'The Rolling Stones: Fifty Years' is a solid and conventional biography

"Rolling Stones: Fifty Years" by Christopher Sandford

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Simon & Schuster

This review is part of a series of reviews of Rolling Stones books that have a 50th anniversary theme.
Any Rolling Stones biography that is published after Keith Richards' 2010 memoir "Life" will have the benefit of "Life" as a valuable resource. That certainly seems to be the case with "Rolling Stones: Fifty Years" (written by Christopher Sandford and published in April 2012), because the book includes a lot of facts and anecdotes that were in Richards' highly acclaimed, best-selling memoir "Life." (Sandford gives proper attribution of the quotes and anecdotes.) Richards' memoir is the only one written by an original member of the Rolling Stones that covers the band's entire history up to the year of the book's publication, so it's a treasure trove of information that wasn't in previous Rolling Stones biographies. (Bill Wyman's 1990 autobiography "Stone Alone" tells his version of the Stones' history until the year 1969.)
"Rolling Stones: Fifty Years" tells the band's story in chronological order and has a helpful index at the back. Sandford has a dry and sarcastic sense of humor in his writing that makes it clear that "Rolling Stones: Fifty Years" is not a biography that goes overboard on hero worshipping.
The author also makes some arguable statements in the book, such as his opinion that Mick Jagger's 1987 solo album "Primitive Cool" is "the best album featuring Jagger since 'Exile on Main Street.'" Many fans and critics would strongly disagree with that assertion.
And curiously, even though Sandford often quotes and uses anecdotes from Richards' "Life," he chose to ignore Richards' own account of how he wrote the Rolling Stones' 1973 classic "Angie." In "Life," Richards clearly said that he did not write the song about anyone in particular, and the song's title was a name that he randomly chose.
Over the years, books and articles written about the Rolling Stones have given contradictory stories about the song, by saying that "Angie" was written about Angela Bowie (David Bowie's first wife), Anita Pallenberg (the mother of Richards' eldest children) or Angela Richards (Keith Richards' eldest daughter whose birth name was Dandelion). In "Rolling Stones: Fifty Years," Sandford say that Keith Richards "came up with the words and music of 'Angie' in his daughter's honor."
The 1969 death of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones (who was found dead in his swimming pool) is another part of Rolling Stones history that has had many contradictory stories about it. A Rolling Stones biography will say that the cause of death was by one of of these four things: (1) an accident, which was the official coroner's ruling; (2) pre-meditated murder; (3) manslaughter; or (4) something that will never been known.
Sandford adamantly states that Jones' death was an accident, and that it's a myth that Jones' house renovator Frank Thorogood confessed on his death bed that he killed Jones. For most people who believe that Jones was killed, Thorogood has been named as the most likely one to have done it. Sandford believes that Thorogood was completely innocent and that any suspicion about Thorogood's role in Jones' death is completely incorrect. According to Sandford, even though Jones was known to be an excellent swimmer, Jones was in failing health due to his drug/alcohol abuse, and that's why he accidentally drowned. In "Life," Richards says he doesn't know what caused Jones' death, and he doubts that he'll ever know for sure.
As with most Stones biographies, most of the content of "Rolling Stones: Fifty Years" is about the band's history in the 1960s and 1970s. The 1980s and 1990s are written almost like less-interesting footnotes, except when chronicling the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards feud in the 1980s. And the 21st century is quickly breezed through in a relatively small number of pages.
People who have read most if not all the Rolling Stones biographies that have come along over the years won't find out anything new in reading "Rolling Stones: Fifty Years." But for anyone who wants to read a more updated Rolling Stones biography than Stephen Davis' 2001 book "Old Gods Almost Dead," then "Rolling Stones: Fifty Years" is a good place to start. However, Richards' "Life" is a more entertaining and more definitive book that chronicles the Rolling Stones' history through the 21st century. Any Rolling Stones biography that's published after "Life" has a hard act to follow.