Review: The Rolling Stones Discover America
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 2, 2014
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.