[Les]

I don’t really think of it as a pile of lies. I don't really think of it as a paragon of truth either. But ultimately, I just don't think of it was being particularly good. I didn’t find it all that entertaining either because I’d already read most of it somewhere else. The new little bits didn't redeem it for me. I expected something different, something more, I guess.

In some ways, I would suspect David’s right that the book is more Stephen Davis’ story of the band than Mick’s. Because Davis did so clearly essentially plagiarize whole passages in the book from old magazine articles, and paste them together as he saw fit, that tells me that Mick couldn’t otherwise remember enough to give him too terribly much interesting to say. But if Mick couldn’t do that, it makes it very hard to swallow when Mick is then supposedly recounting actual lines of dialogue word-for-word 5, 10, 15, 20 years after the fact.

Having said that, I would have to assume it was told in the way that Davis presumed Mick wanted to hear it told at the time, since he was ghosting Mick. The general tone of it -- who was put on a pedestal, and who was downplayed, who's stupid moments were highlighted, who's stupid moments were smoothed over much more sympathetically -- ultimately rests on Mick's frame of mind at the time the book was written. Knowing that he was broke, an addict, furious with Lindsey for leaving the band (something he hasn't fully admitted to until much more recently) leaves a lot of room to view his motives and memories with something less than wide-eyed rapture.

That very few in the band seem to embrace the book with anything like fondness leaves me with an uneasy feeling about it. That doesn't say to me that it's worthless, but it does say something. I wouldn't expect Lindsey to have any response to the book other than the one he's had. But funnily enough, I always think of John McVie’s response to the book more than anyone else's. He complained that the book made it seem like the boys were assholes and the girls could do no wrong. Coming from one who Mick describes as a best friend and a brother, that says something to me. It also tells me that John, like a lot of fans, felt that the overall slant and tone left a poor taste in his mouth and it overshadowed most other things about the book.