Customer Reviews

Exile on Main St.: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

This book is generally a fast read, and I picked up some information about the Stones I didn't know. However, it is seriously flawed for two reasons. First, the author has a ceaseless set of cliches that abound through this whole book. A couple well spaced phrases would have been clever. Consistently starting paragraphs with sentences referring to someone being like a "crossfire hurricane", among many more, really starts to grate on the reader. My major complaint, however, is one page after seriously criticizing two other authors' books (this includes a long winded paragraph on how one author was wrong, and should contact this author if he ever needed help with accuracy, and another book reference stating he liked the other author's salad dressing, but hated his book), the books states that "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was on the Sticky Fingers album, which it certainly was not. For me, the credibility, and likeability, of the author was ruined a third of the was through the book. High handed arrogance doesn't work so well when the critic is carelessly wrong himself. His writing style lost me before that, but after I invested that much time, I waded through to the end.

I was excited to discover this, as like several others, I thought his previous Stones book was fantastic. But in the intervening years the author has become insufferably pompous, egotistical and cliché-ridden. He also appears to have fired his editor.

The author's habit of continually inserting song titles/lyrics and even bits of Shakespeare (without quotation marks,just to prove how effortless it all is) is as annoying as listening to some teenager say "like" every other word. For example: "Clowns to the left of him, jokers to the right, there he is, stuck in the middle with Keith", and as for the last line in the book, it deserves throwing against a wall. The constant uses of "Philip Michael Jagger" and also of the present tense are both increasingly irritating to the point of distraction. And the bit where he breaks off to slag off other Stones book authors is hilariously crass and at the same time pahetic.

Please allow me to quote a paragraph as a perfect illustration of the author's style; if you can get to the end of it without choking, this book is for you!

"Before any of this happens, Keith and Anita pull a Houdini. No pun intended, they take a powder. Like Bonnie & Clyde, they go on the lam. They skedaddle. They do the cow-cow boogie out the big front door of Nellcote...and then head as fast as they can for the airport in Nice where they board a plane and fly to safety. Like Elvis, Keith and Anita have now left the building. They have flown the coop."

Hey, Greenfield, you forgot "They are ex-residents, they have ceased to be..."

Any time I crack open a book and find it to be double-spaced, I know I'm in trouble. You know what I mean: Not enough material for a "real" book. I've not been more disappointed in a book in a very long time. It's one sad, very predictable cliche after another coupled with horribly useless and overly long descriptions of characters that add nothing to what should have -- and could have -- been a very good story. The photos are just awful; they're outrageously dull and very poorly printed. Please, please don't buy this book expecting any real insight or anything even marginally interesting about life with The Stones while Exile was being recorded. How could something so potentially interesting be so pitifully dull? Sigh.

I just finished this book. It is similar to the recent one on Derek and the Dominoes. All kinds of tabloid info on drugs, women and other debauchery but extremely short on the music. There are also glaring mistakes: 1. the author claims Jumpin' Jack Flash was on the Sticky Fingers album (wrong - it was a single released two years earlier). 2. he claims that Mick Taylor replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers (wrong, Taylor replaced Peter Green). 3. He claims the song "Dandelion" was on the album Satanic Majesty's Request. False. This is basic information and there is no excuse for getting it wrong. Not an auspicious beginning to the book. At the end of the book a few pages are thrown in discussing the music (which he claims are for (paraphrase - not exact words) eccentric people who like all this music stuff - I guess he means those of us who are not interested in tabloid gossip). If you're interested in what drugs Mick and Keith were taking or how many people Anita Pallenberg slept with, get this book. If you're interested in music, however, consider looking elsewhere. This book is a big disappointment. It is akin to a teen going out on a date waiting to kiss the girl good night and at the end she just says "see 'ya" and leaves you on the street. Not at all recommended.

Based on the fact that STP was a pretty good read 25 years ago, I had pretty high hopes when I ordered A Season In Hell.

Unfortunately, this is a very bad book.

The writer's main points seem to be to show off his arrogance and to debunk Spanish Tony Sanchez' accounts of the same events in his book.

Any credibility that Greenfield may have had due to the fact that he toured w The Stones in 72 is reduced to rubble with his repeated factual errors.

Would even the most casual Stones fan repeatedly make reference to Jumping Jack Flash being on Sticky Fingers?

The constant use of the "You make ask yourself, Dear Reader" literary device was annoying and childish.

This could have been a really cool work that would have shown how much the process of making an album has changed in 35 years.

Instead, it's going in my recycle bin.

I was at the library and stumbled on this book, Exile on Main Street, a Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield, so I grabbed it.Really quick read, so I finished it, but it was pretty weak!

The book is about the summer in the France when the Stones recorded most of Exile on Main Street, in '71.
Basically, the gist of the story is that, over 35 years ago, the Stones hung out, did a lot of drugs, slept with alot of people, and often weren't very nice to each other, or to other people. Oh, and Keith was a heroin addict. And...there were a bunch of other people hanging around. Wow, what a ground breaking account. Oh, no, wait, everyone already knew all that.

The author professes himself some sort of expert, and spends a good chunk of this lighweight book tearing down other people who've written about the Stones, even going so far as to suggest one person "call his (Greenfield's) office" with any questions on the Stones.
Then, a page later, he says Jumpin Jack Flash is on Sticky Fingers.

Of course, it's not.

He seems to particularly have it in for "Spanish" Tony Sanchez, who years ago wrote a tell-all book on the Stones. It's funny how much time he devotes to tearing down Sanchez and trying to discredit much of what he wrote, when it seems Sanchez's book was the primary source of info for this book.

It seemed about 3 out of 4 accounts/stories in Greenfield's book begin with "According to Tony Sanchez..". Then the 4th story would begin the same way, but Greenfield would claim the story inaccurate and would provide pretty much the same one interview John Perry didwith Anita Pallenberg, for his book on Exile, to discredit it.


Greenfield never says he was there that summer, or gives any indication to make the reader think he was there, from reading this book you wouldn't know if he was or not. He seems to just be recounting stories told by other people. He devotes alot of energy to tearing down people who there there hanging around partying who didn't have a "job to do" or reason to be there. Was he there? And if so why? Did he have a "job to do"? Or did he just collect stories to throw into a sloppy, poorly written book 35+ years later?

The book is pretty poorly written and the tone is often annoying.

Quick read but still a waste of what little time it will take you to read it. There are definately better books on the Stones out there.

I agree with many of the other customer reviews of this book. The blatant factual errors were very disturbing, especially coming from Greenfield, a writer who has written and co-written some interesting and entertaining books. The citing of Jumping Jack Flash as a track from Sticky Fingers is outragous; as is the claim that Woodstock took place fourteen months prior to Altamont (actually, it was only four). Does the publisher and editor employ anyone to check the facts? A well-known magazine recently promoted this book stating that the author was a witness to the activities in this book - obviously public relations hype that is also blatantly untrue. The publisher and editor of this mess deserve as much blame as the author. I read this book right after finishing the well-researched and well-written Bob Spitz book, "The Beatles." "Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones" is the complete opposite - poorly-researched and poorly-written - a supreme disappointment!

Beware: if you want to know anything about the MUSIC on "Exile on Main Street," this is not the book for you. There is virtually no discussion of the actual 13 songs that were recorded during the "Exile" sessions. Instead, the vast majority of this book is about drug use in France and the sexual tension between Keith Richards, Anita Pallenberg, Mick Jagger and everybody else who lived at Nellcotte during this period. I was disappointed as I thought the book would be about the recording process and the songs. However, if you want an in-depth look at the various "hangers-on" in the Stones camp at this time, or an insider look at Keith Richards' drug use during the early 70's, this is the book for you (and I mean INSIDE...many pages are devoted solely to Richards' rehab treatment in Sweden and the process of getting him there from LA).

Three related questions:

1. Is the art of proofing/factual verification/editing dead?
2. Is my copy of Sticky Fingers one track short?
3. How did this stunningly awful book actually make it to print?

Someone recommended this book to me; apparently it has recently been issued in a Kindle edition. And like any good tennis player who faces the blur of the approaching little yellow ball, I had to take a swing at it. Unfortunately for me, I have a nasty habit of needing to finish almost every book I start. I know, my own fault.

Having seen the other reviews above (should have read them first!), I realize I don't have that much to add. But this book is so utterly bad, in tone and content, that I just had to put my two cents in. Okay, show of hands please!! Who is NOT aware that Keith Richards has consumed copious (perhaps ginormous) quantities of narcotics? Who is NOT aware that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger are at the vortex of the chaos envisioned by the phrase "sex, drugs and rock 'n roll?" Who is NOT aware that Keith and Mick have a very troubled relationship, notwithstanding their ability to create amazing music together? I don't think I will see any hands. For anyone who has missed these facts, now ya know. Skip this book. It is a huge waste of time and money, even at the bargain bin price.

As for the person who recommended this book to me, wonder why you don't see me on IM anymore?