best rolling stones biography book

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The Top Ten Best Rolling Stones Books…ever!

The best books about the Rolling Stones? Read on…

The Rolling Stones pretended they wouldn’t be touring in 2012 to celebrate their 50th anniversary, and Keith claimed that as Charlie didn’t join the band until 1963, he had a decent get-out clause to postpone the festivities until next year.

So whilst we waited patiently for The Stones to get their act together, there were plenty of books about them to pass the time?

There are probably more Rolling Stones books out there than Keith Richards has had hot dinners. Well – cold turkey, perhaps.

At about the time of the Italia ’90 World Cup, I saw The Stones at Wembley Stadium for the first time. A rag tag band of hard drinkers, drug takers, womanisers and gamblers had made the transition over relatively few years from tiny, uninterested crowds to filling football stadiums across Europe.

But that’s enough about the England football team . The Stones actually played one of their Wembley gigs the night England were beaten by Germany on penalties. Cheers or resigned sighs broke out sporadically as news spread from those who had brought their transistor radios with them.

As strange as it may sound, I was only familiar with half their songs in 1990. A damning indictment of the UK media’s ambivalence towards rock music is that the first time I heard Paint It, Black was when I was twenty years old.

Fortunately, I also saw them on the Bigger Bang tour more recently at Twickenham. It is fair to say that like a fine wine, they continue to get more expensive. Oh, sorry, I mean “better”. I have only appreciated them more as years go by…

Knowing which of the many books about The Stones are worth picking up and which have the searing literary insight of a year-old copy of OK! Magazine left in a dentist’s waiting room is tough even with Wikipedia, Google, an active Amazon account and a seventy-word-a-minute typing ability. So to save you the trouble (well – I’ve done all the work now – shame to let it go to waste) here is my definitive list of classic Stones literature. And when I say definitive, I mean not quite definitive. On my “Yet to Read” pile is Wyman’s biography (not great I hear), Philip Norman’s “The Stones” and  “ Under Their Thumb ” by Bill German (better, apparently) but I can’t include books I haven’t read, so if I have missed a good one, then do let me know…(I haven’t heard of a decent Jagger bio, for example).

So here’s the er, completely not definitive but maybe a little bit definitive Top Ten Rolling Stones Books of All Time:

Life by Keith Richards : There’s only one Stone who can tell the whole story of the band who isn’t the lead singer. Or the drummer. This became an instant classic upon release in 2010. Loved the story of Mick referring to Charlie Watts as “my drummer” only for mild mannered Charlie to punch his lights out and tell him “I’m not your drummer – you’re my singer!”

The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth : Finally back in print – see previous post for a more detailed look at this classic tale of excess.

Nankering with The Stones by James Phelge: A first hand account of the Stones in 1963 as they share a grotty bedsit with the author. An authentic look at a struggling rock band in the sixties…whatever became of them…?

Stoned / 2Stoned : Andrew Loog Oldham blagged a job as London publicist for The Beatles and subsequently went on to manage The Rolling Stones for the early part of their career. He inspired Jagger and Richards to write songs by grabbing Lennon and McCartney off the street and showing them how it was done. The Stones’ first Top-20 hit single “I Wanna Be Your Man” was the result and the rest is history. The books are gossipy and offer a superb and first hand account of London’s swinging sixties.

Exile by Dominique Tarlé ( Genesis Publications ): A gorgeous and impossibly expensive photo album of the band in tax exile at Nellcôte, the mansion in the South of France where Exile on Main St was recorded. Tarlé’s photos sum up the spirit of Rock and Roll for me – never has a band looked so definitively cool whilst looking so shabby and out of it – and to such great effect: Exile… became a bona fide classic…

Ronnie By Ronnie Wood: Ronnie’s book is a likeable account of his life from gipsy boat dweller to rock star to recovering alcoholic. He concludes that his wife has been a Great Thing in his life. Unfortunately as you may have heard he fell off the wagon and she left him a couple of years after the book was published. Don’t try this at home folks….

An Illustrated Record by Roy Carr : One of a series of books (The Beatles, Bowie and Dylan also had books in this format) that looks at the band through the record sleeves, tour posters and other ephemera which is great to look at…

According to the Rolling Stones : The Rolling Stones’ answer to The Beatles’ Anthology project – an official history of the band as told through the voices of the main protagonists, including the band.

A final and quirky addition to this list is a book entitled Guv’nors of RnB . It is by no means a literary classic, merely containing photos and lyrics for all the albums up to Goats Head Soup . Published in Holland in the early seventies and featuring a psychedelic cover, I have been unable to find out much about it, but it looks nice on my bookshelf. If any Stones fans out there can shed any light on it, do get in touch…

Click this link to read my list of The Top 50 Greatest Music Books of All Time.

Record #39: The Rolling Stones – Loving Cup

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8 responses to “The Top Ten Best Rolling Stones Books…ever!”

Thanks, classy list. I like the insider-y, gossipy Up And Down With The Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez. I won’t repeat here the allegation. He was Keith’s …

I also enjoyed the more straightforward book by Philip Norman and I’ve heard v good things about the Bill German book . (On another note, if you’re into Mick Ronson as I think you probably are, check out my tribute.)

Thanks for the comments. I just saw Bowie biographer Christopher Sandford has released a new Stones book – I liked the bit where says a stones accountant noted in a court deposition that “Nellcote had cost Richards some £4,000 a week: £500 each on food and drink, £1,200 on rent and £1,800 on cotton candy (or pure Thai heroin).” He adds wryly that “Keith would have no difficulty meeting the French governments requirement that he invest some £30,000 for each year of his residency in their country”!

[…] their 50th anniversary, although Keith has claimed that as Charlie didn't join …everyrecordtellsastory.com/…/the-top-ten-best-rolling-stones-b… Related […]

I bought Greenfield’s book based on your recommendation. In the prologue he recalls when Get Off My Cloud came out in 1963. It came out in ’65. A few pages later, he describes the Stones circa ’72 as the only great sixties band still making music with its original lineup. But Brian Jones had died in ’69. I believe Zep and the Who were both intact in 1972, and by many accounts they were both at the top of the heap with the Stones. Added to several glaring factual errors, the book is horribly written. Greenfield is a hot-air bloviator who is in love with his own writing.

Sorry about that! I thought the book had a lot of atmosphere and captured the time very well – but I guess like most things it’s all a question of personal taste. Thanks for taking the time out to let me know – hope you’re not too upset my recommendation didn’t work out!

Nice write-up… I’ve read quite a few myself. Bill’s book does drag at times, but is worth the time and effort. One you appear to have missed but is outstanding is Chet Flippo’s “it’s only rock & roll”, a document of the early touring with Ronnie, including Keith’s big Toronto bust, the club gig they were in town for in the first place… lots of great stuff. I’ve always considered it something of a companion piece to the Booth work.

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Ooh, thank you for the heads up on the Chet Flippo book – hadn’t heard of that one – will investigate. Cheers!

I highly recommend ‘UNDERCOVER: 500 ROLLING STONES COVER VERSIONS THAT YOU MUST HEAR!’, and not just because I wrote it! Seriously, it’s good.

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The Rolling Stones: Sixty Years

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• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Christopher Sandford has been a professional writer for 40 years and a frequent writer about the Rolling Stones for more than 30. He has published many previous books and is the only writer to have written biographies of both Mick Jagger, 'the classic biography' (The Times) and Keith Richards 'Sandford's affectionate, warts-and-all portrait of Keith is undoubtedly the best read' (Sunday Telegraph).

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (June 23, 2022)
• Length: 528 pages
• ISBN13: 9781398520325

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• Biography & Autobiography > General

Raves and Reviews

'Sandford gamely makes his way through the binges and the arrears, the marital break-ups and the internecine feuds, and finds an uproarious comedy in the luxuriant squalor and knockabout chaos of it all.'

'A highly professional reference biography that, if you pardon the expression, leaves no Stone unturned and is by no means bereft of memorable anecdotes.'

– Charles Shaar Murray, Literary Review

'Sex and the Stones laid bare in candid new book.'

'[Sandford] does a good job of giving us the full story in humorous tones. Tales of friendships, flings, rivalries (especially the central one between Jagger and Richards) are all told with welcome irreverence.'

– Independent

'A new book on the Rolling Stones reveals Mick Jagger once arrived on court for a tennis match against Keith Richards togged out in Wimbledon-style whites. Keef rolled up in cut-off jeans, with a fag in his mouth and thrashed Mick 6-1. What s not to love about the guy?'

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The Only Book You’ll Ever Need to Read About The Rolling Stones

Rich Cohen writes books that are hard to put down. From Tough Jews and The Record Men to his hilarious memoir, Sweet and Low: A Family Story , to the boss appreciation of the 1985 Chicago Bears , Cohen is smart, funny, and above all, entertaining. His latest combines memoir, critical and social analysis and good, old-fashioned reporting and the result is another sure shot. If you only read one book about the Stones—and I’m a huge fan of The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth, and Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield—Cohen’s new book, The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones , is for you.

Q: The story of the Stones is really between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but originally they weren’t the leaders, right?

Rich Cohen : It was Brian Jones’s band. Mick tried out and brought Keith with him. When the Rolling Stones were formed, Brian Jones was already kind of famous. According to everybody I’ve spoken to, nobody in England could play slide guitar. They’d all heard it but they didn’t even really know how it was done. And Brian Jones not only could play it—he could play it really well. Keith was really into Chuck Berry, which was considered pop, [not] authentic blues. There was a big fight and Jagger said, “I don’t go in the band without Keith.”

But it was Brian’s vision of the music. He was the best musician. He arranged the songs, he chose the set lists, and he was the one who would talk to the audience. If a reporter called and wanted to talk about the band, it was Brian Jones they talked to. The Stones were his band.

Q: When did that start to change?

RC : When Andrew Loog Oldman [the band’s manager] told Mick and Keith to start writing. The songs are where the money is. Every time it’s played on the radio, you’re getting money. If you’re not writing the song, you’re like a hired musician. The Stones had some modest hits, and then very quickly—we forget how quickly—they wrote “Satisfaction.” And that was such a huge hit it was the beginning and end of Brian Jones, who famously played “Popeye the Sailor Man” in concert during “Satisfaction.” It was like a “Fuck you, this is shit.”

“Satisfaction” elevated Mick, especially. Because not only was the song a hit, it seemed like a personal statement and branding for Jagger. It made him a figure in a way that “Little Red Rooster” didn’t. He’s the man who smokes the same cigarette as me, and all that.

Q: Were Jagger and Richards natural songwriters?

RC : Jagger and Richards are different songwriters than like Lennon-McCartney, who had the songs just pouring out of them. The Beatles were really organized around the melody, like Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. The Stones were really about the groove. Which is a blues thing. The early Beatles are like almost a ’50s dance band and the Stones were more like a country blues band.

Q: And their early blues covers are good.

RC : If you listen to an early Stones single like “Little Red Rooster,” it’s a Howlin’ Wolf song and I honestly don’t know which version is better. Not to degrade Howlin’ Wolf at all, because he’s the greatest, but the Rolling Stones’ version is not like a Pat Boone cover. It’s not even like a Beatles song. There’s something really great about it that’s kind of authentic in some weird way. You know, they’ve got a hold of something. Record collectors and aficionados and stuff might dismiss them as fake and white… What’s funny is you’d think that the guys who originally made the music would be pissed off, and feel like they were ripped off. And they were. Some of them were. But a lot of them really liked the Rolling Stones.

Q: And it took white kids from England to hip white kids in America to the blues.

RC : The joke is, “The longest road from the South Side of Chicago to the North Side of Chicago runs through London.”

Q: One of the most interesting points of their career came when they released Their Satanic Majesties Request in December 1967, their attempt to ride the Sgt. Pepper’s wave.

RC : By ’67, people started taking acid. The Beatles just rode a tidal wave of right now. I mean [ Sgt. Pepper’s ] was completely of that moment, so compelling artistically and such a huge hit commercially. It changed everything and everybody felt they had to somehow follow what The Beatles had done, and nobody really knew what to do. Bob Dylan released John Wesley Harding , which was the best response—he went back and just played the guitar. [ Their Satanic Majesties Request ] is so embarrassing. It bled the ’60s—that part of the ’60s—out of their system. And they said, “Okay, we’re gonna go back to doing what we do.”

Q: And then six months later they release “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” as a single.

RC : It’s like a forest fire. After a forest fire everything grows, because there’s a lot of dead wood that needs to be cleared. That kind of failure, as painful as it is, will actually clear a lot of shit out that has to be cleared out.

Q: Then later that year, they release Beggars Banquet and their golden run has begun.

RC : I really like the early Rolling Stones, songs like “Congratulations,” and “Tell Me,” and “The Last Time”—I think that those are up there with any of the other songs. I just think that they were really singles; there was no greater vision. Now, [Guitarist] Mick Taylor was very beautiful and melodic, and that added a whole other element. Producer Jimmy Miller understood how important the groove was. They had kind of lost the groove; they forgot what they were. They’re a blues band, they’re really dependent on finding the groove.

They were almost living in the studio. They were drinking and getting stoned, and doing whatever they were doing. And out of that whole scrum, which reached its ultimate expression with Exile on Main St , the music somehow expressed the vibe of all that hanging out. Once Jagger and Richards stopped hanging out together, the music lost that thing.

Q: They are such opposites, Mick and Keith. You write that Jagger would be happy covering his footprints in the sand, whereas Richards seems liked he’d go down memory lane with you readily.

RC : That’s one thing about Jagger—he’s slippery. He doesn’t want to be gotten. That’s his mystique. He’s smart. He said to me, “What’s going on now is what matters.” He’s never written a book and he will not write a book. And at one point I think somebody gave him an advance, and he returned it. He is not interested in reflecting. Also, he’s not interested in people knowing everything about him. There’s something mysterious and ungraspable about him, just like there is with Bob Dylan.

I think Jagger just realized almost instinctively that when people meet you, the first thing they wanna do is figure you out, and then sort of put you in a drawer and they’re done. Jagger doesn’t let you do that. You can never really categorize him, so he remains interesting.

With Keith, you feel like—I know who he really is. Keith’s probably sitting in his living room listening to some reggae, smoking a joint. And whether or not that’s true, that’s your sense of what he’s doing. What’s Mick Jagger doing right now? I have no fucking idea what he’s doing. That’s what makes the band so great is the sort of tension between the two. It’s all expressed in the music.

Q: It always seemed Mick had them doing songs that were in fashion, like when they did disco tunes “Miss You” and “Emotional Rescue.”

RC : He was always aware of, commercially, what was hot. The tension is Keith would fight with him, and out of that tension would come this music.

Q: Keith is seen as more authentic or true than Jagger, especially in the ’70s, keeping everything together.

RC : Jagger was the sober one, and the much more business-minded one. You’ve gotta keep this thing moving forward, or it’s gonna die. There are so many great bands that don’t survive, almost all of them. What they missed was a guy like Jagger, who is like the guy at the party who insists you give him your keys because you’re drunk. And you’re like, “Fuck that guy,” but that guy saved your life. Jagger became an adult. Keith was like—I won’t let you be an adult and have a normal life. I won’t let you enjoy the shit that people normally enjoy. I’m gonna give you a hard time if you get knighted—which anybody would fuckin’ love.

Q: Yeah, Mick is an easy target.

RC : Even though they’ve had all these problems, they were incredibly close, and deep down are like brothers who can’t really be taken apart from each other no matter what they say to each other. If you go back and watch interviews of Keith, anytime anybody starts ripping Jagger he immediately starts defending him. Which is exactly what you do with your brother.

Q: Jagger always seemed to have ambitions outside of the band but he never made a memorable solo album.

RC : It’s like your parents—you don’t wanna see them have a good second marriage, you know what I mean? You want them together. And that’s what their manager tried to say to them, which is, “The world wants you together. They want the Rolling Stones. They don’t want Mick Jagger playing with Jeff Beck in Tokyo. Fuck that. You need to be the Rolling Stones, because that’s what people want.”

They’re not as vital as a band as they used to be, but they’re better musicians than they’ve ever been. In the ’60s and ’70s they were not a good band musically—now they’re a great band. That’s partly because they play a lot, and they’re playing at a place where people can hear them, whereas before it just wasn’t as important, you know?

Plus there’s always something sloppy, messed up, and not right about the blues. That’s part of the charm in the blues—it’s about expression. It ain’t perfect. I mean, you could have the greatest guitar player in the world, and he’s not gonna be able to get what Keith Richards gets when he plays sloppy.

Q: Sometimes it’s interesting to see the choices you made to leave stuff out. You don’t touch on Jagger’s marriage to Bianca because you say it’s boring, and you make a point of not quoting some of Mick’s flowery Sixties ramblings.

RC : Mick Jagger sounding like a hippie idiot because he gave a bunch of hippie-dippy quotes at a time when everybody was giving hippie-dippy quotes is like interviewing a guy the day after he’s lost his virginity, and then holding it against him and quoting him the rest of his life. Let’s give the guy a break, you know what I mean? You’ve just taken acid for the first time in 1967 and said a bunch of stupid shit to a reporter. And you’ll see that shit get quoted again and again, it doesn’t really—to me, it doesn’t signify anything.

Q: Did your thinking on Altamont change as you wrote this book?

RC : Yeah, I think a little bit. You become more sympathetic to them. I did. Jagger acted unbelievably cool in a way. He didn’t leave. He didn’t stop playing. He believed there would be a full-on riot. He did his best to protect the people who were there and to prevent things from getting completely out of control. And you know, in that situation, knowing that there was a guy up there shooting at me—now whether he was or wasn’t, but that’s what he was told—and to continue on in that case takes a lot of guts. And he never really came forward and talked about it, or told his side of it. But he acted with a lot of courage. The situation was bad because they put their fans in a terrible situation. I don’t think they were smart enough about what was going on in America—they didn’t know about the Hell’s Angels. It was organized too quickly. No one really thought it through. It was the ’60s, so everybody thought everybody would always get along.

Someone asked Mick Taylor, “Was Altamont the end of the ’60s?” He goes, “Yeah. It was December 1969—that was the end of the ’60s.” Ethan Russell—a great photographer who was on the stage—later told Taylor, “You know, when you talk to Americans, they always say that Altamont was this huge deal and it changed everything, you know? And you talk to the Brits, they’re like, ‘What the fuck? It was just a bad show. Something went wrong.’ You know? They never accepted that it was anything symbolic in any way, you know?”

Q: Taylor contributed so much to those great records but when he wanted to split they just rolled along without him, just like they did, in a way, with Ian Stewart, though Stewart kept playing with them.

RC : The Stones were mad at [Taylor] because he left them in the lurch. You know, they were about to go on tour, and whatever, whatever. You know, he just, one day just quit. And I think that they never really forgot—you know he fucked them over, really. Even though he felt fucked over, he then fucked them over. Ian Stewart’s a whole other thing I don’t really understand, but yeah, I mean, I think that it’s very much is like the dogs bark but the caravan rolls on. You know?

This thing is a machine and it’s going down the track. And if you have a problem, if you wanna get off, you know we’re not stopping, we’re not talking you into it, we’re not remembering you when you’re gone. You’re either here or you’re gone. Like you never even existed. And that’s enabled them to survive.

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Charlie's Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts Hardcover – 15 Sept. 2022

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Featuring forewords from bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this is the official and fully authorised biography of the world’s most revered and celebrated drummer.

Mid-1962. The newly formed Rolling Stones are on the hunt for a permanent drummer. Their sights are set on Charlie Watts, a jazz musician already well-known within London’s rhythm and blues clubs. Fortunately for future Stones fans the world over, they persuade him to take on the job.

Once installed at the drum seat, Charlie would not miss a beat for the rest of his life. He was there throughout the swinging sixties as the Stones reached superstardom and for the well-documented debauchery of the 1970s, typified by the iconic album Exile on Main St . Battling his own demons by the eighties, Charlie emerged unscathed, cementing his reputation as the thoughtful, cultured but no less compelling counterpoint to his more raucous bandmates.

For almost 60 years – through all the band bust-ups, bereavements and changes in personnel both on stage and off – Charlie remained the rock at the heart of the Rolling Stones. At the same time, he was the antithesis of the rock-star archetype, an intensely private man who valued his family above all else.

Drawing on new interviews with his family, friends and former bandmates – including Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – Charlie’s Good Tonight is the remarkable life story of Charlie Watts : official, authorised and as it’s never been told before.

• Print length 368 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Mudlark
• Publication date 15 Sept. 2022
• Dimensions 15.9 x 3.6 x 24 cm
• ISBN-10 0008546339
• ISBN-13 978-0008546335
• See all details

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‘An affectionate portrait, one that recognises Watts as musician, colleague, family man, obsessive collector and immaculate dresser.’ Sunday Times

‘Sexton, a longtime Stones chronicler, tells Watts’s story with warmth and diligence’ Observer

‘Exhaustively researched… crammed with telling incidental information’ Telegraph

‘The book that every Stones fan will want to read this Christmas, largely because, like its subject, it’s sharp, straightforward and blessed with significant dry wit … an essential purchase’ Classic Rock

‘A book as gentle, fascinating and companionable as the man himself’ Mojo

‘Favours substance over flash, presenting an affectionate account of a devoted family man and friend, a particularly British type of eccentric, who just happened to play drums for the Rolling Stones.’ Irish Independent

Book Description

The Authorised Biography of The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts

About the Author

Paul Sexton is an author, journalist and broadcaster who has covered The Rolling Stones, and interviewed all of the band extensively, for some 30 years. He started writing about music for the weekly pop paper Record Mirror while still a teenager in 1977, and his work has appeared in all of the quality UK press, most notably The Sunday Times and The Times , as well as in Billboard magazine and countless documentaries and shows for BBC Radio 2. His book Prince: A Portrait of the Artist in Memories and Memorabilia was published in 2021. He lives in south London.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mudlark (15 Sept. 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008546339
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008546335
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.9 x 3.6 x 24 cm
• 47 in Percussion Instruments
• 52 in Biography Reference
• 89 in Music Style of Musicals

About the author

Paul sexton.

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Charlie’s Good Tonight by Paul Sexton review – chronicles of a reluctant Stone

The authorised biography of the Rolling Stones’ late drummer is warm and diligent on his love of jazz and family – while ducking any difficult issues

“N ever do the authorised biography,” a colleague once told me. “You’ll find out where the bodies are buried, metaphorically speaking, but you won’t be allowed to publish their location.” That advice surely applies double when the act under consideration is the Rolling Stones , a group who have left in their wake a trail of outrage, depravity, misogyny, addiction and a few real-life cadavers. There has been some decent music at times, too. The group’s incendiary past gets scant airtime here – the hellish Altamont concert of 1969 , for example, with its on-film crowd murder, was merely “an event waiting to go wrong”. Even the Stones’ music gets little attention. There are lists of who guested at which shows and on which albums, praise for Charlie Watts’s unerring timing and ability to hold together a rowdy, loose-limbed band (bassist Bill Wyman gets rare praise for his part too) and some commentary on drum technique, but the impact and meaning of the Stones’ music stays unremarked.

It doesn’t much matter. There are already walls of books about the Stones, including Keith Richards’s memoir, Life , and we are here to celebrate the late Watts, who, while bringing stability to their shows and inspiration to their records – the tom-tom gallop of Paint It Black, say – was always ambiguous about Stonehood. As early as 1966 he told Rave magazine: “It’s just a job that pays good money”, which remained his default position. “I have tried to resign after every tour since 1969, but each time they talk me back into it,” he tells author Paul Sexton later in his career. “It’s like being in the army,” he once told NME. “They don’t let you leave.”

He protested too much, of course. Running through the interviews here, whether by Sexton or lifted from other sources, is a strong camaraderie, along with testimony to how much Watts enjoyed playing with the band. “In the Beatle period, when people used to scream at you, girls running down the road, I hated that, used to hide. But there’s nothing like walking on a stage and the place is full of screaming girls.”

Watts’s ambiguity was there from the outset. He grew up in a prefab in a drab north London suburb, and jazz, his first love, became a passport to a world of crisply dressed cool and dazzling artistry, his heroes alto saxophonist Charlie Parker – jazz’s Picasso – and drummer Chico Hamilton. One of a talented pool orbiting around blues pioneer Alexis Korner in the early 1960s, Watts was headhunted by Jagger, Jones and Richards but faltered. “Should I join this interval band?” he asked his fellow travellers, relenting only after the trio secured enough gigs to match his wage in an advertising agency. Art – his only O-level – remained a passion. He sketched every tour hotel room he occupied, and later advised on the Stones’ elaborate stage sets.

The Stones’ ascent to stardom was swift, astutely overseen by manager Andrew Loog Oldham , who traded on their bad-boy image. Though Watts could play along, affecting a gormless, slack-jawed idiocy for TV cameras, he remained wedded to jazz’s cool school, and to his beloved wife Shirley (nee Shepherd), an ex-art student whom he wed when pop-star marriage was considered commercial suicide. The pair prospered, moving from a Regent’s Park flat to a Sussex mansion and finally to a Devon farm, where Shirley established an upmarket stud farm of Arabian horses. Later, during the Stones’ tax exile, they added a French farm, where their daughter Seraphina grew up.

Watts’s personal life is rightly given as much prominence as his career, but it is not drama-filled. He remained a devoted husband and father (later grandfather) and maintained friendships that stretched back to childhood. He never lost his passion for jazz. The orchestra he put together in the late 1980s was internationally acclaimed, and was followed by smaller groups at London’s Ronnie Scott’s . The Stones became wealthy and in later years super-rich – the 147 shows of their 2005 A Bigger Bang tour grossed $558m – enabling Watts to indulge his passions. Always immaculately dressed and always a collector, he freely indulged his passions: endless Savile Row suits, handmade shoes at £4,000 a pop, cashmere sweaters that would be worn once or twice, the purchase of Edward VIII’s suits at Sotheby’s. Then there were the military uniforms, civil war weaponry, Napoleon’s sword, the drum kits of legendary jazzers … and a string of Arabian horses, including the $700,000 purchase of a grey mare.

Sexton, a longtime Stones chronicler, tells Watts’s story with warmth and diligence, though difficult issues are ducked – the causes of Watts’s flirtation with heroin in the 1980s remain opaque – and there are some unctuous turns of phrase. The Stones’ late career albums, mediocre at best, become “greatly underrated”, “an improbable triumph” or “undervalued delights”. Even a passing PR man is “a revered writer”. Never do the authorised biography.

Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of Charlie Watts by Paul Sexton is published by HarperCollins (£25). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply

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Let It Read! The Ultimate Literary Guide to the Rolling Stones

In honor of the 50 th anniversary of the Stone’s first concert, we picked out the best 14 books on the legendary band. From Keith Richard’s bestselling Life to Dominique Tarlé’s rare edition photos from the Exile on Main St. sessions, every book worth reading on the Stones.

Brian H. Bookman

Illustration by The Daily Beast

* (Start Me Up) – Books for new readers looking to get a handle on the Stones body of work and history. ** (Let’s Spend The Night Together) – Books for fans looking to get more intimate with their favorite Stones and revisit some of their wilder moments. *** (Satisfaction) – Books for thirsty veteran Stone fiends; recommended for Stones freaks. WARNING: these books may induce drug flashbacks.

Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger By Christopher Andersen* A thin boy with big lips from London did not conquer the world by luck; his energy, originality, and unmatched ability to crank out unforgettable performances on a nightly basis earned him every single fan he has today. Start from the beginning of the Stones story with this new biography on the life of Rolling Stones front man, the one and only, Mick Jagger.

Life By Keith Richards and James Fox* Keith Richards reigns as one of rock’s most talented guitarists and wildest drug addicts. But how did he balance keeping his obligations to The Rolling Stones and feeding his dangerous addictions? The first step: stop sleeping. Get the whole story straight from the source in Life .

The Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll By Editors of LIFE * In this new large hardcover, the editors of LIFE chronicle the rise of The Rolling Stones alongside breathtaking photographs of the action. The book’s great triumph lies in its inclusion of the lesser-known members of the Stones inner-circle: Ian Stewart, Andrew Loog Oldham, and Brian Jones are featured in detail, showcasing their importance in sculpting the image and sound of the band. A must-read for anyone looking to learn the “who is who” of the Stones clan.

S.t.p.: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones By Robert Greenfield** Emerging from the depths of Villa Nelcôte in France with their first double-album, Exile on Main St. , the band took their new album on tour in the United States. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll are guaranteed as Robert Greenfield takes you behind closed doors into the heart of the “Stones Touring Party,” 1972.

The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones By Stanley Booth** Stanley Booth chronicles his experience as a member of the Stones touring family that unleashed itself upon America in 1969, following the release of Let It Bleed . Booth’s exquisite recounting of how the Altamont Free Concert, a show that had been dubbed “Woodstock West,” descended into madness and violence stands out as the book’s great contribution to Stones literature. Best when coupled with Ethan A. Russell’s Let It Bleed: The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and the End of the Sixties —a photographic bonanza from the ’69 tour .

Rolling Stoned By Andrew Loog Oldham** The only man whose legacy rivals that of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Rolling Stones band manager Andrew Loog Oldham details his shaping of the Stones “badboy-rebel” image in the 1960s and his secrets to their enormous success in his book, Rolling Stoned. Check it out for juicy Stones stories you haven’t yet heard.

Every Night’s a Saturday Night : The Rock ‘n’ Roll Life of Legendary Sax Man Bobby Keys By Bobby Keys and Bill Ditenhafer** Saxophonist Bobby Keys has been touring with the Stones since the ‘70s and has been one of Keith Richards’s best friends ever since. Wherever Bobby Keys goes, madness and hilarity are certain to follow. Maybe that’s why Keith has kept him around for so long.

Charlie Watts By Alan Clayson** Affectionately nicknamed “Mr. Wang Dang Doodle” by Mick Jagger, drummer Charlie Watts has kept the Stones on time without fail since their earliest days in London nightclubs. Originally trained as a jazz drummer (go watch some footage of him , you’ll see how he holds his sticks with different grips), Watts’s own achievements as a rock musician rival those of his better-known band mates. Check out Charlie Watts by Alan Clayson for the full story.

Sway By Zachary Lazar** In Sway , Zachary Lazar weaves the story of the Keith Richards-Anita Pallenberg-Brian Jones love triangle into a novel that illuminates the darkness lurking behind the bright colors of the 1960s.

Paul is Undead By Alan Goldsher** Only zombie-hunter Mick Jagger can save the world from The Beatles, four zombie musicians who feed on destruction and mayhem. Lose your mind with Alan Goldsher’s hysterical and absurd reimagining of the 1960s in Paul is Undead .

The Rolling Stones: 50 By The Rolling Stones (Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood)*** Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood were kind enough to put together this awesome book of previously unreleased material and photography so we can celebrate the 50 th anniversary of the Rolling Stones with them… from our reading chairs. The perfect gift for diehard Stones fans. Out already in the UK it’s scheduled for release in the United States on October 30 th , 2012.

What Would Keith Richards Do?: Daily Affirmations from a Rock and Roll Survivor By Jessica Pallington West*** There’s bad news and there’s good news. The bad news: you might be cool, but you’re just not Keith Richards-cool. The good news: you can be! Just read Jessica Pallington West’s What Would Keith Richards Do? from cover-to-cover and you’ll be the stuff of legend in no time.

Rolling Stones Gear: All the Stones’ Instruments from Stage to Studio By Andy Babuik and Greg Prevost*** A dear friend of mine once told me: “tools are the silent witnesses to mankind’s accomplishments.” But these tools are anything but silent; they’re shreddin’ . Grab Rolling Stones Gear for a comprehensive guide to the instruments that made The Rolling Stones possible.

Exile By Dominique Tarlé*** You won’t find this collectable easily, but if you manage to track down a copy of Dominique Tarlé’s Exile , you’ll be treated to a magnificent compilation of high-end photography from the Exile on Main St. sessions in the south of France. A family treasure, at the least.

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The Rolling Stones: Fifty Years Paperback – September 1, 2013

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In order to accurately chronicle the human drama at the center of the Rolling Stones story, the author of this book has carried out interviews with band members; close family members, including Mick's parents; and the group's fans and contemporaries. He has even examined their previously unreleased FBI files. In 1962 Mick Jagger was a bright, well-scrubbed boy planning a career in the civil service, while Keith Richards was learning how to smoke and swivel a six-shooter. Add the mercurial Brian Jones—who'd been effectively run out of Cheltenham for theft, multiple impregnations, and playing blues guitar—and the wryly opinionated Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, and the potential was obvious. During the 1960s and '70s the Stones were polarizing figures, alternately admired and reviled for their flamboyance, creativity, and salacious lifestyles. Confidently expected never to reach 30, they now approach their seventies having been together for 50 years. Like no other book before, this history makes sense of the rich brew of clever invention and opportunism; talent, good fortune, insecurity, and self-destructiveness; and drugs, sex, and other excess that made the Stones who they are.

• Print length 512 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date September 1, 2013
• Dimensions 5 x 1.5 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 1849832846
• ISBN-13 978-1849832847
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster UK; Illustrated edition (September 1, 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1849832846
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1849832847
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.1 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.5 x 8 inches
• #7,067 in Rock Band Biographies
• #9,912 in Rock Music (Books)

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‘Charlie’s Good Tonight’: Read an Exclusive Excerpt From the Authorized Biography of the Rolling Stones’ Late Drummer

'Charlie's Good Tonight: The Life, the Times, and the Rolling Stones: The Authorized Biography of Charlie Watts' is out in the U.S. on Oct. 11.

By Paul Sexton

Paul Sexton

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Giant Inflatable Ice Spice in Alexander Wang Spotted in NYC

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The 1990s began with Charlie’s uncredited role as design consultant with the Rolling Stones becoming more significant than ever. Now reaping the dividends of their peerless fame as they never did on their first go-round, they may have been en route to the status later disdainfully described by the New York Times as ‘an organization with long off-seasons and unending profits’. But vast sums from their empire were poured back into the business to make sure that they remained bigger, better and more spectacular than any of their largely benign competition.

Charlie was no stadium afficionado, but he understood the basic economics. Otherwise, he mused in a 1998 conversation, ‘You’d be playing a month in a town to play to 30,000 people. Where would you play, in a 3,000-seater hall? So it’s to accommodate that, and hopefully you can fill it up. And that’s what we’ve become. It’s our own fault, or pleasure, or whatever you call it. That’s how we’ve directed what we do. That’s how the world of doing what we do has gone.

Charlie and Mick worked closely on the Steel Wheels tour with the late set designer Mark Fisher and lighting director Patrick Woodroffe. It won one of trade magazine Pollstar ’s first awards for most creative stage production, in an itinerary that went on so long, the European leg had a different name, Urban Jungle, and a look all its own.

Fisher was the founder of Stufish, the set designers whose relationship with the Stones continued all the way to 2022’s SIXTY festivities. As the company prepared for the launch of that European itinerary – sadly without Charlie’s new input – modern-day chief executive Ray Winkler told the Guardian about Steel Wheels.

‘The tour was, at the time, the biggest in terms of sheer volume of different elements used to construct the stage. It took over 100 men to build it. The stage stretched over 300ft and was flanked by 80ft high towers on each side that Mick Jagger appeared on for “Sympathy for the Devil”. This is when the modern-day touring industry was born – when architecture and music came together to create these rock spectaculars.’

Mick Taylor, as a once and future collaborator but also as an admirer, agreed wholeheartedly. Talking to me in 2013, during his temporary reintroduction to the fold for the Stones’ 50th-anniversary celebrations and beyond into the 14 on Fire tour, he mused: ‘I’d say the beginning of the modern-day Stones in terms of theatre presentation was … well, it was always very theatrical and musical as well, but in terms of big presentation and stage lighting, there was such a huge development between ’69 and the ’80s. Their really big, massive tours all started with Steel Wheels, really. I saw them in 1999, at Wembley Stadium, and they were fantastic.’

Charlie downplayed it, naturally. ‘That’s Mick, really, and I’m with ’im. That’s us. Then when we get on the road I tend to leave it, but he’s very aware of a lot more. He works very hard. Also people go to him more. Thank goodness they’ve learned not to come to me,’ he laughed. ‘“Grumpy old sod, don’t go to him.”’

After a year and 115 shows, the combined Steel Wheels / Urban Jungle pageant bowed out with two more concerts in August 1990 at Wembley Stadium, for an awe-inducing total of five there. At one, I distinctly remember Ronnie playing a solo and milking the applause a little more than usual – only to be told that we were cheering news of England scoring a goal in the World Cup. ‘I went “Wow, I didn’t know I was playing that well,”’ said Wood.

For all the absurdity of a man yearning to be performing in a jazz club playing to a combined total on the two legs of the tour of 5.5 million people, Charlie told me soon afterwards that doing those gigantic shows was painless. ‘The Stones are very easy to play with. In this day and age it’s very easy to play, because …’ Here came another of his unexpected pauses and changes of direction. ‘Let’s see … I blame Led Zeppelin for the two-hour-long show. Now, you see, we jumped in a few years from doing 20 minutes, all the hits and off – the Apollo Revue, we’ll call it – we went from doing club dates which are two sets a night, which was great fun, to doing two minutes, because you got pulled off the stage, to doing 20-minute Apollo-type shows to doing, thanks to Led Zeppelin, this two-hour long show.

Chuck Leavell’s arrival in the Stones’ touring company had begun with the 1982 European tour and continued through the next two albums, so he was a no-brainer of a choice when the Steel Wheels circus hit the road. A Southern rock bastion, previously admired as a member of the Allman Brothers Band, he was another important component in the future of a group that had no intention of retreating into posterity. In time he was elevated to the role of music director of the Stones’ shows, with an especially vital channel of communication with Charlie.

Leavell had seen the Stones as a 14-year-old, paying his $3 to see their package show with the Beach Boys and the Righteous Brothers at Legion Field in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama in 1965. He was in the crowd again for the 1969 US tour, then met Charlie for the first time when the Allmans made their debut performances in Europe, their second show being as Knebworth headliners in July 1974. Unusually, Charlie was present at the record company party, where Chuck asked him in small talk ‘How’s it going, man?’ The drummer’s answer was as inscrutable as ever. “Do you mean for me, or for the others?” Leavell remembers: ‘He was very cordial, except for the short answers.’

Charlie, like all the Stones, made everything seem instinctive. But a great deal of rehearsal and symbiosis goes into mastering a two-and-a-half-hour set containing people’s cherished musical memories, and Leavell has been instrumental in that process. ‘Charlie played on some of the most iconic records ever made, obviously,’ he says. ‘But when we would go to present those things live, he couldn’t always remember all the exact things he did, or where the changes would come.

Charlie had immense pride in the Stones’ dedication to their work, but knew that it was somewhat at odds with the unjust idea that their collective hedonism somehow undermined their commitment to their craft. ‘Unbeknown to a lot of people, the Rolling Stones are theatrical and terribly professional,’ he said. ‘They always have been, about whatever large or small facet of talent they have. The band has only ever not turned up once, and I only ever missed a show because I got the wrong date,’ he said, referring to the 1964 diary malfunction we heard about earlier. ‘Even as young tearaways, which we never really were … a lot of that was bullshit. I know people who were much more … whatever the word is. Newspapers are dreadful things, bless ’em. I can’t read them. I flick through the cricket page, and that’s it.’

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The Rolling Stones Biography

The story of the world’s greatest rock band, publisher description.

The Rolling Stones, the musical phenomenon that rocked the world with their rebellious attitude and catchy tunes, have lived a life as complex and dynamic as their music.Born in London in the early 1960s, these city boys traded their urban roots for the rural life of England, where they met their friend and mentor, Brian Jones. Together, they formed the Rolling Stones, one of the most popular and influential bands in rock history. From their breakthrough hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" to their iconic anthem "Start Me Up", the Rolling Stones' journey has been nothing short of phenomenal. They've sold over 250 million albums and nine number one singles, and have influenced pop culture with their edgy and memorable image and style. They've also received recognition and honors, such as their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 1989. But the Rolling Stones are more than just a phenomenon in the music industry. They are also a legend, a band, and a family. They have also involved themselves in social and political causes, as they supported and donated to various movements and organizations, such as Amnesty International, Live Aid, and the Red Cross. They have also written a biography, called According to the Rolling Stones, which chronicles their life and career, as well as their personal and professional struggles and triumphs. This short book tells the amazing and captivating story of a band that is inspiring their millions of loyal fans - and rocking the world in a way that only they can.

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The Best Music Books of 2023

By Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Our favorite books this year (listed here in alphabetical order) included memoirs from Britney Spears, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, Tariq Trotter of the Roots, and other iconic artists, as well as two great additions to the Beatles library, a groundbreaking biography of Lou Reed, and fascinating histories of goth, 2000s emo, and Sixties girl groups.

‘Into the Void,’ Geezer Butler

In Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler was the “Quiet One” in the Seventies’ loudest band, playing wah-wah bass rumbles and poeticizing paranoia for Ozzy Osbourne as the group’s chief lyricist. In Into the Void , he opens up about formative moments (learning that he didn’t just hate eating meat, but was actually a “vegetarian,” a word he learned on tour at an Asian restaurant), he tells unexpected stories behind the band’s most well-known lyrics (“Iron Man” is actually about Jesus Christ taking vengeance instead of forgiving), and he peels back the curtain on Sabbath’s decades of breakups and makeups. It’s entertaining and enlightening, and along with Osbourne’s and Tony Iommi’s memoirs, the book provides a welcome, alternate gospel on the birth of heavy metal. — K.G.

‘But Will You Love Me Tomorrow: An Oral History of the Sixties Girl Groups,’ Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz

Too often, the girl groups who defined the pop charts in the early Sixties have been historicized in terms of the male producers (and sometimes the male-female songwriting teams) who called the shots. This feast of an oral history puts the focus back on the young women who sang those hits. First-time author Laura Flam and poet Emily Sieu Liebowitz have combined 100 new interviews with a slew of finely combed secondary sources. These singers know their strengths, and not just vocally, as when Nedra Talley-Ross of the Ronettes explains the group’s “eye makeup was exaggerated, our hair was exaggerated, because it was like, see me in the balcony. You had to project your voice, but you had to project your look too.” — M.M.

’60 Songs That Explain the Nineties,’ Rob Harvilla

The Nineties may well have been the most musically overstuffed decade ever, somehow packing the rise and fall of alt-rock, the golden age of hip-hop, the rise of teen pop, and so much more (Björk! Pavement! TLC!) into 10 short years. It’s a story so complex and contradictory that it’s all but impossible to convey linearly, so veteran journalist Rob Harvilla wisely chooses a more freewheeling approach in his new book, which adopts the premise of his entertaining podcast of the same name. Outkast lives next to the “Macarena” in his chronicle, which ends up invoking the feeling of wandering down a dorm hall where every room is playing something new, different, and great. —B.H.

‘Lou Reed: The King of New York,’ Will Hermes

Critic and historian Will Hermes (a contributing editor at Rolling Stone ) had unique access to Lou Reed’s archives at the New York Public Library, and emerged with the definitive biography of one of the most hard-to-pin-down rock icons of all time. The account of Reed’s childhood on Long Island and college days at Syracuse is revelatory, and the section on Reed’s tenure inventing punk rock in the Velvet Underground is definitive. Hermes perfectly situates Reed’s life and work within a historical and social context — as a reflection of bohemian life in Reed’s beloved New York City, as a pathfinding articulation of gender nonconformity, as a paragon of uncompromising creative independence, and as a beacon for generations of outsiders longing to find meaning beyond anyone else’s system. —J.D.

‘Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History,’ Bill Janovitz

Books about brilliant, self-sabotaging weirdos are usually far more entertaining than superstar biographies, and Bill Janovitz’s definitive bio of the monumentally influential pianist and singer Leon Russell is no exception. As Janovitz (also the frontman of Buffalo Tom) makes clear, Russell is a Zelig-like figure in the story of classic rock: a session musician on classics like the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man”; a key influence on Elton John and many others as a solo artist; the driving force behind the epochal Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour, live album, and film with Joe Cocker; and a collaborator with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and others. But the book gets most interesting as Russell passes the peak of his career and spends decades drowning in his own eccentricities — and finally has a late-in-life comeback with the help of Elton John, who repaid him for the inspiration. —B.H.

‘My Effin’ Life,’ Geddy Lee

Turns out Geddy Lee’s voice as a writer can also reach unprecedented heights: Rush’s frontman, bassist, and keyboardist wrote a revealing, funny, utterly singular rock memoir, complete with a harrowing chapter on his parents’ experience as Holocaust survivors that likely features more extensive historical research than every other music autobiography put together. Fans will appreciate his generosity in doling out deep Rush lore, including the making of their classic albums, synth-era battles with guitarist Alex Lifeson over their direction, and some surprises about their drug use, but it’s his deeply felt chronicling of his early life — from facing antisemitism at school to finding his identity as a musician in the wake of his father’s early death — that lingers. —B.H.

‘Kleenex/Liliput,’ Marlene Marder and Grace Ambrose

LiLiPUT were one of the most fiercely original punk bands — Swiss women chanting in fractured English, in a herky-jerky swirl of avant-garde playground bangers and experimental art-funk. The Zurich band started out calling themselves Kleenex, until the lawyers came knocking, then became LiLiPUT halfway through their career. (Kurt Cobain listed “anything by Kleenex” on his famous list of 50 favorite albums.) But despite a string of brilliant Rough Trade singles — “ Ain’t You ,” “ Split ,” the irresistible “Ü” — they were barely known in the U.S. before breaking up in 1983. Kleenex/LiLiPUT tells their story in collage form, based on the diaries of the late guitarist Marlene Marder, photos, fanzine interviews, and an appreciation by Greil Marcus. Like LiLiPUT’s music, the book is messy, unruly, yet alive with excitement. — R.S.

‘1964: Eyes of the Storm,’ Paul McCartney

“We were a tightknit group, so only one of us would have been able to get these kinds of photographs,” writes Paul McCartney beneath photos he took of George Harrison snoozing and a thickly bespectacled John Lennon pondering the day in the back of a car. And he’s right: What makes his photo diary, 1964, so special is the intimacy of his photos of the biggest rock band in history right at Beatlemania’s flashpoint. McCartney subtitled the book “Eyes of the Storm” because of the fans who greeted them, the paparazzi who trailed them, and the security who looked after them. The most interesting aspect of exploring McCartney’s pics, taken in Liverpool, Paris, New York, and Miami, is that the band sometimes looks tired but never overwhelmed. They knew they were where they needed to be in history, right down to a chaotic shot that inspired a scene in A Hard Day’s Night. — K.G.

‘Sonic Life: A Memoir’ Thurston Moore

Read Kim Gordon’s dishy 2015 book, Girl in a Band , for an interior look at her marriage to and divorce from her Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore. Read Moore’s book, which is really more of a musicology than a memoir, for a microscopic look at how his interests in punk, art, and guitar experimentalism fueled his contributions to one of alt-rock’s most daring bands. Although he dedicates about a paragraph and a half of the nearly 500-page book to his divorce, and he certainly could have revealed more personal stories about his other bandmates, Moore’s memories of being a New York band on SST, the Year Punk Broke, and the horror he felt following Kurt Cobain’s death document turning points both in his life and in the evolution of underground rock with vivid detail. — K.G.

‘Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors From the Songs of Steely Dan,’ Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay

Steely Dan’s stock is even higher today than it was in the 1970s, when they were having hit records. Critic Alex Pappademas and illustrator Joan LeMay deliver the perfect celebration of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s unique hermetic grandeur, honoring their oblique mystique while also getting at the real human beings lurking beneath the pristine tunes and cynical worldview. Each chapter is a revelatory riff on a different character in a Dan song — from Peg to Rikki to Mr. LePage to the Gaucho — with LeMay’s artwork just as smart and fun as the writing. They get into topics like the band’s secret hip-hop influence, their “famously overdetermined guitar solos,” and the dialectical nature of their relationship with fellow El Lay rock royals the Eagles. People have been trying to untangle the riddle of Steely Dan’s greatness for decades. No one’s ever done it better. — J.D. 

‘Where Are Your Boys Tonight? The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008,’ Chris Payne

In Where Are Your Boys Tonight? former Billboard staffer Chris Payne delivers an oral history of the bizarre moment when emo music went mainstream in the early to mid-2000s. Payne makes sense of third-wave emo’s takeover by tracing the intimate history of the genre/subculture’s rise from the suburbs of Long Island and New Jersey. Silent Majority frontman Tommy Corrigan and former Saves the Day bassist Eben D’Amico pay homage to the shows in sweaty basements and packed VFW halls that paved the way for arena tours; Geoff Rickley from Thursday and Chris Carraba dissect their pivotal MTV appearances; heavy-hitters Pete Wentz, Hayley Williams, and Mikey Way bust myths and reveal the wildest of nuggets from their early days in the scene’s most successful bands. —M.G.

‘This Must Be the Place: Music, Community, and Vanished Spaces in New York City,’ Jesse Rifkin

Combining academic rigor with unacademic language, first-time author Jesse Rifkin has written a great New York music book unlike any other. What sets This Must Be the Place apart isn’t just its scope — Rifkin tracks 60 years’ worth of New York music history, from Washington Square Park’s open-air hootenannies to Williamsburg’s unlicensed warehouses, with stops in on the births of disco and punk, the rise of hip-hop (not to mention Bob Dylan and Madonna), and the shifting sands of gentrification — but also its focus. Few music histories are this sharply attuned to day-to-day costs and proximity as driving forces of a scene: Rifkin argues persuasively that the CBGB’s punk scene happened largely because the key band members all lived within a few blocks of the club. — M.M.

‘The Creative Act: A Way of Being,’ Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin has produced some of your favorite songs , and in The Creative Act , he details the philosophies he follows while making art. These include challenges like “Create an environment where you’re free to express what you’re afraid to express,” which he writes like a three-line poem, and “Look for what you notice but no one else sees.” The simplicity of his advice is deceptive and, in fact, Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies may be more effectual, but there’s a hypnotic quality to Rubin’s longer musings between his koans that show how he has become something of a creative guru, teaching people how to believe in themselves enough to tap into the ingenuity they already have inside them. —K.G.

‘The Woman in Me,’ Britney Spears

Britney Spears’ memoir was destined to be a blockbuster from the moment she announced it, shortly after her 13-year conservatorship was finally ended.  The Woman in Me  lived up to much of the hype: the fast-paced book details more than 40 years of pain, trauma, and exploitation that the pop star has endured. Spears names names and doesn’t hold back from letting the world know what she’s been through. The juiciest moments come from the revelations about her relationship with Justin Timberlake, adding depth and sadness to their experience together as pop’s golden couple during the early aughts. The book isn’t as meaty as other celebrity memoirs in terms of length and painstaking detail about her life and career, but it’s clear Spears needed to get some of the worst moments of her life off her chest first. Given a recent announcement that she is working on a second book, she may have only just scratched the surface. —B.S.

‘Goth: A History,’ Lol Tolhurst

Lol Tolhurst is a goth elder — he was in the Cure for their unholiest hours, in their black-lipstick funeral-party trilogy of Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography. So who better to write a scholarly, witty, yet totally engaging guide to the goth lifestyle — as he calls it, “the last true alternative outsider subculture.” He begins with literary precursors like Poe and Bronte, then moves into the music of Bauhaus, Bowie, Nico, Siouxsie, Joy Division, and others, sorting them into “Architects of Darkness” and “Spiritual Alchemists.” Tolhurst shares his own personal stories about the scene, as in his excellent 2016 memoir, Cured. But the community is timeless — “bigger than the Deadheads,” he boasts like a proud uncle. For him, goth isn’t merely music or fashion — it’s “a way to understand the world.” — R.S.

‘The Upcycled Life: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are,’ Tariq Trotter

As the chief lyricist in the Roots, Tariq Trotter (a.k.a. Black Thought) is never without an apt word or a multilayered image. But in all his years of quotable bars, he’s kept his personal life at a cool remove; in interviews , he’ll tell you that even the most candid-sounding Roots songs are more like works of fiction, and he’s long ceded the celebrity limelight to his childhood friend and bandmate Questlove. That makes it all the more remarkable when Trotter lets the world in on the experiences that shaped him in this debut memoir, writing in detail for the first time about growing up in South Philly, losing both of his parents to street violence when he was young, and the often-challenging path he had to take to develop and protect his talent. These are stories that he’s only hinted at on the Roots’ records, but once you read them, you’ll never hear his music the same way. —S.V.L.

‘World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life that Changed My Music,’ Jeff Tweedy

Is it possible that the whole time Jeff Tweedy was impressing us as one of his generation’s most consistently moving songwriters, he was only warming up for his role as an equally insightful essayist? The Wilco frontman’s third bestseller is an extraordinary memoir disguised as a collection of music criticism. Writing about a bunch of songs he loves (by Rosalía, Dylan, the Replacements …), and a couple he can’t stand (“Wanted Dead or Alive”), Tweedy takes us through his whole journey, from misunderstood Midwestern kid to the kind of guy who can write a book like this. Each track on the playlist is a new chance for him to think through the ways we all use music to shape our identities and connect with one another. He ends up with a gently wise self-portrait of someone who’s attuned to the world’s sensitive frequencies. —S.V.L.

‘Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You,’ Lucinda Williams

There’s a matter-of-fact delivery to Lucinda Williams’ Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You, as the Southern songwriter dryly recounts a series of pivotal events and relationships in her life with the nonchalance of someone telling you what’s on their grocery list. But Williams has never been one for flash, and it’s that casual tone that makes her memoir, full of freewheeling escapades on the road, busted romances with her ideal type of man (“a poet on a motorcycle”), and paths crossed with the literati, such a personal read. “It was New Year’s Day and I was hungover as fuck,” she writes in one chapter, detailing the creation of her song “2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten.” Despite its title, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You doesn’t drop any major revelations. But it doesn’t have to: Williams’ skeletons live in plain view in her songs. —J.H.

‘Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones,’ Elizabeth Winder

Winder shines a light on the women of the Rolling Stones — Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, and Anita Pallenberg — who were long overlooked and dismissed as girlfriends, groupies, and mere muses. In reality, they were much more, exposing Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Brian Jones to art, culture, and high society. They got them to pick up some Russian literature, dabble in LSD, and indulge in the occasional occult practice. In other words, as Winder writes, “It’s about women of such potency that their sheer proximity turned a band of mama’s boys into Luciferian demigods.” With Parachute Women , Winder removes these powerhouses from the shadows of rock stars and hands them their well-deserved flowers — dead flowers, but flowers all the same. —A.M.

‘Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans,’   Kenneth Womack

Paul McCartney called Mal Evans “a big loveable bear of a roadie.” He was a crucial figure in the Beatles’ inner circle — their loyal road manager, assistant, friend, confidant, sometimes bodyguard, sometimes nursemaid. Everybody knows Mal as the cheerful giant from Get Back , banging the anvil or stalling the police at the door. But he had a dark side that turned deadly in coked-out Seventies California — in 1976, he aimed a rifle at the L.A. cops and was gunned down. Kenneth Womack reveals the whole Mal Evans story in Living the Beatles Legend , a complex portrait of one of the few friends all four Beatles trusted, as he shares their adventures from Liverpool to Hollywood, from Abbey Road to Rishikesh. — R.S.

Contributors: Jon Dolan , Maya Georgi , Kory Grow , Brian Hiatt , Joseph Hudak , Angie Martoccio , Michaelangelo Matos , Rob Sheffield , Brittany Spanos , Simon Vozick-Levinson

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