Ronnie: The Autobiography by Ronnie Wood
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Book Reviews of Ronnie: The Autobiography
Book Review: A MUST READ
Summary: 5 Stars
A must read for anyone even slightly interested in Music---The Stones--Talent. Ronnie is a tremendously multi-talent and fascinating down to earth person..Book Review: Ron Woods
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great read ! It sheds light on other Rock autobiographies that should be read as well. Thoroughly enjoyable.Book Review: Ronnie - the "other" Rolling Stone
Summary: 5 Stars
Why this man is not classified as one of the true Rolling Stones is beyond me.
Book Review: Buried Alive
Summary: 4 Stars
Poor, Poor, Woody! Where to begin? Well, if you're looking for an interesting read about a bonafide rock star with over 40 years of experience in the business, you've come to the wrong place. I'm sorry to report that what we have here is the story of a man with two years of experience in rock and roll, repeated twenty times over! While I did enjoy reading this book (I read it in one sitting - a first for me), I was left feeling sad, but not sorry, for Ron Wood. The man just doesn't (didn't?) get it. While he is certainly musically gifted, his life from his teenage years on was a series of bad, repetative decisions: bad choices about drugs, about alcohol, about real estate, about parenting, about investments, about friendships, and on and on. Lather, rinse, repeat. He never learned a damn thing from his mistakes. And he seems to have no regreats either! The reason for this seems to be his lack of self-knowlegde and chronic immaturity.
One example of his lack of self-knowledge: he spent the first twenty or so pages of the book describing, among other things, how every weekend, if not on other nights of the week as well, his father, and to a much lesser extent his mother, would get fall-down drunk. After the all-weekend-long parties his father would literally wake up passed-out on the floor, in bed, on the couch, under the table, or even out in the garden or flower bed. Ronnie grew up in a house like this from the time he was born. But yet when it comes to his own abuse of alcohol, he claims it was when he lost a friend in a car crash at the age of 17 that he FIRST learned that booze can cover up emotions. What?! Does he not see the seeds of his own alcoholism firmly rooted in his parents? A major disconnect there.
He would also claim that after the birth of each of their four kids, he and his wife found a new clarity and determination in thier role as parents. He was proud to include in this memoir that after the birth of their last child his wife Jo refused a "congratulatory" line of cocaine in the delivery room (Ron took a couple of toots himself). This to him was evidence that Jo was really maturing. But thirty pages later he recounts how they were both snorting coke in a limo on thier way to somewhere. On top of that, Ronnie retells the many times he spent locked in his own bathroom with fellow coke-heads, smoking cocaine for days on end while his wife and small children, and later, not so small children, were outside, supposedly carrying on with thier lives.
Furthermore, it seems obvious that the only reason he's made any attempts at rehab, beginning in 2002, was because Mick, or his wife, or his kids, thought that his "cocaine and alcohol consumption was getting out of hand". It never dawned upon him, even now, while attempting sobriety, that he had a problem. Only other people seemd to think so. A HUGE disconnect there.
One person who comes off in this book, unintentionally, I'm sure, as a crude, self-absorbed, nasty weirdo is Keith Richards. Yuk!
Having said all that. . . I must admit that I am a big Stones fan. Ron Wood has added a lot to their combo, even though their best days are clearly behind them. I have all of his solo albums too. And while none of them are great, I enjoy listening to them from time to time and even think at least one or two songs on each album deserved to be a hit. I would have also liked to learn more about Woody's time in The Faces, as I have gotten "into them" in the past few years. His treatment of that phase of his life is cursory.
The book delivers. It is an unvarnished recounting of some of the highlights, and lowlights of Ron Wood's life. The writing isn't great, but it's not bad for rock star. Now that he's 60 years old, and sober, I hope he takes the time figure out what he wants to do when he grows up. I'd also like to see him develop his visual art career more. 3 stars!
POST SCRIPT (JULY 2008) - To illustrate my point that Woody is entirely unincumbered by maturity and self-awareness, he has yet again been checked into alcohol rehab. How many tries is this? I understand addiction recovery is a life-long battle, but it isn't made any easier when you suffer from psycho-social arrested development.
POST POST SCRIPT (NOVEMBER 2008) - Well, after his umpteenth stint in rehab, Ron's back to two bottles of vodka a day and has recently left his wife of thirty years to shack up with a Russian cocktail waitress 41 years his junior! What a tragic man! Nostrovia Woody!
Book Review: An all around nice guy
Summary: 4 Stars
As Bill Wyman has often said, Ron Wood's personality glued the Stones back together in the mid seventies with his optimistic, fun loving, and generous spirit. Jagger has also said that it was not so much his playing (no small thing) but how well he fit in and how he kept Keith out of (as much) trouble. At the time (and often since) I remember thinking they should have gone with Mick Ronson or maybe Rick Derringer (Beck had too big an ego and was big enough in his own right), but...particularly after reading this book (and Ronson's tragic demise)...I can now see the wisdom and foresight of their hiring Wood, who was well known to have been hanging with and songwriting with both Jagger and Richards for years prior to 1975/76. The other thing the book makes clear is that Wood has more depth and insight in to human motivation, nature, and pain than it would seem from his life in the shadows of the Glimmer Twins. Further to this, he has a true gentleman's appreciation of history, art, and a number of other topics that one would not guess from his 'devil may care' image. His irrefutable talent as a painter, his love for 'the Wick', and his transparency about his struggles with drugs and alcohol all flesh out who the man really is. Besides, all that having been said, who can argue that the massive transformation / resurgence the Stones evidenced with 'Some Girls'...Wood's first album with them as a full blown member. His tenure exceeds predecessors Jones by 15 years and Taylor by 17(and will soon rival even Wyman's). And, when off dope as on the 'Licks' tour, the true potential of his sometimes sloppy musical talent fully emerges.
In conclusion the book transformed my perception of Wood, and the long held misgivings about what the Stones might have become with more technically proficient (though less soulful) guitarists. 'Ronnie' portrays a very likable, liked, man...no-one gets slagged unless they are utterly human vermine. Everyone else it seems, including Bianca, is included only as a means of softening the world's perception of their imperfections and then encouraging the individual themself.
If I were to criticize anything about the book it would be three things: 1.) as a Stones fanatic I was chomping at the bit to read more of Wood's experiences with them creatively and as their personalities pertained to their music, 2.) there is alot of name dropping which, while giving interesting insights in to people like John Belushi, Tony Curtis or Jimi Hendrix, comes across a wee bit 'affected' (but hey...he was obviously a popular guy), and 3.) the final editing is absolutely atrocious...there are overt spelling and grammatical errors on at least every second or third page, some of which are so bad that they change the meaning of the passage (many would have slipped by unnoticed had I not known what Wood meant from other sources or contexts). This is not the writer's fault, it is entirely the publisher's.