Rating: 
Summary: MIXED EMOTIONS
Review: Really fun to read, but written with no distance at all from its subject. Bockris presents wife-bashing, money loosing and heroin dependency with the same loosenes as his unbeatable talent as a composer. Good gossip and great quotes from Keef, but I missed information about his views upon his contemporaries (few Beatles references and no Kinks or Who quotes at all).
Rating: 
Summary: The Longest Book My Mother Has Ever Read
Review: This book is the definitive biography of the greatest rock guitarist/philosopher of all time. Bockris, as usual, is sensitive, brilliant, and insightful in dealing with one of the most mysterious musicians to ever play rock, Keith Richards. Because the book probes not only his public life but also his private life, this book is as close as most people will ever get to understanding rock and roll's greatest enigma. Essential reading for Keef junkies (and I choose my words carefully!).
Rating:
Summary: Rock on Keith!
Review: This book, a great writing by Victor Bockris, is as raw and great as Keith Richards' early Stones recordings. Anyone who is any kind of stones fan should read it. Bockris shows a talent in not only interviewing artists, but in putting their rock star attitude to the paper. When one finds out over the course of the book kow great Richards' musical genius is, they will buy at least one Stones album as a result. This is the definitve story of Keith's life and times as the World's Most Elegantly Wasted Human Being.
Rating:
Summary: Rock on Keith!
Review: This book, a great writing by Victor Bockris, is as raw and great as Keith Richards' early Stones recordings. Anyone who is any kind of stones fan should read it. Bockris shows a talent in not only interviewing artists, but in putting their rock star attitude to the paper. When one finds out over the course of the book kow great Richards' musical genius is, they will buy at least one Stones album as a result. This is the definitve story of Keith's life and times as the World's Most Elegantly Wasted Human Being.
Rating:
Summary: A must for any Keithaholic
Review: This is a great book about a great musician. Bockris gives us the insight of the leader of the "Greatest Rock&Roll Band" We get to see Keith's rise from a poor childhood to the top a his profession. Getting to the top was a road filled with many obstacles the Keith had to side step. From his almost decade long stuggle with drugs and the law, to his constant feuding with Jagger, we get the insight of what makes Keith tick. The only draw back is that Bockris paints a to pretty picture of the ugly side of Keith. His battles with drugs and the law seem almost romantic to Bockris. This one draw back aside, it is a well written biography about the man who gave us the soundtrack of our times
Rating:
Summary: Conflicted but good
Review: Victor Bockris appears to be, to some degree, the king of the classic rock biographies. In this book, he turns his eye toward Rolling Stone Keith Richards, and his tumultuous life in and out of the band, as well as those around him like Anita Pallenberg and Mick Jagger.Merely as a biography, this is pretty good. Bockris intersperses the ordinary biographical info with appropriate quotes from Keith, Anita, Mick, and many other people. He accentuates the good and the bad in Keith, the stuff about him that even he didn't know, and his attitude toward the public, his son, his wife, and so on. And some parts of it don't really seem to work. For example, the information on Anita talks about how brilliant and strong she was, and emphasizes that she could have handled Brian Jones on her own. But she kept getting hit by Brian, and later Keith; she doesn't seem to have been able to handle it. And intellectually, her quotes include things like, "She was really, like, totally self-obsessed." Really totally? Maybe it was the heroin. And Bockris seems a little enamored of Keith's time as a junkie, because we hear a lot more about that side of his life than any other part of it. The photos are definitely a disappointment. There is one per chapter, and usually it's a rather dull shot of Keith looking pensive, or just walking, or sitting, or signing things, or something of the sort. There are a couple of Anita or Mick, but not of many other people (for example, where is Marianne Faithfull? Bianca Jagger? Marlon? Dandelion?). As a result it's slightly difficult to form a clear picture of some of the interactions. "Keith Richards: The Biography" is a pretty good rock-star bio, focusing more on the life of the subject than what the groupies said about him. Certainly for fans of the Rolling Stones and classic rock.
Rating:
Summary: A great book about an extraordinary man
Review: You don't have to be a Keith Richards fan to thoroughly enjoy this book. Like him or not, he's one of rock & roll's most fascinating characters and, as such, his life story makes for a damn good read. Although Bockris does tend to romanticize some of Richards' darker (i.e. violent and/or self-destructive) moments, he unflinchingly explores all aspects of the legendary musician's personality. Don't expect much in the way of pictures, however. Only one photo is featured per chapter and it's a shame because Richards is as interesting to see as he is to read about.
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