You Can't Always Get What You Want

February 22, 2010
Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll play strong supporting roles for headliners the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead in this straight-dope, tell-all account of Cutler's years managing road shows for "the yin and yang of bands." A dissatisfied schoolteacher in 1960s London, Cutler turned his involvement with the music scene into a career as "a sort of production honcho, doing all the dirty work on site" that others wouldn't. His work with the Stones began with their 1969 appearance at Hyde Park, and continued through an entire U.S. tour, ending with the Altamont disaster in California. After that, Cutler took up with the Grateful Dead, managing finances and tours (including Europe '72). Cutler's memoir is populated by a fascinating range of rock stars, gangsters, and international drug lords, but his insider position doesn't always penetrate the chaos; one important exception is his account of Altamont, the massive, free, outdoor Stones concert overtaken by violence (among other record-setting details, Cutler reports that "police had done nothing in the face of serious violent crime... other than bravely towing away hundreds of cars"). Of certain interest to anyone who recalls the music scene of the early 1970s, this fast-moving narrative of rock-n-roll excess should also absorb music fans of any age.

April 1, 2010
Cutler was a tour manager in the late Sixties and early Seventies for two of the era's most iconic bands, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. In this readable memoir, he recounts his years on the periphery of the London music scene and his eventual association with the Stones. The bulk of the book recounts their infamous and legendary 1969 U.S. tour (well documented in Ethan Russell's recent "Let It Bleed") and its culmination in the tragic debacle at the free show at Altamont. Cutler subsequently spent four years as a road manager for the Dead, and he describes their inimitable personalities in the years during which they became a fully realized touring actmemorably evoking a tour by train across Canada where the Dead were joined by Janis Joplin, the Band, and others on a rollicking journey of alcohol-fueled jam sessions. VERDICT While the book contains no real revelations, this insider, backstage account of these two legendary yet very different bands will be of interest to fans of both groups.Jim Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. Lib., NJ

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