Ben’s review of True Adventures of the Rolling Stones > Likes and Comments
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Before you pass such a harsh judgement on Stanley Booth, you ought to read Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South. While I agree with you that 'Dance With The Devil/True Adventures of the Rolling Stones' did not come anywhere near living up to its promise (never mind the hype), and while, yes, it is sad, you have to remember that this was his first book, and he took a damned long time to write it. I have a suspicion that he might have 'perfected' this book to death, probably because at the time he was too young & high to know any better. He writes beautiful prose, though, does he not?
Yeah he writes good, but so do a heap of folks. Thing is, sometimes I feel like music writers should just stick to the facts. Me, I just want to know what happened. But sure, why not, I'll look out for Rythm Oil. Anything on Muscle Shoals in it, or is it mostly blues and country?
I don't remember if he wrote anything about Muscle Shoals in that book; it's mostly blues and r & b, with a little bit of jazz and rock'n'roll... That actually brings to mind another book I think you might really enjoy: It Came From Memphis. I know that one has some stories about Muscle Shoals in it, and the book is so good that after I read it the first time, I started all over and read it again...
Cool, I hope you like it. I followed the link on your page & listened to your music, by the way; not bad at all, particularly given that they're just demos- you are a damned good songwriter. It's too bad we live on opposite sides of the world, otherwise I'd suggest that we might jam at some point.
Ah man, thanks, that warms my heart. I haven't been playing much lately but on the weekend my girlfriend and I put on a party for her 40th and I got to kick out the jams a little with my best friend & long-time collaborator who'd flown 2000kms for the occasion. It was good, if he did get so drunk he fell over in a puddle just before going onstage and then forgot his cues. But I feel the energy growing again...
I notice you're from Detroit, and that is one place I've been interested in for a while, so you never know. I went there for a week back in 2000 and we just drove around checking stuff out. I like how stuff happens there off-the-radar, in ruined old buildings, etc. Coming from Australia, I like anywhere that isn't coated and suffocated with bureaucracy.
That's actually pretty funny, about bureaucracy... At the moment, my wife and I are trapped in the suburbs (we are right down the street from the White Castle where Wayne Kramer talked Rob Tyner into singing for the MC5) and cannot wait to move back into the city; escaping bureaucracy is one of the main reasons. If you happen to come here again, let me know & I'll at least buy you a pint or whatever. Sadly, I know what you mean about not playing lately; my own best friend & partner in crime unfortunately died this past December. I haven't played a gig since the end of 1997, and it had been almost as long for him. We had planned to spend most of January in the studio, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
Whoa, that is BIG. I'm so sorry to hear that, man.
In terms of gigging, I've played a few desultory, half-assed shows over the years but what really got me back into it was going to Manchester a few years back - not cos Manchester's anything special these days, but cos it made me collaborate with new people. I hate to say look on the bright side about something so sad, but maybe with your friend gone you'll find the same.
Any chance of getting in the studio by yourself? Or setting up something at home? I've got this cheesy $100 Dr Rhythm drum machine that keeps me company sometimes. That and a mic and an analogue 4-track can serve as a decent sketchpad.
And yeah, I'll have that beer with you. I've made a couple of Philadelphian friends on this site too and wanna visit them sometime, and I wanna go back and see what they've made out of Pittsburgh since I was last there. And I've always wanted to explore the Rockies more - Boise Idaho, I heard years ago, had some kind of scene.
I read the book for the first time twenty years ago, and then I did a re-reading recently. I felt it then and I felt it now. Booth is an engaging writer, but he doesn't get the music. Like at all. His descriptions are laughable. Mick Taylor making "terrible Bo Diddley sounds", Keith playing a solo "with a scream hidden in it" or suchlike. When he describes rehearsals, one gets the sense that the Stones were fairly uninspired musicians, and not the creative powerhouse one finds in the Maysles documentary or the recordings from the tour.
Hey Anandaroop, sorry I didn't see your comment till now, I was away from a computer. It's a while since I've read this now but yeah, I certainly got the feeling Booth was chasing something else besides the essence of the music. Like he was fascinated by the power the Stones wielded or their potential significance as a cultural force, but seemed not to really hear them, or if he did hear them, to think their music was worth examining. I'd forgotten about the Bo Diddley comment though. I mean, I like Bo Diddley, but it's hard to imagine Mick Taylor ever sounding that clumsy!
To a degree, I share Booth's fascination with the Stones as a phenomenon, but then Booth's book also cured me of that fascination to an extent, because it all seemed so dull at the centre of that vortex. He's a good writer though, for sure. I preferred bits of Rythm Oil, when I finally got to it.
Thanks for the comment!
Ben wrote: "Hey Anandaroop, sorry I didn't see your comment till now, I was away from a computer. It's a while since I've read this now but yeah, I certainly got the feeling Booth was chasing something else be..."
They really should introduce some sort of tagging system on Goodreads, and I am reading your comment today in a strange, changed world. Hope you, and everyone you care about, are safe and well.
Yeah I’ve frequently missed comments for numbers of years on Goodreads myself. As to the rest, changed world is right. I’m safe and sound in North Queensland myself (Covid barely touched us here), but on the move as of today. How about you?
I am in India. We are just about beginning to see the second wave, but they have made a pretty strong push with vaccines where I am, so hopefully that will have some sort of effect. Safe travels to you.
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Liam
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May 31, 2013 12:09AM
Before you pass such a harsh judgement on Stanley Booth, you ought to read Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South. While I agree with you that 'Dance With The Devil/True Adventures of the Rolling Stones' did not come anywhere near living up to its promise (never mind the hype), and while, yes, it is sad, you have to remember that this was his first book, and he took a damned long time to write it. I have a suspicion that he might have 'perfected' this book to death, probably because at the time he was too young & high to know any better. He writes beautiful prose, though, does he not?
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Yeah he writes good, but so do a heap of folks. Thing is, sometimes I feel like music writers should just stick to the facts. Me, I just want to know what happened. But sure, why not, I'll look out for Rythm Oil. Anything on Muscle Shoals in it, or is it mostly blues and country?
I don't remember if he wrote anything about Muscle Shoals in that book; it's mostly blues and r & b, with a little bit of jazz and rock'n'roll... That actually brings to mind another book I think you might really enjoy: It Came From Memphis. I know that one has some stories about Muscle Shoals in it, and the book is so good that after I read it the first time, I started all over and read it again...
Cool, I hope you like it. I followed the link on your page & listened to your music, by the way; not bad at all, particularly given that they're just demos- you are a damned good songwriter. It's too bad we live on opposite sides of the world, otherwise I'd suggest that we might jam at some point.
Ah man, thanks, that warms my heart. I haven't been playing much lately but on the weekend my girlfriend and I put on a party for her 40th and I got to kick out the jams a little with my best friend & long-time collaborator who'd flown 2000kms for the occasion. It was good, if he did get so drunk he fell over in a puddle just before going onstage and then forgot his cues. But I feel the energy growing again...I notice you're from Detroit, and that is one place I've been interested in for a while, so you never know. I went there for a week back in 2000 and we just drove around checking stuff out. I like how stuff happens there off-the-radar, in ruined old buildings, etc. Coming from Australia, I like anywhere that isn't coated and suffocated with bureaucracy.
That's actually pretty funny, about bureaucracy... At the moment, my wife and I are trapped in the suburbs (we are right down the street from the White Castle where Wayne Kramer talked Rob Tyner into singing for the MC5) and cannot wait to move back into the city; escaping bureaucracy is one of the main reasons. If you happen to come here again, let me know & I'll at least buy you a pint or whatever. Sadly, I know what you mean about not playing lately; my own best friend & partner in crime unfortunately died this past December. I haven't played a gig since the end of 1997, and it had been almost as long for him. We had planned to spend most of January in the studio, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
Whoa, that is BIG. I'm so sorry to hear that, man. In terms of gigging, I've played a few desultory, half-assed shows over the years but what really got me back into it was going to Manchester a few years back - not cos Manchester's anything special these days, but cos it made me collaborate with new people. I hate to say look on the bright side about something so sad, but maybe with your friend gone you'll find the same.
Any chance of getting in the studio by yourself? Or setting up something at home? I've got this cheesy $100 Dr Rhythm drum machine that keeps me company sometimes. That and a mic and an analogue 4-track can serve as a decent sketchpad.
And yeah, I'll have that beer with you. I've made a couple of Philadelphian friends on this site too and wanna visit them sometime, and I wanna go back and see what they've made out of Pittsburgh since I was last there. And I've always wanted to explore the Rockies more - Boise Idaho, I heard years ago, had some kind of scene.
I read the book for the first time twenty years ago, and then I did a re-reading recently. I felt it then and I felt it now. Booth is an engaging writer, but he doesn't get the music. Like at all. His descriptions are laughable. Mick Taylor making "terrible Bo Diddley sounds", Keith playing a solo "with a scream hidden in it" or suchlike. When he describes rehearsals, one gets the sense that the Stones were fairly uninspired musicians, and not the creative powerhouse one finds in the Maysles documentary or the recordings from the tour.
Hey Anandaroop, sorry I didn't see your comment till now, I was away from a computer. It's a while since I've read this now but yeah, I certainly got the feeling Booth was chasing something else besides the essence of the music. Like he was fascinated by the power the Stones wielded or their potential significance as a cultural force, but seemed not to really hear them, or if he did hear them, to think their music was worth examining. I'd forgotten about the Bo Diddley comment though. I mean, I like Bo Diddley, but it's hard to imagine Mick Taylor ever sounding that clumsy!To a degree, I share Booth's fascination with the Stones as a phenomenon, but then Booth's book also cured me of that fascination to an extent, because it all seemed so dull at the centre of that vortex. He's a good writer though, for sure. I preferred bits of Rythm Oil, when I finally got to it.
Thanks for the comment!
Ben wrote: "Hey Anandaroop, sorry I didn't see your comment till now, I was away from a computer. It's a while since I've read this now but yeah, I certainly got the feeling Booth was chasing something else be..."They really should introduce some sort of tagging system on Goodreads, and I am reading your comment today in a strange, changed world. Hope you, and everyone you care about, are safe and well.
Yeah I’ve frequently missed comments for numbers of years on Goodreads myself. As to the rest, changed world is right. I’m safe and sound in North Queensland myself (Covid barely touched us here), but on the move as of today. How about you?
I am in India. We are just about beginning to see the second wave, but they have made a pretty strong push with vaccines where I am, so hopefully that will have some sort of effect. Safe travels to you.
