Dance with the Devil: The Rolling Stones and Their Times

by Stanley Booth

Book Overview

Stanley Booth, a member of the Rolling Stones' inner circle, met the band just a few months before Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1968. He lived with them throughout their 1969 tour across... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394534883
• ISBN13: 9780394534886
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 383 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Dance with Stanley Booth

This book was suggested to me by a friend who knew that Gram Parsons was a musical influence of mine. I had a hard time getting into at first and almost put down. Then the universes collided, and while I was meandering somewhere between 1965 and 1967 among the foggy world of the Stones' wine, women and song, Martin Scorsese's concert movie/documentary on the Stones, Shine A Light, was released. Having a small glimpse into the mixed up, confused world of the Stones through Stanley Booth's book, I caught a matinee of the movie, and it was exactly as Stanley had depicted. I realized that I was being told the bare naked truth by this eloquent, poetic southern writer. With 50 pages left, I suddenly felt that time was no longer on my side, so I dug my heels in and savored every last second like one of the drugs so expertly described by the author. By the end of the book I felt like I had gotten to know something about those times, that band, and about Gram Parsons. I came to see Keith Richards as a very well defended spiritual person with a big soul and conscience. I had neither known nor cared much about him beforehand. Most of all, I felt like Stanley was my good friend who shared secrets with me that he would tell no other person. I hated for him to go. There is a picture at the back of the book of the two buddies -- Keith R. and Stanley B., looking handsome, robust, young and full of fire. They were filled with fire, all right. The killing kind. And by nothing short of a miracle they both made it out the other end. A publisher would do well to re-release this book, which is more of a historic ode by now, worth revisiting and treasuring again and again. It's more relevant today than ever, and a perfect aperitif to Shine A Light.

The World's Greatest Rock and Roll BOOK

Okay, I am a huge fan of classic rock and punk music and I have a great time searching for new rock biographies, histories and memoirs to read. The Stones are one of the three bands I consider to be the "holy trinity" of British rock music (along with the Beatles and the Clash) and, after collecting 41 different albums of their music (yeegads!) I picked up a copy of this book, simply because I had heard it was good from another Stones fan. What an understatement that turned out to be. "The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones" is not only the best book on rock 'n' roll I have yet read, and there have been many, it is also one of my top five books. Ever. As another reviewer already already stated, this book is many different things rolled into one. It is a deeply interesting document of the Stones' 1969 American tour (which included both Altamont and the recording of 'Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!' at Madison Square Garden). It is also a precise history of the band up to the point of its writing, a dreary and drug-soaked eulogy for the '60s and a deeply personal journal from the pen of Stanley Booth. There isn't really anything else like this book. Unlike many rock biographers, Booth did not base his book on sketchy interviews and the "facts" presented in other people's books. He traveled with the Stones on the '69 tour and writes the story from his own point of view. This creates a very interesting situation for the reader because you get to see the Stones' world from Booth's eyes: as an outsider looking in. Each one of the Stones are captured beautifully through dialog and actions that Booth witnessed. You get to see everything from Keith's wry sense of humor to Mick's complexities as he tries to befriend Booth and keep him at arm's length all at once. I can't stress to you how much you need to read this book if you are a Stones fan. As I read it, I was constantly stopping to admire the incredible writing of Stanley Booth. When you read this book, you will get to know him just as well as you get to know the Stones. With so many rock biographies written by hacks with no clue, "The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones" is a diamond in the rough. Buy it.

A Great Rock And Roll Band Book

Author Stanley Booth had the ultimate access to the Stones. He managed to get a contract for a book on the Band, found access, and convinced the Stones themselves to authorize his work as well as let him accompany them on the 69-70 tours, just before the infamous stuff of Altamont happened. By managing to last with the Stones, over time actually becoming one of the rare friends who could find and hang out with the Band members, he acquired an incredible store of tales, which he tells in a remarkably literary manner in this book. Using quotes from the likes of Norman Mailer, "Hambone," the Crystals, Cynthia Plastercaster (if you don't know about her, you really need to get this book), Booth clearly demonstrates his credentials as a serious author. The book benefits.....the best story of the writing of Satisfaction by the Holiday Inn pool in Clearwater is in here as are the tales of Mick and Keith's arrival at Altamont (not at all what you would suspect). All in all, this is one of the good ones and you can't go wrong by taking time to read it cover to cover.

My favorite book ever!

What makes this book so amazing? Author Stanley Booth captures the most popular rock band of all time by actually being there with the band as a friend, through some of the most memorable moments in the history of music: Booth is there at Altamont when a spectator is killed by the Hell's Angels (and Booth appears in the movie on the concert), he's there when Jimi Hendrix is with the Rolling Stones backstage, he's there when Janis Joplin is playing before the Stones come on, he's there when the Stones are hanging out with Chuck Berry, he hangs out in a recording studio when the Stones record, and he goes to London to view Brian Jones' grave and goes to Jones' parents' home to interview them. Booth is like a ghost that will always be there in the soul of music and of the Rolling Stones. This book should be required reading in college writing courses to teach young writers how to write with excitement and reality. Every page is a masterpiece!

Stanley Booth Penned a Classic

Stanley Booth not only wrote the best book ever written about the Stones, but the best book ever written about Rock and Roll period. If "Exile on Main St." was a book, it would be this. The book is a rich tapestry of layers and textures. A must read. Please pay special attention to the chapter that takes place in Sam Sheffler's basement on Hudson Ave. It is filty yet fun.