You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates [Paperback]

Sam Cutler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2010

An exhilarating, all-access rock memoir from someone who has seen and done it all, this telling recounts the many experiences of Sam Cutler, the former tour manager of the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. With intimate portraits of other stars of the psychedelic circus that was the music industry in the 1960s and 1970s—including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Band, the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, and Eric Clapton—this account is an ideal resource for any music fan. A detailed explanation of the infamous Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, where a man in the crowd was killed by the Hells Angels, is also included.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll play strong supporting roles for headliners the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead in this straight-dope, tell-all account of Cutler's years managing road shows for "the yin and yang of bands." A dissatisfied schoolteacher in 1960s London, Cutler turned his involvement with the music scene into a career as "a sort of production honcho, doing all the dirty work on site" that others wouldn't. His work with the Stones began with their 1969 appearance at Hyde Park, and continued through an entire U.S. tour, ending with the Altamont disaster in California. After that, Cutler took up with the Grateful Dead, managing finances and tours (including Europe '72). Cutler's memoir is populated by a fascinating range of rock stars, gangsters, and international drug lords, but his insider position doesn't always penetrate the chaos; one important exception is his account of Altamont, the massive, free, outdoor Stones concert overtaken by violence (among other record-setting details, Cutler reports that "police had done nothing in the face of serious violent crime... other than bravely towing away hundreds of cars"). Of certain interest to anyone who recalls the music scene of the early 1970s, this fast-moving narrative of rock-n-roll excess should also absorb music fans of any age.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“A riveting rock read.”  —Sun-Herald

"A fascinating historical snapshot not only on the life and heady times of the Stones, the Dead and Altamont, but of the Sixties themselves. As such, it is not to be missed."  —blogcritics.org

"[Cutler's] memoir of his time with first the Stones and then the Grateful Dad brings to life hippie-era delights (lots of acid) and an encroaching darkness . . . he unleashes one killer road tale after another."  —Rolling Stone

"[Cutler] writes with great insight and with humor about the antics of the legendary musicians he looked after and having to deal with riot police, groupies, drug dealers, mobsters and promoters, as well as friendships with rock legends like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and former Pink Floyd frontman, Syd Barrett."  —Bookviews by Alan Caruba (blog)

"Thoroughly impossible to put down."  —ABORT MAGAZINE

"Effortlessly readable, packed with entertaining, sleazy, behind-the-scenes tales."  —Portland Mercury

"A quintessential addition to any die-hard rock and roll fan's bookcase."  —Daily Vanguard Online

"Entertaining, eye-opening memoir . . . the book hits a particularly colourful stride with the Stones’ arrival in LA to finish Let It Bleed and rehearse for the dates ahead."  —Uncut Magazine (U.K.)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: ECW Press (February 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155022932X
• ISBN-13: 978-1550229325
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock Noir At Its Most Gripping, August 25, 2009

By 

Frances Lynn "Author, Crushed and Frantic" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates (Paperback)

"You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a gripping rock 'n' roll saga which should appeal to anyone who is intrigued by authentic 'I was there' memoirs. Sam Cutler's book is not your usual press clippings cut and paste job from a rock journalist, aged groupie or a sycophantic fan. It's the Real Thing, lucidly and well written from a Napoleon styled tour manager's point of view.

Cutler's tome doesn't solely focus on his role of tour manager, but starts prior to his career in rock 'n' roll, when he was illegitimately born in a stately home in Hertfordshire during World War 11. He was consequently placed in an orphanage and was adopted when he was three, but didn't discover his true parentage until he was fifteen. His natural mother was Irish from a gypsy family who had been abandoned by his father, a Jewish mathematician who then died on active service in the Royal Air Force.

'In the blood of my veins, I was Irish, Gypsy, and Jew!' Cutler exclaims, thankful he wasn't English but was a mixture of 'three persecuted races', and not of pure English stock like the Cutlers, his adoptive protestant parents who renamed him Sam (his birth name was Brendan Lyons).

`All I could think was how grateful I was that I wasn't English and named Cyril, ' Cutler quips which illustrates what a droll writer he is.

His adoptive Communistic parents always had music in the house and Sam was raised on 'union songs and paeans to Stalin and the Red Army.`

'One would reasonably think that after countless acid trips and the experiences of the drug-fuelled sixties, the words of obscure political songs would fade from my mind, but to this day they remain eerie reminders of that distant country which is my past,' Cutler reminisces.

Sam Cutler's disabled father died when he was eight and when his mother remarried, he was re-located to their new home in the suburbs where in was his own words, he became a 'typical teenager', listened to music and dreamt of going to California. Instead, he became a teacher, ran a folk club and played the guitar.

'I wasn't interested so much in being a performer as in organising shows. Production is a bit like being a general - if you're going to attack Russia, you need a decent plan!'

After he stopped teaching and emigrated to London, he quickly became involved in the city's psychedelic music scene. After working on the Pink Floyd's and Blind Faith's free concerts in Hyde Park, the Rolling Stones asked him to be their tour manager after their Brian Jones' 'memorial' concert in the park, and according to Cutler, 'the largest free concert in England.'


Fortunately for the reader, Sam Cutler remembers details of events in his life, as well as verbatim conversations with his R.I.P. friends like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia.

After Cutler was anointed the Stones' new tour manager, he went to Los Angeles with the band.

'It's a massive responsibility, looking after people like the Rolling Stones. There are people out there who want to get in bed with them and give them the proverbial cuddle, but there are also people out there who may want to hurt them. So there are security issues, plus making a nice home base in a foreign country.'


When Sam got on stage at the LA concert, and famously introduced them as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world", he was using reverse psychology, trying to goad them into actually believing it. After that, Sam used that intro for the rest of the tour, and they are the first words heard in "Gimme Shelter".


Sam Cutler is a humorous writer and manages to consistently portray himself as an un-egotistical, selfless and a fair-minded character, unfazed by the antics of the legendary musicians, whose touring lives he looked after twenty four hours a day.


While the Stones took their roles of cosseted rock stars for granted, Cutler's tough job consisted of him having had to deal with the tour that involved riot police, the groupies, drug dealers, mobsters and the usual flotsam and jetsam of hanger-ons. If that wasn't heavy enough for him to contend with, Sam even bought a gun to protect himself while he was forced to deal with the FBI, the CIA and Mafia figures all on three hours sleep a night.

After the disastrous Altamont concert, the Stones escaped in a helicopter leaving Cutler to be the scapegoat. There has never been an official investigation into what actually happened at Altamont but Cutler records for posterity the political build up to the free concert and the concert's aftermath, which is the core of "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

What is also fascinating about Cutler's exemplary 'rock noir' autobiography is that after the Stones dumped him, he effortlessly slid into working with the Northern California's domiciled Grateful Dead.

Incredibly, when the Dead asked Cutler to act as their tour manager, they were in such deep debt, their dire financial situation threatened to end the band. Cutler ended up with a bleeding stomach ulcer caused by the stress and hard work supervising their tours twenty-four hours a day. And when (according to Cutler) Jerry Garcia didn't appreciate him heroically working on the Dead's behalf, even though he had helped them become rich and internationally famous, he wished them 'Good luck,' and walked out of their lives.

This entertaining book illustrates how self-centered musicians can be in spite of their hippy credentials. Despite this, the selfless Sam Cutler who's a fascinating raconteur about a revolutionary slice of rock culture doesn't seek revenge via his compelling prose, but tells "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as It really was. He was there!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cudos to you Sam - A Smashing Success, May 8, 2010

By 

L. A. Reynolds "spiritguide" (coronadocalifornia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates (Paperback)

Could not put this down. Could not do another thing until I finished it. Thank you Sam Cutler for a rollicking, rousing, racy and romantic, repartee of your adventures with the Stones and the Dead. You have done a handsome and gracious job of reporting the truths about the music, the times, the people and the total trip that it truly was. Thank you for writing - for all the world to read at last - the story of what really happened at Altamont. Thank you for revealing the politics, the power plays, the Fed/Mafia sabotage. No-one else would do it, or could do it; you have the guts and the data. You're the man, Sam. So glad to know you a little better and very much looking forward to another tome from you.
Highly recommended reading to whomever would like to know the truth of the times and the politics that "killed rock and roll" that gruesome December night in 1969.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Altamont is only the beginning, July 22, 2010

By 

410Media (Springfield, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates (Paperback)

Sam Cutler was tour manager for the Rolling Stones for the 1968 tour that ended with the free show at Altamont where a man was stabbed to death right in front of the stage. This clearly has been the albatross that has hung around his neck throughout his life. As he says in the first chapter this book was written to set the record straight about what happened at Altamont. The first 185 pages of this 325 page book lead to Altamont, but there is more to this book.

Throughout the book you hear tales of Cutler's friendship not just with the Stones and The Dead, but with Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett and Janis Joplin. You hear tales of his job sometimes as just a glorified baby sitter to a bunch of high rock-stars as he helps them through the land-mines of groupies, drug dealers and mobsters.

The book reads as if you are talking to Sam Cutler as the events happened. Although with so many tales of his own drug use, I kind of wonder how he could remember any of it. You will read wonderful stories about his wrestling match with promoter Bill Graham or the acid laced birthday cake for Janis Joplin that was shared with the off duty police that were working security.

Before reading this book I didn't know if it would have much appeal to me. I like the Stones okay, but my musical taste seems to skip the period of time he is talking about. I was happy to find a book that discussed this era in such a conversational manner written by someone who while he regrets some of the things that happened (see Altamont) you can still tell was having the time of his life. I really learned a lot about this middle period in rock history and am glad I read it.