Book description
On July 12, 1962, London's Marquee Club debuted a new act, a
blues-inflected rock band named after a Muddy Waters song - The Rolling
Stones. They were a hard-edged band with a flair for the dramatic,
styling themselves as the devil's answer to the sainted Beatles.
A young, inexperienced producer named Andrew Loog Oldham first heard the
band at a session he remembers with four words: 'I fell in love.' Though
unfamiliar with such basic industry practices as mixing a recording, he
made a brilliant decision - he pitched the band to a studio that had
passed on the Beatles. Afraid to make the same mistake twice, they
signed the Stones, and began a history-making career.
This is just one of the 50 classic stories that make up 50 Licks
. Many are never-before told, some are from exclusive interviews -
including with elusive bassist Bill Wyman - and all are illustrated and
told by the people who lived them.
Half a century on, the Rolling Stones are still the greatest band
working. And this is the book to commemorate their unparalleled
achievement in rock music. I have turned down tickets to every
Woodstock there's been, for the same reason: rock 'n' roll and camping
have nothing in common. If you'd like to make up your own mind, tune in
to Back to the Garden, Pete Fornatale's fine history of whatever hit 'em
up there (in addition to the brown acid or brown rice, whichever it
was). From Richie Havens to the endless repercussions, this is the
tale...and even a veteran antihippie like me has to recognize it as an
indispensable document of rock history. Pete Fornatale
was until his death in 2012 an award-winning broadcaster who has been a
fixture on the New York radio scene for the past 40 years. He is most
recently the author of Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock and
How It Changed A Generation. 50 Licks is hes last book.
Bernard M. Corbett
is the radio voice of Harvard University football and Boston University
hockey. He is the author and coauthor of fifteen books. He lives in
Stoneham, Massachusetts and is a lifelong Rolling Stones fan.
