The Rolling Stones Discover America: Exclusive Inside Story of Their American Tour

This is an extended article from Rolling Stone about the Rolling Stones ill-fated tour of the USA that ended in violence in California. While I liked it I had the feeling that Micael Lydon was making some of the the details up. For example he has University of Colorado in Ft. Collins. The Stones did preform at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, but his small detail is one of many in the article that left me wondering if Lydon was really there. All in all I liked it, but it is not the best writing on the tour out there.

This is a fantastic account of life on the road with the Rolling Stones as they toured America after a three year hiatus in 1969. At the time, the Stones were the ultimate ticket and everybody wanted to see them. If you've ever seen the movie "Gimme Shelter," then you'll recognize this as the same tour which ended with the tragedy at Altamont. Lydon does an excellent job describing the pleasures and the agonies of being on the road with one of the biggest rock acts in the world. I particularly enjoyed Lydon's analysis of what the individual city's fans were like. From glam, pretentious LA to defiant Oakland to crazily energized Detroit. He also does an excellent job describing the constant human circus around the Stones. He explains very early on that access to "the boys" was extremely limited and very controlled by their handlers. One of the problems with access becomes clear around halfway through the book; although Lydon was invited to travel with the band, he is clearly an outsider and subsequently his contact with the actual band members was as limited as everyone else outside their inner ring. There is some cool info about the band, but most of it is observations from a distance as opposed to actual personal interviews or discussions. That's not so bad though because it sort of placed him between the Stones and their adoring audience which definitely gave him a unique perspective on what was going on. This is a fun read if you are a fan of good times rock and roll in an era just before the corporations took control and rock concerts became stadium spectacles. It is also a great document of one last wild fling of the 60's before the Hell's Angels brought down the curtain on the community born of the Summer of Love.

A bird's eye view of the madness and chaos that culminated in the Stones' 69 tour of America, capturing them at the height of their touring and recording history. After Altamont, the great fault line in the Stones career, nothing would ever be the same for the band again. Never again would they cede such control of their affairs to others, Jagger in particular, and, arguably, never again would they make or perfom such truly great music. Lydon had an embedded access to the band in a way on the '69 tour that is hard to imagine in the tightly controlled image management modern media and writes with a candour and energy that both represents the innocence and idealism of its times. The unique characters of each band member emerge from his penetrating, perceptive prose. Jagger the arch ringmaster of the motley circus careening around him, endlessly non-expansive. Keith, the camp vamp, baby, the one most committed to the music and the fans. Charlie, doleful, dutiful, but never doltish, the true honest heartbeat of the band. Bill, quietly English and so detached from the melee as to be almost absent from proceedings. And Mick Taylor, the new boy, warily watchful in the way new boys have to be. Around and surrounding them at all times are the band personnel and assorted hangers-on that somehow seem necessary to the tour and give it its seedy, sinister glamour. Sam Cutler. John Jaymes. Ronnie Schneider. All emerge as memorable, if not always likeable, characters. It all ended in tears, violence and confusion amidst the mud and mayhem of Altamont, a tattered, bloodied finale to a tour that by every other measure was a triumph of music, showmanship and the Stones own unique brand of dirt glamour. For those who were there and bore living witness to their success, and for the impossible band that will not fade away, The Rolling Stones Discover America is both a tribute and a timepiece that is well worth the price and time to read.

Michael Lydon's breezy overview of The Rolling Stones 1969 "comeback" tour of America was exactly that. A breezy overview. There is little to recommend here apart from the excellent first chapter. It seems as if a dot point list of book ideas has had the dots removed, been tarted up & released for consumption. Characters glide in and out of the text like wraiths & have about as much body as well. The terrible culmination of the tour, the death of Merideth Hunter was similarly glossed over. It is an easy read, purely by virtue of its lack of substance & depth. Is this because the subject matter has been so thoroughly examined before - in which case why bother if there is nothing new to contribute. Or is it that this format has not allowed some great ideas to develop - in which case spend the time & write the book The sad thing, is The Rolling Stones Discover America started off with great promise. The fresh analysis of the times from this point in history gives a greater understanding of what motivated the tour to begin with & left me wanting more. It was a great introduction to a more in depth examination of this pivotal event in popular culture, which I hope is forthcoming. I 'get' Kindle Singles & understand that they are not entire books & my expectations have been adjusted accordingly. However, sometimes in life less can be more. In the case of The Rolling Stones Discover America - less was less

The book is too short and too choppy. It does contain some interesting stories though. It would seem that someone who accompanied the band with the intention of writing about the tour should have had more to say.

Author of this short ebook, Michael Lydon, was a founding editor of Rolling Stone, as well as being a playwright, journalist and writing many books on music. In the later years of the Sixties, the ‘Big Three’ (Beatles, Stones and Dylan) had given up touring. However, by 1969, the Rolling Stones were ready to go back on the road and Lydon accompanied them on tour. This, then, is the story of a US tour, which culminated in the stabbing of an eighteen year old fan, Meredith Hunter, in Altamont – murdered by Hells Angels. The whole tour reads like an unorganised and disjointed affair; cars don’t turn up, equipment is delivered to the wrong places and there are often unexplained delays. The Stones houses are described as a sort of ‘temporary Versailles’, full of supplicants. Meanwhile, those around the band both resent the fame of the Stones and are yet tarnished by being out of the inner sanctum. “We all seemed beyond the law,” muses the author, of those days of drugs, politics and endless music festivals – when the Sixties came to a close in violence and upheaval. This is a fascinating account of the end of an era and perhaps partially explains why music festivals gave way to the big business stadium rock shows of the Seventies.

I have to be honest that I write this on the basis that I am not a Stones fan and after reading the book I am still not! I don't know if the writer was paid by the Stones or how much editing was done by them before publication but I expected a lot more. This was a defining tour in many ways culminating in the murder of a fan and it was given very little attention. What comes through is the supreme arrogence of the band and their team and their almost complete disconnection from the fans who put them where they are. What came through to me [or maybe what the writer was allowed to publish] was a business machine run by Mick Jagger, efficient and ruthless. What I had hoped for was more rock and roll.....