The Rolling Stones -- "the forbidden fruit"

I am still fascinated by this group, The Rolling Stones, who have stayed together and played together for 50 years -- since I was 11 years old! That was 1962 when they first performed together.  And what made them such "forbidden fruit" (in the eyes of our parents or other adults in authority) to many of us young pre teens?

Well -- I was really excited and fascinated and amazed by the inside story as told by Keith Richards -- The Rolling Stones guitarist.  I was fortunate to find the audio book at the Toronto Public Library (thank goodness for our libraries which continue to serve us despite our current mayor's attempts to get rid of some of them -- but that is another story!!). 

The book "LIFE" by Keith Richards is his autobiography -- told in frank, raw, brutally open and honest language. And humour. His humour is -- well -- really funny! He even manages to make getting arrested, with a car full of drugs, in the US bible belt incredibly humorous.

"LIFE" also goes into great detail about the music itself -- how the Stones created their unique and compelling sound. There is also great detail about song writing -- how he did it, how Mick did it, how they collaborated. I was also curious and fascinated to learn more about the details of some of their more controversial songs like "Sympathy for the Devil" (which I really like!).  The book has tons of inside info about the music business, life on the road, the inner workings of a drug addict, the challenges and pain of "cold turkey" withdrawal. And it was really fun to read the descriptions of his (Keith's) friendships with people like John Lennon, Etta James, Chuck Berry.... I came away feeling like I knew all of these people on a much more human level.

Check out this video of Rock and Roll Music for Etta James, Chuck Berry and Keith Richards together, at their best. I love this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U4x9mQ5K0s


I didn't mean to make this sound like a book review, but clearly this book was really exciting to me -- and what a treat to my inner teen age self to finally be able to indulge in this "forbidden fruit" of The Rolling Stones and their music to my heart's (and possibly other parts of my anatomy's!!) content.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in their younger days

Mick and Keith -- a little more recently!

I highly recommend the audio version of this book. Some of it is in Keith's own words and voice. He has other readers like Johnny Dep helping out since it is very long -- over 20 hours of listening, but believe me, not a boring moment in the whole book!!

That's my tribute to The Rolling Stones for tonight! For some other great Rolling Stones videos and info, check out my previous blog.

Barbara