Review: Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band

by Tom Guerra.

In the late 1970s, around the time the concept of “Classic Rock” took hold, a parallel phenomenon of “tribute bands” started to emerge. These bands, which either looked and/or sounded like their archetypes, offered fans a close approximation without the platinum price tag of a concert ticket. Today, every major rock 'n' roll act has one or more tribute bands, ranging from the great (Beatlemania) to the zany (Tiny Kiss, a KISS tribute composed entirely of dwarves).

In his debut book, Like A Rolling Stone (Broadway, 2008), author Steven Kurutz (NY Times, Playboy, Spin) meticulously chronicles the “sights, the sounds, the smells, of a hard-working rock band” (to quote This Is Spinal Tap), with both hilarious and sometimes pathetic outcomes.

Written in a style that is simple, clean and direct, highlighting irony and absurdity without mocking his subjects, Kurutz minimizes his perspective which empowers the reader to draw his own conclusions, kind of like a rock 'n' roll Hemingway. He peels back the snakeskin and leather façade of rock 'n' roll as he follows two leading Rolling Stone tribute acts, The Blushing Brides and Sticky Fingers, as they zigzag the globe in a (usually) vain search for glory typically reserved for the real deal.

Booking venues ranging from a sold-out Rotterdam arena to a backyard barbeque outside of Boston, Glen Carroll, the “Mick” of Sticky Fingers is seen as a sort of likable rock 'n' roll PT Barnum whose main concern is booking the next gig without regard for logistics, sobriety or the availability of his bandmates. Carroll’s Fingers literally play gigs all over the country on any given week with a rotating cast of characters, including “the Keithiest Keith,” a guitarist who has not only managed to mimic his idol’s sound and looks, but lifestyle as well.

By contrast, Maurice Raymond, The Blushing Brides’ Jagger, seems embittered by his 30 years of ups and downs in the music business, including a major record deal that went south when his core audience refused to accept his original music. One gets the impression that Maurice has a love/hate relationship with The Stones as he harasses his audience while proclaiming his superiority over the real Mick Jagger (“I’ll bodyslam that motherf*cker,” and “We kick the Stones’ asses live.”). As far as the quality of gigs is concerned, The Brides seem to be on a death spiral, playing for two dozen people at a restaurant on Cape Cod which proclaims “Kids Eat Free” on the marquee under the band’s name, followed by a gig at somebody’s uncle Leo’s birthday party in the basement of a small bar.

While reading this book one realizes that while both Raymond and Carroll do what they do not only for the attention that being a faux Jagger brings, but because they genuinely love the music of the Rolling Stones, even if it is being played to a handful of people in a dive bar.

And, having said that, which is more rock 'n' roll to you: an inebriated singer shouting over too loud guitars to 50 sweaty drunks, or 100,000 people at the EnormoDome who paid $300 each to watch the Stones on the JumboTron?

Related Links
Steven Kurutz' Like A Rolling Stone The Book Blog
Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band on Amazon.com

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