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Not fade away
Not fade away
 GOOD TIMES, BAD TIMES: By Terry Rawlings & Keith Badman Complete Music Publications, £17.99 (Non-fiction) ISBN 0 9517206 7 8 |
 SEINE MOMENT: Watts, Jagger and Richards in Paris in 1965, working up to "excess in all areas" | |||
| The Rolling Stones began | band, but Mick and Keith have | journey on an all-too-familiar high- | ||
| while John F. Kennedy was | struggled for control over three | way. Nominally a study of Jagger | ||
| President. They were having | decades and it is this which results | and his women, it's a stale tale of | ||
| hits before BBC2 went on | in much of the intrigue and tension, | Marianne, drugs, groupies and sex. | ||
| air, and had already established | with Jagger and Richard battling | The whole of Jackson's 250-odd | ||
| themselves as "the world's greatest | for the heart and soul of the Stones | pages could be distilled into Bianca | ||
| rock'n'roll band" by the time Mc- | while all around chaos reigns. | Jagger's comment: "Mick doesn't | ||
| Donald's arrived in Britain. But for | Never was that chaos more | think much of women." | ||
| all their longevity the Stones have | apparent than when the Stones hit | Steve Appleford's It's Only | ||
| become synonymous with the Six- | the road, and A Journey Through | Rock'n'Roll: The Stories Behind | ||
| ties, and it is a riveting day-by-day | America with the Rolling Stones by | Every Song (Carlton, E17.99, ISBN 1 | ||
| account of that decade which is | Robert Greenfield (Helter Skelter, | 85868 345 9), on the other hand, is | ||
| chronicled in Good Times, Bad | E12, ISBN 1 900924 01 3) is a | an engaging chronicle of the Roll- | ||
| Times: The Definitive Diary of the | compelling account of the Stones | ing Stones's music, the yardstick by | ||
| Rolling Stones, 1960-1969. | trashing America during 1972, gen- | which the band will always be | ||
| Excerpts from the diary of former | erally encouraging excess in all | measured. Theirs is an unbeatable | ||
| minder Tom Keylock add a fasci- | areas. The band, already a cyno- | back catalogue, a die-hard fan's | ||
| nating fly-on-the-wall account of | sure for rebellion, were taking | dream, encompassing blues, R&B, | ||
| the band's naughtiness, despite his | everything to the limit. Keith Rich- | folk, country and disco. Along the | ||
| strangely pedantic translations | ards was on short odds back then, | way, Appleford's account is pep- | ||
| such as "bird (girl)" and "Keith | but the man who was processing | pered with snappy soundbites: | ||
| accuses Dylan of taking the piss | more chemicals than ICI seems in | "Keith is the original punk rocker," | ||
| (making them look like idiots)". The | fine fettle today. Greenfield was | smiled Mick. "You can't out-punk | ||
| book is also boosted by a priceless | also dining with the devil on a short | Keith. It's pointless." | ||
| selection of photographs and mem- | spoon, sampling the same exotic | Last word to Keith on a relation- | ||
| orabilia, a beguiling blend of the | voodoo soup as the Stones. He was | ship which, we learn from Good | ||
| trivial (for Keith Richards, Inver- | allowed the sort of access that | Times, Bad Times, began on | ||
| cargill, New Zealand, was "the | journalists can only dream of | Dartford Station on Tuesday, Octo- | ||
| arsehole of the world") and the | today, but the big question, in 1972 | ber 25, 1960. "When I was a junkie, | ||
| intriguing (the title of Their Satanic | as now, was: `can the Stones keep | I used to be able to play tennis with | ||
| Majesties Request was a pun on the | on rolling?' | Mick, go to the toilet for a quick fix, | ||
| wording of British passports). | Laura Jackson's Heart of Stone: | and still beat him." | ||
| The internal dynamics of the | The Unauthorised Life of Mick | |||
| Stones are eternally fascinating. In | Jagger (Smith Gryphon, E15.99, | Patrick Humphries | ||
| the beginning it was Brian Jones's | ISBN 1 85685 131 1) is a weary | |||
| ‘The Times’, | ||||
| November 22, 1997 | ||||