STONE ALONE

by Bill with Ray Coleman Wyman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1990

The golden days of The Rolling Stones, up through the death of Brian Jones, by Stones bassist Bill Wyman and Ray Coleman, biographer of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Brian Epstein. Aside from its breaking off in 1969, Stones fans will find little to disappoint them in Wyman's meticulously detailed and well-written band-and-personal-autobiography. The publisher has asked early reviewers not to give away the book's revelations, but what these revelations are--aside from musical beds in the sharing of the band's ladies, and Wyman's own take on the cause of Brian Jones's death--is not easy to pinpoint. Brian Jones, the group's best musician and the bluesy soul of the Stones, organized, chose the materials, and laid down the charts for the group's first years--until Mick Jagger's and Keith Richards's songwriting flooded the band's book, and Brian, who favored rich blues and disliked their commercialization, found himself odd man out while still a member. Brian was also the member with the deepest drug problems. He'd just split from the Stones when he drowned in his swimming pool, a misadventure the coroner attributed to alcohol and drugs. Wyman has no truck with A.E. Hotchner's recent attribution of murder, in Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties (p.1146)--and, in fact, Hotchner's Stones seem an entirely different set of rockers from Wyman's. Wyman in no way underplays the sex and drugs; he's simply more interested in the Stones's characters and the growth of their music. As for himself, Wyman was/is the oldest, straightest member, and if he has a flaw or failing it was in falling in love with a 13-year-old blonde while in his 40s--whom he married five years later, although they'd been living together much earlier. He also denies the contractual disputes under which the Stones suffered; for years they were debt-ridden, cashless ""millionaires."" Most amusing moment: Wyman is upbraided on a train for being a ""longhaired yob who shouldn't be allowed in public places."" Replies Wyman: ""I'm getting paid for looking like this. What's your excuse?"" Twice as long and more balanced than the Hotchner--but Hotchner's dirt-laden shots may outsell.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION