Counting Down the Rolling Stones - by Jim Beviglia (Hardcover)

About the Book

No band has ever been able to demonstrate the enduring power of rock and roll quite like The Rolling Stones, who continue to enthrall, provoke, and invigorate their legions of fans more than fifty years since they began. In Counting Down the Rolling Stones: Their Finest 100 So...

Book Synopsis

No band has ever been able to demonstrate the enduring power of rock and roll quite like The Rolling Stones, who continue to enthrall, provoke, and invigorate their legions of fans more than fifty years since they began. In Counting Down the Rolling Stones: Their Finest 100 Songs, rock writer Jim Beviglia dares to rank the band's finest songs in descending order from the 100th to their number 1 greatest song. Counting Down the Rolling Stones is the perfect playlist builder, whether it is for the diehard fan or the newbie just getting acquainted with the work of Mick, Keith, and the boys!

Review Quotes

[Counting Down the Rolling Stones: Their 100 Finest Songs is]a pretty fascinating book that provides a detailed look at the music of The Rolling Stones, the Energizer Bunny of a rock band that recently surpassed 50 years together and is still selling out arenas worldwide . . . [It] is a simple but effective concept created by music writer Jim Beviglia. In it, he selects his personal Top 100 Stones songs and presents insider information, gleaned from the library of books and magazine articles written about the bad boys of rock and roll, in short essays about the making of and public reaction to each song. . . . Part of the fun -- and, let's be frank, snobbery -- of being a music lover is debating the merits of artists' works, those we both revere and revile. That's what makes Counting Down the Rolling Stones so entertaining. None of us regular folks will get paid for it or be asked to author a book, but we can easily fit ourselves into Beviglia's shoes.

[T]he real meat of the book is the author's extremely insightful reasoning for his choices. In addition, even serious Stones fans are likely to learn some history about the composition of the songs, their evolution in the studio, the contexts of their production, and the contributions of all the performers, both the Stones themselves and guest musicians and producers. Beviglia's research is impressive. That memoir included anecdotes that might have added some insights, such as Keith Richards singing 'You Got the Silver' because Johns erased a track he shouldn't have, Jagger wasn't around, so Richards filled in. So Keith Richards first lead vocal was the result of an accident. But Counting Down isn't intended to be a reference book giving readers the definitive production history of the Stones canon, but rather a critical overview of why so many songs still deserve our appreciation to lesser and greater degrees. Now, Beviglia really has only one place to go. He's done Dylan, Springsteen, the Stones--who else has 100 songs to rank? Well, The Beatles, of course, especially if you mix in the solo works with the band's fab career. Who else has that much of a catalogue, at least in rock history? Till then, the Stones are more than worthy of this new exploration, and rock fans who read have a treat to enjoy this year.

After fascinating and insightful looks at the songs of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, music writer Beviglia provides a strong look at the 100 finest songs of the Rolling Stones. Beviglia unearths 'numerous surprises and musical gems' that he hadn't previously heard--which makes for much of the book's appeal. His look at the relatively overlooked song 'Tops, ' from 1981, listed at #87, is an excellent description of how the song's musical 'veering back and forth between the playfulness of the verses and the refrains' mirrors the 'push and pull' of Mick Jagger's provocative lyrical role playing. But listing 'Honky Tonk Women'--one of the Stones' most famous and memorable songs--at #46 is bound to strike even halfhearted Stones listeners as odd, even if he does justifiably list 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' at #1. Still, regardless of his rankings, Beviglia's writing will inspire readers to turn up the volume.

If you are a fan of radio's countdown shows, like the iconic one done by the late Casey Kasem, you will love Jim Beviglia's latest book offering, Counting Down The Rolling Stones: Their 100 Finest Songs. This volume is a very detailed effort to chronicle the 100 best musical efforts of The Rolling Stones, with insightful commentary, review and analysis provided by an author who is one of the leading journalists of the American music industry. We were surprised that 'Satisfaction', our favorite TRS tune, didn't make it into Beviglia's top 10 list (it was number 11), but reading about the background and creative process involved in 100 of the Stone's iconic songs certainly gave us a deeper appreciation of their longevity in the music business.

The third in Beviglia's Counting Down series (after books about Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen) enumerates the Rolling Stones' 100 best songs, as determined by the author. It's a book for hard-core Stones fans, especially those with a fairly extensive knowledge of music. For each song, the author tells us which album it's from, comments on the themes and writing of the song, and provides a capsule analysis of the musical performance. As with all lists of 'bests, ' the point here is for readers to make their own lists, disagreeing with gusto. Still, Beviglia includes lots of the Stones' classics ('Jumpin' Jack Flash, ' 'Gimme Shelter, ' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, ' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want, ' and 'Get Off of My Cloud, ' among them), but the order in which they appear is sure to spark debate (as will the author's choice for number 100). . . .[D]efinitely a must for devoted Stones fans, who come in all ages.

About the Author

Jim Beviglia is a feature writer for American Songwriter magazine, reviewing new albums and looking back at classic songwriters and songs for both the print and online editions. This is his third book in the Counting Down series. He is the author of Counting Down Bob Dylan: His 100 Finest Songs (Scarecrow Press, 2013) and Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). Beviglia maintains a blog at countdownkid.wordpress.com, where he delves deep into the musical libraries of rock's finest artists.