrote to his mum at the time, and it closely confirms his recollections. The only minor kvetch I had was his claim that he seldom used guitar effects, like two or three times. He actually hit double digits with tracks that have him using guitar effects, including the song "999" with the Winos. Hey but, who's counting? Great book, with Keith telling funny stories right and left and showing a real knack for colorfully describing different locales.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

jeff are you actually making the argument that keith isn't the true guitar talent of the stones? REALLY?

[Aj]

Richards is an international treasure. I often wonder what space/time continuum we've fallen into where he is still alive and among us. Surely he died decades ago, and someday we're all going to wake up and realize this was just a hilarious dream.

Speaking of, did anybody catch the Keith Richards interview recently on Fresh Air (NPR)?

It's a hoot... Terry Gross tries to pin Keef down on several things, and he deftly (well, cantankerously) bashes down each attempt. She keeps probing into all the notorious bad blood between him and Mick Jagger - which Keef, as usual, shockingly elaborates upon rather than deny. But when she tries to characterize this as some impossible rift with Mick that can't be fixed... he shoots back:

What?! Guys have fights! And brothers have fights all the time! That?s what it?s all about. To pick one thing out and say, that was a festering wound... what rubbish!

It's pretty touching. He also makes it clear that when he writes songs, he's writing his songs for Mick to sing.

The best is at the end - when Terry Gross is thanking him for being there - he says, "Sure! Nice try honey!"

[MoreSpaceEcho]

hahahaha.

does anyone imagine either keith or mick being easy to get along with? can you imagine any guitar player and singer who've been together for decades NOT fighting like brothers?

i was at a well known indie bands show recently....before the last song, the singer was going on in a rambling monologue about whatever, and at some point the drummer, giving the universal 'let's play the fucking song already' cue, went 'boom boom boom boom' on his kick. and the singer made a big show of saying, jokingly "ooooh, i guess johnny's ready to play! we better play the song!"

the play the song and walk off stage. i head back to the dressing room to give my compliments on the show. i get into the doorway and the singer is TEARING into the drummer. pissed. i've never turned around so fast in my life.

anyway they go out and do the encore and when he's done with the singing bits the singer went back to the drummer and said something conciliatory, they were looking right at each other and laughing. s'all good.

[vvv]

Long trad of all those kindsa fights; actual family fights come to mind like with the Davies bro's, the Fogertys, etc., where the band didn't survive with the both of them. (Versus the Van Halens and AC/DCs where they did.)

I larfed last week when one of the Gallaghers accused the other of stealing his songs ...

Aiight, I'm OT in my own thread.