Life in Pick-a-Shelf

Jul 31, 2011 Sunflower rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-read-2011

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones'. Ive heard that for forty-odd years, but the minute I'm out there and hit that first note, whatever it is, it's like I was driving a Datsun and suddenly it's a Ferrari.....It's like sitting on top of a rocket".
Keith Richards: rock star, reformed drug addict, songwriter, father, mate, and larrikin, gives his version of the events since he was a small boy. It was presumably written by the co-author, but it sounds like his language and his voice, as if he "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones'. Ive heard that for forty-odd years, but the minute I'm out there and hit that first note, whatever it is, it's like I was driving a Datsun and suddenly it's a Ferrari.....It's like sitting on top of a rocket".
Keith Richards: rock star, reformed drug addict, songwriter, father, mate, and larrikin, gives his version of the events since he was a small boy. It was presumably written by the co-author, but it sounds like his language and his voice, as if he had spoken this book into a tape recorder and not much had been altered. Interspersed with his story are inserts written by other people-mostly famous and recognisable people-who enlarge on his version of events. This even includes the neurosurgeon who treated him in Auckland after his head injury in Fiji.
What really comes through in this book is that everything he does stems from his love of music; ("People say, 'Why don't you give it up?' I can't retire until I croak. I'm not doing this just for the money or for you, I'm doing it for me.") I can't personally play the guitar, but I am sure that anyone who does would appreciate this book on a whole extra level, as there is a lot of technical guitar talk. It just adds to the authenticity. He talks about his beginnings -listening to records and trying to work out how the blues players produced their sounds-creative process-an interesting and apparently random thing- his struggle with heroin, his relationships with women and with other famous musicians including the Beatles. His relationship with Mick Jagger comes in for special attention.
The general tone of the book is that of a boy from humble beginnings who is still amazed that he can write and play music and get paid for it. He's worked hard and he's played hard, and by the end of the book you feel like you've had a good glimpse of what an amazing ride it's been for him.
I found it a little difficult to get into, but then difficult to put down. [He does, however,lose a few points for his description of my home city, Dunedin. He didn't like it here at all!]
It certainly made me go to the computer and pull up old Stones tracks on YouTube to hear them again after hearing the inside story. Hey, I'll probably go out and buy some more of their music as well! ...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Booknblues rated it really liked it

Shelves: music, nonfiction, memoir

For many of us, the Rolling Stones provided the background sound of our lives and I certainly include myself in this group. I loved the irreverance and in your face sound that they provided and the blues as they certainly were a factor in my love of blues music.

I was surprised by the care and detail which Richards provided to the story of his life. In an interview Richards always seems so blase' and devil may care, but in his autobiograph while often irreverant, humorous and blunt and was produc ...more

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