More than fifty years after their founding, the Rolling Stones still tour and create new music as the world’s quintessential rock band. David Malvinni’s Experiencing the Rolling Stones: A Listener’s Companion looks at the Stones’ music from the inside out. Along the journey, Malvinni places individual songs and entire albums within the transformative era of the ’60s, focusing on how the Rolling Stones integrated African American R&B, blues, and rock and roll into a uniquely British style. Vignettes describing what it was like to hear the Stones’ music at the time of its release thread their way through the book as Malvinni goes beyond the usual stories surrounding the Stone’s most significant songs. Tracing the distinctive sound that runs through their catalog, from chord progressions and open guitar tuning, to polyrhythmic Afro-Caribbean beats and their innovative use of nontraditional instruments, Malvinni shows how the Stones have retained their unmistakable identity through the decades. Experiencing the Rolling Stones draws together a broad swath of postwar history as it covers the band’s origins in Swinging London, their interest in the Beat generation, the powerful attraction of Morocco on their lives and music, the infamous drug busts that nearly destroyed the band, the female muses who inspired them, the disaster at Altamont, their flight from England as tax exiles, and the recording sessions outside of England. Malvinni takes an especially close look at Keith Richards’ guitar work and its effect on the band’s music, as well as the multiple changes in the band’s members, such as the addition of guitarists Mick Taylor and Ron Wood. Experiencing the Rolling Stones delivers a musical adventure for both the lifelong fan and the first-time listener just discovering the magnitude and magnificence of the Stones’ music, stardom, and legacy. “Not just an examination of the songs produced over a 50-year run, this is more of a dissection of the sound, influences, origins, and social-historical context of the musical output of this seminal rock band. As a guitarist and professor of music and African American studies, author Malvinni is well situated to conduct this analysis. Following the band’s output chronologically, this companion showcases subjects like the keys and guitar tunings of certain songs and the venues at which they were recorded. Music theory is occasionally interwoven, such as 'the significance of the mixolydian chord.' Overall, this would be a fine addition to any academic music collection and larger public libraries.” ― Booklist “The ultimate read for the Rolling Stones fan.” ― PrevailPrevail “If you are interested in immersing yourself in to a listeners companion book that goes beyond just telling you the basic facts of your favourite band, then Experiencing the Rolling Stones will be this summers musical adventure for both life long fans and first time listeners. This is a book that you cannot afford to put on your waiting list.” ― .Cent David Malvinni, musicologist and classical guitarist, is adjunct professor of music and African American studies at Santa Barbara City College and author of The Gypsy Caravan: From Real Roma to Imaginary Gypsies in Western Music and Film and Grateful Deadandthe Art of Rock Improvisation.