Every year, the number of books about rock artists is increasingperhaps due to the absence of specialized magazines or perhaps simply due to the long history that exceeds sixty years, each with countless cult or enormously popular groups and soloists.
At this point it seems like everyone has had a job, be it autobiographical or an investigation with data and anecdotes. The pool is inexhaustible, but without a doubt there are a handful of characters about whom everything imaginable has already been written: the Beatles and Rolling stones.
However, The Argentine collector and music lover Diego Perri has rediscovered a trend that no one had tackled: recounts the activity of each of the Rolling Stones when they were not recording or playing with the band called since 1969 as The greatest rock and roll band in the world.
Diego Perri with his brand new book published in Switzerland, “Stones outside the stones”. Photo: Ariel Grinberg The result is Stones from stones, a true encyclopedia of 558 color pagesfull of photos and album covers, which is destined to become a cult book (it is a limited edition of 300 copies) and which deserves to have an English version so as not to miss out on such a large fan market.
What is unusual about the work is that it was published by an independent Swiss publishing house called Zorn Records, led by Robert Bindon, an Argentinian born in Banfield and long resident in Lausanne.
Foreword by Bill Wyman
Stones from stones can afford the luxury of entrusting Bill Wyman himself to the prologue, or as Perri prefers to say, the prelude.
Bill Wyman with Diego Perri, author of the books “Stone Republic” and “Stones outside of Stones”.He was the only Stone that Perri didn’t know personally since he left the band in 1993. But I saw it last year at a presentation in Londongave him his previous book (Stone Republicof the group’s visits to Argentina) and told him about it.
“This work that Diego has created – writes the bassist – is a huge project and I can only congratulate you on your excellent attention to detail.. “This story of the Stones and their solo careers is sure to be enjoyed by every Stones fan around the world.”
The structure of the book is impeccable: there is the whole (all!) chronology of the parallel lives of the Rolling Stones musicians, ordered year by year. Furthermore, there are two fixed sections in each chapter: Stoneology with the activity of the parent group, e The living stoneswith a rigorous evaluation of each season’s recitals.
A significant detail is that each decade has a different color, and at the end of each decade there are the statistics of those years: number of collaborations and number of shows. And at the end of the book the totals.
Years of work
“The book was already ready in 2019”, says Diego Perri. “But it was a very complicated period when there was no ink or paper and the quotes were valid for 24 hours. But there is no silver lining, because the delay in finalization allowed two things.”
And he lists: “One, that I could go to London, meet Bill and make this prelude. On the other hand, we arrive at exactly 60 years from the first collaboration, which was in 1963, with Keith Richards playing percussion on a George Fagiolo single “.
The Rolling Stones in 1964: Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Brian Jones. Photo: Reuters-The track list is huge. I suppose it was necessary to limit ourselves to the official editions, to avoid entering the world of pirated recordings.
-Yes. Recordings that have seen advertising in physical formats, such as vinyl cassettes and CDs. Of course there are a few quirks of the author that I thought deserved to be included. Later I even regretted not including more.
-How did the idea of writing this book come about?
-In 2013 I felt the joy of seeing my first book published, but almost immediately I felt empty. There I started looking through my library, where I have more than 800 books about the Stones, and it caught my attention that there was none dedicated to at least their solo career, much less all of this together .
I started by writing down all the productions, authorships, co-authorships and collaborations in my own hand in a notebook. In 2015 I started putting it on the computer.
-The million dollar question. I want to assume that you have heard or have everything that is mentioned.
-I listened to 99% and 100%. The hardest thing to find are a couple of singles, for example one by Mike Taylor which I look for every day on eBay. The collector never lowers his arms, he never rests! (laughs).
some oddities
-Which Argentine musicians appear? Paranoid Mice recorded with Mick Taylor.
-Yes, it’s the only thing there is. There are two songs on the album Made in Memphis. Other musicians who were satellites of the Stones recorded with Argentinians, such as Jimmy Rip and Bernard Fowler.
The Rolling Stones, when there were three of them left: Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. press photo-What do you think are the strangest collaborations?
-I was really struck by one from ’92 by Charlie Watts on a tribute album to Sidney Bechel, legendary jazz musician. He plays on two songs and in one of them he sings, or rather talks about the end of a song. Something unusual, because Charlie never sang.
There are famous collaborations like Jagger with Michael Jackson, but then there are an infinite number of things that have not had much meaning or diffusion, there are many things with electronics, some very interesting and others inexplicable, unless they are friends .
-Are there already plans for an English edition?
-The question of translation would be an excellent target. That’s the idea and we’re looking at the issue of publishing and distribution. That would be the big icing on the cake, because there’s a much bigger audience.
Source: Clarin
