Customer Reviews

The Early Stones: Legendary Photographs of a Band in the Making, 1963-1973

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It's hard to imagine those grizzled rock gods The Stones as having once been young, loud and snotty, but here's the proof in 175 oversized, black-and-white pages from the collection of the band's premier photographer Michael Cooper (in 1967, Cooper also guided the creation of the cover for "Their Satanic Majesties' Request"). The book is laced with witty and acerbic comments from the usual suspects: Keith, number one fan Terry Southern, Anita Pallenberg, and Marianne Faithfull all have wonderfully catty things to say (sometimes about each other ...) and there are some beautiful, ghostly images of Gram Parsons with the band at Joshua Tree, looking for UFOs. Really.

Cooper documented the Stones at a time when their bad-boy image could be enhanced by a single shot of Keith and Brian flipping off a picture of Richard Nixon, which says more about the "generation gap" than a thousand words ever can. This needs to be re-printed. (Another great photo book, "The Rolling Stones On Tour," with pictures from the 1975 Tour of the Americas, was re-published this year in a deluxe edition.) Pick this up while you can. Turns out the old gods had time on their side, after all.

This is a collection of rare photographs of the early Stones with commentary by Keith Richards, Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithful, and Terry Southern.

Terry Southern wrote some of the funniest, most 'out there' fiction of the sixties including "Candy", "Red Dirt Marijuana", "The Magic Christian", and others. He was a good friend of Keith's and a lot of the book is dialog about the photos between the two of them.

Keith, Anita, and Marianne also lend their narrative voices to the photos to describe what was going on lending even more authenticity.

If you are looking for some insight into the Stones' mystique from 1963-1973 you won't find a more interesting, easy to read tome than this. And the photos take you right into the action.

Recommended for Stones fans.

Michael Cooper was a photographer who photographed the Stones early in their careers, got into drugs, and committed suicide. These pictures were assembled by his assistant to provide a memorial to him.

Unfortunately, the pictures, with the exception of some taken at Stonehenge, are undistinguished and generally uninteresting, as is the accompanying text written by Keith Richards and Terry Southern.

Your money will be better spent on a copy of C%#ks&#ker Blues (1972), Robert Frank's video documentary of a Stones tour that the band initially authorized and then barred from release. Bootleg copies are available on the Net.