Under Their Thumb: How a Nice Boy from Brooklyn Got Mixed up with the Rolling Stones (and Lived to Tell about It)
"German is party to all sort of Stones' doings, many of which are enjoyable, quite a few of which are scandalous. Great rock 'n' roll Babylon stuff."\ - Booklist (Starred Review)\ "The epic tale of an obsessive teenager who launched a Rolling Stones fanzine and spent the next two decades capturing the band’s whirlwind metamorphosis from behind the scenes….First-rate, firsthand account of the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band, and a disenchanted chronicle of its increasingly crass...
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"German is party to all sort of Stones' doings, many of which are enjoyable, quite a few of which are scandalous. Great rock 'n' roll Babylon stuff."- Booklist (Starred Review)"The epic tale of an obsessive teenager who launched a Rolling Stones fanzine and spent the next two decades capturing the band’s whirlwind metamorphosis from behind the scenes….First-rate, firsthand account of the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band, and a disenchanted chronicle of its increasingly crass commercialization."- Kirkus ReviewsAs a teenager, Bill German knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life: chronicle the career and adventures of his favorite rock band, the Rolling Stones. And in 1978, on his sixteenth birthday, he set out to make his dream a reality. Feverishly typed in his Brooklyn bedroom, and surreptitiously printed in his high school’s mimeograph room German’s Stones-only newsletter, Beggars Banquet, was born. His teachers discouraged it, his parents dismissed it as a phase, and his disco-loving classmates preferred the Bee Gees, but, for German, this primitive, pre-Internet fanzine was a labor of love. And a fateful encounter with his idols on the streets of New York soon proved his efforts weren’t in vain.Impressed with Beggars Banquet, the Stones gave the ’zine instant cred on the rock scene by singing its praises–and by inviting German to hang with the band. At first a fish out of water in the company of rock royalty, German found himself spilling orange juice on a priceless rug in Mick Jagger’s house and getting pegged as a narc by pals of Keith Richards and Ron Wood. But before long he became a familiar fixture in the inner sanctum, not just reporting Stones stories but living them. He was a player in the Mick-versus-Keith feud and was an eyewitness to Keith’s midlife crisis and Ron’s overindulgences. He even had a reluctant role in covering up Mick’s peccadilloes. “In the span of a few months,” German recalls, “I’d gone from wanting to know everything about my favorite rock stars to knowing too much.”In this warts-and-all book, which includes many never-before-seen photographs, German takes us to the Stones’ homes, recording sessions, and concerts around the world. He charts the band’s rocky path from the unthinkable depths of a near breakup to the obscenely lucrative heights of their blockbuster tours. And ultimately, German reveals why his childhood dream come true became a passion he finally had to part with.Under Their Thumb is an up-close and extremely personal dispatch from the amazing, exclusive world of the Rolling Stones, by someone who was lucky enough to live it–and sober enough to remember it all. The Washington Post - Mark Athitakis [German's] a genial, enthusiastic narrator, has some fun stories to tell from the band's inner circle, and though his fan-boy temperament is obvious, he rarely lapses into sycophancy…though Under Their Thumb lacks rock-band drama, it does offer an engaging bottom-rung perspective on how rock-and-roll became increasingly corporatized in the late '80s and the '90s.
\ Alan LightUnder Their Thumb offers some memorable details from the inner sanctum…Despite such anecdotes, though, this book isn't really about the Rolling Stones—it's about being a fan. Under Their Thumb is a story of retaining faith, of keeping a flame burning through bad records and band squabbles and even through discovering that your heroes aren't Golden Gods, but actual people. It also documents a bygone age, before celebrity Web sites, when a kid could spot Mick Jagger at a club, write a description, type it up in a home-stapled newsletter, mail it out a few weeks later and still break news.\ —The New York Times\ \ \ \ \ Mark Athitakis[German's] a genial, enthusiastic narrator, has some fun stories to tell from the band's inner circle, and though his fan-boy temperament is obvious, he rarely lapses into sycophancy…though Under Their Thumb lacks rock-band drama, it does offer an engaging bottom-rung perspective on how rock-and-roll became increasingly corporatized in the late '80s and the '90s.\ —The Washington Post\ \ \ Publishers WeeklyFor 17 years, German recorded the comings and goings of the Rolling Stones in his fanzine Beggars Banquet; in this surprisingly lifeless memoir, he documents his relationship with the band. German's fandom with the Stones began when he was 12. When he heard songs like "Bitch" and "Sweet Virginia," he was inexplicably hooked on the band's music, and he envied the DJs who got to play their music and the journalists who covered the band. By the time he was 16, German had decided to produce a newsletter devoted to his favorite group, printing the first 100 copies of Beggars Banquet on his Brooklyn high school's mimeograph machine in 1978. Although his classmates were unenthusiastic (they were more interested in disco and Saturday Night Fever than Exile on Main Street), the Stones and their management eventually became aware of German's efforts. By 1983, the Stones wanted to make Beggars Banquet the official fanzine of their fan club and stuffed the record sleeves of their new release, Undercover, with it. When the Stones' manager reneged on his promise of payment, German learned a hard business lesson and ended the arrangement, but he never lost his affection for the band. He chronicles his close relationships with Keith Richards and Ron Woods (with whom he coauthored a book) as well as his lukewarm relationship with Mick. Richards emerges from German's memoir as a sweet and loving guy, while Jagger appears an arrogant prima donna who has little time for his band mates or his family. (Feb.)\ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalAt age 16, German started writing the Rolling Stones fanzine Beggar's Banquet. After tenaciously courting the band at album parties and other appearances, he gained access to the Stones's camp, and his publication became the band's official bulletin. During the 1980s, the band spent much of their time in New York City, giving German easy accessibility, and he was eventually brought into their homes. With entertaining and relaxed prose, German recounts his relationships with Keith Richards and Ron Wood (with whom he eventually collaborated on The Works) and various lively members of the Stones's circle. German's exclusive access throughout the 1989-90 Steel Wheels tour and his backstage accounts of the modern megatour, with its own social hierarchy and myriad levels of access, will be of enormous interest to Stones fans. Colorful portraits of Richards and Wood, depicted as avuncular and open, as well as the more distant Mick Jagger, form a picture of the band in an often tumultuous and eventually wildly successful period not heavily documented by previous works. Recommended for public libraries.\ —Jim Collins\ \ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsThe epic tale of an obsessive teenager who launched a Rolling Stones fanzine and spent the next two decades capturing the band's whirlwind metamorphosis from behind the scenes. In 1978, 16-year-old German launched Beggars Banquet, a rock-gossip 'zine about the Stones during their New York epoch. What began as an innocent passion that sold for 25 cents per copy soon turned into a life-consuming obsession as German inched his way from the fringe into the Stones' inner circle. Ron Wood and Keith Richards took him under their wings, and Beggars Banquet became the official magazine of the Rolling Stones fan club. Once happy reporting a mere glimpse of a band member exiting a night club, German soon dropped out of college and became a privileged fixture in the Stones' hotel rooms and at all-night parties featuring drugs, women and '80s decadence. In the '90s, bean-counting sharks and promoters took over, and the Stones transmogrified from a fan-friendly rock band into slick celebrities with board meetings, bottom lines and big stage productions to promote Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge and other albums. Those productions were exorbitantly expensive: "It was no longer a joke to say you had to mortgage your house for Stones tickets," writes German. Once an insider accustomed to full access, he found himself shoved to the side and forced to go through channels for interviews. At 33, still single, disillusioned and unable to adjust to the newly commercial atmosphere, he began reflecting on the sacrifices he had made. Eventually, he folded Beggars Banquet, concluding that he had dedicated his entire young-adult life to "the Stones' vacuum."First-rate, firsthand account of the world's greatest rock 'n'roll band, and a disenchanted chronicle of its increasingly crass commercialization. Author events in New York. Agent: Jim Fitzgerald/James Fitzgerald Agency\ \
