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May 19, 2014 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

Robert Greenfield has already written two books on The Rolling Stones. He was a 25-year-old journalist following the band both as it recorded its masterpiece, Exile on Main St. at Villa Nellcôte in France and as it toured the album through the United States, and Greenfield documented each in previous volumes. For Ain’t It Time We Said Goodbye, the author backs up a bit, chronicling his time with the band during its 10-day European tour prior to leaving England for the south of France, as well as during time at Nellcôte and in Los Angeles and Jamaica while the band wrapped up work on Exile.

Undoubtedly Greenfield knows of the slew of Stones books on the market-he contributed fairly to it-but he also is able to restrict his topic enough that the result is both insightful and informative. Ain’t It Time We Said Goodbye is concise at less than 200 pages, but it documents a very specific time in Stones history. Greenfield’s take is that the tour previous to the recording of Exile was some of the last days of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ true partnership, before mounting tensions, growing substance abuse problems, and increasing celebrity put the final nail in that coffin. Anecdotes abound, such as Greenfield’s helping Richards break into a locked dressing room in Brighton or Jagger plaintively sitting at a piano waiting for a delinquent Richards to arrive to write songs.

Greenfield knows his subjects well and his insights come from an outsider’s perspective on the action, which lends a certain objectivity to the proceedings. Ain’t It Time We Said Goodbye is a quick read but a nice complement to Greenfield’s other tales from the life of the Stones. (www.dacapopress.com)

Author rating: 7/10