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Aug 13, 2011

Steve rated it:

I started listening to the Rolling Stones back in the early 1970s. “Hot Rocks” (an early “greatest hits collection – and still one of the best by any band), “Sticky Fingers,” “Exile on Main Street,” “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” etc. In terms of the group and its history, I caught them in their second wave, the one where they had morphed into the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” I saw the band once, during their “Tour of the Americas” tour (the one where Ron Wood joined the band). I hung More...

8 comments like (24 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Velvetink rated it:

Growing up in Dartford for Keith – was somewhere to get out of. After WWII it was pungent with horse manure & desperation and he never forgot the story that he was born in an air raid shelter. It wasn’t London. It wasn’t hip or cool - it was the backside of the wrong side of the tracks. But when his father Gus gave him an old wooden guitar and showed him a few chords and licks, London loomed closer. Especially after he could play “Malaguena” and managed to escape National Service – that gre More...

16 comments like (21 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Kp rated it:

It was fascinating! If you have always loved The Rolling Stones and rock and roll and have a lot of nostalgia about the 60's... then I think you'd find Keith Richards memoir fascinating, too. It is long, but most of the time, well, I was just blown away hearing about all the stuff Keith Richards did. He has a great conversational style; listening was fun - kind of like sitting in the living room hearing him tell about his life (with help from Johnny Depp and one other reader.) What really shi More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2011

F.R. rated it:

Keith Richards’ autobiography starts really well and holds that momentum for a long time; although when it reaches the period covering the Eighties it does fall somewhat into score settling, and after that becomes somewhat bland and without spark. As such you have to hand it to this book, it really does mirror The Rolling Stones’ career.

Ghost writer James Fox does a fantastic job of catching his master’s voice. No doubt Keef was sat down in front of a microphone and told to talk about More...

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2011

Robin rated it:

Did y'all know that Keith Richards is a huge booklover and once wanted to be a librarian?

Aug - I finally decided this was the quintessential summer read so read it on our camping trips. Having been a fan since the Stones first came on the scene (I vacillated between loving them and the Beatles) I was interested in learning more about the early days and how he has managed to stay alive (we are all aware that he looks like the living dead). I also wanted to know more about the song More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Mar 22, 2011

David rated it:

5 stars for the music – the best part. Guitarists will appreciate the description of how Keith came up with 5 string open G tuning, which he often used.

4 stars for historical detail.

2 stars for long rambling tales of drug use and the resulting busts. Much of it sounds like Keith talking to a tape recorder. It wasn’t all boring. The keystone cops and courtroom episodes were funny. The Stones had some good lawyers. Anyone else would have gone to jail.

A bonus sta More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

Ann M rated it:

It starts off with a story of not getting booked on felony drug charges in Arkansas because they have on tour with them a good ol' boy lawyer who happened to be having a barbecue at the judge's house when they got busted. There's a press conference, the judge is hammered with a pint of booze hidden in his sock, the redneck chief of police is threatening to arrest him for public drunkenness. Their car has cocaine bursting from the side panels, but the lawyer prevents a search. They hug the judge More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2011

Michael G. rated it:

Obviously Keith didn't write this as you or I would write. He talked his memories into a tape recorder then someone transcribed his words into book form. It was great!

Keith had a bowl of sugar or smack or some shit that he enjoyed by big hands full. In my youth, I licked the end of my pinkie finger, stuck it into that same bowl and had a taste. I still remember that taste; I loved it! I did the weekend garage/dance band thing, but chose not to follow it in favor of marriage, fat More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

Felicia rated it:

Keith has always fascinated me. There's that joke about the end of the world and there will be cockroaches and Keith. He would enjoy that joke. He has a great voice, it's very stream-of-consciousness and shot from the hip. I did read it immediately after reading a biography of him so camparing the two points of view was enlightening. As with most (all?) autobiographies, he certainly airbrushes over the unsavory parts, but to his credit he mentions that a great party is the one you don't remember More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2010

Allyson rated it:

What can I say?
I am a fervent Stones fan, more of a Mick than Keith although Andrew loves Keef and has shown me the "way." But it is the combination of the group that makes the band, and the times they have lived through. KR makes this abundantly clear throughout Life and is at times all possible sides of a character: arrogant, nasty, mean, kind, loving, fun, crazy, menacing, clueless, dangerous, and incredibly talented while still being very modest. This book is amazing, sound More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2010

Lisa rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2010

CD rated it:

The Keef's memoir is a lot more than I expected and better than so many of the Rock n' Roll biographies that have crossed my path lately. More 'narrated' memoir than formal biography, this work is told in a mostly chronological order with the necessary flashback/forwards as required.

Richards and whatever writer(s) and editors aided in the storytelling, spin a yarn that rolls across the decades of his and the Rolling Stones lives like a tour bus on a pot holed local road on the way to More...

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 08, 2011

Abeer rated it:

I picked this book up because it was lying around the art colony where I was living for a month, and because NYT op-ed columnist, Maureen Dowd, of all people, had said Keith Richards had come off surprisingly chivalrously (high praise for a free swinging rock and roll star).

"Life" by Keith Richards, the guitarist for the British band the Rolling Stones, starts off like some druggie teenage wet dream, all groupies and pills and party attitude. Now, I'm a wannabe druggie tee More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 31, 2011

Scarlet rated it:

I don't like Mick Jagger's voice so I'm not a Rolling Stones fan, and normally wouldn't have read this book. But all of the NY Times' book reviewers put it in their lists of top books in 2010, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's surprisingly good. Not the party-hearty memoir I was expecting. A fair amount of discussion about music theory and how it plays out in the Stones' music, which was totally unexpected and really interesting. I really liked reading about how some of the most More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 20, 2011

Cindy rated it:

I want this book to stay on my book shelf even though I am not going to waste my time finishing it. I didn't want to delete it so I knew no other way to give my review but to give it some kind of star and to say that I had read it without getting "You started Life so many days ago" from my GoodReads newsletter. I DO NOT recommend this book to anybody. Not even a die hard Rolling Stones fan. Everything I wanted to find out about the Stones in this book, just wasn't there. Poorly wr More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2011

John rated it:

At times fascinating, at others simply strange. Reading it, I feel as if I know much more about the Stones than I did before, but found his selective memory (despite the admonition on the inside flap that "Believe it or not I haven’t forgotten any of it") maddening at times. He offers great detail about some periods -- the band's formation (good) and the recording of Bridges to Babylon (not so good) -- and ignores others. The band's early recordings are dealt with in some detail, but t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2011

Natalie rated it:

What can you say about this book, except:

whats this guys liver made of? for crying out loud, I would have been dead 20 years ago... and he is still going and going and going like powered by Duracell... or driven by VW beetle...

Even for those not specially in to the Stones a great and fun read... and for those who are, a MUST...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2011

Nancy rated it:

I'm a little surprised that this book is so well written, coming from a rock star who was zonked out on drugs for so many years. Don't know how much help he had, but he's done a great job. The book is very long. I'm only on pg. 250 and I'm not even half finished. It concentrates mostly on how the Rolling Stones got together in England and documents their journey and success right up to the present time. Richards also includes lots of info on other groups, the drug culture and the times (1960s an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Alane rated it:

I read this for my book club and would never have read it otherwise.

My family and I are Beatles people and not really Stones people so I didn't have as much natural interest in their history. However, I was fascinated to learn that the Stones didn't begin as the Stones really, but just aimed to be the best blues group in London. Keith Richards learned guitar at an early age, but didn't consider himself a songwriter until later.

I didn't find the writing especially compelling. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Alex rated it:

I grew up in a Beatles household, and a household that considered there to be a firm line between Beatles households and Stones households. I don't think we owned one Stones album, ever. I knew them from the radio, of course, but that was about it. My mother is a Paul McCartney fan. I think that says it all.

I had read the reviews of Life, and they said it was a good hedonistic, anti-Jagger romp. I would agree on the latter but not on the former. Mick Jagger comes off quite poorly in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Emily rated it:

Why I picked it up: I’ve listened the Rolling Stones all my life and while they aren’t my favorite group, I like them and always have. Keith Richards’ biography was getting a lot of press and I was interested to hear about the Stones rise to fame, especially as much of it was before I was born.

There is a lot of information here, and a lot of it was fun for me. Lots of stories about musicians whose music I love and that was probably the most fun for me. I take a lot of stuff with a More...

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Jan 02, 2012

Beth rated it:

I picked this up not because I'm a Keith Richards fan or even a big Rolling Stones fan but because it won the Audie award for 2011 for best audio book of the year. It's frequently mentioned that Johnny Depp is the voice for this book but in fact he reads only a few chapters at the beginning and the end. Instead the majority book is read by Joe Hurley who does a convincing job of mimicking Richard's manner of speaking (slow and slightly mush-mouth). The portions of the story about playing guit More...

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Dec 17, 2011

Bruce rated it:

I was somewhat surprised by how much I enjoyed this book (perhaps this was due, in large part, to my low expectations and regard for Mr. Richards' lifestyle). Despite not holding out a lot of hope for the book, I pressed on as I am a fan of music in general and of the history and roots of rock in particular. I was impressed with the articulation and candor of the author; I was really surprised by his (to me, shocking) ability to recollect life's minutiae, given his drug culture notoriety and eve More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Brijwhiz rated it:

Really enjoyed this book. That was actually a bit surprising to me as I have never been a Rolling Stones fan, more cause I have never really heard a lot of their music. Except for a slightly dragged start it was quite a fast read.

While his drug adventures did not make the most riveting read, he did leave me a bit confused. I assume at the end of it all he does look down on drugs but his overall attitude towards it was not black and white clear, in my opinion - which was not what I e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Mariah rated it:

Life by Keith Richards

Life by Keith Richards describes the events in the life of Keith Richards, from birth to his current life in Connecticut. Keith Richards is one of the two guitar players for the popular rock band The Rolling Stones. His memoir illuminates the discovery of his love for music, the establishment of the band, his many different love affairs, his addiction to heroin, and many other aspects to his life. Richards also reveals conflicts between him and Mick Jagger, and More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Alan rated it:

What a glorious mess is Keith Richards' life... and Keith Richards' Life. Rough-hewn and discursive, this autobiography sounds as if Richards' offstage collaborator (the book is written "with James Fox") just sat him down, turned on the tape recorder and let him ramble. Maybe that's exactly what they did. But when your life has been as long and eventful as Keith Richards', that's really all it takes. Just point the mike at the guy and let him talk it out.

After a Hunter S. Thompson More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

Jacobmartin rated it:

Oh man, I ate this book up.

Witness, thee who sold thy souls for rock and roll, a true epic of a scale not seen since Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones". Right down to the chapter headings.

This book will change your life, son. It changed mine from the first to middle pages on its own.

You have to understand the mythical beast that is "The Abominable Keef" and know of his legend to know the man, and only he is capable, with his own words, to explain just More...

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Dec 06, 2011

Jessica rated it:

I used to have a theory about Keith Richards: he died from a heroin overdose during the making of "Exile on Main Street" and a robot version, updated every decade or so, has been lumbering around, playing guitar for the Stones ever since. So, apparently, he's ALIVE! And he remembers every damn thing that was ever said, done or snorted in his life since about age six. The diatribes have a bit of verbal diarrhea, but it's also funny, self effacing, and states maybe one or two nice things More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2011

Shaun rated it:

I read this book out of curiosity more than anything else. I'm not a Rolling Stones fan, but decided that learning about the eccentric Stones guitarist might be interesting. I enjoyed the book okay, but got tired of all the drug use and profanity that he did and used to express his life story. He was arrested various times, including once as a "trafficker of drugs", but he always got off on a technicaility. Eventually he got off of the hard drugs. I did find it funny that he once went More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

Ken rated it:

LIFE is the memoir of the greatest rhythm guitarist to walk the face of the earth. All parts of this book are filled with interesting and exciting detail. And, even Keith's reconstruction of his early life is thoroughly captivating, and this is usually not the case in most biographies. I thought the most innovative section of the book is the handling of his legendary addiction to drugs and alcohol. Most biographies take the, "I was lost, and now I am found" approach. However, Mr. Richa More...

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