Mick & Keith: Parallel Lines Book

Chris Salewicz, author of numerous other rock biographies, concentrates on the two bad boys of rock--Mick Jagger and Keith Richards--in Mick & Keith. The two lads from Dartford went to the same junior school, and knew each other from 1951, but only got together 10 years later. Odd details stick in the mind: Mick hated that diminutive in his childhood, preferring Mike; he only switched to the name now preceded by "Sir" when he was a student at LSE. Keith also had a variable name, going from his original Richards to Richard (á la Cliff) in 1963 and back to Richards again in 1972. Even the band began as the Rollin' Stones. The origins of the 'Stones, born, like so many others, from the nursery of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, are told in loving detail. Salewicz successfully captures the spirit of the early 60s, the strange bohemian symbiosis between musicians, art students, art dealers, photographers, writers, and even oddments of the nobility and royalty. But once the Stones make it big, this same attention to detail relentlessly chronicles Mick's womanising and Keith's descent into massive drug abuse. As the book continues, you wonder how the 'Stones ever managed to record or perform; for 10 years bassist Bill Wyman barely spoke to Keith. Wyman and Charlie Watts are hardly mentioned in the book; Brian Jones is treated negatively throughout, not only with how his drug behaviour forced the band to sack him, but earlier how, as founder of the Stones, he screwed the rest of them financially. Some biographies are described as "warts and all". This one is just the warts. One of the 'Stones' greatest songs was "Paint it Black", and that's what Salewicz seems to have done with this portrayal of Mick and Keith. --David V BarrettRead More