According to the Rolling Stones

The Stones and the PR industry get along very well. The relationship could be summed up by a London tabloid in the headline, "Stones + PR = Hot and Heavy" To the Stones, the PR industry is a young professional woman, like one from a Brooks Brothers catalog, wearing a lightweight sweater of elastic, ribbed grey wool over a smile-inducing bust just a little bit larger than one would expect. And the PR industry returns the favor, shining its most flattering light on these four sexagenarians, doing its best work for them. This is an interesting book, just as the bright young lass posited above, is an object of above average interest. One reads with willing eyes, but one also sees, in the way the book reproduces the quotes from the documentary included with the DVD set `Four Flicks,' that a lot of work has been put into polishing the apple. Newsflash: the Stones don't actually talk like that. What look like off the cuff remarks on the DVD are actually set pieces based on the silky quotations crafted for the book. I can't knock it. Darn, I know magazine covers are air-brushed, but I look anyway. It's a way better book, even if it serves up the Stones like jelly on crumpets, than Wyman's "Rolling with the Stones," which, in comparison, is a view of the Stones from the position of one locked in the rumble seat. He was there, but I think all he did was collect receipts and make diary entries. The Stones prove themselves not above trading on their legend and even sugar-coating it a little; you can't tell if they hold their noses while keeping up appearances, but I think they do it at Jagger's behest, knowing that it must be if they're to stay in the business they love so well. I've focused my listening energies on the Stones for a about a year now, so I forgive them for the top-dressing, because over time, I have found in their music an eerie combination of the utterly ordinary and completely magical -- everything that anyone's said about them is true -- and this combination is evidence that they do fight the good battle everytime they collectively pick up their instruments to create music. This is why I believe the Stones are the genuine article, authentic (authentic in italics), as the book's sources describe them. It's in the bones, as Keith says, but in saying that, he's just saying it's in all our bones to try hard and even win sometimes. P.S. I'm authentic too, so why ain't I rich? Because I never mastered PR, not the way the Stones do it. As Bill Clinton might have said, "It's the PR, Stupid."

I honestly doubt that a few of the reviewers in here actually read this book. They may have skimmed it, but from what they've written (eg: no hint at Keith's drug problems??---GET OUT!)it's pretty easy to see that they most certainly did not read the book on any serious level. This book is amazing! When I read it I felt like I was actually talking to the Stones and that they were sharing many interesting and informative details about their lives and the lives of those who influenced them musically and otherwise. If you're a Stones fan or very interested in the history of R & R as it applies where this band is concerned, this book is a MUST!

A couple hundred years from now historians will write about the endurance of the `flash in the pan' phenomenon called, pop culture. ACCORDING TO THE ROLLING STONES will certainly be one of their reference books. This is history as it should be told--as it is lived--in all its informal, intimate, gritty, and compelling detail. ACCORDING TO THE ROLLING STONES presents unique privileged perspectives of the evolution of rock from the earliest days to the present. Essays from friends and colleagues plus hundreds of photos spanning the Stones' career enhance the interviews of Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie. Older fans will fondly remember the `Bad Boys of British Pop' as an enduring icon of the extraordinary sixties and seventies. New fans will discover the history of the Stones through the group's lives and their music as told by the mythmakers themselves. Fans of pop culture will value these memoirs of the group that lived it.

The headline is from a cliché quoted by Keith Richards, and it is so true of the Stones. This book is not only the history as seen through the eyes of the band, but a wonderful swirling tribute to the greatest rock band ever to grace the boards. The book has a wonderful, natural flow, like a great Stones album. It has surprisingly appropriate essays from an odd assortment (Don Was, Tim Rice, etc.) that give the interviews real context. The photos are great, rare and raw. Not a goon's gallery of sleezy shots, nor over-posed out-takes, but moments that feel natural, unrehearsed. But, at their core, the Stones remain, as they should be - a mystery. When Keith goes on about, "I've turned round and found a pool of blood where the piano player should be," you know there is a story there, but you also know that at it's core, it is just a Keith says - "I't's just a part of the gig." He probably doesn't even remember the year of the tour. Bravo especially to the editors of this tome. There must have been loads of material to digest, and I can't imagine that the Stones make it all easy. It appears that Charlie Watts spent some time helping with the text, but the heavy lifting must have fallen on the hands of Dora Loewenstein and Philip Dodd. They managed to make the book read like the way we imagine the Stones live - larger than life.

If you are a Stones fan, you'll love this book. I've been a Stones fan for years and seen many books about them, but According To The Rolling Stones has tons of pictures, stories, and information that are new to me. The lay-out of the text and photos makes it a great coffee table book, and the writing by the Stones themselves is fascinating. I actually preferred this book to The Beatles Anthology, but that is probably because I prefer the Stones to the Beatles, not because of the quality of either of the books. Not only is it good for fans of the band, any one who has an appreciation of rock and roll history will learn a lot from this book.