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Life

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 24,272 ratings · 2,888 reviews

As lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics, and the songs that roused the world. A true and towering original, he has always walked his own path, spoken his mind, and done things his own way.

Now at last Richards pauses to tell his story in the most anticipated autobiography in decades. And what a story! Listening obsessively to Ch...more

ebook, 564 pages

Published October 26th 2010 by Little, Brown and Company

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Feb 01, 2013 Petra X rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-true-story

7 star book!

One of the best books I've read this year. Keith Richards was a clever kid, a talented artist, a choirboy who sang for the Queen and became an outstanding musician in one of the world's best bands. What is most on display in this book is his tremendous interest in music and musicians, not in rock, bands, money and fame - a lot of which he finds a bit of a pain but to be endured because that goes with the job. If you aren't fairly knowledgeable about music, blues in particular, there...more 7 star book!

One of the best books I've read this year. Keith Richards was a clever kid, a talented artist, a choirboy who sang for the Queen and became an outstanding musician in one of the world's best bands. What is most on display in this book is his tremendous interest in music and musicians, not in rock, bands, money and fame - a lot of which he finds a bit of a pain but to be endured because that goes with the job. If you aren't fairly knowledgeable about music, blues in particular, there is going to be a lot of this book you are going to want to skip.

What is also interesting is his drug use. We never hear the ins and outs of being a tremendously successful heroin junkie. No, the spin is always on those poor street people who will steal their own mother's wedding ring for the next fix as they are quite beyond work. Richards enjoys his drugs a lot and tells us exactly what it feels like to be high on them and how it helped his work. His main supplier is his best friend and partner in crime, the very flamboyant Freddie Sessler, a holocaust survivor and (handily) owner of pharmacies so he could supply medical grade cocaine and heroin, who travelled along with the Stones. There were other dealers to ensure that when the band arrived at their tour date, the drugs would be ready and waiting, always a difficult time for a junkie.

The antics of the UK and especially US law enforcement officers to catch, entrap, imprison and get the Stones banned are hilarious as are the stories of Richards escaping them (most of the time). This is where money and being a big name helps! The story about Richards and Bobby Keys being got off a rap they had no defence against by the owner of Dole Pineapples is classic.

Richards also went cold turkey fairly often, not because he wanted to give up drugs but because he had to be clean and without the desperate need for drugs so he could enter various countries and tour with the band. These parts of the story are fairly harrowing to read, I really had no idea what cold turkey was really like but how it is very limited in time and can be endured. (Dr. Phil's Celebrity Rehab is more about Dr. Phil and the Celebrities than the rehab). When he actually decided to give up drugs, he made two attempts and that was it, gave them up thirty years ago.

His sex life was a great deal less interesting than, say, Mick Jagger's,as he was the sort of man who fell passionately in love, and then did whatever he could to keep the relationship alive. Not that groupies were totally unknown to him but that sort of sex wasn't anything he ever sought out. His first marriage to the actress Anita Pallenberg fell apart due to his wife's uncontrolled (as opposed to his controlled) use of drugs, and he has been married for decades to his second wife, the model Patty Hansen, who has never used them.

Essentially Keith is a man who questioned the system at every turn, but take away the surface and what you have left is a family man. His mother, a tremendously musical person herself, is in the story pretty constantly. For some years he raised his son, Marlon, alone (rather unconventionally taking him on tour), although he quite obviously cherishes all his children and has never, ever got over the loss of his baby son Tara, who died of cot death.

But this man, this clever, sensitive, man, this lover of books, this chronicler of arguably the best rock band ever, this musician's musician had that other side too,

the drug-taking, alcohol-sodden, irreverant, authority-bucking wild side, the man who took a lot of drugs and lived exactly as he pleased because he had the money to do so and continues to entertain us with his really great guitar licks.

Rock on Keith, rock on.

Although the book is ghost-written, it retains more of the voice of the author than it does of the ghost-writer which isn't always the case. But I don't recommend the audiobook. Johnny Depp, Keith's friend, reads well, but he can't sustain the right accent for long and it sounds somewhat fake with an American undertone. This might not annoy you, but it did me and I preferred the written word.(less)

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Jun 05, 2011 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, letters-memoirs-essays, non-fiction, rock-dreams-and-lost-highways

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 with...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Velvetink rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, music-musicians-singers-etc, 2011-read

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 grea...more

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Nov 18, 2010 Allyson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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, sounds just like him wi...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Kp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

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 shines...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Gary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ok, Keith Richards.... ever since I first heard SATISFACTION on my little portable AM radio....I have loved the Stones. I had to have been 12 years old or so.....

I have listened,and loved their music to the present. I had heard the stories,and knew that drug use, etc.etc. etc. but there was a lot about Keith that I didn't know.

This book thrilled me...parts of it I loved. Parts I found tedious. Parts made me laugh.....other parts really pissed me off .....pissed off at Keith....How could he act l...more

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Sep 14, 2011 F.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 his life i...more 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 his life into tape after tape after tape, but from there Fox has managed to create a seamless narrative whilst rendering the subject’s personality. It really does seem as if Keith Richards is talking to you, sharing all his best anecdotes in his avuncular growl – all the time throwing around such terms as ‘cat’, ‘babe’, ‘bitch’ and so on. (I imagine the audiobook of this would be a real treat.) There are some odd points: for example, the book never addresses the fact that for the first fifteen years of his career Keith Richards was known as Keith Richard. I always assumed that Andrew Loog Oldman (their then manager) tipping his cap to the far softer British rock’n’roll icon Cliff Richard. But there is no real tackling of The Peter Pan of Pop, apart from Keith seeming to take glee in Cliff’s run of British hits ending when he decided to record a Jagger/Richards track.

Part of the problem with this book losing steam is that I think Richards appreciates that after ‘Start Me Up’, the Stones never produced another great song. As such those later sessions do not have the attention to detail that he gives to ‘Exile on Main Street’ or ‘Let It Bleed’. He does however give a spirited defence against charges of the band selling out with their mega-tours, just saying that they want to play music and this is the best way to do it. And after spending six hundred pages with the man, it’s hard to begrudge him that love of performing. Particularly as the majority of people who buy this book will certainly consider buying a ticket the next time the Stones hit the road.(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Marvin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: music

How in the hell did this guy live so long? After Jimi and Janis died, all the smart money was on Keith Richard to be Rock n' Roll's next burnt-out flame. He fooled us all. And his secret to a long and exciting life?

He was damn lucky.

Maybe not in his music. He worked hard to be the rock n' roll genius he is. But lucky in that he didn't make a fatal mistake between the drugs and general madness his life style resulted in. I loved his frankness but shook my head a little when he discussed his fault...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-rock

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 writing proces...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: great-books-about-the-sixties

So far this is fascinating... I didn't read the Dylan Chronicles because I heard a bit too much about them, and have read about Dylan a lot--and he's so capable of making himself a hero and overlooking the collateral damage--in other words, he's such a writer!--I just didn't want to be one more dupe. But I'm loving Keith's autobiography because he's really good at taking you into the music, and he's not apologetic about his own part in things, his own presumed jerkiness, and I'm getting a look i...more So far this is fascinating... I didn't read the Dylan Chronicles because I heard a bit too much about them, and have read about Dylan a lot--and he's so capable of making himself a hero and overlooking the collateral damage--in other words, he's such a writer!--I just didn't want to be one more dupe. But I'm loving Keith's autobiography because he's really good at taking you into the music, and he's not apologetic about his own part in things, his own presumed jerkiness, and I'm getting a look into a male psychology I've rarely seen on the page--this is the guy who doesn't talk in real life when you say, "what are you thinking?" Now I know. I keep thinking of Zachary Lazar's SWAY as I read this, want to reread it now. Just hope it doesn't start bogging down when all the legal problems begin... they're always complicated and boring...
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this held up all the way through. Wow. Unlike many fly-then-crash-and- burn rock books (Buried Alive and No One Here Gets Out Alive being two of the best), Richards' is no cautionary tale, but rather, a high wire act which he walked and continues to walk. The guy's level of self-acceptance could mean the end of the pop-psych industry if enough people could dig it that way. No apologies, no excuses, this is me, this is how I live. Even the drug problems are presented not as problems per se, but just how I lived (except for the legal mess)...Not glamorizing anything, not shying from the fact that it was a trashy chaotic mess rather than glittering magic--the day to day grubby shit of waiting for the man, planning for the next hit. and all about the music.

The dissing of Mick that the publicity around this book seemed to emphasize was, to my eye, pretty mild... not much different than what anybody would come up with who had to work with the same person for 40 years.

But definitely what I liked best was Richard's incredible matter-of-fact perspective of this wild, messy life. So refreshing in our mea culpa culture. Fantastic. Take that Dr. Wayne Dyer.(less)

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Jan 08, 2011 Lars Guthrie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Keith Richards was a major influence in my musical education.

In the middle 60s in Boston, pop music was strictly AM, and restricted to a couple of big stations that played what sold to the masses. That had its benefits. Without niche marketing, Dean Martin bumped up against the Dave Clark Five. And the Drifters.

So it wasn’t like you couldn’t hear black music.

You just couldn’t hear all of the black music out there by listening to those stations.

When the Stones came on the scene, I gravitated t...more

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Oct 30, 2010 Malcolm Love rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Life by Keith Richards
Little, Brown and Company, 576 pages

Keith Richards’ memoir, Life is a thorough and engrossing portrait of a man with an overabundance of passion for life. More than the music, the parties, the whirlwind of fame and over-indulgence, it is his unrelenting need to keep moving that is the key to understanding his life, which he describes in clean, clear prose with a pirate’s sly humor. We get all the things we would expect in a memoir of a music legend like Richards: childhood...more Life by Keith Richards
Little, Brown and Company, 576 pages

Keith Richards’ memoir, Life is a thorough and engrossing portrait of a man with an overabundance of passion for life. More than the music, the parties, the whirlwind of fame and over-indulgence, it is his unrelenting need to keep moving that is the key to understanding his life, which he describes in clean, clear prose with a pirate’s sly humor. We get all the things we would expect in a memoir of a music legend like Richards: childhood beginnings; the making of the band; his heroes and all of the tribulations of chasing success. The difference between this book and the others that have come before is Keith. He’s an elemental force of nature. He never sleeps. He marks time by how many hours remain until he is on stage again or in the studio. And always he kept a devil-may-care attitude, seemingly above all the noise of band squabbles, scrapes with the law, and shady promoters and managers. In a genre that is littered with boring and self-serving image control propaganda, what comes out in Life is the unique and volatile singularity that is Keith Richards. Unlike Eric Clapton’s honest, but apologetic memoir, which became mired in the details of gigs and family, Richards maintains his sense of astonishment at his circumstances throughout. Reading Life is like spending long day at the pub with Keith, listening to him hold court as he tells story after story about a life lived too fully.

I have to confess. I love Keith Richards. I love almost everything about him. His devotion to the blues. His ability to successfully maintain a working class sensibility while driving a Bentley and living in the south of France. His loyalty to friends above all else. His death-defying vitality. What comes through in his memoir is that the drugs that Keith did for the first half of his life (he’s been clean for over thirty years) were not so much recreational as they were vocational. Throughout the book, he describes his drug routine as a means to allow him to focus on his music, to build a ‘bunker mentality’ that would remove him from whatever personal skirmishes he was engaged in with band-mates or lovers. If anyone else had tried to posit that their drug use was career-enhancing, I’d say they were in deep denial. But this is Keith, and for some reason, it seems completely plausible.

The best parts of the book are the small revelations about his music. The open tuning that took him years to discover was a crucial element to his development as a guitarist. Also important is his use of negative space in music, which he says came to him the first time he heard “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley. He revisits certain themes and ideas about performance and recording, such as the need to play together as a band while recording versus playing separately and recording sections to be edited later. He railed against technology as an impediment to making music with heart, claiming to have only used guitar effects on two occasions. In one passage, he explains how he used a little Philips portable cassette recorder to layer acoustic guitars for “Street Fighting Man”. No electric guitars on that recording, at all, he said. Amazing.

For all of his superhuman ability to be creatively successful and prolific despite the handicap of endless busts and drug addiction, he is still very human. He lets himself off the hook for a number of things. For instance, I don’t know what to make of his decision to have his preteen son, Marlon accompany him as a personal companion and navigator during a European tour, while Keith was deeply in the throes of heavy heroin use. On one hand, at least he tried to keep a personal connection with his son. On the other, the boy was on the road with his junkie dad instead of in school. In the end, it all seemed to work out and the Richards family seems to have survived, largely due to the stability of his wife, Patti, an American with a no-nonsense attitude that provided a bedrock for the family.

Keith’s easy-going narration of his life belies his obsessive drive to live the blues, but it is that laid-back attitude that makes the book so completely enjoyable. Victor Bockris’ excellent, Keith Richards: The Biography provided a concise look at Keith’s life in the seventies, but only through hearing Keith’s voice in these stories about his life does the memoir actually come to life. Keith is an engaging storyteller largely because of his ability to remain apathetic about fame while being insanely famous, which comes with a price. In an early chapter, he describes how four people died at a concert during the first Rolling Stone tour. Died. Through the tragedies and triumphs, he remained true to friends and family, strived to grow as an artist and never lost that joie de vie that informs every part of his life. And he’s only sixty-six! Richards complains bitterly about how nobody thought that Count Basie or Duke Ellington should stop making music while in their sixties and seventies, yet he and other white rockers aren’t afforded that luxury. Fortunately, Keith isn’t one to worry about convention.

Read more reviews at http://thecurrentreader.com (less)

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Feb 07, 2011 David Cerruti rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Guitar players, Rolling Stones fans

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 star for the inserts – short narratives...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Dec 14, 2011 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Black-and-blue denizens of the Memory Motel

Recommended to Alan by: It's the Rolling Stones, man... plus, perversely, a devastating Bill Wyman essay on Slate.com

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. Thompsonesque beginning...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Jay Connor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm on a delay at ATL. A perfect place and time to finally get around to my review of "Life." This review has had almost as slow a gestation as reading the flipping book! I have never had the experience of putting down a book on numerous occasions with varying feelings of disgust, dread of another diva story, awe, respect, cringing from another in a series of cruel choices all while feeling compelled to read on. I read three other book from the time I started "Life" 'til I finally finished. Many...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Andy Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A comprehensive autobiography by Keith Richards that covers his childhood, his lifestyle change from teenager who couldn't afford food and housing to multimillionaire within months to the evolving history of the Rolling Stones and frank discussions of his drug abuse and addictions.

One thing that struck me was his passion to his music. I don't know anything about music but still was intrigued by his discussion of chords, hand movement, what he learned from other muscians and why other bands could...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Ann M rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, been-reading-for-awhile, did-not-finish, try-again

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

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Jun 06, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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, fatherhood, etc. Now...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Lee Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Even better than I hoped it would be, very conversational, and gossipy. When I got to chapter 10, and realized it the story had progressed only as far as "Some Girls," I worried that the last three chapters would be a gloss over. I guess since the Stones' output after "Tattoo You" is so lackluster, and Keith had kicked heroin around that time and soon thereafter met Patti Hansen, there wasn't as much to say, but the final three chapters were full of good bits. Mainly, they focused on Keith and M...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Felicia Holtz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Dec 27, 2010 Jeannie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who likes the Stones, anyone with an interest in music

Recommended to Jeannie by: myself

Shelves: i-own

I can honestly say this book surprised me. I am a long time lover of the Stones music and a fascination with the group members and Keith was nothing like I expected him to really be. He's a great storyteller and I felt a kinship with him while reading this book (even though I don't and never will have the musical knowledge he possesses). I felt like I was sitting in a circle of friends listening to him talk while reading this book. It was hard to put down, even though at times I just had to, but...more

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Dec 06, 2010 Lisa McLemon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Musicians, Music fans, Rolling Stones fans

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I haven't even finished this yet and I can tell you it's amazing. The life of Keith Richards is very storied and in some cases, surprising. Apparently, for example, he used to get the shit beat out of him at school when he was a kid. Used to spend the entire day trying to figure out how to get home without running into the two kids who beat the crap out of him every day, until one day he fought back.

More importantly than the surprises though, at least to me, is his musical knowledge. The man KN...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Randy Auxier rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-non-fiction

It isn’t for the kids at bedtime or the faint of stomach, but Life is one raucous good read. We learn only at the very end that Keith Richards is a history buff, and it explains a lot. The book is suspiciously well documented throughout and written in the style of the popular histories that have filled the shelves of big box book emporia in the last decade or two. Life is something quite beyond celebrity journalism and may actually have literary value. Perhaps I was enjoying myself so much that...more It isn’t for the kids at bedtime or the faint of stomach, but Life is one raucous good read. We learn only at the very end that Keith Richards is a history buff, and it explains a lot. The book is suspiciously well documented throughout and written in the style of the popular histories that have filled the shelves of big box book emporia in the last decade or two. Life is something quite beyond celebrity journalism and may actually have literary value. Perhaps I was enjoying myself so much that I am now feeling effusive, but darned if the idea doesn’t linger that this may be a great book. It certainly sets the standard for books of its genre. I cannot tell how much Richards’ co-writer James Fox (no mere hireling, but a best-selling author in his own right) may have had to do with the form and expression, but if it was much, then I can only say that Johnson has found his Boswell in this case.

Life is a generous 547 pages of text and an almost scholarly index, but its detailed narrative is only sustained up until about 1980, and afterwards becomes sketchy and anecdotal. But word on the street is that Richards is already at work on volume two. I will buy it the day it appears, at the Canadian price if necessary. (Why are books still higher in Canadian dollars when Canadian dollars are worth the same as American dollars? Could I make money by taking copies of Life to Toronto and selling them to Canadians for $30C?). The audio version of the book is also a hoot –Johnny Depp reads the early years, James Burton reads the addiction years in a heavy East London brogue, and then Johnny is back when Keith finally kicks the stuff for good. Keith himself reads the sketchy chapters at the end, and does it rather well.

No matter what you’re curious about regarding the Rolling Stones, it’s in the book. Was Brian Jones murdered? Probably not, but if so, he certainly had it coming. The size of Mick’s willy? Small, it turns out, or at least smaller than Keith’s if I take the implication aright. How did he get that amazing guitar sound on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”? Two acoustic guitars played too close to the built-in mic on a Phillips cassette recorder to overload it, creating an interesting distortion –there are no electric guitars on the track. How many ways can you score, use, and withdraw from smack? Well, it’s a short review of a long book.

If the Stones were a normal band, this tell-all book would probably be the end of the band, but they’ve survived far worse than the public airing of their ungenerous opinions of each other. (For example, the passing of the beautiful and dangerous Anita Pallenberg from Brian to Keith, to Mick, and back to Keith might be hard on a band.) But as you might suspect, they remain a band because of the music, and they can only get that together. They don’t need to be friends, and they aren’t any more, but the musical respect remains.

Perhaps most remarkable is that the Stones are mostly still above ground, with only Jones and pianist Ian Stewart presently taking a dirt nap. If I’d had to make book in 1970 which band, in 2010 . . . well, the Stones would get very long odds. And Life doesn’t reinforce the idea that it has been anything other than luck. Keith says he used up his nine lives decades ago, but it’s funny that the closest he ever came to dying was probably when he fell off the ladder in his own library in Connecticut –searching for a book on anatomy. That would have been quite a headline.

The passages I found most compelling have to do with Keith’s theories and opinions about songwriting, guitar playing and recording, and these may slow the book’s progress for some readers, but it is incredibly valuable for the history of this generation to have clear documentation of what he took himself to be doing. He is, after all, a genius.
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Nov 27, 2010 CD rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, pop-culture-music, 1960-s, music-history

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 some gig. B...more 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 some gig. Bumps, bruises, confrontations, breakdowns and for many a lot of fun and for a few not so much festoon the ride of The Keef.

Keith Richards, "The Keef", notorious for his life of excess denoted from his introduction of himself in actual life as "The Keef" because of articulation problems due to substances and circumstance on board that would slow down anyone, weaves stories that are not always consistent but probably as true as any told. Some of the incidents related in this book will seem to many readers 'out there', but one only needs looks at the modern day recollections of those who traveled, even briefly, with the Stones to begin to feel their veracity. Writers and journalists, one after another have twenty or thirty years later revealed that a few weeks or months hanging out with the band resulted in a stay in rehab. But first, the time spent with the Stones got foggy towards the end. So cars, planes, buses and houses full of drugs along side all of the related stories can be tolerated as likely factual as it will ever get.

The arrests and other public incidences as a matter of record are there for any one to find. It is the sheer volume of decades, yes decades, of craziness and the absolute totally disregard for any social norm for many of the crowd in this story that make for such an unbelievable story. After all if you are not going to believe a Boy Scout, who are you going to trust?

Yes, Keith Richards was a Boy Scout! Literally a merit badge wearing, three finger salutin', old lady across the street helpin' follower of Sir Baden-Powell. Even years later, in some twisted moment of irony, at the time of the Boy Scout Centennial celebration Richards finds himself standing at attention (or as much as his condition allowed) in a hotel room somewhere in the world when the festivities come on television saluting once more all that is Scouting. Combined with his childhood it may by his own acknowledgment have contributed to his ability to survive.

From early childhood and his parents survival of the Blitz to the present of a bunch of real survivors still playing out, Life is an unusual ride. From the best unintentional explanations in print of the underlying meanings of Pink Floyd songs (and this is obscure unless you know the lyrics to most of their songs) as a childhood memory, Richards memories not the PF guys, to moments of clarity resulting in one of his children being raised by his mother, to his own son being used as a roadie, to borderline violence page after page, to marital discourse, wife swapping, and every other thing you've ever heard, it is buried somewhere in this book.

As this is a far better written and constructed piece of prose than the typical R'n'R memoir/biostory, it is for me a true 'goodread'. Three stars as a biography as it partially poses as an autobio form and it does have some flaws. Mostly though, it is the best of the genre I've read in many years! (less)

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Jul 08, 2011 Abeer Hoque rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-recommend

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 teenager, and I was put o...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Lulu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As much as I would like to be a fan of the Stones, their music is a bit of a blocker for me. I mean sure they have some good stuff but they also have a lot of questionable stuff and sorry but Mick can NOT sing. But this book has a good "voice", you believe that ol' Keif sat nightly after gigs bashin' away on his type-writer (but the truth is Keif had only a sketchy memory at best, given why the ghost writer had to get the recollections of significant others in Keif' life) and it has the right am...more As much as I would like to be a fan of the Stones, their music is a bit of a blocker for me. I mean sure they have some good stuff but they also have a lot of questionable stuff and sorry but Mick can NOT sing. But this book has a good "voice", you believe that ol' Keif sat nightly after gigs bashin' away on his type-writer (but the truth is Keif had only a sketchy memory at best, given why the ghost writer had to get the recollections of significant others in Keif' life) and it has the right amount of goss without making Keif sound like an old woman. I do like how things are presented in a totally non-judgmental way, you know shite just happens, what are you gonna do, its rock and roll (god I felt so sorry for Marlon, I'm surprised he survived!)

For those interested in playing music ol' Keif goes into quite amount of detail about open chords, etc, which was totally lost on me but great for the true music fan I guess. Also, he does an excellent white-wash of most parts of his life but you get the distinct impression he is probably a bit of a selfish prick but I prefer the caricature, you know "I'm a gay pirate, smoke if you've got them" ol' Keif! Speaking of gay pirates, my favorite quote of the book is ol' Keif's claim that the only thing he taught Johnny Depp in preparation for his Pirates role was how to walk around corners drunk, the rest apparently was all Johnny!

Also Uncle Keif cautions that readers should in no way take his life as a "how to" guide when it comes to drug use because apparently ol' Keif has a bit of a talent in terms of sourcing good quality shit (god they made it soo easy in the 60s!)and knowing exactly how much to ingest and when to stop, which I guess one can't argue against given he is pushing 70 and not daisies.

When all is said and done, I couldn't help but like the guy! 3 Dec 2012, ol' Keif is quoted in The Telegraph as follows "sometimes I 'despise' Mick Jagger" - how can you not love this guy!!!! and right on the back of their 50th Anniversary concerts LOL!!(less)

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Feb 27, 2011 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, so think that by now all of my friends are sick and tired or hearing, "You know what Keith said about that?" or "It's funny - something like that happened to Keith one time..." I realize that Keith Richards isn't exactly the kind of role model that should inspire bracelets inscribed with WWKD (What would Keith Do?), but this is one hell of an interesting read. There are the expected stories of endless debauchery - especially amusing are Keith's decision to lay of Jack Daniels in an effort...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Scarlet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 famous songs...more

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Jan 06, 2011 David Wagstaff rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On one hand, Mr. Richards is an ordinary guy: hardscrabble youth, dedicated musician, some drug problems, some marital confusion, and a wild financial dance. There are a couple of million guys his age with similar histories. The difference is he's a founding member of the Rolling Stones. The thing about fame is that it gives people a chance to mythologize -something we all like to do. While it is true he has a remarkable immune system etc., it is also true that he has not done heroin for some th...more

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About Keith Richards

Keith Richards is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, producer and founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 Richards was ranked 10th on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

With songwriting partner and Rolling Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger, Richards has written and recorded hundreds...more

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