Life Pdf Summary Reviews By Keith Richards

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Life Pdf Summary

With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life. Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane.

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Life Review

Hardy Melville

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Autobiography
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2010

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This is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. Partly that is because of the subject matter, since I have been a long time Stones fan and recognize that Keith is the backbone of the band. But his autobiography approaches that subject matter in a particular way I found most compelling.

My wife is a writer by trade, and is now making her way through the book, too. We have talked about what is it that makes the style in which this book was written so compelling? I think it is a combination of a willingness to tell the story with brutal honesty, but in a style that is kind of like Keith is talking to you as a fan and friend. For a man of such accomplishments, he seems much less egotistical than someone else in his position would likely be. That I think reflects who Keith is as a person, but the net effect is that the book’s writing style fits like a comfortable and well worn leather jacket.

A couple of points I want to make, some made and some not by others here include:

The best part of the book is where Keith talks about the experience of playing music to an audience, and how that has been a large part of his motivation to be who he was and is for all those years. You have to read those parts for yourself, but I found them wonderful and quite revealing as to what makes Keith tick.

The photographs were quite well chosen to complement the narrative. The effect of the choices made give the impression that much work and thought went into this part of the book’s production.

Keith somehow succeeded in giving honest opinions about those he encountered along the way in a way that was not catty or overdone. Again, honesty was the hallmark. Particular subjects included:

Gram Parsons. Keith has written before about his personal views on one of his best friends and also the ways unknown to many in which Parsons so hugely influenced music. He expounds on those thoughts here. I had hoped for a better explanation of what happened when Parsons left Nellcote, after which Keith and Gram did not encounter each other again leading up to Parsons’s death. But I think the real explanation can be found in the recent bio on him, which was basically that Parsons wore out his welcome way overdoing it on drugs. In short Keith’s partial exception to the honest approach I guess was done in honoring Parson’s memory.

John Lennon; The Beatles. Keith cites Lennon along with Parsons as the two people he encountered who he felt had the most similar approach to and feelings about music as him. Another slight criticism of the book, though, is that although Keith includes some rather amusing and revealing recollections of Lennon, I didn’t see much about why he felt so kindred to Lennon’s music. He does talk at various points about the dynamic relation between the two bands, to informative effect. Circling back to more recent encounters with Paul McCartney was also amusing and somehow felt just right.

Chuck Berry. The nature of his complex view of Berry, a complex man for sure, were not surprising to me since knowing of Keith’s difficulties putting on the show honoring Berry back in the eighties. But Life does put in Keith’s own words his views of Berry who, after all, was a particularly huge influence on Keith and the rest of the Stones.

The Other Stones. Not surprising to anyone who has followed this band over the years, but they certainly have included people with quite distinct personalities! Accordingly Keith lays out his own different views of them and their interactions over the years. Jones certainly was a tragic figure, but again with honesty as the hallmark Keith also points out that there was much that was dysfunctional about the man. My theory as to why Keith does not talk all that much about Wyman is that to this day I don’t think Keith really understands Bill. In particular Keith does not understand Bill’s decision to retire, and I think that made him hesitant to theorize more about Bill. Charlie and Mick Taylor come in for relatively more praise, although on a personal level Keith seems to have concluded that Taylor was not exactly Mr. Personality. Not much is offered here on Taylor’s decision to leave the Stones, or what I view as the worst career move in the history of rock music. Others have talked about his views of Jagger and Ron Wood, so I will leave off discussing them.

The Women in his life. As noted by Maureen Dowd and others, Keith despite being the iconic rocker, arguably the coolest guy who ever lived, seems to have had a very decent and honest way of relating to the various important women his life. He somehow has a bit of the knight errant in him, which I guess can fit with the pirate and druggie. In him it seems to.

Other aspects of note include Keef’s Guitar Workshop discussions, which as a guitarist myself I found amusing and informative, and I don’t think a lay person would or should feel otherwise. He doesn’t talk too much about technical aspects, such as choosing amps and types of guitars – just enough I think to not bore the non musician, while revealing some of the essentials, like how he sought the sound of certain periods, particularly the Jumping Jack Flash and the Beggar’s Banquet sound, as well as recording Exile.

It was Hard Work! Keith makes clear that much of understanding him and his life involves that he was intensely driven to make the music, and to an almost superhuman extent. The countless hours in the studio, the difficulties in pulling things together, the way he and Jagger wrote the songs, are all laid out here. And love of the music itself drips off the narrative all along.

Drugs. Honesty again is the hallmark. Somehow Keith lets you know how much he did without apology, bragging, glamorizing, or encouragement of others to do the same. How did he pull that off? He does.

As others have noted, autobiographies are different than biographies, and as a biography this is less than complete. But as an expression of how Keith felt about his life and times, and his involvement in those events and the long period leading up to the present is such that Life is a good argument (if unintentionally so) for saying that Keith was himself the main circuit cable running through those times, this book is an immense success. I finished the book thinking, I hope Keith writes something else, again, soon.

5.0 out of 5 stars “Worked the bars and sideshows along the twilight zone…
“Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2011

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My five star rating reflects the fact that I am a fan of the Rolling Stones, but even if that were not the case a four star rating would be in order. Richards’ excellent memory for details, along with his perceptive and honest account of his life, makes reading his Life altogether worthwhile. Beyond just an account of the Rolling Stones, Life provides a fascinating portrait of a myriad of individuals. Such portraits go well beyond the members of the Stones – from drug dealers in Morocco to his first wife, Anita Pallenberg’s artsy circle in London in the late 60’s. Whether investigating the relatively obscure, or highly celebrated, Richards (with help of co-writer James Fox) expresses himself remarkably well. He combines insightful character analysis, vignettes, and reflections on any given situation in a way that is not protective of image but rather extemporaneous and often visceral. However, Richards rarely seems to go off on a rant that would bar the reader from seeing other points of view; he provides detail and information so the reader can see things from angles other than his own.

Richards paints a superb portrait of post war England in a town outside of London called Dartford, where Mick Jagger had grown up as well (in the nicer part of town). From an early age, though, it’s obvious Richards is not fitting in at all with this world (or his parent’s expectations) and that music was his ticket out. Although he would go on to attend art school, this was really just a cover for playing music. The expectation for an art school graduate was to go into advertising working as a factotum for the advertising executives, “Lad, can you get me some tea?”– and clearly this was not Richard’s bag. Richards had imbibed all sorts of music as an adolescent; his love for these musicians and their influence on him make up the early part of the book from when he leaves art school to the formative years of the Stones.

The workings of early band dynamics is another fascinating aspect of the book. Who is the one really responsible for the Rolling Stones? According to Richards, the Rolling Stones would not exist if it were not for Ian Stewart, who pushed the band when they were not getting paid for gigs. Amazingly, Stewart was taken out of the lineup for the band early on — but he continued to tour with them as a road manager up until his death in the early 80’s. Then there’s Brian Jones case, whose creative potency as a member of the band waned until his death in the summer of 1969. Jone’s demise was in part brought about by song writing duties being placed upon Jagger and Richards by their manager Andrew Oldham. As Richards tells it, Oldham had locked Richards and Jagger in a kitchen and he told them to come up with something, and what resulted was their early classic “As Tears Go By.” Jones lost his way most likely because of this arbitrary pairing. Oldham did not choose the Jagger-Richards combo due to any perceived song writing giftedness on their part, but only because Jones couldn’t write songs; thus Jagger and Richards (who were hanging out a lot with each other at that time) were chosen by default. As far as I can tell from Richards account, Brian Jones was musically knowledgeable — but not a complex character and something of a star struck egoist, who had put celebrity before the work. It’s a shame that he died the way that he did, but I was left with no looming questions of, “what if Brian Jones had gotten his act together?” as I’m not sure that would have changed the course of the Stones history — at least, for the better.

One reviewer has said that the book begins to slow down after the sixties, when Richards enters his heroin-addled years. For me, that was not the case at all. I enjoyed all of the accounts from the 70’s. After the death of Brian Jones, the Stones really found their rhythm. I think it would’ve been a tragedy if the Rolling Stones disbanded in say, 1970, since one of my favorite Stones album is Exile on Main Street, in which the band lives as tax exiles in a house called Nellcote, on the French Riviera. From this period on up until the late 70’s when Richards `kicks’ heroin, there are fascinating accounts of his close shaves with the law — especially with partner in crime, Texan sax player Bobby Keys, who later got kicked out of the Stones for deciding to fill up a bathtub with champagne rather than show up for a gig. It’s this period that is the stuff of reckless and ribald behavior on the part of Richards, where his wife Anita spun out of control and he had to take care of his son, Marlon, on the road for one tour in the mid 70’s. Richards has awesome tales to tell from this period and I enjoyed reading about them.

If there’s a point where the books begins to slow down for me, it was the last 100 pages right after his “taking the piss” on Her Majesty, Sir Mick Jagger (which is a personal rant, but there was nothing in this rant that didn’t smack me as true). But then, while this part was less fascinating to me than the rest of the book, the last 100 or so pages does provide a rounding out of the Keith Richards character, revealing pettiness (getting upset over crew and security eating his shepherds pie, and then claiming he wouldn’t go onstage until they made him a new one) and the side of him that enabled him to write such a good memoir — an introspective bibliophile living a gentleman’s life in a country home in Connecticut. The thoughtful Richards appears every bit as real as his outlaw image which makes up many pages in the book. Together, they form one of the last true legends alive today. It is both a wonder and a blessing that Richards is alive to tell us about his life.

About Keith Richards Author Of Life pdf Book

Keith Richards Author Of Life pdf Book is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, producer and founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 Richards was ranked 10th on Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

With songwriting partner and Rolling Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger, Richards has written and recorded hundreds of songs, fourteen of which Rolling Stone magazine lists among the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.