'The greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world!' This vainglorious introduction given to The Rolling Stones on stage by an excitable roadie was almost immediately accepted as a simple statement of fact. It was already evident that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Co. were, as their first manager Andrew Loog Oldham had claimed, 'a way of life'. The Stones' defiance of convention made them the figureheads of a questioning new generation, and drove the Establishment to imprison them. This enduring rebel aura and the unmistakeable craft evident in classic records such as Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women and Brown Sugar ensured subsequent generations of diehard fans, establishing the band as the biggest box office attraction the world has ever seen. The Mammoth Book of The Rolling Stones provides a comprehensive collection of reviews, analysis, interviews and exposés - both archive and contemporary, favourable and critical, concise and epic - of these extraordinary cultural icons as they pass the astonishing milestone of 50 years as rock's pre-eminent band.

More than fifty years after their founding, the Rolling Stones still tour and create new music as the world’s quintessential rock band. David Malvinni’s Experiencing the Rolling Stones: A Listener’s Companion looks at the Stones’ music from the inside out. Along the journey, Malvinni places individual songs and entire albums within the transformative era of the ’60s, focusing on how the Rolling Stones integrated African American R&B, blues, and rock and roll into a uniquely British style. Vignettes describing what it was like to hear the Stones’ music at the time of its release thread their way through the book as Malvinni goes beyond the usual stories surrounding the Stone’s most significant songs. Tracing the distinctive sound that runs through their catalog, from chord progressions and open guitar tuning, to polyrhythmic Afro-Caribbean beats and their innovative use of nontraditional instruments, Malvinni shows how the Stones have retained their unmistakable identity through the decades. Experiencing the Rolling Stones draws together a broad swath of postwar history as it covers the band’s origins in Swinging London, their interest in the Beat generation, the powerful attraction of Morocco on their lives and music, the infamous drug busts that nearly destroyed the band, the female muses who inspired them, the disaster at Altamont, their flight from England as tax exiles, and the recording sessions outside of England. Malvinni takes an especially close look at Keith Richards’ guitar work and its effect on the band’s music, as well as the multiple changes in the band’s members, such as the addition of guitarists Mick Taylor and Ron Wood. Experiencing the Rolling Stones delivers a musical adventure for both the lifelong fan and the first-time listener just discovering the magnitude and magnificence of the Stones’ music, stardom, and legacy.

Over 30 landmark interviews, accounts, and memoirs of The Beatles and their entourage, recording how they inadvertently became counter-culture's figureheads and changed society.

The definitive illustrated collection of Beat culture from the people who made the scene--now in paperback It's been nearly fifty years since Jack Kerouac took to the road, but Beat culture continues to be a popular and influential force in today's writing, music, and art. With more than 75 contributors, this celebratory potpourri of words, illustrations, and photography contains original and previously published essays by Richard Miller, Ann Douglas, Johnny Depp, Michael McClure, Hettie Jones, Hunter S. Thompson, Joyce Johnson, Richard Hell, and others. It includes rare pieces from the Rolling Stone archives by William Burroughs, Lester Bangs, and Robert Palmer as well as intimate photographs by Robert Frank, Annie Leibovitz, and rarely seen photos taken by the Beats themselves. A rich tapestry of voices and a visual treat, this treasury of Beat lore and literature is a true collector's item whose entertainment value will go on...and on. "A huge dim sum cart of a book...a first-rate companion." --Publishers Weekly "Compelling reading." --The Denver Post

A collection of firsthand accounts documents key events in human history, from the painting of the Sistine Chapel and the 1955 World Series to the Gulf War and September 11, as recorded in journals, letters, journalist reports, and other venues.

Stanely Booth was meant to be the authorised biographer of the Rolling Stones, but, shortly after he began writing in 1968, things started to go wrong. The American concert tour that he joined ended in murder at a race track in the Californian desert, and the time that followed - in which Booth was assaulted by Hell's Angels, beaten up by American soldiers, run over by a lorry, imprisoned, and subjected to epileptic fits while trying to withdraw from drugs - was characterised only be confusion, loss and disillusionment. Completed fifteen years after it was begun, 'The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones' is only in part about the group of musicians it depicts. It is also a social history and a confession - a chronicle, in the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches, of people united in a curious commitment to their own destruction.

Though it doesn' t seem likely for twins to have the same middle name, it' s clear that Castor and Pollux Stone both have " Trouble" in that spot on their birth certificates. But anyone who' s met their grandmother Hazel will know they came by it honestly.Join the Stone twins for a laugh-filled ride as they connive, cajole, and bamboozle their way across the Solar System in the company of the most high-spirited and hilarious family in all of science fiction. This light-hearted tale has some of Heinlein' s sassiest dialogue. Oddly enough, it' s also a true example of family values-- for when you' re a Stone, your family is your highest priority.

"Over the years, Rolling Stone has given its writers only one overriding edict: take chances.