Rock on Wood: The Origin of a Rock and Roll Face - Ronnie Wood Book

Ronnie Wood is not the world's greatest guitarist. As one critic in the 1970s rather sneeringly put it, "Wood is probably one of the best guitarists for a beginner to copy". In fact, his disdain for what he calls "playing fiddly" marks him out as a wonderfully ordinary guitar player. Even his face--Rawlings subtitles his biography "The Origin of a Rock and Roll Face"--is, while distinctive, not as instantly recognisable as his co-Stone Mick Jagger's, or as heroically wrinkled as Keef''s. But in a sense that is Ronnie's charm, his ordinariness, the way he refuses to stand out as a superstar. And that is what is interesting about Rawlings biography of Ronnie. It includes, of course, the requisite stories of drug- indulgence and wild-living, but the overall tenor of the book is of a regular bloke making his way workmanlike through the slightly weird world of rock and roll, from The Small Faces to the The Rolling Stones. There are plenty of stories here about the British rock scene in the 1960s and 1970s, the whole thing is written in an appropriately louche style, and Rawlings is even attentive to the breaks in his story--of one of Ronnie's early bands, The Byrds, we read: "the former Byrds can remember what happened, but not exactly in what order". Which is, after all, exactly how we would want it to be. --Adam RobertsRead More