Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint: The Stories Behind Every Song [Paperback]

Steve Appleford (Author)

Book Description

Series: Stories Behind Every Song | Publication Date: March 30, 2001

Behind the scenes at the recording sessions for such classics as "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" and the making of Stones albums, from the psychedelia-drenched "Their Satanic Majesties Request," through the decadent blues and country of "Exile on Main Street" to their latest 1997 album release, Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint is heavily illustrated with photos of the band from its founding days to the present. The book covers every Rolling Stones song in detail: how it was written, recorded and why. It also includes over 130 four-color illustrations and a song-by-song description of the output of what some people call rock's greatest band. Featuring original interviews with those close to the band, such s Marianne Faithfull, and collaborators such as Bobby Keys, Jim Price and the Dust Brothers, this is the essential companion to a legendary 35-year repertoire.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; Revised edition (March 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560252812
• ISBN-13: 978-1560252818
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,484,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Pictures, September 9, 2002

By 

Richard R. Carlton (Ada, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint: The Stories Behind Every Song (Paperback)

A great picture book. Excellent quality photos (>130 of them) of the Stones, the people who surrounded them through the various eras of their careers, the places and stage sets, recording sessions, etc. If you are looking for information, stories, or accurate data, you would do better to get Bill's book "Stone Alone" or a good guide like Karnbach and Bernson's "It's Only Rock `n' Roll" or Jimmy Phlege's "Nankering" or even the oldest Stones book - Goodman's "Our Own Story."

Author Steve Appleford did not have access to any of the Stones. Apparently the closest he came was the last row of the L.A. Coliseum Steel Wheels tour in 89....he goes so far as to envy a friend who saw the Stones in 72......jeesh....I've been closer to them than that.....and I saw them in 72 too. Ok, he did interview Marianne Faithful, Bobby Keys, Bobby Womack and a few others, but come on, man.....when you use photo captions like "The Glimmer Twins, hard at work on the devil's music;" totally miss the difference between the U.K. and U.S. releases of Out Of Our Heads, Aftermath, and Between The Buttons in your discography; and have nothing to say about the unreleased tracks like the early demos That Girl Belongs To Yesterday, Sure I Do, Shang A Doo Lang, or the lost 67 single English Summer, you really shouldn't lay claim to any sort of authority about the Stones other than being a fan, just like the rest of us.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I can't get no satisfaction, June 21, 2002

By 

tin2x "tin2x" (Staten Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint: The Stories Behind Every Song (Paperback)

This book does NOT have background information on all the Stones' songs. For some songs there is a story of how it was composed, for some a note about the recording, for some it describes the music (because why would we have listened to any of the songs?), and for others it just editorializes about a song's relative merits. There is VERY little new information for relatively long term Stones fans. More importantly however are the ridiculous comments. At times it seems that the author has nothing to say and is filling space so he can say he wrote about every song. For example in the Some Girls chapter for Beast of Burden he mentions the story behind the album title and the gives a one sentence description of the song. It seems to me that this information belongs at the beginning of the chapter and not for the details of one particular song on the album. To be fair it might be tough to come up with original material for each song's "story" as the Stones have been prolific and also because there is a lot, or even complete, mystery revolving around some tracks. But if that is so then the premise of writing a book of information with stories behind every song is flawed and should never have been taken any further. This book is not the story behind the writing of every song, the recording of every song, and doesn't even have stories relating to every song.

Additionally there is some confusing and, in my opinion, erroneous commentary regarding tracks. For example the rare-ish track Everything It Turning To Gold is called a ballad. Maybe in lyrical form, but it will not get the lighters out at a concert.

So as another reviewer said, be warned. But if you know a good amount of Stones' mythology this isn't going to satisfy you.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars BOOK IS A FRAUD AND A JOKE!, January 10, 2006

By 

Joseph A. Kengor (Somewhereville, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint: The Stories Behind Every Song (Paperback)

Find out the back-story to the Stones songs - what a great read I thought as I opened this book. Naw! The author HAS gathered some good pictures of the Stones, however, the synopsis of the songs is horrible. There are no quotes about the songwriting from either Keith or Mick; the comments are all the author's GUESSES of what the stones were writing about. Some of the comments are very trivial. I agree whole-heartedly with Richard Carlton, a most knowledgable reviewer regarding the Rolling Stones. See his review also. One star for the photos.