The Rough Guide to The Rolling Stones 1 (Rough Guide Reference) [Paperback]

Sean Egan (Author), Rough Guides (Author)

Book Description

Series: Rough Guide Reference | Publication Date: October 2, 2006

Still going strong after four decades, The Rolling Stones are the ultimate rock band. The Rough Guide to The Rolling Stones explores every aspect of the music, and charts how Mick, Keith and the boys invented rock stardom. Features include: The Story: From the blues clubs of 60s Chelsea to the world tours and millionaire mansions, The Music: 50 essential songs and the stories behind them, plus the albums, bootlegs, soundtracks and solo projects, The Entourage: the girlfriends, managers and musicians, from Jerry Hall and Marianne Faithful to Andrew Loog Oldham and Nicky Hopkins, The Rolling Review: the movies, books and websites – all the Stones info you’ll ever need. This Rough Guide leaves no stone unturned.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sean Egan is a journalist specialising in popular music and tennis. He has written for, Billboard, Billboard.com, Classic Rock, Discoveries, Goldmine, Record Collector, RollingStone.com, Serve And Volley, Sky Sports, Tennis World, Uncut and Vox. He is the author of books on The Verve, The Animals, Jimi Hendrix, The Creation, songwriters and The Rolling Stones (The Making Of Let It Bleed – MQ Publications; 2005)

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 1 edition (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843537192
• ISBN-13: 978-1843537199
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Overview of All Things Stones, December 24, 2006

By 

R. Morris "Rob & Matt Morris" (Idaho Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rough Guide to The Rolling Stones 1 (Rough Guide Reference) (Paperback)

The Rough Guide series is ambitous, to say the least. For an author to teach a reader ALL there is to know about a band that's literally been around since most of us were babies is a daunting task. What to put in? What to leave out? Magically, the author has done a pretty darn good job covering the greatest rock and roll band of all time (minus one in my opinion, as I give the Beatles a slight edge). From the beginnings to the present, every album, every song, every relationship, is covered. Sidebars contain useful information on topics such as the difference between rock and roll and rhythm and blues and put the RS story in historical context. This is an excellent reference guide for a casual listener as well as someone who owns most of the Stones material, as I do. And though I think the author is unduly harsh in his assessment of the Stones' modern works, I can respect his opinion as someone who has obviously done his homework. Lots of good photos and illustrations augment this text. A fun book that would make a great gift for any Stones fan. I guess I'll have to go out and buy the Beatles Rough Guide now.
Four and a half stars. Recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just about gets it right, August 28, 2010

By 

Natasha Conn (Las Cruces, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to The Rolling Stones 1 (Rough Guide Reference) (Paperback)

Egan is a thoughtful, expansive writer when tackling the phenomena of the Stones, from their humble beginnings as a low-key blues band at Alexis Korner's get-togethers to world-conquering Rock Gods. He provides an album-by-album guide, writes detailed summaries of fifty of his favorite tracks, and provides an interesting guide to people in places in their lives, from prominent blues influences and girlfriends to the lowliest engineer. He only falters by uniformly condemning their work from Steel Wheels on when it occasionally deserves better, claiming an eight-year recording gap between Bridges to Babylon and A Bigger Bang, when in fact they recorded over forty new tracks and included a number of them on the Forty Licks greatest hits compilation in 2003, and his claim the Stones never came up with an album similar to Bob Dylan that tackled the dilemmas of aging a la Time Out of Mind, when in fact Voodoo Lounge fits the bill quite nicely. Philip Norman may be a more stylistic writer and Chris Sanford a more minimalist wit, but in all this the best Stones book for a solid summation of their career to 2006.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for both newbies and long-time Stones fans, June 10, 2010

By 

David Vaina (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rough Guide to The Rolling Stones 1 (Rough Guide Reference) (Paperback)

I bought this in Chicago about four years ago and read most of it on the flight back to DC. That illustrates how well readers can dip into this book on public transportation, a plane, the bath tub, by the pool, etc.

It was by no means my first book on the Stones yet I still learned a lot, so this will still appeal to those who think they know a lot about the Stones. And for diehard Stones junkies, it's a perfect gift to give to convince Stones newbies why this is still "the greatest rock & roll band in the world."

My only complaint--and it's a minor one--is that there's a certain English snarkinees and way too many jabs at America, which i many ways, is the country that made the Stones. Why do I see this time and time again from British writers? It's a sort of immature defensiveness that's highly irritating.