Shelf Portraits - Life by Keith Richardson

I read a lot of  biographies/autobiographies - and I can't remember the last time I found one as fascinating as this. Keef tells a good story and comes across as remarkably truthful, particularly when dealing with his own drug addictions and the effect this had on himself and those around him.

There's a lot of black in this story, but Keef's sense of humour comes across on the page and makes for a captivating read. I'm not really a Stones fan as such - I love their 60's output, but haven't really had any time for their later output. Although I did very much enjoy their most recent studio album, A Bigger Bang. Hey, I'm one of those rare people who doesn't really like Exile on Main Street, which is the critic's choice for best Stones album. If I had to vote for the best Stones album I think my choice would be, Aftermath or maybe Out of Our Heads, but then my vote wouldn't be worth much as I've not really listened to most of their albums from the mid 70's onwards. Hey I'm a early Stones man and I feel that when Brian Jones went the band changed.

Their early sound was raw and bluesy which is pretty much the type of stuff I prefer, but reading this book has given me the urge to try some of the later stuff that I may have overlooked.

But back to the book - there is some swiping at Jagger (including claims that he has a tiny penis)  but not as much as other reviews of this book would have you believe, there's a lot about drugs, a theory on the death of Brian Jones ( Keef doesn't believe it was murder, but thinks it may have been manslaughter), and above all an extraordinary love for blues music.

Ghost writer, James Fox has done a great job in keeping Richard's voice in the prose, so much so that the book reads like one big monologue from a man who truly has some tall tales to tell.

Excellent

MACCA GETS STONED

It's an enticing prospect - a song written by Keith Richards and Paul McCartney, a Beatle and a Stone composing together, but it's out there somewhere, as revealed in Keith Richards autobiography - The collaboration happened in 2006, when the two superstars met up by chance while both were on vacation at Parrot Cay on the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Richards did not elaborate in the book on what the song sounded like, and it is unknown if the writing session was recorded or if the song was even finished.
However, if the song ended up being completed, there would be the matter of recording it and possibly releasing it. And that’s where things get complicated, because although members of the Beatles and Stones have worked together in the past, members of the Beatles and the Stones have never before written any songs together.
It goes without saying, the McCartney/Richards song would be hot property, with record companies.

SHOCK NEWS

Bet you never thought you'd read this but Keith Richards is off the booze, least according to the Sun newspaper:

Seriously, the hard-living Rolling Stones icon has apparently been off the alcohol for four months.

A source has told The Sun:

“There’s no guarantees that he’ll stay off it – but he’s doing really well so far.

“He has always quite enjoyed the fact that he seemed to be able to carry on drinking as much as he liked with no real negative impact on his health.”

What prompted this amazing turn of events was seeing bandmate Ronnie Wood getting into drinking very heavily recently.

“He has watched Ronnie fall well and truly off the wagon last year and he doesn’t like what he sees.

“Plus he has started to feel for the first time like it might do him some good to give up the booze for a while.”

Tomorrow's shock rock news: Lemmy admits to being bored with fruit machines and Brian Adams apologises for Brian Adams.