S.T.P.: A Journey Through America with The Rolling Stones

It was going to be planned tight this time, no fuckups as in '69. And somehow the Stones summer '72 tour -- two months, 30 cities, Canada, L.A. to Boston and Middle America in between -- did come off more or less professional like. ""Da heaviest act in da bizness,"" said Wolfman Jack, ""dey ain't gods no more, dey're immortals."" But it was edge fever all the way -- riots, busts, drugs, groupies, bashes and more bashes. Being part of the Inner Circle -- or even, on the periphery, with the official Stones Touring Party -- means you're the best; your credentials: to be able to turn on and still go on functioning, a pro. But it's a drain, too, because everybody wants a piece of your ass, to be close to the glitter, to get a hit off the energy. Terry Southern was along, so were Capote and Lee Radziwill (Princess Radish Keith calls her, and waking her up to a party, ""C'mon, you old tart""). Southern bombed when he tried to write about it. Elman, in Uptight with the Stones (KR, 1973) missed the beat. Capote copped out. But Greenfield, probably because he never made the Inner Circle and didn't care, swings with the craziness without tumbling. And he pulls the reader, just like a groupie, into the vortex.