The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones

by Stanley Booth, Greil Marcus (Foreword by)

Overview

Stanley Booth, a member of the Rolling Stones’ inner circle, met the band just a few months before Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1968. He lived with them throughout their 1969 tour across the United States, staying up all night together listening to blues, talking about music, ingesting drugs, and consorting with groupies. His thrilling account culminates with their final concert at Altamont Speedway—a nightmare of beating, stabbing, and killing that would signal the end of a generation’s dreams of peace and freedom. But while this book renders in fine detail the entire history of the Stones, paying special attention to the tragedy of Brian Jones, it is about much more than a writer and a rock band. It has been called—by Harold Brodkey and Robert Stone, among others—the best book ever written about the 1960s. In Booth’s afterword, he finally explains why it took him 15 years to write the book, relating an astonishing story of drugs, jails, and disasters. Updated to include a foreword by Greil Marcus, this 30th anniversary edition is for Rolling Stones fans everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613747834
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/01/2014
Edition description:	Thirtieth Edition, 30th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	275,257
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Stanley Booth is the author of Keith: Till I Roll Over Dead and Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South. He has written for Esquire, Playboy, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Athens, Georgia. Greil Marcus is an author and music journalist who has worked for Creem, Rolling Stone, and the Village Voice. He lives in Berkeley, California.

What People are Saying About This

Keith Richards

Keith Richards

Stanley Booth's book is the only one I can read and say, "Yeah, that's how it was".

Robert Stone

Robert Stone

No work on the popular arts so faithfully serves its subject while unpretentiously succeeding in being about so much more.

Peter Guralnick

Peter Guralnick, author of Careless Love and Last Train to Memphis

The one authentic masterpiece of rock 'n' roll writing.

Editorial Reviews

"A vivid account of life on the edge."  —TheWeek.com

“[Stanley Booth’s] affection for the band did not keep him from writing about the seamy underside of the Stones’ world in the 1960s. . . . It is the only book about the Stones that I would recommend both to the general reader and to the most devoted fan. Both will find an epiphany on almost every page.”  —Robert Palmer, New York Times Book Review

“If you’ve never bought a book about rock and roll, no matter—this is the one you’ve been waiting for.”  —Playboy

“Astonishing . . . part oral history and part midnight diary in a world where midnight goes on forever.”  —Los Angeles Reader


“Shattering. . . . Booth has found his voice and momentum with a pitch and passion I’ve never seen equaled in pop journalism. . . . His book outdistances anything the Stones have wrought since Let It Bleed.”  —Mikal Gilmore, Los Angeles Herald Examiner

“Booth’s strong, sound prose brings to life the out-of-control process through which an age intoxicated by its own passions found a hard-driving music to live hard by. In all the annals of the 1960s, there is nothing on paper that so evokes those days and nights.”  —Robert Stone, Salon

“By far the best book on its subject (including Richards’s own well received effort), Booth’s book is also easily the most convincing account of life inside the monster created by the rock revolution of the 1960s.”  —Richard Williams, Guardian

“The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is, simply put, one of those essential texts of music journalism. Groundbreaking, insightful, funny and tragic, it's a piece of reporting that could never take place today.” —The Houston Press

From the Publisher

Without a shadow of a doubt the best rock and roll story ever put to paper...If you buy one book on the Rolling Stones, you'd be a fool if this wasn't it.

Fat City

Two intriguing Rolling Stones books are recommended picks for any prior fan of the Stones: they each provide personal accounts by readers who were involved with the rock group. Stanley Booth's True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones gathers encounters of gigs, world tours, and backstage events, providing a powerful glimpse intothe personalities and characters of the Stones. Nakering With The Rolling Stones by James Phelge (373-4, $16.95) tells of the early days of the Rolling Stones by an author who lived with them for over a year when they were just getting famous. His story of his 1963 roommates also provides an intimate behind-the-scenes examination of the Stones. Both are eye-opening, going beyond the usual fan's eye-view to explore personal relationships with the Stones.
—Internet Book Watch

Internet Book Watch