Life is a memoir by the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, written with the assistance of journalist James Fox. Published in October 2010, in hardback, audio and e-book formats, the book chronicles Richards' love of music, charting influences from his mother and maternal grandfather, through his discovery of blues music, the founding of the Rolling Stones, his often turbulent relationship with Mick Jagger, his involvement with drugs, and his relationships with women including Anita Pallenberg and his wife Patti Hansen.[1][2] Richards also released Vintage Vinos, a compilation of his work with the X-Pensive Winos, at the same time.[3]
Keith Richards is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine called Richards the creator of "rock's greatest single body of riffs" on guitar and ranked him fourth on its list of 100 best guitarists in 2011, and the magazine lists fourteen songs that Richards wrote with the Rolling Stones' lead vocalist Mick Jagger on its "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.
James Fox is a British journalist best known for his book White Mischief, and for co-authoring Life, the best-selling memoir of Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards.
Sir Michael Philip Jagger is an English singer, songwriter, actor, and film producer who gained worldwide fame as the lead singer and one of the founder members of the Rolling Stones. Jagger's career has spanned over five decades, and he has been described as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll". His distinctive voice and energetic live performances, along with Keith Richards' guitar style, have been the trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Jagger gained press notoriety for his admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a countercultural figure.
It has been reported that publisher Little, Brown and Company paid an advance of $7.3 million, after seeing a ten-page extract. Co-writer James Fox interviewed Richards and his associates over a period of five years to produce the book. Life was generally well received by critics and topped The New York Times non-fiction list in the first week of release.[4]
Little, Brown and Company is an American publisher founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown, and for close to two centuries has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson's poetry, and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. As of 2016, Little, Brown and Company is a division of the Hachette Book Group.
The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 127 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S.
Synopsis
Richards's memoir includes the founding of The Rolling Stones in 1962; he is pictured here in 1965 before a Stones show
Life is a memoir covering Keith Richards's life, starting with his childhood in Dartford, Kent, through to his success with the Rolling Stones and his current life in Connecticut. His interest in music was triggered by his mother, Doris, who played records by Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine and Louis Armstrong, and his maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore Dupree, a former big band player, who encouraged him to take up the guitar.[5] In his teens he met up with Mick Jagger, who he had known in primary school, and discovered that they both shared a love of blues music. In the early 1960s Richards moved into a London flat, shared with Jagger and Brian Jones. Together with Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones were founded in 1962, playing gigs at Ealing Jazz Club and the Crawdaddy Club.[6]
Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located 18 miles south-east of Central London, and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in Essex, which can be reached via the Dartford Crossing.
Connecticut is the southernmost state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. As of the 2010 Census, it has the highest per-capita income, Human Development Index (0.962), and median household income in the United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital is Hartford and its most populous city is Bridgeport. It is part of New England, although portions of it are often grouped with New York and New Jersey as the tri-state area. The state is named for the Connecticut River which approximately bisects the state. The word "Connecticut" is derived from various anglicized spellings of an Algonquian word for "long tidal river".
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer.
The book chronicles Richards's career with the Stones since 1962, following their rise from playing small club gigs to stadium concerts, Richards's drug habits, his arrests and convictions. His relationships with a number of women, including Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Ronnie Spector and Patti Hansen, whom he married in 1983, are covered in detail. The often difficult partnership between Richards and Jagger is referred to throughout the work and coverage of this has caused much media interest.[4][7]
Anita Pallenberg was a German-Italian actress, artist, and model. A style icon and "It Girl" of the 1960s and 1970s, Pallenberg was credited as the muse of the Rolling Stones: she was the romantic partner of Stones multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, and later, from 1967 to 1980, the partner of Stones guitarist Keith Richards, with whom she had three children.
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single "As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British Invasion in the United States.
Ronnie Spector is an American singer. Spector was the lead singer of the rock/pop vocal girl group the Ronettes, who had a string of hits during the early to mid–1960s such as "Be My Baby", "Baby, I Love You", and "The Best Part of Breakin' Up". Subsequently, Spector launched her solo career and has since released five studio albums and one extended play.
Throughout the work, much attention is given to Richards' love of music, his style of playing and chord construction.[7] His non-Stones projects, such as the X-Pensive Winos and recording with the Wingless Angels in Jamaica, as well as collaborations with Chuck Berry and Gram Parsons amongst others are covered in some detail.[8]
Wingless Angels are a Jamaican Rastafari reggae group led by Justin Hinds, best known for their self-titled album executive produced by Keith Richards and issued on his Mindless Records imprint.
Charles Edward Anderson Berry was an American singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive. Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.
Ingram Cecil Connor III, known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work with the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. He also popularized what he called "Cosmic American Music", a hybrid of country, rhythm and blues, soul, folk, and rock. He recorded as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. His relatively short career was described by AllMusic as "enormously influential" for country and rock, "blending the two genres to the point that they became indistinguishable from each other."
Production
James Fox, journalist and author of the non-fiction book White Mischief: The Murder of Lord Erroll, was credited, along with Keith Richards, as co-author. He had previously interviewed Richards in 1973 and the pair had been friends since then. Reportedly, $7.3 million was paid for the work in 2007, "on the basis of a 10-page excerpt".[9] Fox spent "hundreds of hours" with Richards at his Caribbean home, and also in the United Kingdom, to gather material for the book.[1] Cover Photographed by David LaChapelle. He interviewed Richards at length and also talked to many associates. Fox said of Richards, "I'd have to catch him like a salmon."[10] The interviews were conducted seated at a table, but the two were not opposite each other. Richards always played music, so Fox provided him with a lapel microphone. The subject matter was not handled chronologically; Fox allowed his subject to mentally "dart about". "Some sessions lasted hours and some, dealing with the more painful parts of Richards' life, lasted just minutes." The project took five years to complete.[10]
"Once the manuscript was complete, he [Fox] sat opposite Richards and read the entire book aloud to him ... He turned out to be a really natural editor. He cut according to the sound of it."[10][11] Rebecca Dana of The Daily Beast said of Life that it "covers all the bases: sex, drugs, guitar riffs, the size of Mick Jagger’s endowment. It also digs down into softer spots, including Richards’ tumultuous relationship with Anita Pallenberg and the death of their son. The book, which already seems to have earned a place in the admittedly small canon of genuinely great rock lit, is dishy but not lurid, technical but not wonky. Richards’ voice, filtered through Fox’s brain, is so relentlessly endearing, no less a critic than Maureen Dowd has declared the prince of darkness a "consummate gentleman."[12]Time's Richard Corliss writes "Confessional autobiographies, unless they're by William Boroughs[sic], tend to have inspirational endings: salvation through strong will or a good woman. Life has both."[13]
Publication
American actor Johnny Depp helped read the audiobook edition of Life
Life was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the United Kingdom and by Little, Brown and Company in the United States on 26 October 2010. It debuted, and spent two weeks, at the top position on The New York Times hard-back non-fiction best-sellers' list.[4][14][15] It spent six weeks on the USA Today's best sellers' list, peaking at the third position.[16]
A 22.5-hour audio book version, read by Richards, Johnny Depp and musician Joe Hurley, was also published.[17] The book is available as a digital download and has also been published in e-book format. A paperback version was published in May 2011.[18]
Coinciding with the publication of Life, Richards released Vintage Vinos, a compilation album featuring tracks from three albums by his band, the X-Pensive Winos, as well as some previously unreleased material.[3] The BBC television arts programme The Culture Show broadcast a special on 28 October 2010, consisting of a 60-minute interview with Keith Richards, conducted by Andrew Graham-Dixon. The programme covered "his childhood in Dartford, his passion for music and the decade that catapulted the Rolling Stones from back-room blues boys to one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands in the world". It included contributions from co-writer James Fox, Dick Taylor, former Stones PA Georgia Bergman and Bobby Keys and covered the same territory as the book. The programme was repeated on 12 November 2010.[19]
Reception
Richards's (right) relationship with Mick Jagger (left) has been a source of highly acclaimed music as well as deep personal conflict for decades
The book was generally well received by critics, with several commenting on the honesty of the work. Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Life offers much more than vicarious thrills. It captures the true spirit of rock and roll, the nitty-gritty of life on the road, and just what it feels like to be a heroin addict who doesn't know where his next fix is coming from. It also movingly captures Richards' extraordinary love of music—an even more powerful addiction for him than smack—and perhaps more surprisingly, his manifest destiny as a human being."[20] Jim Fusilli of the Wall Street Journal said that "Mr. Richards writes with disarming introspection about his childhood, family and fame. And it's quite likely that no rock musician has ever written so keenly about the joys of making music. With a warm sense of humor and willingness to share his grief, Mr. Richards in "Life" defies almost every public perception about him."[21] In The Independent, John Walsh commented, "He tells it with complete, reckless, disclosure. Sometimes it sounds like a man ranting into a tape machine; sometimes, in the tidier and more reflective sections, you can detect the hand of his co-writer, James (White Mischief) Fox. But the watchwords of this book are honesty, confessionalism, telling it straight."[22]
The New Yorker said of Life, "Half book, half brand extension, it's an entertaining, rambling monologue, a slurry romp through the life of a man who knew every pleasure, denied himself nothing, and never paid the price."[23]The New York Times said, "Mr. Richards, now 66, writes with uncommon candor and immediacy. He's decided that he's going to tell it as he remembers it, and helped along with notebooks, letters and a diary he once kept, he remembers almost everything."[9]
The popular press focused on the relationship between Jagger and Richards. Graham Smith in the Daily Mail said, "Unsurprisingly, The Rolling Stones guitarist isn't entirely complimentary towards his childhood friend. But nobody was expecting him to decimate Jagger's status as a legendary ladies' man by revealing the singer has a "tiny todger", before quoting Richards, "Because I love the man dearly; I'm still his mate. But he makes it very difficult to be his friend."[2] Tom Bryant in The Daily Mirror wrote, "Keith says his songwriting partner 'started to become unbearable' in the early 80s, adding: 'I think Mick thinks I belong to him but I haven't been to his dressing room in 20 years.'"[24]
Awards
The audiobook Life won two prestigious Audie Awards for 2010—Audiobook of the Year and Best Biography/Memoir.[25] Additionally, the audiobook Life was voted Amazon's No. 1 Audiobook of the Year for 2010.[26]Life received the 2011 Norman Mailer Prize for biography.[27]
Related Research Articles
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. The first stable line-up consisted of bandleader Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman (bass), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano). Stewart was removed from the official line-up in 1963 but continued to work with the band as a contracted musician until his death in 1985. The band's primary songwriters, Jagger and Richards, assumed leadership after Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager. Jones left the band less than a month before his death in 1969, having already been replaced by Mick Taylor, who remained until 1974. After Taylor left the band, Ronnie Wood took his place in 1975 and continues on guitar in tandem with Richards. Since Wyman's departure in 1993, Darryl Jones has served as touring bassist. The Stones have not had an official keyboardist since 1963, but have employed several musicians in that role, including Jack Nitzsche (1965–1971), Nicky Hopkins (1967–1982), Billy Preston (1971–1981), Ian McLagan (1978–1981), and Chuck Leavell (1982–present).
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Dirty Work is the Rolling Stones' 18th British and 20th American studio album. It was released on 24 March 1986 on the Rolling Stones label by CBS Records. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album was recorded during a period when relations between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards soured considerably, according to Richards' autobiography Life.
Talk Is Cheap is the debut solo album by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, released in 1988. Recorded and released during a long-standing falling out with Mick Jagger, Talk Is Cheap received positive reviews upon its release.
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"I Wanna Be Your Man" is a Lennon–McCartney-penned song recorded and released as a single by the Rolling Stones, and then recorded by the Beatles. The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, and finished by Lennon and McCartney in the corner of a room while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were talking.
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"Gimme Shelter" is the opening track to the 1969 album Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones. Greil Marcus, writing in Rolling Stone magazine at the time of its release, praised the song, stating that the band has "never done anything better".
"Before They Make Me Run" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1978 album Some Girls.
"Coming Down Again" is a song by the Rolling Stones featured on their 1973 album Goats Head Soup. It is sung as a duet by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
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Jagger/Richards is the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of the Rolling Stones. They are one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in history. In addition to Jagger and Richards' songwriting partnership, they have also produced or co-produced numerous Rolling Stones albums under the pseudonym The Glimmer Twins.
"Take It So Hard" is the first single from Keith Richards' first solo record, Talk Is Cheap. The long-time Rolling Stones guitarist recorded the record after band mate Mick Jagger refused to tour in 1986 in support of the album Dirty Work. The second song of the eleven track record, it is a powerful example of vocal rock harmonies and rhythmic guitar, piano and percussion syncopation, with an overlay of vocal tracks that bury the lyrics within the push and pull of the music. It received heavy airplay on US rock radio, reaching #3 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks.
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