Covers the Maryland Booth Family +! Kimmel is the greatest!! Wonderful pictures and well written! The second edition (Dover) is the best by far!!!!!!!

Talk about a masterpiece; this is one! Stanley Booth was a struggling rock journalist who managed, through persistent effort and good timing, to land a regular slot on the 1969 "Let It Bleed" tour of the Rolling Stones across these United States. What was supposed to be a simple, intelligent chronicle of a rock band's work became a chilling time capsule of the end of an era, and possibly, of a dream as well, when the band's disastrous appearance at the Altamont concert rang down the curtain on the Sixties hippie dream of world peace and brotherhood. This is not just a book detailing the Stones' many misadventures with the law, with drugs, with reckless groupies and sycophants and promoters, as you might expect; nor it is simply a grisly blow-by-blow of the tragic events of that December night in the northern California wilderness, when a vicious pack of Hells' Angels stabbed a young concertgoer to death, literally a few feet from where Mick Jagger sang "Gimme Shelter" and "Sympathy for the Devil" as Keith Richards and the other Stones churned out those classic songs behind him. You will find those contents in here, but they are only a fraction of the treasures this book contains. (Booth freely admits that his womanizing during this tour cost him his marriage, and he is as unsparing in his critiques of the Stones, whom he truly loves, as he is towards his own failings.) You can almost see, hear, feel the chaos, the majesty, the confusion, and the power of the events he's describing; each character comes wonderfully to life, through his use of interwoven, somewhat kaleidoscopic scene changes, flashbacks and flash-forwards, stream of consciousness and grimly bare-boned narrative. Brilliant, hilarious, loathsome, mesmerizing, harrowing, glorious...many such adjectives could apply to the events and personalities depicted in this epic book of rock excess and human misadventure. I'd like to write another review, just so I could give it five more reviews - it's that good!

Author Stanley Booth had the ultimate access to the Stones. He managed to get a contract for a book on the Band, found access, and convinced the Stones themselves to authorize his work as well as let him accompany them on the 69-70 tours, just before the infamous stuff of Altamont happened. By managing to last with the Stones, over time actually becoming one of the rare friends who could find and hang out with the Band members, he acquired an incredible store of tales, which he tells in a remarkably literary manner in this book. Using quotes from the likes of Norman Mailer, "Hambone," the Crystals, Cynthia Plastercaster (if you don't know about her, you really need to get this book), Booth clearly demonstrates his credentials as a serious author. The book benefits.....the best story of the writing of Satisfaction by the Holiday Inn pool in Clearwater is in here as are the tales of Mick and Keith's arrival at Altamont (not at all what you would suspect). All in all, this is one of the good ones and you can't go wrong by taking time to read it cover to cover.

What makes this book so amazing? Author Stanley Booth captures the most popular rock band of all time by actually being there with the band as a friend, through some of the most memorable moments in the history of music: Booth is there at Altamont when a spectator is killed by the Hell's Angels (and Booth appears in the movie on the concert), he's there when Jimi Hendrix is with the Rolling Stones backstage, he's there when Janis Joplin is playing before the Stones come on, he's there when the Stones are hanging out with Chuck Berry, he hangs out in a recording studio when the Stones record, and he goes to London to view Brian Jones' grave and goes to Jones' parents' home to interview them. Booth is like a ghost that will always be there in the soul of music and of the Rolling Stones. This book should be required reading in college writing courses to teach young writers how to write with excitement and reality. Every page is a masterpiece!

Talk about a masterpiece; this is one! Stanley Booth was a struggling rock journalist who managed, through persistent effort and good timing, to land a regular slot on the 1969 "Let It Bleed" tour of the Rolling Stones across these United States. What was supposed to be a simple, intelligent chronicle of a rock band's work became a chilling time capsule of the end of an era, and possibly, of a dream as well, when the band's disastrous appearance at the Altamont concert rang down the curtain on the Sixties hippie dream of world peace and brotherhood. This is not just a book detailing the Stones' many misadventures with the law, with drugs, with reckless groupies and sycophants and promoters, as you might expect; nor it is simply a grisly blow-by-blow of the tragic events of that December night in the northern California wilderness, when a vicious pack of Hells' Angels stabbed a young concertgoer to death, literally a few feet from where Mick Jagger sang "Gimme Shelter" and "Sympathy for the Devil" as Keith Richards and the other Stones churned out those classic songs behind him. You will find those contents in here, but they are only a fraction of the treasures this book contains. (Booth freely admits that his womanizing during this tour cost him his marriage, and he is as unsparing in his critiques of the Stones, whom he truly loves, as he is towards his own failings.) You can almost see, hear, feel the chaos, the majesty, the confusion, and the power of the events he's describing; each character comes wonderfully to life, through his use of interwoven, somewhat kaleidoscopic scene changes, flashbacks and flash-forwards, stream of consciousness and grimly bare-boned narrative. Brilliant, hilarious, loathsome, mesmerizing, harrowing, glorious...many such adjectives could apply to the events and personalities depicted in this epic book of rock excess and human misadventure. I'd like to write another review, just so I could give it five more reviews - it's that good!

Author Stanley Booth had the ultimate access to the Stones. He managed to get a contract for a book on the Band, found access, and convinced the Stones themselves to authorize his work as well as let him accompany them on the 69-70 tours, just before the infamous stuff of Altamont happened. By managing to last with the Stones, over time actually becoming one of the rare friends who could find and hang out with the Band members, he acquired an incredible store of tales, which he tells in a remarkably literary manner in this book. Using quotes from the likes of Norman Mailer, "Hambone," the Crystals, Cynthia Plastercaster (if you don't know about her, you really need to get this book), Booth clearly demonstrates his credentials as a serious author. The book benefits.....the best story of the writing of Satisfaction by the Holiday Inn pool in Clearwater is in here as are the tales of Mick and Keith's arrival at Altamont (not at all what you would suspect). All in all, this is one of the good ones and you can't go wrong by taking time to read it cover to cover.

What makes this book so amazing? Author Stanley Booth captures the most popular rock band of all time by actually being there with the band as a friend, through some of the most memorable moments in the history of music: Booth is there at Altamont when a spectator is killed by the Hell's Angels (and Booth appears in the movie on the concert), he's there when Jimi Hendrix is with the Rolling Stones backstage, he's there when Janis Joplin is playing before the Stones come on, he's there when the Stones are hanging out with Chuck Berry, he hangs out in a recording studio when the Stones record, and he goes to London to view Brian Jones' grave and goes to Jones' parents' home to interview them. Booth is like a ghost that will always be there in the soul of music and of the Rolling Stones. This book should be required reading in college writing courses to teach young writers how to write with excitement and reality. Every page is a masterpiece!

I loved this book very much. When I first got a hold of this book,I wanted to read about the rolling stone's founder,Brian Jones. So I was pleased to read so much about him. I found the early days of the rolling stones to be much more interesting than I imagined. It described in detail how mick,keith,and brian lived together in a small,horrible apartment,owned by Mick,and how they hardly had any money for food. I enjoyed how the author started the book out by describing his experience interviewing Brian Jones's parents,years after his death. The author was very good at detail,in this book. He always described the concerts of the stones with the girls screaming,and the last days of Brian Jones,and all of the band member's different love interests,and some certain instances with groupies. I like reading non-fiction books that have some detail in the writing,not just generalization. Lastly,the weakness in this book is including all of the members of the rolling stones. He included alot of brian,and mick,but not enough of the other band members. Overall,I would say that this book is definitly worth reading and I would recomend it to any stones fan. I know a book is good when as I'm reading it,I can get a mental picture of what is happening,and that's what I did.

Stanley Booth not only wrote the best book ever written about the Stones, but the best book ever written about Rock and Roll period. If "Exile on Main St." was a book, it would be this. The book is a rich tapestry of layers and textures. A must read. Please pay special attention to the chapter that takes place in Sam Sheffler's basement on Hudson Ave. It is filty yet fun.

Like Norman Mailer's portait of Picasso, this book should be titled Memphis/Booth leaving it slightly ambiguous as to the true topic of the book. Stanley Booth approaches his subjects in this collection of essays about "the music of the American South" with adoration but with each sentence you get the feeling that Booth feels the need to impress upon the reader that he is worthy of writing about these subjects. His need to belong makes some of the essays unreadable as Booth will spend most of the text naming records that he "grew up listening to", defending his use of black vernacular as being the way "we (southerners)" speak, condemning Yankees, etc. Once you get past that there's some mildly interesting information, nothing too new, especially if you're a music fan. The chapters on Phineas Newborn and James Brown are interesting. As a Southern music lover, I found the book too much about Booth and not enough about music. This book, sadly, seems to be more for the people he tries to distance himself from in the book - northerners with limited exposure to black Southern music. Southerners will find that he tries a bit too hard.

This book really captured the true essence of the influence of Memphis on the world music scene. Popular music is poorly written about and is normally glamorized or scandalized. This book really seems to capture the true essence of the music, the musicians, and the times. This book was so interesting to me I went to Memphis last summer on vacation and went to many of the old out of the way musical history spots in Memphis.

Stanley Booth has always sacrificed something for his work; whether it's his health or his sanity or his relationships but never his sense of humour. Rythm Oil takes its shape as an overview of Memphis, living on through yellow fever and famine, the death of all its musical heroes, who as it happened, came to Memphis and died there or who were born there and who left never to return. Even Booth, who today lives in Georgia, his home state, can't seem to find it in his heart to repudiate this strange and fascinating town with its greasy river that recently claimed another musical hero, Jeff Buckley. Memphis is a town of contradictions: its streets run north-south and its avenues run east-west, something Priscilla Presley never knew. "It's like she lived in a cocoon," remarks Booth, talking to his mother who replies "She did, it was on top of her head."

That Stanley Booth is one of America's finest profile writers AND a close friend of Keith Richards should have ensured this biography would be a moving, essential read. Instead, it is sloppy and a little sad.
Most disappointing is the fact that a significant chunk of the material seems lifted from Booth's far superior "True Adventures of the Rolling Stones." Admittedly "True Adventures," is great source material, even when cannibalized. Unfortunately, Stones fans must still endure Booth's account of his first meeting with Mick Jagger in which songs such as "Backstreet Girl" and "Connection" are linked to the album "Beggars Banquet" rather than "Between the Buttons."
To be fair, accounts of Keith's childhood and adolescence are enlightening, as are some anecdotes from the '70s and '80s. But this is a book that needed re-thinking, or at least savvy editing. Those who want a fresh, revelatory biography on Keith, or a worthy example of music writing from Booth, will have to look elsewhere.

Stanley Booth bases his capability of writing keith richards' life on the fact that he 'lived in social intercourse with him'. although he manages to create few moments of intimacy, his book is more like a glance on the stones career through richards' eyes, rather than a true biography of keith. if you like to read the story of the stones, you would find Booth's previous book - 'the true adventures of the stones' - more complete. if you are interested in keith's biography, Victor bockris' book ( 'keith richards - the biography') is more focused. most of 'standing in the shadows' is based on conversations with keith. when not recycled, some of the quotes are valuable for those who, like me, find keith richards interesting.

Stanley Booth is overqualified, to say the very least, to write this biography of Keith Richards, the muscle behind the music of the Rolling Stones; having toured with the band in 1969, he chronicled the events leading up to their December, 1969 brush with darkness at Altamont. His focus here is not on the whole band, but on the Keith himself, the Human Riff, "the world's blackest white man" and the creator of such rock classics as "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Happy." This book draws heavily from previously published material - that's a drawback; however, said material is superior in almost every respect to just about anything else you'll find about the place, concerning rock music, American culture, sex, drugs, religion, and politics. Booth, a Southern boy, obviously loves how this Englishman took to his own heart the Mississippi Delta blues of black American musicians, and made it into something...else. Booth is not incapable of being critical towards his subject; he is unsparing in his criticisms of Keith's bull-in-a-china-shop lifestyle, his drug addictions and self-denial concerning his addiction problems, but mostly, this book celebrates the life, music, and adventures of the greatest living symbol of rock's defiant spirit.