Exile: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones
 

Robert Greenfield, who wrote the rather trashy but fun STP: A Journey Through America With the Rolling Stones back in the 1970s, has just published the rather trashy but fun book of the same title as this thread. I just finished it, and I would give it 3 stars out of 5. It is sensationalistic and most of the information is culled from rather unreliable sources (Spanish Tony, for one, Keith's junk connection back in those days). There is very, very little about the music of Exile itself, and a whole lot on the drugs and craziness that made up the life of our errant hero, Keef, while he and the rest of the band mostly did not do much while they were supposed to be recording Exile on Main Street in Nellcotte.

If you read it, post your reactions here. Or not. But I thought it'd be fun to hear what other Stones fans think of it.

Ces écrivains de americain sont partout dans le Rimbaud. S'il était ici il prendrait une pisse sur eux parce qu'il a aimé faire ce genre de chose.

Sounds like fun. I will try to find it.

Do you read a lot of books about them? Just wondering if you have a favorite.

Translation of Absinthe Goblin post:

Sheesh... these cretins of America's sons partying down like Rambo. Silly eating icey, ill-pretenders on a piss, sure you parse quills and aim fair at the genre of your choice.

Non non j'ai dit que Rimbaud prendrait une pisse sur un Américain utilisant ses mots pour le titre de livre de la bande de rocher britannique.

In a way.

I've read a few in my time. Not many, though. STP is a good read, if you keep in mind that much of it is probably fiction. It's one of those books that as I'm reading it I can't help but wonder how the hell he really knew all that. He couldn't have been everywhere, or if he's relying on other accounts, how reliable are they? That kind of thing.

Roy Carr's Illustrated Record of the Rolling Stones is pretty good, if you can find it, but it's out of print now.

And say what you will about Rolling Stone magazine, they did a fair job of covering their 72 and 75 tours, if you can find those old articles.

Rimbaud always fond with having a piss and not like!!!

My favourite gossip about him is when he went to see Verlaine,had a bit of a disagreement and caned him with a walking stick.hehe

Il affirmerait l'autorité et les grands batons aimés.

There's also a very good book that I think is just called Exile on Main Street that is almost entirely just about the record itself, very little gossip. It's in a series of books about albums. The book critiques each track and describes how each song was written and recorded. I highly recommend that one.

I'll affirm the author has big batons aimed at me.

What does that mean?

le commérage --- Gossip!!

Lay comrades of gossip? Sure... I guess...

Yes,but they were also lovers.I don't think that sort of 'authority' was to be taken seriously.More of a temper problem.Remember that Rimbaud had a habit for walking accross France with barely any food in his tummy but random drugs and booze administrated to his liver.Enough to turn you into a psychotic freak.

Here's info on that good book on Exile I was talking about:

Author Perry, John.
Title Exile on Main St. : the Rolling Stones / John Perry.
Published New York : Schirmer Books, c1999.

It's in the Classic Rock Album book series.

Cela est le commérage peut-être fait, mais il n'était pas sur le fond juste dans le fond.

Not on but in, yes, oui.

Thanks a bunch.

there was a snippit of this book in rolling stone back in sept. it was interesting, but i dont know if i would pick up the whole book regardless of my love for exile on main street. i was expecting more... but it was pretty humorous to read about keith running around with a fake revolver threatening people on the harbor. now we wonder why johnny depp based himself on keith for pirates...

yeah, it's certainly not one I'd shell out the bucks for. It was a good library read, though.

One thing I was disappointed with was the lack of photographs. Only about 4 in the whole book, and not even good ones. At least STP had a pretty good spread of tour photos.