Life: Keith Richards: Amazon.co.uk: Keith Richards: Books

Review

Life is pretty faultless as the quintessential depiction of the man in full and his extraordinary life and times to date. (Nick Kent THE TIMES )

Addictive reading (VOGUE )

This autumn's best entertainment comes from the notorious Rolling Stones' guitarist in this tell-all memoir... All the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll are there - let the fun begin! (SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE )

Richards has written an opus on a lifetime of brutal honesty, an all-encompassing account of what it's been like to be one of the coolest rock stars in the world. (THE ATLANTIC )

Keith comes across as a thoroughly decent man, with just a hint of the devil. His relationship with Jagger is complex and fascinating... (Pete Clark EVENING STANDARD )

Electrifying... the intimate and moving story of one man's long strange trip over the decades, told in dead-on, visceral prose without any of the pretense, caution or self-consciousness that usually attend great artists sitting for their self-portraits. (NEW YORK TIMES )

an absolute blast... mesmerizing. It is like being button-holed by a piratical ancient mariner with amazing tales to tell. But Life offers much more than vicarious thrills. It captures the true spirit of rock and roll... It also movingly captures Richards's extraordinary love of music...and perhaps more surprisingly, his manifest decency as a human being...how good is it that this hugely endearing rock and roll legend...is able to describe his extraordinary life with such honesty and panache. (Charles Spencer THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

The 500-plus pages of Life throb with energy, pulsate with rhythm and reverberate with good stories... densely textured, vivid and utterly charming autobiography - far better-written and more coherent than anyone could have hoped (John Walsh THE INDEPENDENT )

a fascinating book; by turns appalling, rambling, hilarious and even surprisingly touching... Life is an important addition to rock literature, giving fresh insights into the working dynamic between Richards and Jagger... Life crackles with the authentic, likeable voice of a man who is not what you think (Jan Moir DAILY MAIL )

the very existence of this book is a marker against the ravages of time. It suggests Richards's memory is fresh in a way that his face isn't...funnier than Spinal Tap's reminiscences of their native Squatney... And he can be tender, too... There's a junkie-artist frankness throughout, coupled with a refusal to omit things: how he plays the guitar, how post-gig coupling works, and his recipe for bangers and mash (don't try it at home). (Tom Payne THE DAILY TELEGRAPH )

from music to Mick, and from drugs to deaths: Richards holds little back in his immensely readable memoir (THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Must Read' )

Keith Richards's autobiography Life has resulted in a huge outpouring of adoration for 'the human riff' - much of it well deserved... The entire world currently seems to be in love with this charmingly gnarled relic. (Suzanne Moore MAIL ON SUNDAY )

Life, as it's very aptly titled, is testament to not just a man with a superhuman constitution, but a passionate discourse on the nature of rebellion, how to take every day as it comes and, yes, live life to the full... Richards' guitar playing and music making are inseparable from how he conducts every other aspect of his life. It's this very attitude, indeed commitment, that comes across as remarkably refreshing. He's the ultimate pirate adventurer and outsider. (Henry Sutton DAILY MIRROR )

Life is a riveting, exhilarating read... With brutal honesty Keith spills all, taking in his childhood in grim, post-war Dartford, Kent, and 50 turbulent years of the Stones. It's all here - the drugs, the arrests, the bust-ups, the women and the music. (Simon Copeland THE SUN )

never boring... A rocking good read. (NEWS OF THE WORLD )

There is much to learn from Keith Richards' richly entertaining biography... This is the "Keef" of Rolling Stones legend: rascally, dangerous, witty; the ultimate rock-and-roll survivor. (Ludovic Hunter-Tilney FINANCIAL TIMES )

one of the most honest, amusing, no-holds-barred rock biographies I have ever read... informative and often amusing with no excuses or false contrition... there is something for everyone here, even a particularly good recipe for bangers and mash. (Barry Miles NEW STATESMAN )

One of the greatest rock memoirs ever...The title of Richards' book is a simple, accurate description on the contents: the 66-year-old guitarist's highs, lows and death-defying excesses, from birth to now, vividly related in his natural pirate-hipster cadence and syntax. (David Fricke ROLLING STONE )

A vivid self-portrait and, of the Stones and their musical era, a grand group portrait. Surely thanks in part to his co-writer James Fox, Richards shows a strong, sure authorial voice, acute in detail, passionate about his achievements in music and nearly always amused by his excesses, not least in having survived them...spellbinding storytelling. (Richard Corliss TIME MAGAZINE )

Entertaining...a slurry romp through the life of a man who knew every pleasure, denied himself nothing, and never paid the price. (David Remnick THE NEW YORKER )

Keith Richards's Life is an excellent insight into the life of this extraordinarily gifted man. It's touching and breathtaking. As important as Van Gogh's letters to his brother. Fabulous. (Joanna Lumley )

He is not just a credit to Sidcup Art School; he is an inspiration to every London child who peeps a recorder or strums a guitar. I cannot think of another member of the British artistic, cultural or media world who has done so much or who has so widely penetrated the global consciousness. David Attenborough? Stephen Fry? He knocks them into a cocked hat... Arise Sir Keef, I say, and if there were any damn merit in it, he would have the Order of Merit, too. (Boris Johnson )

Review

Now an unbelievable 66 the rocker tells the story of his life the way it happened... While Keith reads an intro, Johnny Depp, who based his Pirates of the Caribbean character Jack Sparrow on his friend Richards, is the autobiography's main read and his laconic delivery is perfect. -- Kati Nicholl DAILY EXPRESS Yes, there's an ear-popping amount of drugs and sex, but what's important is the rock'n'roll. Richards emerges as deeply serious about his craft and is illuminating on guitar technique. ... compelling THE TIMES to cheer yourself up, we recommend the audiobook of Keith Richard's autobiography 'Life'... a surprisingly educative blast. TIME OUT Joe Hurley is great. In fact, Joe Hurley is better at portraying Keith Richards than Keith Richards! GUARDIAN A "must-listen" title. DVDFEVER --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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219 of 237 people found the following review helpful

Keith Richards - Caught in a cross fire hurricane 27 Oct 2010

By Red on Black TOP 50 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Keith Richards is in danger of becoming respectable, what with starring interviews on the Andrew Marr show, bit parts in Disney's "the Pirates of Caribbean" and an emerging status as national treasure. He has even received the ultimate accolade this week namely a vicious attack from the increasingly insane ex Trot and current bigot Peter Hitchens who blamed him for causing more damage than the Iraq War and described him as "a debauched, capering streak of living gristle who ought to be exhibited as a warning to the young of what drugs can do to you". As usual Hitchens couldn't be more wrong since after reading "Life" a electrifying autobiography ghost written with James Fox someone ought to work out the physiology of Richards since the man is clearly indestructible despite the most astounding chemical intake and even more remarkable he appears to going as strong as ever. The life of this man who founded the Rolling Stones, invented rock guitar, gave us "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar", the seminal "Exile on Main Street" and a host of other treasures is something we should warmly celebrate and not carp about.

Great rock autobiographies are a rare species but this book by Richards amounting 547 pages ranging from a drug bust in Fordyce, Arkansas to a quick final explanation that he did indeed snort his Dad's ashes (but in a very affectionate way!) and ending in the death of his dear old mum Doris is a very intimate, revealing, warts an all account of a fascinating life packed with brilliant photographs and stories to spare. Fox has captured his subject well and you can hear Richards voice loud and clear with its colourful language of "cats", his love of Shepherd's pie ("don't bust the crust") and roguish charm. You will not be surprised that a large part of the book deals with Richards copious pharmaceutical use. Indeed with parts of his memory wiped out sections of the text are given over to the first hand remembrances of family members and friends like Waddy Watchel, Don Was and his great mate Bobby Keys which are often very harrowing. The legendary Freddie Sessler "Keith's second dad" is a key figure here. This is a man who described himself as "the worlds oldest groupie", got Keith out of "scrapes" and supplied his drugs including pharmaceutical cocaine graphically described in a passage on page 373. Richards knows that he was lucky to survive all this hedonism and the poignancy of his remarks when he tells us stories about the deaths of fellow travellers like Billy Preston and Gram Parsons are all the more pronounced and sad for it. The fact that his co-conspirator Ronnie Wood navigated this madness particularly with a his own "freebasing" crack cocaine indulgences which Richards highlights from 1980 onwards is another example of the "get out of jail" philosophy of life employed by the two most colourful members of the Stones.

At the core of the book is the Jagger/Richards relationship which has gone through phases of almost tender brotherly love to intense visceral hatred (listen to "Had it with you" on Dirty Work which charts the nadir of this phase). The cleaned up Richards circa 1980s "Emotional Rescue" cannot today forgive Jagger's attitude on "his return" who had "fallen in love with power" and whose constant put downs of him are still very raw. As he states "the phrase which rings in my ears all these years later is "Oh, shut up Keith". Things gradually improved over the years and despite Jagger's Knighthood ("the Mick I grew up was a guy who'd say shove your little honours up your ar*e") by 2004 Richards and Jagger were working a closely as ever and he accepts "you've got to go through the bulls**t; its like a marriage"

The book charts all the great Richards myths, the blood changing, the skull ring, the tax exile in France, the falling out of the tree incident and the Toronto drug bust in huge detail which finally led to him giving up heroin. The part however which I especially enjoyed was his early years around Dartford and Sidcup and his passion for the blues particularly Jack Elliot and the impact of Elvis. The generosity throughout to the great Charlie Watts who clearly is the glue that holds the Stones together, and a great loss to the United Nations Peace Keeping Corps, is genuine and full of love. Watts survival from cancer is emotionally charted by Richards and his relief tangible that Watts came back. And then there is the music not just with the Stones but Keith's side projects like the X-pensive Wino's which is a tale well told; while his relationship with Anita Pallenberg and its impact on the construction of the Stones greatest song "Gimme Shelter" is fascinatingly unveiled.

The life of Keith Richards is a chronicle of the ultimate rock survivor and icon. Frankly he should not be here and the fact that he never sleeps means he has been here "longer" than the average 66 year old. Despite yourself you can't help but be absorbed by the myth and legend of the man, his bluntness and his often outspoken nonsense. Let us be frank anyone who calls his dog "Syphilis" must have something going for him. Consequently when in a hundred years time someone sits down and writes the definitive history of rock music it should start with the sentence that "In the beginning was the riff and the riff was with Keith".

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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful

Superstardom Sarf London Style 29 Oct 2010

By conjunction

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's hard to judge this book. When I was thirteen my sister and I gravitated from Elvis and Cliff to the Beatles and the Stones, buying every LP as it was released. Later at University Beggars Banquet was played more than anything. Many years later I played Exile on Main Street solid for ten years, so much I can hardly listen to it now.

So I can't be objective, its like reading a book by my cousin. It's very very frank about relationships, about drugs, about occasional violence. There's a lot of stuff about musical technique, just like Miles Davis's autobiography, which it reminds me of. I don't understand most of this not being a guitarist, but the feel of these sections is great. It makes you want to get out all your John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed records.

The section about Brian Jones is revealing. This is actually the first book about the Stones I have read, so in comparison with the general familiarity from newspaper stories and rumours I had this is great, and Richards has an aura of telling the truth, by and large I would mostly buy what he's saying. There is also a very moving section about Gram Parsons, who seems to have been one of his closest musical associates and friends.

Earlier, all the stuff about his family is fabulous. Its worth tracking down the full length version of the Andrew Marr interview on BBCi incidentally, where Marr and Keith say his childhood was Dickensian which was exactly what was going through my head when I was reading about his wonderful family. His mother and his maternal grandfather were something else.

Some of the stuff about about the early sixties blues scene echoes what you can read in, say, a Pete Townshend biography I've read. Incidentally, Richards has almost nothing to say about any of his contemporaries musically, except to some extent the Beatles. But mostly that's about how the Beatles were marketed and about the scene they created. No opinions are expressed about say Clapton, the Who, or Hendrix. But then Richards isn't into judging much, unless someone steps on his blue suede shoes (or gets to the cottage pie before he does - read the book).

Mostly the book is about the folks he meets as he navigates his way through life which was always a struggle for one reason or another until the end of the seventies when he emerges from heroin and then meets his current wife Patti.

And of course there's some fascinating stuff about Jagger. I started to skip a little towards the end as I am less interested in their later music. But this is great for Stones fans and also it's a fascinating social record. If you want to know about superstardom south London style go for it.

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61 of 68 people found the following review helpful

Sympathy for the old devil 28 Oct 2010

By Mr. David C. Halliday TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

There are bound to be many glowing reports from lifelong 'Stones fans who won't put up with any criticism or doubt. I'm no huge fan but you'd have to be pretty obtuse to deny the huge influence of the Rolling Stones and there are plenty of their tracks that I like and have done for years.
To be honest I didn't hold out much hope for this but must admit to being surprised at how well the reader is led along and at the candid way everything is laid bare including no few moments that don't exactly cover Mr. Richards in glory.
All the famous myths about him that have almost become urban legends are spoken about and quite a few lesser/ unknown ones too. He is very open about his myriad substances of choice and how they have influenced so much of his life. But these anecdotes aren't really what set this autobiography apart from any other. Rather it's the fascinating insights into his dynamic with the rest of the band, (often destructive and bitter but ultimately artistically productive and mellowed with age),.
There have been a lot of reviews that have tried to set this up as some sort of 'Keef against the world' type thing which frankly is rubbish. He has done pretty much whatever he wanted and although has nearly killed himself off all in all it seems to have been a bit of a blast. In all fairness he himself doesn't come across as someone either feeling hard done by nor as some sort of hero, (although many fans and peers would argue strongly that he is), but neither does he pretend to be 'just one of the lads'. His life has been well out of the ordinary and the events described in this book show just what a rollercoaster ride this man has chosen to be on and a sad look at those who left too early.
Never dull, never self important or big headed, this is an interesting and page turning read that really has appeal for both the fan and casual follower alike.
Straight, witty and as mad as a hatter, Keith Richards life was always going to be a read to keep you glued and he hasn't messed it up.
Not for the faint hearted but nothing gratuitous or bragging either. One of the best releases of the autobiography season.

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