Drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll – in that order – are detailed in Robert Greenfield’s book “Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell With the Rolling Stones.”
In it, he describes the decadent times surrounding the Rolling Stones’ recording of “Exile on Main Street,” the band’s masterpiece double album.
Anyone looking for a song-by-song analysis of the album in this book is advised to go elsewhere. So, too, is anyone who wants any semblance of detail about the recording sessions themselves.
But if you want to know what type of heroin Keith Richards favored while holed up in the south of France to record the album in the summer of 1971, or with whom Mick Jagger was sleeping at the moment, “Exile” is for you.
Greenfield does an admirable job trying to cut through the smoky haze to go back 35 years and more or less accurately re-create what went down at the Villa Nellcote on the French Riviera. And at least he’s honest when he passes along tall tales from that time and then ferrets out what may be the truth, or at least a more believable version of the story.
To be sure, the tale told by Greenfield is one full of chaos, over-the-top drug use and, frankly, boorish behavior by the bad boys of rock ‘n’ roll. He describes pointless recording sessions so dominated by the boredom of waiting for either Richards or Jagger to arrive that gambling tables were installed to help pass the time.
Oh, and they take tons of Quaaludes and acid, too.
Greenfield’s is far from a scholarly tome. If anything, he tries too hard to fit his writing style to that of the band. He’s no Hunter S. Thompson, but who is?
Readers would have been better served if Greenfield had sprinkled in more details about the actual music being made along with the excessive behavior. He seems to assume, and perhaps correctly, that anyone interested in reading the book will already know all about the album. But it’s too important a piece of the story to be only superficially addressed toward the end of the book.
Unfortunately, one gets the sense that part of Greenfield’s motivation for writing the book is to settle some scores and get his own version of the truth out there. Who’s to say who’s right or wrong, but it wouldn’t hurt if he could be less petty.
That said, it is an entertaining read – if only to marvel at the fact that Richards is still alive and (somewhat) well.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
