Ronnie: The Autobiography by Ronnie Wood
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Book Reviews of Ronnie: The Autobiography
Book Review: Tale of a rolling stone
Summary: 4 Stars
As Ronnie Wood says himself, he is the "new boy" of the Rolling Stones -- meaning he's only been a member for more than thirty years.
But he certainly isn't lacking interesting stories. In fact, "Ronnie: The Autobiography" is crammed with good-natured recountings of the wild world of rock'n'roll's golden age. Wood has a mellow, nostalgic style, loaded down with plenty of humour and artwork.
Wood was born to a quirky family of water gypsies, won attention as a child for his artwork, and when he was grown, immersed himself in the rising tide of rock'n'roll. He performed with Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, and nearly became part of Led Zeppelin -- and after the Faces broke up, he was asked to join the Rolling Stones as a replacement for Mick Taylor.
And that was only the beginning -- Wood became part of a tight-knit, well-oiled machine of friends and colleagues, who were soaked in drugs, sex and classic rock'n'roll. He recounts weddings, funerals, divorce, births, drug arrests in Arkansas, exploding septic tanks, cocaine, Monty Python, and lots and lots of music-making...
Reading "Ronnie: the Authobiography" is a little like sitting down with a grizzled rock veteran, having a beer, and listening to him reminisce about his wilder days. Wood seems to have had a relatively stable life compared to his bandmates Jaggger and Richards, but by no means a boring one -- it gets more interesting as soon as he joins up.
As well as art and music, Wood has a knack for words -- he has a pleasant, conversational style, and he puts in all kinds of shriekingly funny stories (and unnerving ones, like Keith chasing him with a knife) in an arch, deadpan manner. He doesn't make excuses for any bad behavior, but just owns up to it and relates it in the most amusing way possible.
What's even more striking about him is that he hasn't really got a bad word to say about anyone. He praises most of the people in this book, but if someone is nasty (like his ex-wife berating him after she drove into a storefront) he simply lets it pass. And he's perfectly willing to make fun of himself, such as smoking meringues and asking Kylie Minogue if she needed to find her parents.
And there are a LOT of people in this book -- Beatles, Stones, Clapton, the guys of Monty Python ("My mum wants you to go!"), Rod Stewart, Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, and countless others. Not to mention some homage shout-outs to the greats of blues -- Muddy Waters makes an appearance, only to mistake Ronnie for Keith.
Oh, and the book is sprinkled with artwork by Wood -- very good ones too, with a sort of fragmented sensual quality. Even if, say, it's of Keith passed out.
"Ronnie: The Autobiography" is a warm, nostalgic book of a very crazy time in rock history, with plenty of stories that fans will eat up. A great read for rock'n'roll fans.
Book Review: A rollicking ride through rock and roll
Summary: 4 Stars
Let's face it: even though we know that sex with alot of beautiful but self-destructive women, drugs of all soughts, excessive amounts of alcohol and general debauchery shouldn't be things to strive for, it can be alot of fun to read about, especially if the main character survives. But this book isn't only that, of course, because Ron Wood, someone who often happened to be at the right place at the right time, is in the thick of the mid 60's to mid 70's British rock and roll scene, until he tops everything he's done up until that point by joining the Rolling Stones (according to him, he actually could have joined several years earlier) and becomes the BFF of the legendary (for good reasons and bad) Keith Richards. Not only does he get to be a part of the greatest and most enduring rock band the world has ever known, but he can freely indulge in his side projects which include music, art and business ownership -- some more successfully than others. And Ron smiles through it all, even when he's flat broke, and makes one friend after another with a virtual who's who list of rock stars and others on both sides of the Atlantic. On stage, Ron seems like one friendly agreeable guy, and it turns out that's exactly what he is (coupled with the addictions along the way, of course).
While some other celebrity autobiographies might be better written (because a professional is brought in to do the actual writing), "Ronnie" reads just fine, and it's difficult to imagine a more interesting and colorful cast of characters. Even with his trials and tribulations, one can't help but to envy him to a certain degree.
I questioned two of his anecdotes. In the first, Wood says that his agent wanted him to meet three guys who were looking for a guitarist. As he tells the story, he was committed to another band and had to turn down Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham who then went out and recruited Jimmy Page to create Led Zeppelin. A good story -- it's just not true, because it was Page who formed the band, and recruited the other three, after the demise of The Yardbirds. The second questionable anecdote is that, according to Wood, by 1975, The Faces were on the verge of breaking up before Wood joined the Rolling Stones, mainly because Rod Stewart was looking to go solo after the success of "Maggie May." The problem with that is that "Maggie May" became a hit for Rod Stewart four years earlier, well before The Faces split up.
Despite some doubtful memories, perhaps clouded by too many years of drug and alcohol consumption, "Ronnie" is an awful lot of fun and one that any Rolling Stones fan, or just a fan of 60's British rock, will enjoy immensely. I'll have to read the Patty Boyd and Clapton books now.
Book Review: Who's Ronnie?
Summary: 4 Stars
When I started reading RONNIE the only thing I knew about Ronnie Wood was that he played with the Rolling Stones, and I know little about the Stones, so it was fun to challenge Wood to "convince me" he has anything worthwhile to say. Did he convince me? Yes, for the most part. Why?
* Who wouldn't want to learn more about someone whose father was part of a 24-piece harmonica band?
* His descriptions of his drug and alcohol use made me nauseous, so I guess he knows what he's talking about. Note: He says his family has always come first. I don't believe him. It might come first now, but it's unlikely it did when he used to go on several-day binges.
* He provided all illustrations, handwritten headings and quotes, and most of the photos for the book--all beautiful additions. He's a visual artist who took this book seriously.
* He has a lovely understated sense of humor. For example, "One of the benefits of sobriety is how it illuminates the qualities of the incredible people around me. Look at Keith. For the first time in a long time, I really take in what Keith's got to say. Although there are a few pins in his head, there's also a great brain, filled with history and humour. And now I don't forget what he tells me."
* He "thinks" about music. "Right from the Brian Jones days, the Stones always had a very unique style that's built around a kind of delay where Keith plays something on the guitar, Charlie follows on the drums and Bill is slightly behind on the bass. When Brian was playing with them he'd be somewhere in the middle. It combined to create a kind of chugging effect....It takes a lot of concentration because there's a lot of push and pull, but we can surprise each other ...." (Could this push and pull summarize his life?)
It's tough to condense a life into 358 pages; you end up abridging topics that could easily stand alone in separate books. (That's the problem with most autobiographies.) Wood abridges a lot, but that doesn't mean what he wrote wasn't interesting, because it was. He writes about his boyhood, his musical career and the influences on it, his life of "sex, drugs ...", his marriages, his voyages into art, and sobriety...; but I wanted him to go deeper, to be more introspective. He attempts introspection in the last chapter, when he reflects on the writing process, but by then it's too late. Perhaps if he'd started by writing this chapter first?
Ronnie Wood and Stones fans should enjoy this book, as well as readers interested in some behind-the-scenes looks at the life of a rock musician.
Book Review: A Rolling Stone in the David Crosby league
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an excellent tale of Ron Woods rags to riches story, but I was surprised to learn about his long running drug abuse, I didn't know it was in the league of David Crosby, Hendrix et al. He writes very candid about his many mistakes in life, not only the heavy drug abuse, but also his total lack of financial knowledge when it came to his business ventures with clubs in Miami and London. Those enterprises cost him fortunes even to get rid of, but he admits his total lack of nose for business. Well, it served him well in other ways!
He can probably thank his celebrity status that his kids wasn't taken away from him and his wife from the authorities due to simple neglect as a result of their drug abuse. On the brighter side, it seems he came out of it and has been a long and important member of the stones for three decades now.
He doesn't say anything about becomming a full "partner" in Rolling Stones which surprised me, I believed that he became one after the first decade. Did I miss anything? The early stories about The Faces are wonderful and he even hints that a reunion tour is a possibility.
The book has many fine prints of his fine drawings including his life-span drawing which is truly excellent. It's a book that you don't want to put down and once it's read, you feel that you really knows this guy for better and worse.
Book Review: Good But Superficial
Summary: 4 Stars
If you own or have read this book, you are probably a fan and inclined towards Woodie's story and thus this book automatically gets a decent review. It was ghost-written fairly well in that it reads like Woodie speaks and the overall tone sounds like authentic. The emotional tone also comes across as fairly honest. However, the poor editing and failure to check some basic facts, like dates, is annoying. A little bit of third party proof reading would have solved most of those problems. A little technical musical discussion or some guitarspeak would have been in order. The other downside, costing this book its fifth star, is the superficiality of it all. It is written as a bunch of stuff that happens with precious little analysis or comprehension. Yes, that stuff can be painful for a memoirist but it differentiates a good memoir from a great one. This is merely good. It could have been better.