Aerosmith fake autographs. Take your pick, there are plenty out there.

Photo by Norman Seeff

Nothing pisses me off more than the proliferation of fake autographs in the memorabilia market.
I’ve written a few blogs on it, but somehow it hasn’t helped me vent enough.
Nothing makes me crazier.
What’s worse, is how freakin’ bad the fakes are.
It’s almost laughable.
I know if I wasn’t an expert in signed and autograph items, I’d at least have the sense to do some homework.
People are bidding on and spending decent money on these fakes and it’s really hard to believe.
Being from Boston one band that’s always been near and dear to me is our own Bad Boys, Aerosmith.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Steven, Joe, Brad, Joey and Tom many times.
I also worked on Aerosmith Guitar Hero Tour book, serving as Creative Director.
I’ve been an avid fan since the 70′s.
I’d never consider myself an expert in autographs, but hell, I can see!

So, I thought I’d share a few items from my personal collection as well as few found online either selling on eBay or other sites.

Take a look.
You tell me.

The Real Deal.

?????????????????

Close, but no cigar.

For starters I’d search on eBay all the like items you can find that are signed and autographed.
Guitars, drumheads, album covers etc…..
Start to look for similarities in writing style.
You will see a pattern.
And yes, there are a few real ones online.
Mind you a few.
Remember the people selling these are buying drumheads and guitars by the truckload cheap, and having a buddy of theirs scribble with silver sharpie on anything they can get their hands on.
The messier the sig, the better.

Fact is, even the stars they are trying to replicate have very distinctive styles in their writing and signing that can be studied and recognized.

And any a-hole by the way can print up a “Certificate of Authenticity” at Kinko’s and offer it signed to you.
So don’t think that makes it right, it doesn’t.
Lifetime or otherwise.

Alan Rogan, Legendary Guitar Technician for The Rolling Stones.

More memorabilia from legendary guitar technician for Pete Townsend, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Mick Jagger….he plays guitar?, Alan Rogan who spent the 80′s touring with the Stones.
The excepts from the letters above explains an entourage member’s relationship and friendship with Rogan and how he learned from him.
In the video, Rogan talks about his working relationship with The Who and it’s all business when on tour.

Longview Farms Memorabilia, Circa 1981.

I’ve been writing this blog for about 2 months.
I have access to a dashboard that shows me how many page views, top posts, most active, search engine terms, etc…
Far and away there are more folks interested in The Rolling Stones stay at Longview Farms, related memorabilia and stories than any other posts.
So here’s a few more rare items from Longview.
Keith Richards comes in a very close second.

A rare t-shirt, brochure selling the facilities and postcard of the stage built for the Stones stay.

Enjoy.

The Rolling Stones are off to jail, again. Collecting rare early press photos.

Sometimes you can’t be there.
But you can usually count on the press to be.
I got interested in buying press and wire photos a few years ago.

They sell online, ebay of course, through people who have cleaned out the file cabinets and drawers of photo, press and newspaper services.

Just imagine literally thousands and thousands of photos that have appeared in magazines and newspapers over the years being selling anywhere from $5 up to sometimes $40-50 a piece.

Of course it depends on the situation, who’s in the photo, and what particular event it happens to be capturing.

In the case of The Rolling Stones, I became obsessed with their various drug charges and photos of them being ushered in and out of the courtrooms of London.

Go figure.
A weird area to focus on, but I found there were plenty of photos to be bought thanks to the Stones and their party drug crazed lifestyle in the 60′s.

Usually these photos are written on the reverse in hand, detailing the story and event, as well as stamped by the photo or press service.

In the case of the above photo, a very detailed type written story of Mick and Keith being brought up on drug charges stemming from the infamous Redlands raid on Keith’s home.

How to still look cool while getting busted for possession of pep pills.

Mick and Marianne after posting bail for possession of cannabis, 1969.

The Rolling Stones Goat’s Head Soup….hungry?

How the hell do you follow up an album like “Exile on Main Street?”

You don’t.

The 1972 critically acclaimed Exile was and is still today considered The Stones at their finest.
So, no big surprise most critics were to say the least, slightly disappointed with the follow up “Goat’s Head Soup.”
Released in 1973, Goats Head was a more polished production than the raw and ragged Exile.
It reflected the resurgence of soul-pop and the rise of funk, while maintaining the Stones’ distinctive rock sound. It spawned the hit single “Angie”, possibly its best known track, and topped the charts in both the US and the UK.

At the time of release, Jagger said, “I really feel close to this album, and I really put all I had into it… I guess it comes across that I’m more into songs. It wasn’t as vague as the last album which kind of went on so long that I didn’t like some of the things. There’s more thought to this one. It was recorded all over the place over about two or three months. The tracks are much more varied than the last one. I didn’t want it to be just a bunch of rock songs.”

Preceded by “Angie” as the lead single, which sailed to #1 in the US and became a worldwide hit, Goats Head Soup was released in late August 1973 and also shot to #1 worldwide. The Rolling Stones’ autumn 1973 European Tour followed soon after, in which three slots in the set list were given to the new material. (The popular bootleg recording Brussels Affair would result from this tour.)

Critical reaction to the album was varied at the time. Bud Scoppa called the album “one of the year’s richest musical experiences” in Rolling Stone, while Lester Bangs derided the effort in Creem, saying, “There is a sadness about the Stones now, because they amount to such an enormous ‘So what?’ The sadness comes when you measure not just one album, but the whole sense they’re putting across now against what they once meant…”

Goats Head Soup is now generally considered to have marked the end of the Stones’ “golden age”, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine saying, “Sliding out of perhaps the greatest winning streak in rock history, the Stones slipped into decadence and rock star excess with Goats Head Soup… This is where the Stones’ image began to eclipse their accomplishments, as Mick ascended to jet-setting celebrity and Keith slowly sunk deeper into addiction, and it’s possible hearing them moving in both directions on Goats Head Soup, at times in the same song.”[4] While it is generally considered to lack the energy and spark of their previous few releases, Goats Head Soup has endured as a popular seller and has gone triple platinum in the US.

The album cover was designed and photographed by David Bailey, a friend of Jagger’s who had worked with The Rolling Stones since 1964. The portrait of Jagger on the front cover was approximately life size in the original 12 inch LP format.

The sessions for Goats Head Soup were abundant with outtakes. Two of these – “Tops” and “Waiting on a Friend” – would surface on Tattoo You in 1981, and feature Mick Taylor on guitar; “Through the Lonely Nights” became the B-side to the “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” single and was released on CD for the first time on the 2005 compilation Rarities 1971–2003.

The super rare “Goat’s Head Soup” store display.

This rare promotional sweater can be seen in Bill Wyman’s book “Rolling with The Stones.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goats_Head_Soup

Black and Blue. The Rolling Stones get sort of beat up.

Black and Blue is an album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1976. It was the band’s first studio album released with Ronnie Wood as the replacement for Mick Taylor. Ron Wood had played 12-string acoustic guitar on the track “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” of the 1974 Rolling Stones album It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll and appears on half of the Black and Blue album tracks (mostly backing vocals) with Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel playing guitar on the remaining titles.

Stylistically, Black and Blue embraces funk with “Hot Stuff”; reggae with their cover of “Cherry Oh Baby”; and jazz with “Melody”, featuring the talents of Billy Preston – a heavy contributor to the album. Musical and thematic styles were merged on the seven-minute “Memory Motel”, with both Jagger and Richards contributing lead vocals to a love song embedded within a life-on-the-road tale.

Released in April 1976 – with “Fool to Cry”, a worldwide Top 10 hit, as its lead single – Black and Blue reached #2 in the UK and spent an interrupted four week spell at #1 in the US, going platinum there. Critical view was polarized: Lester Bangs wrote in Creem that “the heat’s off, because it’s all over, they really don’t matter anymore or stand for anything” and “This is the first meaningless Rolling Stones album, and thank God”; but in the 1976 Creem Consumer Guide Robert Christgau rated the album an A-.

The album was promoted with a controversial billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood that depicted the model Anita Russell, bruised and bound (by Mick Jagger) under the phrase “I’m Black and Blue from the Rolling Stones — and I love it!” The billboard was removed after protests by the feminist group Women Against Violence Against Women, although it earned the band widespread press coverage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_Blue

This was the 3-D Record store display depicting the Black and Blue Anita Russell. One of the most sought after Rolling Stones displays.