Book Review: Life - Keith Richards

Keith Richards, guitar player for the Rolling Stones has published his autobiography entitled “Life”. I expected the book to be vague/hazy on many aspects of the Stones and heavily ghosted to boot.

Was I surprised – this book is incredibly interesting and full of stories from Keith. Some of the things I enjoyed include:

  • His stories and observations about the social upheavals of the late 60s/early 70s quite interesting. The Stones were constantly harassed by the Establishment at the time. Keith points out that the authorities were threatened by the band, which he found quite odd.
  • Mick Taylor, Mick Taylor, Mick Taylor
  • Long study of American blues including details about various musicians of the genre and era. Really interesting
  • Making http://amzn.to/eCBqI3 ">Exile on Main Street – read a lot about this when it re-released recently, but learned even more.
  • Wingless Angels and Keith Richards solo (X-Pensive Winos)

As expected, lots of complaints about Mick – zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

As I read the book, I would periodically take a break and watch Stones videos on PersistentFan.com  Made the book that much better :-)

Overall, great book. The best musician autobiography I’ve read in a while. Definitely queue up all the Stones discs with Mick Taylor to listen to while you read.