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The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones
'However much you thought you knew about The Stones before you read it, afterwards you'll know more. It's glittering' - Simon Napier-Bell
'Special [...] it's brilliant' Johnnie Walker
From Sunday Times bestselling author Lesley-Ann Jones
On 12 July 1962, the Rollin' Stones performed their first-ever gig at London's Marquee jazz club. Down the line, a 'g' was added, a spark was lit and their destiny was sealed. No going back.
These five white British kids set out to play the music of black America. They honed a style that bled bluesy undertones into dark insinuations of women, sex and drugs. Denounced as 'corruptors of youth' and 'messengers of the devil', they created some of the most thrilling music ever recorded.
Now, their sound and attitude seem louder and more influential than ever. Elvis is dead and the Beatles are over, but Jagger and Richards bestride the world. The Stones may be gathering moss, but on they roll.
Yet how did the ultimate anti-establishment misfits become the global brand we know today? Who were the casualties, and what are the forgotten legacies? Can the artist ever be truly divisible from the art?
Lesley-Ann Jones's new history tracks this contradictory, disturbing, granitic and unstoppable band through hope, glory and exile, into the juggernaut years and beyond into rock's ongoing reckoning . . . where the Stones seem more at odds than ever with the values and heritage against which they have always rebelled.
Good, bad and often ugly, here are the Rolling Stones as never before.
'Special [...] it's brilliant' Johnnie Walker
From Sunday Times bestselling author Lesley-Ann Jones
On 12 July 1962, the Rollin' Stones performed their first-ever gig at London's Marquee jazz club. Down the line, a 'g' was added, a spark was lit and their destiny was sealed. No going back.
These five white British kids set out to play the music of black America. They honed a style that bled bluesy undertones into dark insinuations of women, sex and drugs. Denounced as 'corruptors of youth' and 'messengers of the devil', they created some of the most thrilling music ever recorded.
Now, their sound and attitude seem louder and more influential than ever. Elvis is dead and the Beatles are over, but Jagger and Richards bestride the world. The Stones may be gathering moss, but on they roll.
Yet how did the ultimate anti-establishment misfits become the global brand we know today? Who were the casualties, and what are the forgotten legacies? Can the artist ever be truly divisible from the art?
Lesley-Ann Jones's new history tracks this contradictory, disturbing, granitic and unstoppable band through hope, glory and exile, into the juggernaut years and beyond into rock's ongoing reckoning . . . where the Stones seem more at odds than ever with the values and heritage against which they have always rebelled.
Good, bad and often ugly, here are the Rolling Stones as never before.
477 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 9, 2022
22 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Lesley-Ann Jones
30 books88 followersLesley-Ann Jones is a British biographer, novelist, broadcaster and keynote speaker.
She honed her craft on Fleet Street, where she worked as a newspaper columnist and feature writer for more than twenty years. She has also worked extensively in radio and television, appears regularly in music documentaries in the UK, USA and Australia, and is the writer and co-producer of ‘The Last Lennon Interview’, a film about the final encounter, in New York, between the former Beatle and BBC Radio One presenter Andy Peebles.
Her debut memoir ‘Tumbling Dice’ is out now.
NB: the cover of TUMBLING DICE displayed here is NOT the current, correct one, but is of an edition that was never published! It appears to be impossible to change it! The ISBN for the CORRECT, CURRENT VERSION is 978109175
First serialisation rights for TUMBLING DICE were acquired by the Mail on Sunday UK, published across four pages on 7th April 2019. Second serial went to The Times, UK, featured as a double-page spread on 10th April.
The author’s interview with US ABC Radio network is syndicated to 2,000 stations across the United States. She has discussed the book on most BBC local stations, including BBC York, Northampton, Guernsey, Cornwall, Solent, Hereford & Worcester, Derby and Oxford. Live radio exposure continues over the coming weeks, with BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms Show, Wandsworth Radio, Express FM’s The Soft Rock Show, K107FM Scotland, Wycombe Sound, Camglen Radio (Scotland), the Sticks Radio Show & podcast, BBC Radio Kent, Radio Caroline, Talk Radio’s The Paul Ross Show and Talk Radio Europe’s Bill Padley Show.
Lesley-Ann Jones’s agents are currently negotiating with two independent production majors on a screen adaptation of TUMBLING DICE.
Other recent works include ‘Hero: David Bowie’, ‘Imagine’, and ‘Ride a White Swan: The Lives and Death of Marc Bolan’. Her globally-acclaimed definitive biography of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, re-issued in 2019 as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, is a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. The book accompanies the band’s long-awaited eponymous feature film, the highest-grossing music biopic of all time.
The author is currently working on two further titles, for publication in 2020.
She is a mother of three, and lives in London.
She honed her craft on Fleet Street, where she worked as a newspaper columnist and feature writer for more than twenty years. She has also worked extensively in radio and television, appears regularly in music documentaries in the UK, USA and Australia, and is the writer and co-producer of ‘The Last Lennon Interview’, a film about the final encounter, in New York, between the former Beatle and BBC Radio One presenter Andy Peebles.
Her debut memoir ‘Tumbling Dice’ is out now.
NB: the cover of TUMBLING DICE displayed here is NOT the current, correct one, but is of an edition that was never published! It appears to be impossible to change it! The ISBN for the CORRECT, CURRENT VERSION is 978109175
First serialisation rights for TUMBLING DICE were acquired by the Mail on Sunday UK, published across four pages on 7th April 2019. Second serial went to The Times, UK, featured as a double-page spread on 10th April.
The author’s interview with US ABC Radio network is syndicated to 2,000 stations across the United States. She has discussed the book on most BBC local stations, including BBC York, Northampton, Guernsey, Cornwall, Solent, Hereford & Worcester, Derby and Oxford. Live radio exposure continues over the coming weeks, with BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms Show, Wandsworth Radio, Express FM’s The Soft Rock Show, K107FM Scotland, Wycombe Sound, Camglen Radio (Scotland), the Sticks Radio Show & podcast, BBC Radio Kent, Radio Caroline, Talk Radio’s The Paul Ross Show and Talk Radio Europe’s Bill Padley Show.
Lesley-Ann Jones’s agents are currently negotiating with two independent production majors on a screen adaptation of TUMBLING DICE.
Other recent works include ‘Hero: David Bowie’, ‘Imagine’, and ‘Ride a White Swan: The Lives and Death of Marc Bolan’. Her globally-acclaimed definitive biography of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, re-issued in 2019 as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, is a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. The book accompanies the band’s long-awaited eponymous feature film, the highest-grossing music biopic of all time.
The author is currently working on two further titles, for publication in 2020.
She is a mother of three, and lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 12, 2023
"[The Stones] contributed songs that moved us, thrilled us, angered us and turned us on, providing a soundtrack to dance to and by which to live. They gave our existence meaning. An exaggeration? Isn't that was music does? We listen, engage and respond collectively, to know we are not alone. We circle back to the songs and stars of our adolescence, if only for a wistful swig of forgotten youth. We'll never be young again. But music, sweet music, reminds us of what that was like." -- on page 17
Jones' latest The Stone Age was such a disappointment, especially for two distinct reasons - 1.) I much enjoyed her The Search for John Lennon last year (feeling it was one of the better non-fiction books that I had read in 2022) and 2.) the Rolling Stones have been one of my favorite rock bands for 30+ years. I suppose I was really hoping that the combination of author and subject matter would result in a perfect union. However, The Stone Age was a gossipy muddle that hyper-focused on the personalities and left their distinguished discography in the dust. Legendary frontman Mick Jagger and retired bassist Bill Wyman receive some excessive - although possibly deserved, in a handful of instances - drubbing while the deceased members Brian Jones and Charlie Watts are respectfully mourned and treated with a modicum of decency. Of course guitar-slinger Keith Richards is pretty much untouchable because that man will simply never stop truckin' - better living through truckloads of cigarettes and whiskey, right? (He turns 80 this December, by the way. Rock on, Keef Riff-Hard!!!) I suppose I wanted a narrative that celebrated the group's astounding longevity and durability throughout the decades - just a little sympathy for these devils, please? - but The Stone Age seemed content instead in more often dourly pointing out their mistakes, debacles and negative attributes.
Jones' latest The Stone Age was such a disappointment, especially for two distinct reasons - 1.) I much enjoyed her The Search for John Lennon last year (feeling it was one of the better non-fiction books that I had read in 2022) and 2.) the Rolling Stones have been one of my favorite rock bands for 30+ years. I suppose I was really hoping that the combination of author and subject matter would result in a perfect union. However, The Stone Age was a gossipy muddle that hyper-focused on the personalities and left their distinguished discography in the dust. Legendary frontman Mick Jagger and retired bassist Bill Wyman receive some excessive - although possibly deserved, in a handful of instances - drubbing while the deceased members Brian Jones and Charlie Watts are respectfully mourned and treated with a modicum of decency. Of course guitar-slinger Keith Richards is pretty much untouchable because that man will simply never stop truckin' - better living through truckloads of cigarettes and whiskey, right? (He turns 80 this December, by the way. Rock on, Keef Riff-Hard!!!) I suppose I wanted a narrative that celebrated the group's astounding longevity and durability throughout the decades - just a little sympathy for these devils, please? - but The Stone Age seemed content instead in more often dourly pointing out their mistakes, debacles and negative attributes.
December 30, 2022
Interesting, but nothing special look at 60 years of the Rolling stones
Read
July 8, 2022Hey you! Get offa my cloud! This is another history-making, myth-debunking, image-altering, truth-revealing, classic rock n' roll biography from the doyenne of rock writers, Lesley-Ann Jones to follow her amazing 'Who Killed John Lennon,' No Stones fan should miss this. It is and will be forever, the only true and full account of the most controversial and popular rock and roll band in the world.
Jones both chews the Stones into gravel while at the same time totally analysing and acknowledging their undeniable talent. She does it with the forensic skill of a former Fleet Street magazine journalist, TV personality and rock chick. She knew the stars and partied until many a dawn with them. Add to that the flair and finesse of what I happen to believe is the best female writer (maybe just writer - of either gender) in Britain today and you've got a smash hit. The book is majestic. It's a masterpiece.
LAJ has forgotten more about the rock world than most of us ever knew. And she shows it as she tears back the veiled curtain of false memory, myth and disinformation to lay bare before us the strange, eerie and eccentric story of the Rolling Stones. OK. Confession time., I'm a friend and former colleague of LAJ. Yet much like Gore Vidal when a friend of mine succeeds a bit of me dies, so I write a lot of this through envy-gritted teeth. She's brilliant. If you're a rock or pop aficionado(a) - and you don't have to be either to relish this book - look out for the writer's little touches, puns and wordplays like, of Anita Pallenberg and Keith Richards "joined at the hipness."
She litters clever but sharp phrases like that throughout, as diamonds strewn across parchment for us to savour. The book itself is meaty and mouth-watering. I grew up in the Stones era and was interviewed for this book. I thought I knew everything there was to know about them. It was clear I knew bugger all.
The Stone Age is as searing, flesh-stripping, explosive and inflammatory as napalm. LAJ leaves no Stone unturned, and what crawls out from under the rocks is frequently repellent. Future students doing their dissertations on rock music of the 20th and 21st centuries will be poring over this by then dusty volume, when both the Stones and the book's writer are ashes to ashes and dust to dust themselves, It's the go-to account of not just the Rolling Stones but the ten decades in which they performed. Lesley-Ann Jones manages to destroy some of the myth, yet miraculously none of the magic, Read it and you'll never be able to look at or listen to the Rolling Stones again in the same way. What a band! What a writer! What a story! What a book!
Jones both chews the Stones into gravel while at the same time totally analysing and acknowledging their undeniable talent. She does it with the forensic skill of a former Fleet Street magazine journalist, TV personality and rock chick. She knew the stars and partied until many a dawn with them. Add to that the flair and finesse of what I happen to believe is the best female writer (maybe just writer - of either gender) in Britain today and you've got a smash hit. The book is majestic. It's a masterpiece.
LAJ has forgotten more about the rock world than most of us ever knew. And she shows it as she tears back the veiled curtain of false memory, myth and disinformation to lay bare before us the strange, eerie and eccentric story of the Rolling Stones. OK. Confession time., I'm a friend and former colleague of LAJ. Yet much like Gore Vidal when a friend of mine succeeds a bit of me dies, so I write a lot of this through envy-gritted teeth. She's brilliant. If you're a rock or pop aficionado(a) - and you don't have to be either to relish this book - look out for the writer's little touches, puns and wordplays like, of Anita Pallenberg and Keith Richards "joined at the hipness."
She litters clever but sharp phrases like that throughout, as diamonds strewn across parchment for us to savour. The book itself is meaty and mouth-watering. I grew up in the Stones era and was interviewed for this book. I thought I knew everything there was to know about them. It was clear I knew bugger all.
The Stone Age is as searing, flesh-stripping, explosive and inflammatory as napalm. LAJ leaves no Stone unturned, and what crawls out from under the rocks is frequently repellent. Future students doing their dissertations on rock music of the 20th and 21st centuries will be poring over this by then dusty volume, when both the Stones and the book's writer are ashes to ashes and dust to dust themselves, It's the go-to account of not just the Rolling Stones but the ten decades in which they performed. Lesley-Ann Jones manages to destroy some of the myth, yet miraculously none of the magic, Read it and you'll never be able to look at or listen to the Rolling Stones again in the same way. What a band! What a writer! What a story! What a book!
April 23, 2024
Sadly a very disappointing read. Some good stuff here, she makes attempts to get under the skin of some of the great recording moments, but overall this wasn’t the book I wanted it to be. Probably just not the Stones book for me though, I’m sure others will enjoy it.
December 17, 2022
Basic Mick hack job. Her overture is the opening narrative describing Jerry Hall’s wedding to Rupert Murdoch as Jerry’s revenge upon Mick. I’d be inclined view it as the reverse, but maybe money actually is everything, I dunno.
Ms. Jones describes ticket prices for the Fall 1969 US tour as exorbitant, but even taking fifty years of inflation into account, $25 to see Terry Reid, B B King, Ike and Tina and The Rolling Sones doesn’t seem awful in an era when the Grateful Dead cost $5.
Ignorant quote: “We’re talking 1969, an era when racism was still rife in the backward Californian provinces,” p 181. Love being called a racist by a white English rock journalist. Provincial I can live with. Oh, and she brings in “consultant psychotherapist Richard Hughes” to analyze Mick and Bianca’s marriage. Presumably he has never met either one of them. Oh, he throws in a little Jerry Hall analysis as well. Why not?
So why put up with this junk? Well, for a lot of us, The Rolling Stones are music. Just music flat out.
I might have been 12 when I first heard them. I had a poster of them on my wall (with Brian) when I was in High School. I started playing guitar after I bought Ry Cooler’s first album, which I bought because of his work on “Banquet” and “Bleed.” After I listened to “Police Dog Blues” and “Dark is The Night” I decided I needed to learn how to play the guitar. That started a long term, life time, really, infatuation with Blind Blake. (All respect to Rev. Johnson, but slide guitar is kind of a specialty). I’ll be 72 years old soon.
And so, at the library, “Stones, huh?” and you pick it up. They turned a lot of us on to African American music, which they had to, you know, us being racist, them being English and enlightened and not racist and all. The music is ignored more completely in this book than in any Stone bio I’ve come across, but, don’t despair ladies and gentlemen, there is a “Stones Women” list. I’m serious, an actual body count, naming names. Good Lord.
There is chapter about Michele Breton, the skinny, boyish French girl in “Performance.” The Sixties were awful, Ms. Jones has got that right. Less right is her not knowing Mick performed at “Live Aid” (with Tina Turner-a little hard to miss) and seems to think Francis Ford Coppola directed the “seminal”(?!) Robert Redford “Gatsby.” If she is blatantly inaccurate regarding common cultural knowledge, why trust her regarding inherently private matters? And you would think someone casually handing out racism demerits on p. 181 would tread lightly around “Gone With The Wind” on p. 226. In Chapter 18, on page 252, compare her bio of L’Wren to Wikipedia. Wikipedia thinks Scott was married twice before she became involved with Jagger, Ms. Jones cites only one. At this point my money’s on Wiki.
Is this an English rock journalist thing? Relentless attacks on your subject and jaw dropping inaccuracies? I read a Jim Morrison bio a few years back by “England’s foremost rock critic” who (1) obsessively referred to Morrison as fat and, (2) referred to “The End” as the first long rock song. “Desolation Row” does not ring a bell with England’s foremost rock critic? How about any of the lesser English rock critics? They ever hear it?
Oh, and Ms. Jones absolves herself of any wrongdoing in the Bill Wyman-Mandy Smith deal, employing an entertaining and unique mixture of breast beating and name dropping.
Ah, the English. So cultured. So, I don’t know-refined? Yeah, that’s it. Refined.
Ms. Jones describes ticket prices for the Fall 1969 US tour as exorbitant, but even taking fifty years of inflation into account, $25 to see Terry Reid, B B King, Ike and Tina and The Rolling Sones doesn’t seem awful in an era when the Grateful Dead cost $5.
Ignorant quote: “We’re talking 1969, an era when racism was still rife in the backward Californian provinces,” p 181. Love being called a racist by a white English rock journalist. Provincial I can live with. Oh, and she brings in “consultant psychotherapist Richard Hughes” to analyze Mick and Bianca’s marriage. Presumably he has never met either one of them. Oh, he throws in a little Jerry Hall analysis as well. Why not?
So why put up with this junk? Well, for a lot of us, The Rolling Stones are music. Just music flat out.
I might have been 12 when I first heard them. I had a poster of them on my wall (with Brian) when I was in High School. I started playing guitar after I bought Ry Cooler’s first album, which I bought because of his work on “Banquet” and “Bleed.” After I listened to “Police Dog Blues” and “Dark is The Night” I decided I needed to learn how to play the guitar. That started a long term, life time, really, infatuation with Blind Blake. (All respect to Rev. Johnson, but slide guitar is kind of a specialty). I’ll be 72 years old soon.
And so, at the library, “Stones, huh?” and you pick it up. They turned a lot of us on to African American music, which they had to, you know, us being racist, them being English and enlightened and not racist and all. The music is ignored more completely in this book than in any Stone bio I’ve come across, but, don’t despair ladies and gentlemen, there is a “Stones Women” list. I’m serious, an actual body count, naming names. Good Lord.
There is chapter about Michele Breton, the skinny, boyish French girl in “Performance.” The Sixties were awful, Ms. Jones has got that right. Less right is her not knowing Mick performed at “Live Aid” (with Tina Turner-a little hard to miss) and seems to think Francis Ford Coppola directed the “seminal”(?!) Robert Redford “Gatsby.” If she is blatantly inaccurate regarding common cultural knowledge, why trust her regarding inherently private matters? And you would think someone casually handing out racism demerits on p. 181 would tread lightly around “Gone With The Wind” on p. 226. In Chapter 18, on page 252, compare her bio of L’Wren to Wikipedia. Wikipedia thinks Scott was married twice before she became involved with Jagger, Ms. Jones cites only one. At this point my money’s on Wiki.
Is this an English rock journalist thing? Relentless attacks on your subject and jaw dropping inaccuracies? I read a Jim Morrison bio a few years back by “England’s foremost rock critic” who (1) obsessively referred to Morrison as fat and, (2) referred to “The End” as the first long rock song. “Desolation Row” does not ring a bell with England’s foremost rock critic? How about any of the lesser English rock critics? They ever hear it?
Oh, and Ms. Jones absolves herself of any wrongdoing in the Bill Wyman-Mandy Smith deal, employing an entertaining and unique mixture of breast beating and name dropping.
Ah, the English. So cultured. So, I don’t know-refined? Yeah, that’s it. Refined.
June 9, 2022
Lesley-Ann Jones has once again bounded ahead of other biographical authors with her latest work, The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones, which, published only today, is as up-to-date and accurate as is possible at this moment.
I had the pleasure of being sent an advance review of this book, and devoured it. I'm not a big fan of the Stones (more of a Beatles girl myself!) but I did truly enjoy this one, and think it is a must-read/have for any and all fans, old or new.
Lesley-Ann has such a unique way of writing; it is more like reading a monologue, or having a one-way conversation with her. She is sharing with you her knowledge, infused with funny anecdotes and memories of a life well-lived on Fleet Street, meeting many household names - including Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger's 1960s beau.
I found the Stone Age to be a refreshing read, and a light one. Whilst at times Lesley-Ann can perhaps show off too much knowledge or go off on a tangent, it is clear that she knows her subject inside out and has had a blast gathering the material, and indeed the words, to write about them.
When I interviewed Lesley-Ann in 2020 following the release of her biography on John Lennon, she said: [when writing a biography of an artist], "[you] should only write about individuals you feel passionate about, whose music you love or whose work you admire, and who you genuinely want to get to know. Don't do it for the money, but because you genuinely want to. Because the thought of not doing it fills you with dread." It comes through in her writing that she has stuck to her own advice here, and that she is and has been full of passion.
I had the pleasure of being sent an advance review of this book, and devoured it. I'm not a big fan of the Stones (more of a Beatles girl myself!) but I did truly enjoy this one, and think it is a must-read/have for any and all fans, old or new.
Lesley-Ann has such a unique way of writing; it is more like reading a monologue, or having a one-way conversation with her. She is sharing with you her knowledge, infused with funny anecdotes and memories of a life well-lived on Fleet Street, meeting many household names - including Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger's 1960s beau.
I found the Stone Age to be a refreshing read, and a light one. Whilst at times Lesley-Ann can perhaps show off too much knowledge or go off on a tangent, it is clear that she knows her subject inside out and has had a blast gathering the material, and indeed the words, to write about them.
When I interviewed Lesley-Ann in 2020 following the release of her biography on John Lennon, she said: [when writing a biography of an artist], "[you] should only write about individuals you feel passionate about, whose music you love or whose work you admire, and who you genuinely want to get to know. Don't do it for the money, but because you genuinely want to. Because the thought of not doing it fills you with dread." It comes through in her writing that she has stuck to her own advice here, and that she is and has been full of passion.
August 26, 2022
Utterly engrossing and very well written biography of the World’s Greatest Rock ‘N’ Roll band. Having been a huge fan since 1964, and having devoured every book about The Rolling Stones that I could get my hands on, I had very “Mixed Emotions” about this one. Author Lesley-Ann Jones uncovers many disturbing and less than flattering facts about the band. As Mick himself quipped upon being inducted into the Rock Hall in 1989, The Rolling Stones were being rewarded for (then) 25 years of bad behavior. No one can argue the fact that they are the epitome of everything “Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll.”
For better or for worse, I love The Rolling Stones and they will forever be “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band In the World!”
For better or for worse, I love The Rolling Stones and they will forever be “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band In the World!”
April 24, 2024
The title of this book is a bit misleading, as it’s not really about the 60 years of the band The Rolling Stones. Instead, it’s a brutally honest, somewhat scathing telling of the stories of the individual members of the group. The specialty of this telling, is that the arc of the story is predominantly grounded from the perspectives of the (many) women who became entangled with these otherworldly rock stars, rather than their forgiving, adoring fans. In other words, the content and tone of the book is not clouded by the glitz and glamor of its subjects - it’s an evenhanded, forthcoming portrayal of pioneering and living the rock star lifestyle for 60 years.
April 12, 2025
A rare biography that goes as far as it can from being a hageography. the author, a rock and roll journalist has been part of the scene for fifty odd years and skewers the Stones one by one, bringing out their worst misdemeanor and crimes. As a lifelong fan, I cringed at a hundred places. An indepth view of what the band was and still is, the only thing lacking was a deeper view on the music.
15 years ago I read Life by Keith Richards, this serves as a good companion piece but read Keef's book first. It is raw, unfiltered, doesnt spare his bandmates but also talks more indulgently about the roots of the music.
15 years ago I read Life by Keith Richards, this serves as a good companion piece but read Keef's book first. It is raw, unfiltered, doesnt spare his bandmates but also talks more indulgently about the roots of the music.
August 8, 2023
Don't waste your money buying this. Much better biographies on the band out there. This reads like tabloid trash to be honest. I will give credit where credit is due, she does focus a bit on the women that were treated poorly, and does go into length about the appalling situation and abuse of Mandy. Otherwise, it's a waste to read if you are a fan, or like biographies.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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February 15, 2023An interesting survey of the Stones' long reign as rock stars. I enjoyed it, but found the earlier parts of the book - where the author weaves the Stones around their relationships with other bands - to be far more compelling.
September 6, 2022
Lots of sex and drugs.
Very little about Rock and Roll.
Okay read if you're into gossip.
Very little about Rock and Roll.
Okay read if you're into gossip.
September 26, 2022
Irreverent, disdainful, rife with errors, albeit entertaining
October 31, 2022
Absolutely horrid
March 12, 2023
Not worth finishing.
November 20, 2023
Nedobrý bulvárik.
April 8, 2024
Wow, mogu samo reći da je Mik daleko manje simpatičan privatno nego što sam očekivao. Ali knjiga daje jako fin uvid u njihovi istoriju tako da sa te strane preporuka.
Cheers.
Cheers.
April 23, 2024
Very disjointed
July 22, 2024
Poštena knjiga. Naracija i nije neka kao ni stil. Ni ja ne volim Stounse.
January 2, 2025
3.5 stars
September 10, 2024
Pročitajte prikaz knjige na mom blogu:
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December 23, 2025
This is the second Rolling Stones book I’ve read in two years, having finished ‘Life’ (Keef’s autobiography) last year. This is, understandably, somewhat different… This book broadly probes just two key themes: i) How blues music was the foundation of the world’s greatest rock band, and ii) All the facets of Mr Jagger’s character that the author finds objectionable - and there are many.
The first of these themes is driven by fact, and perhaps that’s why the narrative ends pretty abruptly at p.272, then switching into a listing of the great and good of the blues from c.1873 onwards. As for the first 272 pages, well that’s largely a salacious excavation of the author’s second theme, along with a deep-dive into the sex lives of all the various Stones. And a (rather long) list of all those bedded (both male and female), at least those which the author feels she can name, and appearing as an appendix at the end.
So if you’re hardcore blues, this book is probably worthy of your time; and if you’re hardcore on the other stuff, it’s probably a mandatory read.
If you’re not particularly either, then it’s ok. After all, you can’t always get what you want….
The first of these themes is driven by fact, and perhaps that’s why the narrative ends pretty abruptly at p.272, then switching into a listing of the great and good of the blues from c.1873 onwards. As for the first 272 pages, well that’s largely a salacious excavation of the author’s second theme, along with a deep-dive into the sex lives of all the various Stones. And a (rather long) list of all those bedded (both male and female), at least those which the author feels she can name, and appearing as an appendix at the end.
So if you’re hardcore blues, this book is probably worthy of your time; and if you’re hardcore on the other stuff, it’s probably a mandatory read.
If you’re not particularly either, then it’s ok. After all, you can’t always get what you want….
February 24, 2023
I've been a fan of The Rolling Stones for most of my life and thought I knew everything there was to know about them. That was until I read 'The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones' by Lesley-Ann Jones.
This isn't about the music the band made, this is about the lives of 'The Stones' told in a way that you almost feel as though you know them all personally by the last page. I discovered quite a few things I have never before read about them, a fascinating page-turner like any great book should be.
Interesting story about Mick Taylor that I was surprised about, I can't say what it is here, you will have to read the book. As with a band as big and infamous as the Rolling Stones, there is no doubt going to be some hefty baggage they've picked up along the way over the years. It makes for interesting reading and when it's written in a way that this author has a talent for, (I've read her books on Bowie, Bolan Lennon and Freddie Mercury), it makes for a great read.
This isn't about the music the band made, this is about the lives of 'The Stones' told in a way that you almost feel as though you know them all personally by the last page. I discovered quite a few things I have never before read about them, a fascinating page-turner like any great book should be.
Interesting story about Mick Taylor that I was surprised about, I can't say what it is here, you will have to read the book. As with a band as big and infamous as the Rolling Stones, there is no doubt going to be some hefty baggage they've picked up along the way over the years. It makes for interesting reading and when it's written in a way that this author has a talent for, (I've read her books on Bowie, Bolan Lennon and Freddie Mercury), it makes for a great read.
March 15, 2023
This would be an excellent history of the Stones if it weren't for the tone of the entire thing. Baseless speculation, armchair psychology, and thinly veiled bitchery are very much the order of the day here.
I guess you can take the writer out of the tabloid...
I guess you can take the writer out of the tabloid...
April 11, 2023
You can read my review (in Slovene) here http://maticpise.com/2023/04/11/obdob...
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