Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones

by Stephen Davis

The acclaimed, bestselling rock-and-roll biographer delivers the first complete, unexpurgated history of the world’s greatest band.

The saga of the Rolling Stones is the central epic in rock mythology. From their debut as the intermission band at London’s Marquee Club in 1962 through their latest record—setting Bridges to Babylon world tour, the Rolling Stones have defined a musical genre and experienced godlike adulation, quarrels, addiction, legal traumas, and descents into madness and death_while steadfastly refusing to fade away. Now Stephen Davis, the New York Times bestselling author of Hammer of the Gods and Walk This Way, who has followed the Stones for three decades, presents their whole story, replete with vivid details of the Stones’ musical successes_and personal excesses.

Born into the wartime England of air-raid sirens, bombing raids, and strict rationing, the Rolling Stones came of age in the 1950s, as American blues and pop arrived in Europe. Among London’s most ardent blues fans in the early 1960s was a short blond teenage guitar player named Brian Jones, who hooked up with a lorry driver’s only son, Charlie Watts, a jazz drummer. At the same time, popular and studious Michael Philip Jagger–who, as a boy, bawled out a phonetic version of “La Bamba” with an eye-popping intensity that scared his parents–began sharing blues records with a primary school classmate, Keith “Ricky” Richards, a shy underachiever, whose idol was Chuck Berry. In 1962 the four young men, joined by Bill Perks (later Wyman) on bass, formed a band rhythm and blues band, which Brian Jones named the “the Rollin’ Stones” in honor of the Muddy Waters blues classic.

Using the biography of the Rolling Stones as a narrative spine, Old God Almost Dead builds a new, multilayered version of the Stones’ story, locating the band beyond the musical world they dominated and showing how they influenced, and were influenced by, the other artistic movements of their era: the blues revival, Swinging London, the Beats, Bob Dylan’s Stones-inspired shift from protest to pop, Pop Art and Andy Warhol’s New York, the “Underground” politics of the 1960s, Moroccan energy and European orientalism, Jamaican reggae, the Glam and Punk subcultures, and the technologic advances of the video and digital revolution. At the same time, Old Gods Almost Dead documents the intense backstage lives of the Stones: the feuds, the drugs, the marriages, and the affairs that inspired and informed their songs; and the business of making records and putting on shows.

The first new biography of the Rolling Stones since the early 1980s, Old Gods Almost Dead is the most comprehensive book to date, and one of the few to cover all the band’s members. Illustrated throughout with photos of pivotal moments, it is a celebration of the Rolling Stones as an often courageous, often foolish gang of artists who not only showed us new worlds, but new ways of living in them. It is a saga as raunchily, vibrantly entertaining as the Stones themselves.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Rock N Roll, History, Biography Memoir

624 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Stephen Davis is is a rock journalist and biographer, having written numerous bestsellers on rock bands, including the smash hit Hammer of the Gods. He lives in Boston.

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Tom Gase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Davis is a hit-or-miss type writer for me where some of his books are very, very good and some are pretty terrible. Thankfully, this one was one of his best, probably his best besides Hammer of the Gods.
Old Gods Almost Dead is a biography on the Rolling Stones, one of the best, if not the best, bands of all time. Davis spends a lot of time on the Stones' earlier years especially from 1962 to 1975, which is what I wanted to know about. I wanted to know some little things about the Stones in the 80's and 90's like why Bill Wyman left and the making of Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge, which was the first Stones' album I ever bought, but thankfully Davis doesn't spend too much time on it. The book does a good job of putting you in a mood to listen to the Stones and for a week that was all that was in my CD player, so be prepared to listen to some good music while reading this book. It will make the read more enjoyable.
The one problem I have with Davis is sometimes I just don't trust him. He gets facts wrong and I have to wonder if it was a certain honest mistake anyone could make or if the entire book is wrong. For example he says the last two great rock albums came out in 1990 being Aerosmith's Pump and U2's Actung Baby. But Pump came out in 1989 and Actung came out in 1991. So he's wrong twice in one sentence. Little things like this seem to happen in a lot of his books, so I wonder about his research sometimes. The book is written pretty well, and I think most Stones' fans will like it. I know I did. Well done Mr. Davis.

[Bolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like The Stones but I only have a casual relationship with them. I don't own many of their records and haven't read masses of books or articles about them but I do have a deep respect for them and find them interesting. Bearing this in mind, I found this book to be well written, informative and it kept my interest throughout. However, a number of subjects are covered rather lightly, even for a novice like myself. Information has been gathered from a number of sources but most of it is second-hand which isn't a problem for me but would be for a more hardcore fan who probably knows all this anyway. Despite these flaws, I found this to be an enjoyable read but this probably isn't for Stones' obsessives.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professional music critics usually drain the life out of their subjects, but in this case Davis does a good job covering the entire career of the Rolling Stones. Many biographies on this subject tend to peter out after the death of Brian Jones and the Altamont concert, but Davis covers the last few decades very well. With the changes in musical tastes of the 1980's, Mick Jagger wanted a more "modern" sound, while Keith Richards wanted to stay close to the band's roots. It led to solo recordings and disagreement for a while.

For a general biography of the band, this one is a good starting point.

[Alberto Berroterán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una excelente biografía. Bastante exhaustiva y bien contada. Ofrece información interesante sobre los inicios del rock británico, esto es, la transición del rock y el blues como música de guetto negro al mainstream mundial. Totalmente recomendado para fanáticos de los Stones y rockers en general.

[Mateo Gil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro muy completo y extenso, de aquellos que lees y lees y sientes que no avanzas, a pesar de lo entretenido de la biografía de esta banda icónica.
Llena de anécdotas, curiosidades y un recorrido musical desde sus orígenes hasta la época del 2000, esta es una biografía completa de la agrupación más longeva del mundo.
Su punto bajo a mi parecer es el marcado favoritismo del autor y su traductor hacia la banda, que dejan de lado algunos aspectos objetivos y en ocasiones saturan la narración de adjetivos superfluos al momento de describir a la banda o alguna de sus composiciones.
Por lo demás una lectura muy agradable.

[Jademex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is hair-raising hilarity coupled with severely dark inequities. Often caught myself reading just a page and putting the book down. I usually graze through two or three books at a time. This one took my full attention for 16 days and gave me a sense of wanderlust I haven't experienced in several years. No spoilers here but for anyone else who's familiar with Stephen Davis' work; he's at the top of his form with this "masked as biography" commentary on social issues and our culture as a whole. Bravo!

[Jonny Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book, you learned about everyones background even Bryon Jones's. What type of music each member really liked to play, what they really thought about Mick Taylor and Ron Wood, and what they REALLY thought about Mr. Jones's death, to who slept with who while they were "married" to other people.

[Luis Del Aguila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo leí hace varios años pero me salté algunos parrafos que me parecian innecesarios, pero la informacion es en su mayor parte relevante para contar la historia de los Stones y creo que es la mejor biografía de rock que he leído hasta ahora.

[Hella Bella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new here about the world's greatest rock and roll band. Philip Norman's MICK JAGGER is much more detailed and thoughtful.

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was quite detailed up until the late 70's. Though, one of my pet peeves was the author's insistence (in the early portion of the book) of using lyrics to pepper some of the stories, e.g.: 'Marianne Faithful turned to Mick and smiled sweetly and said, 'don't worry.'' (Lyrics from 'She Smiled Sweetly). That irritated me to no end, because it seemed like the author was taking these flowery liberties. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved how Keith told Babyface off, 'After working with Mick, you won't be Babyface anymore, you'll be Fuckface!" I now anticipate Keith's autobiography.
Least favorite passage: "By 1992, the rock music movement was almost finished. The beginnings of Brit-pop, the riff-banging of heroin-fueled Seattle grunge, and the radical murder music of the rappers took over a new generation that had never known a world without the Stones. U2's 'Achtung Baby' and Aerosmith's 'Pump,' can arguably be called the last great rock albums."

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Davis's "Old Gods Almost Dead" is a terrific chronicle of the Stones' inception through their Bridges to Babylon tour in the late 1990s.

This book led me from a being casual Rolling Stones fan to appreciating their sizable catalog. The book explained the influence of Brian Jones in the group. Probably due to his early exit, I knew only of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the leaders of the group. Piano player Ian Stewart's contribution is covered as well.

Band members often had some surprisingly funny quips through the years, including Keith after a less-than-ideal meeting with Chuck Berry.

I hope Davis will do a subsequent edition updating with band history from the past decade, including their well-received "A Bigger Bang" album and tour and the successful Martin-Scorsese-helmed "Shine a Light" film.

[Caio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Davis did a good job, rich in detail and confirmed no bit is made up sensasionalistic bullshit by using endless quotes from interviews with each of the Stones and the other people involved in each episode. Besides telling everything you could possibly want to know about the Stones' career up until the point the book was written, it includes a pretty good description of the dawn of British blues in the beginning. Incomparably better than Tony Shanchez's book, which is the only other book on the Stones I've read so far, even if Davis is an outsider.
I just won't give it 5 stars because it's not a life changing book (nor meant to be), but it totally fulfills the promise.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two-thirds are very entertaining and informative, quite a few things I didn't know, and the middle parts should be familiar to anyone who has seen "Gimme Shelter" or "C***s***er Blues". However, the last third is a bit "People Magazine"-ish, marriages and money problems as well as bad music. Still, lots of great dish from Marianne and Anita and Stu. Not earth-shaking, but a good look at part of what makes the Stones tick, without too much "poor Brian" hand wringing or anti-drug sermons ( see "Blown Away", much more informative but VERY preachy ).

[Susan Barnaby · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first third of this book is great. Maybe even the first half. But like the band itself, it becomes only intermittently interesting after the Altamont tale is told. OK OK OK there were a couple of super-high notes in their career, yes yes. I agree. But the story thins out. Read it because you love the Stones and you've got some reading time.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compared to other Rock figures like Jim Morrison Chuck Negron, Kurt Cobain and Nikki Sixx, The Rolling Stones are lame. The most "Rock and Roll" type thing they did was repeatedly sleep with each others wives. I mean, after the 20th time that happens you want to burn this book. Maybe they just couldn't remember their good stories.

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most authoritative biography ever written on the Stones. It's a very interesting read, especially the parts involving Brian Jones, who co-founded the Stones in 1962 and later drowned under mysterious circumstances in 1969. I never realized the Stone's lyrics were so raunchy. I never read a book before that used the word "cunnilingus" so often.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now know so much more than I ever dreamed I could about the Rolling Stones. Stephen Davis is an incredible researcher. I was not a fan of the song-by-song descriptions of every album released, but that's just probably because I don't own or remember most of these albums. But I certainly want to build our LP collection up with Stones now. Goodness.

Want to reread

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive history of the Rolling Stones. Well written, and full of great anecdotes and Stones trivia.

While reading the book I listened to the Rolling Stones discography as if it were a soundtrack to the book. Great fun.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like the Stones or reading about the begining of the British invasion this book is riveting! These folks are just the most... I don't know what other word to use than blessed. Their lives are magic.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

good detail

slow read

I put this book aside nine years ago partially read. When they closed all of the libraries due to the China virus I found this in my "Doomsday Box" of garage sale books and finally enjoyed the rest of it.

[Glorianne Roccanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading 40 years when their celebrating their 50th...fucking bravo....I love the stones.....and everybook I read about them I learn something else.....I have even had to correct information....I liked this book cuz it was dishy...I love all the different point of views.....

[Jim Cheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tad too pleased with its own rock 'n' rollishness. An entertaining read although it contains little that diehards don't already know. Or those who read Keith's "Life." The brief rundowns of tracks on various albums are useful and sometimes illuminating.

[Alex Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for research. Kind of made me detest the stones (not their music, but the men themselves), but it was a damn good read.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps the best rock and roll biography I have ever read. The book was detailed, informative, and written in a style that made the pages seem to fly by. A very enjoyable read.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obsessed on this book for the past two weeks. A fabulously entertaining, enlightening, and educational romp through four decades of rock history, avant garde culture, and pop drama. Loved it.

[Kirk Bower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best stones' bio I have read to date.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!!!!

[Chad Parsons]

Loved every minute of it. The book was a great mix of juicy stories, without being too crude. My love for this amazing band only grew stronger with this read.

[Aditya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The segues required in a book of this magnitude which are full of insight aren't enough. They happen too rarely. And so this ends up being a fairly surface level book.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good