[.ca] Keith Richards: The Biography (ISBN 0306812789)

Rock on Keith!:
This book, a great writing by Victor Bockris, is as raw and great as Keith Richards' early Stones recordings. Anyone who is any kind of stones fan should read it. Bockris shows a talent in not only interviewing artists, but in putting their rock star attitude to the paper. When one finds out over the course of the book kow great Richards' musical genius is, they will buy at least one Stones album as a result. This is the definitve story of Keith's life and times as the World's Most Elegantly Wasted Human Being.

MIXED EMOTIONS:
Really fun to read, but written with no distance at all from its subject. Bockris presents wife-bashing, money loosing and heroin dependency with the same loosenes as his unbeatable talent as a composer. Good gossip and great quotes from Keef, but I missed information about his views upon his contemporaries (few Beatles references and no Kinks or Who quotes at all).

If your a Stones fan, you can NOT pass this book up:
Great account of Keith's entire life as told by the man himself. The book gives a vivid account of Keith's musical beginnings, development and maturation as a musician and songwriter. Discusses his many musical influences, relationships with women, highs and lows with the stones and his 10+ year battles with heroin. The guy lives and breathes music 24/7, he is non-stop. By the end of the book I got a profound sense of someone who is a truly dedicated musician. It leaves no doubt why he has become a musical influence himself. You will not be disappointed with this book. A job very well done.

He's For Real:
Entertaining and interesting look at one of the few "legends" that are one, for real, and two, still living. Richard's childhood, family, musical background, habits, drug excursions, and idiosyncrasies are described and explained by Bockris in a way, that makes ya love Keith Richards for the person he is, both musically and personally. Keith can play piano ballads from from 1930s by heart, in addition to being the foundation of the Stones sound, which is exemplified by his solo work and stints with "The Expensive Winos." I loved what Keith preferred for breakfast, as well as his food sauce that he had flown to many parts of the world where he toured. And, the Doctor says he's healthy. Richards doesn't appear to live the life of an accomplished rebel, he just lives life the way he wants to, regardless. Few can attest to that. So far he hasn't apologized for anything--and I hope he never does.

Conflicted but good:
Victor Bockris appears to be, to some degree, the king of the classic rock biographies. In this book, he turns his eye toward Rolling Stone Keith Richards, and his tumultuous life in and out of the band, as well as those around him like Anita Pallenberg and Mick Jagger. Merely as a biography, this is pretty good. Bockris intersperses the ordinary biographical info with appropriate quotes from Keith, Anita, Mick, and many other people. He accentuates the good and the bad in Keith, the stuff about him that even he didn't know, and his attitude toward the public, his son, his wife, and so on. And some parts of it don't really seem to work. For example, the information on Anita talks about how brilliant and strong she was, and emphasizes that she could have handled Brian Jones on her own. But she kept getting hit by Brian, and later Keith; she doesn't seem to have been able to handle it. And intellectually, her quotes include things like, "She was really, like, totally self-obsessed." Really totally? Maybe it was the heroin. And Bockris seems a little enamored of Keith's time as a junkie, because we hear a lot more about that side of his life than any other part of it. The photos are definitely a disappointment. There is one per chapter, and usually it's a rather dull shot of Keith looking pensive, or just walking, or sitting, or signing things, or something of the sort. There are a couple of Anita or Mick, but not of many other people (for example, where is Marianne Faithfull? Bianca Jagger? Marlon? Dandelion?). As a result it's slightly difficult to form a clear picture of some of the interactions. "Keith Richards: The Biography" is a pretty good rock-star bio, focusing more on the life of the subject than what the groupies said about him. Certainly for fans of the Rolling Stones and classic rock.