According to the “About The Author” blurb at the beginning of Death Of A Rolling Stone, Mandy Aftel “is a psychotherapist who specializes in artists and writers.” After reading this, one might be excused for expecting the following writing to make a deep, psychological study of Brian Jones’ life. One would be wrong of course.
I must be honest and say that I disliked this book from the very beginning, probably for what are nitpicky reasons. Most can be attributed to a serious need for fact checkers. Here are some of the worst infractions:
1. Throughout the book she refers to Keith Richards as Keith Richard. To be fair, during the time that she is writing about Keith did start going by the name Richards, but by the time she talked to him he was back to his real name.
2. She calls Ian Stewart “Stew” instead of “Stu” – I find this happens a lot with American writers. In America they would shorten Stewart to Stew.
3. In the first chapter she mentions and early Stones gig in 1961 (p. 23). In chapter two she makes it plain that Brian didn’t start hanging out in London until Alexis Korner opened the Ealing Jazz Club with Cyril Davis in March of 1962 (p.35).
The main problem with the book is bad writing. Well, maybe not bad, but really badly put together. For example at one point she starts a paragraph talking about 1964 but at the end she mentions “Satisfaction.” People who know nothing about the band would think, from reading this paragraph, that “Satisfaction” had been released in 1964.
Why am I mentioning this? I am one of those readers who will lose faith in non-fiction authors who make these kinds of mistakes. Once I realize that a writer can’t get the little details right I have a hard time being convinced that the writing has anything to say at all. This happened by the time I got to the second chapter of this book.
As for the content of the book, I didn’t learn anything new. I am not a fan of Brian Jones and I have not read that much about him. I’ve read a few articles and interviews that mention him but this is the first book dedicated to him I have read. The most I’ve read about him was in Stone Alone by Bill Wyman. This book validated my opinion of Brian Jones.
 |
