Life by Keith Richards

Here's One to Read!!!

Not being a huge Rolling Stones fan, I was hesitant to give"Life" by Keith Richards a try. After all, this 700+ page autobiography (cleverly co-authored by James Fox) is very detailed and lengthy.

I was raised to think that the Beatles invented rock and roll and were the originators of a new type of music. Certainly, I thought that the British Invasion, was actually only the arrival of the Beatles to the US in 1964 (my parents immigrated that year also and are still huge Beatles fans today!) However, as I found out from reading Life, the Rolling Stones were working at the same time as the Beatles, and releasing songs as frequently as the Beatles. Keith's earlier days was all about the music. He had little money, and no job to speak of. He worked hard on being a musician and finding a solid band with whom to explore his musical creativity. Putting out music was the main focus early on, and he wrote a lot of material.

Later, once the band was up and touring Europe and North America, he really developed into the Rock and Roll bad boy that we know him to be. He details many very funny and entertaining stories about his adventures on the road, his frequent brushes with the law and the twists and turns of the music industry. At times this is a laugh out loud book. One of the funniest bits, is his brush with southern state troupers in the US, where his car is stacked with drugs, and by a stroke of great luck (at least he saw it as luck!), he goes undetected despite arrest and detention.

He Has 9 Lives...Maybe Even More!

The stories that Keith shares in Life are at times both gritty and moving. He details with great honesty the struggle that he has faced with drug dependence and sobriety. The tragic loss of his daughter moved me to tears, but left me with a great appreciation for his candor.  

There are a couple of short comings with Life that should be mentioned. Without question, the writing is excellent and James Fox has really created a novel that welcomes readers and keeps them engaged. At times, I skipped some of the "industry talk" (a bit boring), and it would have been helpful to have had an index with explanation of who all the people were. I got a bit lost with all the name dropping!

Another disappointment is the obvious avoidance of any discussion of Mick Jagger. From reading the book, there is no love there any more, but the absence of Mick really created an obvious hole. Jagger is so absent that it is clear Richards is avoiding the subject out of fear of litigation and other trouble.

Finally, if the book is truly a reflection of what Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones have been doing, I was left a bit disappointed that they have done virtually nothing charitably, and there was a definite lack of giving back by a very well-off individual. The one charitable mention was concert that the Stones were ordered to perform as a part of Richards community service sentence. Not a lot of altruism here. If this was an oversight on the part of the co-author's it is regrettable.

I appreciated the openness of this novel, and enjoyed the read a lot. Ultimately, I was left with a sense that to be a huge rock star, you have to be selfish and driven with only one goal in mind.

Check out Keith Richard's webpage with more details on Life:  http://www.keithrichards.com/life/