Life/ Keith Richards

Life by Keith Richards. biography, rock and roll, nonfiction, celebrity stories, England 576 pages

I am going to try to do the impossible in this blog post, which is to be the first library employee to NOT make a huge deal out of the fact that Keith Richards claimed that if he could be anything besides a rock star, he would want to be a librarian. I mentioned it, and now it's over. Although if Keith Richards is really that eager to work in a library, then I am MORE than willing to make a trade with him (although if we have to pull a Freaky Friday which would cause me to be Keith's age, then perhaps I'd have to give it some more thought).

I am not usually a nonfiction fan, because I have always believed that if I wanted to experience the real world, I could go out and do it for myself. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I have so little musical talent that I could probably lose to Rebecca Black in a sing-off, I don't see myself becoming a rock star anytime soon. This is what sets Keith Richards' autobiography, Life, apart from the rest. Keith's life is so interesting that I found myself wondering if this WAS actually fiction and I hadn't realized it.

Depending on when you were born, you know more or less than the average person concerning Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones. Being of a slightly younger demographic, I found that before this book that I knew Keith Richards only as the inspiration for Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. Of course I was also familiar with Stones hits like "Sympathy for the Devil", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and "Paint it Black," but I would hardly call myself a Rolling Stones fan. Reading Richards' autobiography actually made me go back and listen to a lot of the Stones' music he would intermittently discuss. I can now safely say that I understand why the Rolling Stones are a Rock and Roll phenomenon.

Although the first 20 years of Keith's life are very much like anyone's, which can lead to some less interesting material, they are important in laying the groundwork for what promises to be the greatest life story ever told. Within 100 pages we begin to see the journey of Richards and the other founding members of the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, and Charlie Watts) unfolding in the sex, drugs, and rock n roll direction I know that I was hoping for.

You can tell from Richards' writing that even he has trouble believing some of the events of his life. Richards acts as a perfect rock n roll antihero, and whether he's riding around on weeklong benders with Beatle John Lennon or learning how to knife-fight from rastas in Jamaica, the reader can always find something to enjoy about his tale. It seems perfect that Richards inspired a pirate character because the revolver-toting, knife-fighting, skull-ring wearing Richards manages to be a modern day swashbuckler while simultaneously indulging in a Sherlock Holmes-esque drug regimen (heroin-cocaine-try to balance it out with more heroin-oops went too far, need more cocaine). Hearing the stories behind Richards' multiple arrests also make for excellent reading.

Even a child of the 90's like myself will recognize plenty of the celebrity cameos in the story and will enjoy the star-studded voyage of Keith Richards. Richards manages to maintain his celebrity status while still writing like an everyman. There are a few sections where Richards comes off a little self-centered, and especially concerning his conflict with Stones frontman Mick Jagger, there were times where I found that I wanted to hear things from another perspective because Keith was a somewhat biased narrator. That being said, Keith does allow many a guest to write a story from another perspective when he thinks that perspective explains the story better (either because Keith wasn't there to experience it himself or he was too zonked out on drugs to tell the story accurately).

Whether you're a music fan or just an admirer of the rock n roll outlaw lifestyle, Keith Richards' "Life" is a must-read and if you've even had a momentary thought about reading it, indulge yourself and enjoy this awesome book.