The Rolling Stones, edited by David Dalton, was published in 1972 and updated in 1975. It was a gift from a friend 42 years ago. Typical of UK pocketbooks, the size of the type was very small.
I learned a lot about this band, during its first decade or so at least. The format was not a chronological history, but a collection of prior articles and interviews that Dalton assembled. The editor himself contributed four of the chapters, including one about the then-unreleased musical film Rock and Roll Circus and the concert at Altamont.
As I am not familiar with the history of the Stones as I am with the Beatles, I was learning some facts for the first time, such as the childhoods of each member. Brian Jones certainly sowed his oats as he fathered numerous children (I had to look on-line to determine the actual number) from the age of sixteen on. In this book it appears that Bill Wyman, the oldest Stone, shaved five years off his age. His birthdate was given as October 24, 1941, thus placing Charlie Watts in the dubious position as the oldest Stone, born June 2, 1941. Was Wyman’s actual birth year still a secret in 1972, almost a decade after the Stones’ debut?
The compilation of articles from various sources presumed the reader would already be familiar with certain people. Case in point: the first time Marianne Faithfull appears she is referred to solely as “Marianne”, without any reference to who she is or how she knows the group. Only later, in another chapter, do we encounter her last name and her relationship with Mick Jagger.
I enjoyed reading about the making of Rock and Roll Circus and at the time of publication, the movie had not yet been released, and Dalton expressed doubts that it ever would be. Jagger also appeared in the film Performance, which I had heard about but didn’t realize how experimental and arty it was. Stephen Farber’s chapter on the film makes me want to see it now. I also enjoyed the final chapter by Michael Goodwin on the film Gimme Shelter.
The murder of Meredith Hunter at Altamont was explained in more detail than I had heretofore been aware, and the act was captured in Gimme Shelter. I hadn’t known beforehand that the Stones had recruited the Hell’s Angels as security at prior concerts to this, nor that Hunter, whom the Angels killed, had been carrying a gun. Whether the Angels should have stabbed him to death for holding it is another matter outside of this review.
This book originally came out in 1972 yet was updated to 1975 for the discography only. Thus the Stones’ story seems to end while they also appear to keep putting out records for three more years. I wonder what Robert Greenfield, author of the chapter Goodbye Great Britain (about the Stones on tour) would think about the group now. After the group wound up their tour of the UK in March 1971, he ended the chapter with:
“The band is celebrating, out of sea green champagne bottles. The tour is over and it may be a while before there’s another. Rock and roll is a young man’s game.”
The Stones’ most recent tour was in 2024, 53 years later.
Mark and I are five days into our trip and cruise of South America. I started this book while at home and finished it on the flight from São Paulo to Buenos Aires. I intend to leave it behind in the library on the cruise ship.