I Read A Book!

The wifey loaded a copy of Keith Richards' Life on her Kindle, so I took a stab and read it. It's a bit of a rambling affair, heavy on descriptions of the drugs taken (lots of heroin and pharmaceutical grade cocaine), the people involved (most you've never heard of), and the constant busts. The music obviously is in the forefront, and there are some cool songwriting stories -- Jagger wrote the lyrics to "Satisfaction" by a pool in Clear water, Fl and "It's Only Rock and Roll" was originally a Bowie/Jagger project that the band co-opted once they heard it.

The press made a big deal of how he mentions Jagger's "tiny todger" and called him Brenda and all that, but my impression was more that he went to great lengths to explain how important Mick was to him, sticking by him during all his drug and legal trouble, and how much he respected him as a writer and harmonica player, and that the big fallout was a result of Mick's piggybacking a solo contract on a Stones record deal and wanting to branch out from the Stones. That and he got pretty bitchy and wouldn't talk to the crew.

Bill Wyman, on the other hand, gets very little mercy, from Richards detailing how they only wanted him in the band originally because of his Vox amp and that their goal was to ditch him and keep the amp and talking about how he would pick girls out from the crowds outside the hotel, have them brought up to his room, serve them bad tea, then record their name in his ledger as scores. Richards notes that the chicks didn't come out disheveled and they clearly weren't in the room long enough to get their clothes off and put them back on, so it was just an effort to claim he'd bagged thousands of chicks.

He also talks a lot about Gram Parsons and how close the two were, sharing a bed while going cold turkey and scoring cheap Mexican dope in bad parts of LA, but also how much affection he had for him and how much Parsons influenced the Stones and the music business in general. And Mick hated him because he was jealous.

I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more discussion of specific albums, outside of the making of Exile, and some of the later ones like "Dirty Work" and "Voodoo Lounge," but there was so much description of songwriting and how he developed his style of using alternative tuning, it's hard to complain.

All in all, a great read, but I'm such a fan, it's hard to be objective. I have to say it was pleasant having the Kindle on a business trip and not having to lug the big book around, but I also had to turn it off during take-off and landing, the pictures from the book look like shit on it, and well, now I wish I had the book on my shelf. So I guess my verdict is that reading with the Kindle was no problem, but like albums on vinyl, I still am not ready to ditch the traditional format.

UPDATE: I should say for classics and keepers, I'm not ready to ditch the traditional format. For your average read that's not a keeper, the Kindle is tits.