EXPERIENCING THE ROLLING STONES: A LISTENER'S COMPANION

EXPERIENCING THE ROLLING STONES          DAVID MALVINNI

Over fifty years after their founding, the Rolling Stones still tour and create new music, while retaining their status as the world s quintessential rock band. Marketed as the raw alternative to their Liverpool counterparts, the Beatles, the Stones were the brainchild of guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones. But even before Jones tragic death from drowning in 1969, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards assumed leadership of the group largely because of their songwriting partnership. David Malvinni s Experiencing the Rolling Stones: A Listener s Companion looks at the Stones music from the inside out. Throughout Malvinni places individual songs and entire albums within the transformative era of the 60s, focusing on how The Rolling Stones integrated African-American R &B, blues, and rock and roll into a uniquely British style. Vignettes attempt to describe what it was like to hear the Stones music at the time of its release thread their way through as Malvinni goes beyond the usual stories around their significant songs. Tracing the distinctive sound that run through their catalogue, from chord progressions and open guitar tunings, to polyrhythmic Afro-Caribbean beats, to their timbral innovations using non-traditional instruments, he shows how the Stones retain their identity through the decades. Experiencing The Rolling Stones also draws together a broad swath of post-war Atlantic history as it covers their origins in Swinging London, their interest in the Beat generation of artists, the powerful attraction of Morocco on their lives and music, the infamous drug busts that nearly destroyed the band, the female muses who inspired them, the disaster Altamont and its aftermath, their flight from England as tax exiles, and the recording sessions outside of England. Malvinni takes an especially close look at Keith Richards guitar work from his use of an open-G tuning to 5-string guitars and their effect on the band s music, as well as the change in personnel, such as the addition of guitarists Mick Taylor and Ron Wood."

PAT'S REVIEW;

First let me say being a Stones fan for decades I found this book to be very insightful. When my friends were buying the Beatles records I was buying the Stones. I still look for the new stuff when it comes out. This book takes you back from their first record up to 2012 and goes through each album and for the most part the hit song from those albums. He also explains how the first three or four were different from one being an U.S. release and the other being a U.K. release. The author also explains how the different styles of music has shaped their own style, blues, R&B, some jazz, African and Cuban beats, even Jamaica with Reggae music. He also explains how even Stax a 1960-1970 record label out of Memphis inspired certain songs on some albums. The author will explain cords and riffs and how they got the sound and how later some of the earlier sound was changed by changing cords and moving down a few frets on the guitar to change the sound but only silently. He thought that this was brilliant because it is there blues, rock, R&B style that has kept them going. The author lets you know who also played on the albums like Billy Preston plating piano for example and Sonny Rollins a jazz great playing on “Waiting on a Friend” from the Tattoo you record. He also goes into sound engineers like in the 70’s Chris Kimsey, who took over for them with “Some Girls” and had also worked on Peter Frampton’s “Come Alive”, Bad Company’s “Burnin’ Sky”, just to name two. He has worked with many artists over the years. The author also explains how after Ian Stewart passed away they needed a new keyboardist for studio and touring, so they hired Chuck Leavell who at one time was a member of The Allman Brothers Band, and played on Duane’s Allman solo album, he also had his own band plus played with other bands like Govt Mule. This is a good book on their work and for the most part sticks with the music. If you want personal life stuff of the band then this book is not for you. For me this was a fabulous book because I still listen to their music. Overall a good book. I got this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com