Mick & Keith: Parallel Lines

by Chris Salewicz

It’s a fair bet that neither Mick Jagger nor Keith Richards will ever get round to writing their autobiographies. Even if they had a mind to, the memory sure isn’t there. Over the years there have been many biographies of both some good, some bad and many biographies of ‘The Stones’ all pretty bad. And then there was Bill Wyman’s... Separately Mick and Keith are fascinating characters, but review their lives side-by-side and we have a biography that reaches critical mass. Chris Salewicz has the perfect background to write the definitive life of the definitive rock and rollers. Steeped in the music business, Chris is a professional journalist and broadcaster who has all the right contacts. Sometime ROLLING STONE & NME journalist, founder member of MTV Europe and author of the best-selling official biography of Bob Marley, Chris has known Keith and Mick on and off since the early 70s.

Genres: Music

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2002

About the author

Chris Salewicz's writing on music and popular culture has appeared in publications around the globe. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer."

Reviews

[S.S. Genesee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful deep dive into the lives of Mick and Keith! This book is very heavily focused on the decade of the 1960s, taking over more than half of the book. There was a good deal of coverage of the early 70s too, but around after 1977 with Keith's Toronto drug bust, the next few decades really flew by in each chapter and were quite condensed until the end of the book, the author only really documenting some important highlights. (This was published in 2002 so the info stops there.)
That being said, I think this was very interesting and insightful to the early days of the Stones, and enjoyed reading it a lot!

[Bethnoir · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read this because I ran out of stuff to read on holiday and it seemed the most entertaining of what was available. Having read Keith's autobiography , Marianne Faithfull's autobiographies and other books on the subject I found this irritatingly opinionated, struggling to appear cool and make the author sound like he was mates with the band. I don't think he was, I don't like his opinions, I admit because I already have my own and the first thing is always the music for me which is not the case here.

So it's okay if you haven't already read around the history of the Stones or listened to much past a greatest hits, but otherwise don't bother.

[Werciax · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jak dla mnie bardzo przeciętna, pochodząca pod słabą... dużo informacji, które moim zdaniem nie były ani interesujące ani zbytnio ważne a miały jedynie za zadanie powiększyć objętość książki.