Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock 'n Roll Band

From School Library Journal YA-- Wyman, bass player for the Rolling Stones, leaves no word unturned in this comprehensive, readable, witty account of the group from its beginnings as a struggling rhythm-and-blues band in 1962 to its superstar status and the death of founder and lead guitarist Brian Jones in 1969. With the help of veteran rock journalist Coleman, Wyman turns his exhaustive diary and other files into this well-written tome on the band and the London music scene of the '60s. While the book contains a wealth of material and information, it offers few startling insights into the Stones as a group or individually. However, Stone Alone will certainly gather no moss on most library shelves. - John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal As "the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" lurches into its fourth decade, it seems improbable that any Stone remains unturned by publishers eager for biographies and histories. Contributing to the growing Rolling Stones bibliography is A. E. Hotchner's recently published Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties ( LJ 10/15/90), and now the group's first autobiographical account by Wyman, bass player with the group since 1962. The Stones and the Sixties have almost become synonymous, and it is on this period--from the band's beginnings in small jazz clubs to the Hyde Park concert in July 1969 two days after Brian Jones's death--that Wyman concentrates. The early struggles, riotous concerts, musicianship, ever-shifting group dynamics, financial irregularities with manager Allen Klein, innumerable problems and triumphs of Jones, drug busts, and romantic involvements and relationships are all chronicled in great detail. That Wyman, at once observer and participant in this musical and cultural maelstrom, has been a prodigious diarist is both the strength and weakness of his book. His story is often significant, as in his disclosure that Jones may have been an epileptic, but also tedious in the and-then-we-did-this approach he often employs. Essential for all Stones fans and libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/90. - Barry Miller, Austin P.L., Tex. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.