The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones

by Stanley Booth Narrated by Nick Sullivan

Overview

Stanley Booth, a member of the Rolling Stones' inner circle, met the band just a few months before Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1969.

He lived with them throughout their 1969 American tour, staying up all night together listening to blues, talking about music, ingesting drugs, and consorting with groupies. His thrilling account culminates with their final concert at Altamont Speedway-a nightmare of beating, stabbing, and killing that would signal the end of a generation's dreams of peace and freedom.

But while this book renders in fine detail the entire history of the Stones, paying special attention to the tragedy of Brian Jones, it is about much more than a writer and a rock band. It has been called-by Harold Brodkey and Robert Stone, among others-the best book ever written about the sixties.

In a new afterword, Booth explains why this book took fifteen years to write-an astonishing story of drugs, jails, and disasters.

Editorial Reviews

Fat City

Without a shadow of a doubt the best rock and roll story ever put to paper...If you buy one book on the Rolling Stones, you'd be a fool if this wasn't it.

Internet Book Watch

Two intriguing Rolling Stones books are recommended picks for any prior fan of the Stones: they each provide personal accounts by readers who were involved with the rock group. Stanley Booth's True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones gathers encounters of gigs, world tours, and backstage events, providing a powerful glimpse intothe personalities and characters of the Stones. Nakering With The Rolling Stones by James Phelge (373-4, $16.95) tells of the early days of the Rolling Stones by an author who lived with them for over a year when they were just getting famous. His story of his 1963 roommates also provides an intimate behind-the-scenes examination of the Stones. Both are eye-opening, going beyond the usual fan's eye-view to explore personal relationships with the Stones.
—Internet Book Watch

From the Publisher

"A vivid account of life on the edge."  —TheWeek.com

“[Stanley Booth’s] affection for the band did not keep him from writing about the seamy underside of the Stones’ world in the 1960s. . . . It is the only book about the Stones that I would recommend both to the general reader and to the most devoted fan. Both will find an epiphany on almost every page.”  —Robert Palmer, New York Times Book Review

“If you’ve never bought a book about rock and roll, no matter—this is the one you’ve been waiting for.”  —Playboy

“Astonishing . . . part oral history and part midnight diary in a world where midnight goes on forever.”  —Los Angeles Reader


“Shattering. . . . Booth has found his voice and momentum with a pitch and passion I’ve never seen equaled in pop journalism. . . . His book outdistances anything the Stones have wrought since Let It Bleed.”  —Mikal Gilmore, Los Angeles Herald Examiner

“Booth’s strong, sound prose brings to life the out-of-control process through which an age intoxicated by its own passions found a hard-driving music to live hard by. In all the annals of the 1960s, there is nothing on paper that so evokes those days and nights.”  —Robert Stone, Salon

“By far the best book on its subject (including Richards’s own well received effort), Booth’s book is also easily the most convincing account of life inside the monster created by the rock revolution of the 1960s.”  —Richard Williams, Guardian

“The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is, simply put, one of those essential texts of music journalism. Groundbreaking, insightful, funny and tragic, it's a piece of reporting that could never take place today.” —The Houston Press

Library Journal - Audio

★ 10/15/2013
First published in 1984 as Dance with the Devil and reappearing to commemorate the Stones' 50th anniversary, this is both an insightful firsthand account of the legendary band's epochal 1969 American tour and a thorough history of the group to that point. The tour journal portion is rife with debauched anecdotes, while the biographical half covers the band's bluesy beginnings, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger's combustible, hit-making chemistry, and, best of all, founding member Brian Jones's changing role within the group and eventual ousting. The parallel narratives both end in controversial deaths—Jones's tragic drowning and the stabbing of a concertgoer at the disastrous Altamont show. Booth proves to be both an engaging storyteller and a skillful journalist, giving fans an insider's view of who the Stones were and how they behaved on tour while also chronicling their formative years and early success. The updated edition includes a new afterword by Booth, who describes his personal struggles upon returning from the drug-addled, life-changing tour. Narrator Nick Sullivan capably conveys a variety of accents and personalities. VERDICT Highly recommended to anyone interested in the highs and lows of the Stones' first decade.—Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169863987
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	06/15/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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