Mick Jagger - Softcover

Norman, Philip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007329512 ISBN 13: 9780007329519

Publisher: Harper, 2013

Synopsis

A miracle of still-plentiful hair, raw sex-appeal, and strutting talent . The frontman of one of the most influential and controversial groups of all time. A musical genius with a career spanning over four decades. He is a testament to British glamour, the ultimate architect and demi-god of rock.

Bestselling biographer Philip Norman offers an unparalleled account of the life of a living legend, Mick Jagger. From Home Counties schoolboy, to rebel without a cause to Sixties rock sensation and global idol, Norman unravels with astonishing intimacy the myth of the inimitable frontman of The Rolling Stones. MICK JAGGER charts his extraordinary journey through scandal-ridden conspiracy, infamous prison spell, hordes of female admirers and a knighthood while stripping away the colossal fame, wealth and idolatry to reveal a story of talent and promise unfulfilled.

Understated yet ostentatious; the ultimate incarnation of modern man's favourite fantasy: 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll', yet blessed with taste and intelligence; a social chameleon who couldn't blend in if he tried; always moving with the Jagger swagger yet modest enough to be self-deprecating, Mick was a paradoxical energy that reconfigured the musical landscape.

This revelatory tour de force is ample tribute to a flawed genius, a Casanova, an Antichrist and a god who, with characteristic nonchalance realised the dreams of thousands of current contenders and rocker pretenders, longevity, while coasting on a sea of fur rugs.

About this title

Review:

‘Commendable thoroughness, engaging wit and boundless energy, much as Jagger has shown over the decades’ Mail on Sunday

‘Hugely readable’ The Guardian

‘One of Norman’s triumphs in Mick Jagger is to chart the decade’s evolution as well as his progress within it’ Sunday Express

‘The most ambitious and comprehensive Jagger biography to date’ Rolling Stone

'Extremely well researched' Rolling Stone

‘Barnstorming...Norman has ploughed this terrain for much of his career, and brings to his subject both a deep fascination with the ecology of rock'n'roll plus a sharp eye for its absurdities’ The Observer

‘Norman’s book reads like a thrill ride. He captures as well as anybody that magical combination of youth, talent and low rent that would eventually become the Rolling Stones’ The New York Times

From the Back Cover:

Philip Norman towers above other biographers with his definitive studies of rock legends the world thought it knew, but who came to life as never before through the meticulousness of Norman's research, the sweep of his cultural knowledge, and the brilliance of his writing.

Now Norman turns to the most notorious yet enigmatic rock icon of them all. Throughout five decades of fronting the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger has been seen as the ultimate arrogant superstar, whose sexual appetite rivals Casanova's and whose supposed reckless drug use touched off the most famous scandal in rock history.

But Norman reveals a Jagger far more complex than the cold archseducer of myth: human, vulnerable, often impressive, sometimes endearing. Here at last is the real story of how a shy economics student became a modern Antichrist...of Jagger's vicious show trial and imprisonment in 1967...of his unpublicized heroic role at the horrific Altamont festival...of the beautiful women from Chrissie Shrimpton to Jerry Hall, whom he has bedded but not always dominated...of the enduring but ever-fraught partnership with his "Glimmer Twin," Keith Richards.

While playful about some aspects of Sir Mick, Norman gives him long overdue credit as a songwriter and as a musician fit to rank among the great blues masters who inspired the Stones before money became their raison d'etre. Mick Jagger, above all, explores the keen and calculating intelligence that has kept the Stones on their plinth as "the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" for half a century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0007329512
• ISBN 13: 9780007329519
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 640