Life

Life – Keith Richards

I was a bit disappointed when I finished this one.  I was wanting to read about Keith Richards and the The Rolling Stones.  There’s not as much Rolling Stones here as I had hoped, but I suppose you can’t fault the author. The title, ‘Life’, is about….well…his life.  Nothing in the title of this book includes the words “Rolling Stones”. So there are a lot of other aspects of his life here, and even though there is a fair amount of Stones stuff, I simply wanted more.

What consumed most of Keith Richards’ life was drugs.  Oh Lord, do we read about drugs.  It’s truly a miracle this man is still alive.  Although he claims he’s been clean since the 80s, there’s plenty of dirt and disturbance from the Keith Richards’ annals to fill an encyclopedia set.  A few of the stories are a bit interesting, but they get old in a hurry.  When he talks for more than two pages about one of his drug dealer’s German upbringing but then talks less than a half of a page on the making of an album such as “Sticky Fingers”, you may see where some, like myself, come away disappointed. On a related note, perhaps he was too stoned to remember the making of many of the classic albums?

For those who are somewhat familiar with the individual, you know that his whole existence of late seems to be tongue in cheek. Every interview you see with him has him mumbling and giggling throughout. He’s comprehensible during his rants, and can be somewhat entertaining, and that’s the general atmosphere throughout this book.  You definitely feel like ‘Keef’ is telling you his life story.  For that, you need to give him credit. I’ve always been a believer, though, that when you’re a celebrity writing an autobiography (who else would write an autobiography??), you should write mainly on the comings and goings of yourself in the spotlight, since this is what your fans are the most familiar.  A little bit of your upbringing and influence is o.k., but stick to the interesting stuff please.

It also doesn’t help that he comes across as an unrepentant former junkie. If you’re a parent and you want to keep your children away from drugs, you should not use this man as an example.  It’s a bit bothersome, for example, when Keith recalls a car crash where he was stoned and fell asleep at the wheel. Since none of the seven people in the car (fortunately) are killed, he looks back at the episode and slags the whole thing off with the attitude of “Hey – I’m a good driver. I just made a mistake. So get off my case.” You can’t help but feel as though one minor twist somewhere around, say, 1971 could easily have killed the man, and history would remember him very differently (see ‘Brian Jones’).

Still, I’m glad I read the book, and he does a very good job accomplishing what he set out to do. There were parts when I would get to his umpteenth drug binge where I would just scan the pages, but there really is enough here to keep you interested.  Just be warned – there’s more in this book on his recipe for a Shepherd's Pie than there is about his second solo album (Nothing at all. Why??)  So as long as you’re cool with expectations not being too high, you’re probably o.k. to pick this one up.