THE ROLLING STONES are part of my Series "SOUNDS
GOOD: Exceptional CD Remasters 1970s Rock And Pop" Download Book available
to buy on Amazon to either your PC or Mac (it will download the Kindle software
to read the book for free to your toolbar). Click on the link below to go my
Author's Page for this and other related publications:
"...Can't You Hear Me Knocking..."
- Rolling
Stones Gear/All The Stones Instruments From Stage To Studio - BACKBEAT BOOK
When the courier handed me this sucker in its 'fragile'
cardboard wrap - I almost felt my wrist snap. This book is big, beautiful and
HEAVY. And at under £25 brand new – it’s a perfect present for the Stones
nutter in your home.
Released in March 2014 on Backbeat Books (Barcode
884088554453) – "Rolling Stones Gear – All The Stones Instruments From The
Stage To Studio" does exactly what it says on the tin – and in drop-dead
gorgeous eye-popping detail.
First up is Amazon’s assessment of 500 pages – it has 672.
It’s coffee table large and has a US Dollar price of 60. There are 30 chapters
beginning with “Britain Gets The Blues” which shows the 1954-1961 influences on
our boys by picturing stuff from Lonnie Donegan’s Skiffle LPs to Chuck Berry,
Little Walter and Muddy Waters Chess albums. Chapter 2 moves into the
extraordinary catalyst that was CCS’s front man and singer Alexis Korner and
his influence on the band. But what hits time and time again are the huge
amount of stunning pictures…
Every available square around the copious amount of text is
filled with gorgeous repro’s of Sixties adverts, Stones gig posters and concert
tickets, Bush Record Players, London Record Stores, Harmony Amplifiers, Reslo
Microphones, StratoTone guitars, MXR Phase Pedals and so on. By the time you
get to the late Sixties – the in-concert photos of guitar wielding Keith
Richards, Brian Jones and Mick Taylor are coming out you in full colour and
glorious black and white – beautifully cleaned and massively evocative of the
times. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts get their basses and drum kits, Jagger his
Mikes, while the fabulous Seventies stuff and beyond features Tour posters, the
saxophones used by Bobby Keys and even the letter Mick Jagger wrote to Andy
Warhol commissioning the cover of "Sticky Fingers". It’s properly
indepth and thrilling to look at.
There’s adverts galore - Hofner Guitars, Gibson Electric and
Les Paul Acoustics, Jesselli Guitars, Synthi Multi Hi-Fi Guitar Processors,
Ronnie Wood’s custom made Zemaitis Metal Plate and so on. The advert photos are
beautiful throughout all the decades - as are the period shots of Alexis
Korner, Ronnie with Bo Diddley and a young Ian ‘Stu’ Stewart on piano.
It took New York authors Andy Babiuk and Greg Prevost 10
years to accumulate and narrate this incredible story and they surely must be
up for some sort of Book Oscar. Andy Baiuk did a similar tome for The Beatles
in 2001 "Beatles Gear" while Greg Prevost is a staff writer for the
acclaimed “Ugly Things” magazine. Both are collectors of guitars and music
memorabilia and they clearly know their stuff.
Wonderful memories and surely one of the great Rock Books.
Tattoo You and your flabby bottom with this beauty right
now...
