Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band [Hardcover]

Steven Kurutz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2008

Since the creation of the hit Broadway musical Beatlemania tribute bands have become an indelible part of the musical landscape, playing local bars, biker rallies, banquet halls, town fairs, and, occasionally, even stadiums. In an age when famous rock groups charge $100 or more for a concert ticket, their tribute band imitators offer an accessible, intimate, and surprisingly authentic outlet for fans. The Grateful Dead have Dark Star Orchestra; Led Zeppelin Zoso, Hammer of the Gods, and the all-girl Lez Zeppelin; Van Halen have twenty-five tribute bands, including Hot for Teacher and Van Heineken; and KISS have not one but two tribute bands peopled by dwarves—Mini Kiss and Tiny Kiss.
In this droll and entertaining expedition to the heart of tribute world, Steven Kurutz chronicles the ups and downs of one of the oldest and best-established acts, Sticky Fingers, who bill themselves as “the leading international Rolling Stones tribute show.” The narrative follows Sticky Fingers as they shadow the real Rolling Stones 2005–06 tour like a remora trailing a shark. When the Stones perform at an arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sticky Fingers plays a preconcert bash at nearby Dixie’s Tavern. More gigs follow: a trip to Las Vegas, bookings on the southern fraternity circuit, a spectacular sold-out stadium show in the Netherlands. The band’s frontman, Glen Carroll, is a roguish and colorful Mick Jagger look-alike, and we see him onstage and off, navigating the peculiar life of a tribute performer. As Carroll says, “I know what it’s like to walk in Mick’s shoes—with lift supports, mind you.” The band’s guitarist, meanwhile, is so committed to his role as Keith Richards, he’s always in costume. Along the way, the writer travels with the members of Sticky Fingers’ archrivals, the Blushing Brides; profiles a group of Deadheads who re-create entire, highly specific Grateful Dead concerts, and examines an occupational hazard one musician calls “tributitis”: identifying too closely with the rock star one portrays, with resulting swelling of the ego. As the book unfolds, what emerges is an honest and sympathetic portrait of the musicians as they juggle work and band obligations and come to terms with middle age and their fading dreams of rock stardom.
Like a Rolling Stone is a superbly reported, affectionately told, hilarious account of life at the lower altitudes of the music industry. In its own sly way, it is also a critique of the Rolling Stones’ stadium juggernaut and the baby boomer nostalgia pervading modern culture. Above all, it is a testament to the timeless appeal of rock and roll, even in a culture of perpetual rewind.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the spring of 2005, freelance writer Kurutz began a year of hanging out with tribute bands, a type of cover group he rates somewhere between lounge and wedding singers that is dedicated to replicating the music, sound and appearance of a more famous act. Kurutz dates the tribute phenomenon to the 1977 Broadway play Beatlemania and explores a still thriving musical subculture by chronicling the personnel and fortunes of Sticky Fingers and the Blushing Brides, two rival Rolling Stones imitators with decades of experience. Kurutz gets an insider's view of the groups' efforts to balance their limited resources, personal lives and the road pressures of performing at casinos, frat houses and out-of-the-way bars against the real joys of playing rock and roll and pretending to be rock superstars. From exaggerated accents and remarkable libraries of bootleg tapes to descriptions of the Keithiest Keith Richards (Kurutz writes, I had assumed it was impossible to recreate the withered visage of Keith Richards), this curious debut convincingly captures the bands' histories and successes, the players' conceits and stresses. While a lack of urgency causes the narrative to stall at times, Kurutz does bring to his book energy and insight. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Advance Praise for Like a Rolling Stone

“With the shrewd eye of an anthropologist and the enthusiasm of a fan, Steve Kurutz chronicles the rivalries, absurdities, and occasional ecstasies of bands who engage in the sincerest form of flattery. Like a Rolling Stone shines a generous and affectionate light into one of the murkier corners of rock and roll.”
—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children, The Abstinence Teacher, and The Wishbones


“As far as describing the history and current status of the classic-going-on-ancient rock and roll tribute world, Steven Kurutz makes Herodotus look like a slacker. But what’s most exciting is his portrait of the tribute world itself. It’s fascinatingly wild and competitive and more than a little insane, and Kurutz eventually makes it seem a lot like the non-tribute world, where we are all trying to show up on time and remember the words, trying to be a little like somebody, and, frankly, hoping to continue to rock and roll or maybe just roll.”

—Robert Sullivan, author of The Meadowlands and Cross Country

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Crown Archetype; First Edition edition (April 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385518900
• ISBN-13: 978-0385518901
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Karaoke, May 2, 2008

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band (Hardcover)

Kurutz loves his rock and roll, and LIKE A ROLLING STONE revels in the good ol' days when rock was king and musicians drank and did drugs like there was no tomorrow. His affection for rock shows through in every line, and before you know it you're right there in the van with Sticky Fingers, the east coast's most popular Stones tribute band. In one way or another it's been around since the 1970s, and its present leader, Glen Carroll, is an irresistible subject, sort of like the Falstaff of the tribute world. Yes, he drinks too much and yes, he's a liar, and no, he's not really a good singer, but Kurutz' writing is so persuasive I wanted the book to come with a DVD so I could see Sticky Fingers in action at one of the rundown nightclubs or frat houses they're booked to entertain in.

Sometimes it's life at the top, but more often Sticky Fingers' erratic financing make for tensions within the band. All of this is really intriguing, but the problem is of course, that it's really not enough material to make a book out of, and one gets the feeling Kurutz did all this research and then halfway through realized he had enough for a great magazine article, but that he was going to have to add more storylines if he wanted to get a book out of it. Thus we go back in time and meet with the original tribute band, the Broadway cast of "Beatlemania." Thus we go on the road with a second Stones tribute band, the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't Blushing Brides from Canada. Thus we are introduced to other sorts of tribute bands including some with real success stories, Dark Star Orchestra (DSO) which does the Grateful Dead, and ZoSo, the "ultimate Led Zeppelin experience." And in doing so, the focus of the book inevitably shifts away from Glen Collins and it becomes more about hardcore dollars and cents.

The cash nexus is never far from concern, yet what makes these tribute bands so endearing is that these guys aren't in it for the money--no, not really--they're doing something because they love it. And don't let me forget, also because evil life has got them in its sway.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read!!!, April 28, 2008

By 

Jones Taylor Wood (Hartford, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band (Hardcover)

I picked up this book over the weekend and could not put it down until I was finished. Author Steven Kurutz captures "the sights, the sounds, the smells, of a hard-working rock band on the road" to quote "This Is Spinal Tap", with both hilarious and sometimes pathetic outcomes.

In the book, Kurutz travels cross country with two leading Stones trib bands, Sticky Fingers and Blushing Brides, and in documenting the highs and (very) lows, he manages to capture the humanity in what is becoming a dying industry - Live Music.

While reading this book one realizes that both Maurice Raymond and Glen Carroll (the Brides' and Fingers' Micks, respectively) are doing their thing not only because they crave the attention of being a faux Mick Jagger, but because they genuinely love the music of the Rolling Stones, even if it is being played to a handful of people in a dive bar.

And that being said, which is more rock and roll to you: A drunk singer shouting over too loud guitars to 50 sweaty drunks, or 100,000 people at the EnormoDome who paid $300 to watch the Stones on the JumboTron?

I choose the former.

If you're gonna buy one book on rock and roll this year, this is it!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating read, April 24, 2008

By 

anonymous (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band (Hardcover)

It has already been noted that the author, Steve Kurutz, has written this book with affection and the thoroughness of an anthropologist. Both of those are true. What made this book a great read for me were the many humorous anecdotes sprinkled throughout- though never at the expense of his subjects. This is the real "Spinal Tap". It just proves the old adage that the truth is always stranger than fiction. A fun, entertaining book- a must read for any rock n'roll fan.