Old Gods Almost Dead; A 40 Year Odyssey of The Rolling Stones

by StephenDavis (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.25

  It is now 17 years since Philip Norman first published The Stones. But while his Beatles biography is justifiably regarded as definitive, you're either a Beatles fan or a Stones fan, never quite both. His Stones book was never the final word. Meanwhile the Stones have never stopped playing. In 2002, therefore - already more than ten years since Bill Wyman left the band - it is certainly time for a new book. And what better author than Stephen Davis, whose Hammer of the Gods is one of the rock books of all time? Now he has written unquestionably the definitive book about the Stones' extraordinary 40-year career. Old Gods Almost Dead, therefore, follows the Stones from their beginnings on London's sixties rhythm and blues scene through to their huge pyrotechnic stadium tours of the nineties; from the tortured self-destruction of Brian Jones to the indestructible 'human riff' that is Keith Richards, and the tabloid gossip surrounding Mick Jagger the modern aristocrat. It is a dark, often eerie portrait, above all, of a band who have consistently attracted danger, and frequently had something bad around them, whether it be the homicidal mayhem of their disastrous Altamont concert to the chaotically drug-fuelled recording sessions at Keith Richards' French chateau that somehow produced their finest album, Exile on Main Street. And above all it is an unparalleled study of a band at work - stitching together deals, making records, putting on dynamic shows even late into their fifties. It is a saga as raunchily entertaining as the Stones themselves.

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.25

  In 2006, the Stones are in the middle of their latest world tour, and reach the UK in the summer with sell-out shows at giant arenas like Wembley Stadium. To tie in, Aurum reissues, with a stunning new cover, Stephen Davis's definitive 500-page history of the band: the most readable and comprehensive chronicle in print. Davis has also brought it up to date with details of their new album, Charlie Watts' illness and the American leg of the tour in 2005. Davis himself is the author of a number of consistently bestselling rock book classics - especially his Led Zeppelin chronicle, Hammer of the Gods , but also his book on Aerosmith, Walk this Way . In Old Gods , he has synthesised everything written, broadcast or revealed about the Stones into a single compulsively readable narrative: it is more comprehensive than Philip Norman's book, and just as raunchy as Robert Greenfield's. For anyone with an interest in any period of the Stones' history, from the 60s to the 21st century, this is the only book.