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Life: Keith Richards [Hardcover]

Keith Richards
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (234 customer reviews)
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Book Description

26 Oct 2010
With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life: taking the chances he wanted, speaking his mind, and making it all work in a way that no one before him had ever done. Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane. And what a life. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records as a child in post-war Kent. Learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones' first fame and success as a bad-boy band. The notorious Redlands drug bust and subsequent series of confrontations with a nervous establishment that led to his enduring image as outlaw and folk hero. Creating immortal riffs such as the ones in 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Street Fighting Man' and 'Honky Tonk Women'. Falling in love with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the US, 'Exile on Main Street' and 'Some Girls'. Ever increasing fame, isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen. Estrangement from Mick Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Solo albums and performances with his band the Xpensive Winos. Marriage, family and the road that goes on for ever. In a voice that is uniquely and intimately his own, with the disarming honesty that has always been his trademark, Keith Richards brings us the essential life story of our times.

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 576 pages
  • Publisher: W&N; 1st edition (26 Oct 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0297854399
  • ISBN-13: 978-0297854395
  • Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 4.7 x 23.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (234 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 9,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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 )

Book Description

Once-in-a-generation memoir of a rock legend.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
235 of 254 people found the following review helpful
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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38 of 41 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Superstardom Sarf London Style 29 Oct 2010
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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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars What A LIFE 14 Dec 2011
Format:Kindle Edition
Life is the best rock biography I have ever read (though it is not a genre I often indulge since it is mostly moderate talents with big heads blowing their predictable trumpets). The quality of the writing is actually poor, sort of speech rhythms, but that's fine since you just hear Keef's voice drawling at you in its charming, amiable way.

His life is full of surprises; being unwittingly used as getaway driver for a jewellery heist when the Stones were already big, delicate and understanding about the women who mattered, badly bullied at school, great, bizarre drug stories (which could so easily have been a tedious staple in lesser hands) and always the wry observer of the wild world he moved through.

Perhaps predictably, what endears the most is the artist in the man. He loves the music. He is as big a fan as any hormonal teenager. It even starts to seem odd that the (brilliant, wonderful) Stones should be such a success since what we have here is a man who adores other musicians.

Despite his laconic swagger on stage, there is none of the expected arrogance. He spent days on end learning tiny little variations on chords just to play London pubs - that was the horizon of his initial vision of the Stones.

In the end this is a life-affirming book, brimming with artistic passion and never taking the pop world seriously. Like all great artists, Keef comes across as a true one-off, and a pleasure to listen to.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Disjointed Story
Purchased for my Partner, who said the book jumped from one thing to another, and then back again, it was obviously written while on tour, or under the influence, as it was so... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Ms. Dawn A. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read...
A great Read and hard to put down...a wonderful insight into an amazing and often radical life of KR. Show many sides of him but feels very genuine throughout ... Read more
Published 6 days ago by Ryaller
5.0 out of 5 stars NOT ONLY A MASTER MUSICIAN...
I have read this book two years ago, and believe me...I have astound to see, how masterfully the book was written, from the first page. Read more
Published 7 days ago by ARK
4.0 out of 5 stars *!@£$%^
Nice anecdotes, but not very well written, but after all he is a musician not a writer. Love, Terry x
Published 10 days ago by TERR R ROBINSON
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
Honest and often uncomfortable account of Keith's life. It did however make me revisit my Stones collection and listen with a fresh ear now knowing what was happening at the time... Read more
Published 15 days ago by Hawklord67
4.0 out of 5 stars Facinating insight into a legend
Very well written account of the life of Richards and the rise and times of the stones. interesting the influence of R&B to thier music.
Published 16 days ago by Terry Pilkins
4.0 out of 5 stars Keith
Who'd have thought Keith would have kept detailed diaries over 50 or more years of the archetypal rock star's life? Or maybe the chemicals a responsible for his remarkable memory! Read more
Published 29 days ago by Clarsach
1.0 out of 5 stars I Love Myself
No wonder Mick Jagger is furious. It just shows why the Stones music is so boring as he rabbits on about discovering a chord sequence like he had unlocked the mysteries of the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by S C Cousins/sccousins@btinternet.com
3.0 out of 5 stars Initially exciting and funny, but ultimately boring and self...
This book starts off with wit, candor and a great explanation of the story of the early days of the Rolling Stones. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ryan Lister
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
A great read indeed, very candid look at his life and relationships. The only criticism is that he spends a long time going into detail about guitar styles, which if you're not a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jim C
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