Comments on: Doin’ it to Death

By: Boatzilla

Boatzilla — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 10:14:46 +0000

Keith’s book sounded like he wrote it…well like he dictated it. It sounds like the way he talks.

I think there a record of a writer who assisted him. I don’t have it in front of me now.

Anyway, Life is a treasure. A must read. Now I wanna read True Adventures…

By: Mr OK Jazz Tokyo

Mr OK Jazz Tokyo — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:24:44 +0000

I got to pick this book up, love that period of the Stones. That Ike Turner description sure seems scary..real bad dude.

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:13:54 +0000

Booth said that he wrote the book for someone to read in 100 years and I think that’s part of what makes it so good. It doesn’t feel dated at all.

By: Matt Blankman

Matt Blankman — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:57:21 +0000

But…GREAT POST! Loved reading that excerpt – makes me want to re-read the book again.

By: Matt Blankman

Matt Blankman — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:56:15 +0000

[1] C’mon, Keith didn’t write Keith’s book and even if he had, comparing his writing to Booth’s would be like comparing Booth’s songwriting to Keith’s. Keith *dictated* Keith’s book, I’m sure, but bet your bottom dollar he had a highly-paid ghost. (I think our mutual friend Pete may even know who that was.) That said, I loved Keith’s book, even if he lets himself off the hook way too easily for some of the crap that happened to him and around him. Dylan’s book is definitely better written, because we can imagine Dylan himself actually sitting down and writing and editing.

I’ve been telling everyone who’ll listen for years that Booth’s Stones book is the best book about rock’n'roll going. There are a couple other great ones (Guralnick’s first Elvis bio and Ian Hunter’s “Diary of a Rock’n'Roll Star” spring to mind), but Booth’s book is aces.

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:53:33 +0000

Writing about Keith’s memoir…

http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/post/5217227852/heart-of-stone

Greil Marcus wrote:

“There’s no sense of a writer seeking the right word, the right tone, the way to shape a story and make it stick, except when Richards is writing about music: what songs are, how they’re written, how they come to life, what they’re for—and these sections, the beating heart of the book and the reason to read it, do feel written, not talked. That feeling of reaching for the true way to say what one has to say is so palpable and visceral in the [Chuck] Berry and [Bob] Dylan books that the writing takes on its own dramatic charge.”

Just the opposite is true in Booth’s story where every word seems considered–though not forced. His prose has a wonderful sense of economy.