Product Description: Did Homer tell the 'truth' about the Trojan War? If so, how much, and if not, why not? The issue was hardly academic to the Greeks living under the Roman Empire, given the centrality of both Homer, the father of Greek culture, and the Trojan War, the event that inaugurated Greek history, to conceptions of Imperial Hellenism...read more

On July 12, 1962, London's Marquee Club debuted a new act, a blues-inflected rock band named after a Muddy Waters song - The Rolling Stones. They were a hard-edged band with a flair for the dramatic, styling themselves as the devil's answer to the sainted Beatles. A young, inexperienced producer named Andrew Loog Oldham first heard the band at a session he remembers with four words: 'I fell in love.' Though unfamiliar with such basic industry practices as mixing a recording, he made a brilliant decision - he pitched the band to a studio that had passed on the Beatles. Afraid to make the same mistake twice, they signed the Stones, and began a history-making career. This is just one of the 50 classic stories that make up 50 Licks. Many are never-before told, some are from exclusive interviews - including with elusive bassist Bill Wyman - and all are illustrated and told by the people who lived them. Half a century on, the Rolling Stones are still the greatest band working. And this is the book to commemorate their unparalleled achievement in rock music.