Customer Reviews

Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint: The Stories Behind Every Song

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A great book on the Rolling Stones, following their complete story song-by-song chronologically over each album to date. The information (often quite fascinating and new even to longtime Stones fans) has been provided by first-hand participants : musicians, producers, engineers, and the Stones themselves. Great photos (mostly color) complete the package. Songs not on original LPs are presented in chronological order in the last section. A terrific browser or read-through. The best Stones-related book in a long, long time and absolutely essential!

In The Rolling Stones Rip This Joint, Steve Appleford reveals the story behind the songs, recording sessions, and performances of the Rolling Stones in their long and successful career. An informative text is enhanced with more than 130 full color photographs and a profusion of black-and-white photography, a song-by-song description of the groups total output, a chronology of Rolling Stones highlights, a discography of singles, EPs, albums, and miscellaneous releases (including selected solo releases); original interviews with those close to the band (including Mariann Faithfull) and collaborators like Bobby Keys, Jim Price, and the Dust Brothers. The Rolling Stones Rip This Joint is a "must" for all their fans over the last four decades.