I am a big fan of classic rock. Given the choice between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones I will pick the Stones every time. And while I had some knowledge of their personal lives, I didn’t really know much about the individual women that shaped, influenced and created the legend of The Stones. Parachute Women changed that.

The first half of the novel was the most interesting to me. It focuses mainly on Anita Pallenberg, a rebel whose outrageous antics and style seemed to embody the blueprint of who the band became. A fashion icon who dabbled in the occult, introduced the band to the hard drugs of the 60’s and even helped with the creation of the music, she essentially became the fifth Stone. Moving from relationships with Brian Jones, to Keith Richards and eventually sleeping with Mick Jagger her fingerprints are on every part of the band we now know.

This book took me a while to get through. The fashion, locations and hangers on are described in detail, and while the book does have photos, it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy my appetite to put an image with everything I was reading about. Many Google searches were made and rabbit holes gone down which added to my enjoyment but also made for a much longer reading time. Overall I really enjoyed this look at the women who were responsible for helping create possibly the greatest rock and roll band of all time. Thank you to @netgalley and @hachettebooks for this arc.

A very good book about the woman behind the making of the Rolling Stones. I had heard of just two of these women, so the other two and just the entire book about all of them were good. How they showed the good guys of the Stones to be bad and made them what they are today. Stories from the sixties and seventies not just the headlines but the behind-the-scenes a truly rock and roll books. If you are a Stones fan or rock fan this is the book for you a very good book.

Parachute Women by Elizabeth Winder takes a look at some of the most influential women in the Rolling Stones camp. The period of time spans the early years where most of the seminal albums were conceived and recorded. Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Marsha Hunt, and Bianca Jagger appear and are studied at length for their influence and the ways in which their time with the Stones shaped their lives. And how it, many times, adversely affected them.

I was thoroughly enthralled with this book. For years, I heard the names of these women, especially Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, and had no idea what made them so special. I knew they were associated with the Rolling Stones, specifically Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. But, really, who were they and what did they contribute to this highly regarded and, arguably, best rock band of all time? Plenty, it turns out.

The book introduces you to these women and tells you of their origins and how they came to be associated with the Rolling Stones. The stories are fascinating and eye-opening. I had no idea that Marianne was a star in her own right. I didn't realize that Anita was originally romantically involved with long-deceased Brian Jones and parted from him to pursue Keith. And I had no idea who Marsha Hunt was.

You not only get to know the women--you get to know the men from the perspective of the women. It reveals truths about the two leading men of the Rolling Stones that you may find surprising. Like how conservative and staid Mick Jagger could be. Or how sensitive Keith Richards could be with the right woman. And it definitely shows how the women were under their thumbs despite their own independent ways and talents. There is a feminist angle that sharply cuts into the personalities and desires of Mick and Keith. I found that fascinating.

If you're looking for a decadent book about the rock-and-roll lifestyle at that point of time between the 1960s and 1970s, you're going to get it. Like another reviewer said, it's amazing that most of these people who star in the book are still alive or lived as long as they did. The drugs they took, the risks they took, the disturbing "black magic" practices (for lack of a better term), and the many people they interacted and slept with. Did the drugs preserve them instead of harming them?

Anyway, this book will satisfy you if you were curious about the women closely associated with the Rolling Stones, the decadent and crazy lifestyle they led, and the sumptuous and jaw-dropping places where they lived. It's the ultimate rock-and-roll fairy tale with ogres, witches, and magic spells woven through it. And it's well-written besides all of that.

These women are much more sophisticated than Rolling Stones when they're in the beginning. Of their musical career. Each one had a different story to play on these parts with the leading characters in the rolling stones. These women really like dependent on these men but they also were independent in themselves. They had a lot of trouble because this was the swinging sixties when women became very liberated and thinking and ideas. They chose to live this crazy. Glamorous life with drugs and partying. But really having no contact with the lodge.... But the real people had to do every day. Some of them came from money some came from background which were poor. Nick was the one who invented a lot of encouragement because he seems very interested in the beginning, so when he met his first girlfriend, she was very like not naive, but she really loved you. She was also married at the time with a child. Everybody had different stories with Nick and Keith. And they all seemed to like party and lived together, but they had a lot of problems. Everybody had their own problems and they're all intermingling in together. I think it was the time where people wanted to be free and And do their own thing in life and not be Be judged in any way.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me this Advanced Readers Copy of Parachute Women by Elizabeth Winder!

Read if…
🎸 You love classic rock
🎸 You appreciate feminist reframings of history
🎸 Camila was your favorite character in Daisy Jones

I love stories about the music scene of the 60s and 70s, and most of the books I’ve read on this subject have been historical fiction novels, so I enjoyed getting to mix things up and check out a nonfiction book on the subject.

Parachute Women is the story of the wives and girlfriends of the Rolling Stones, specifically Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, and Anita Pallenberg, and how they directly and indirectly influenced the band.

This book was fascinating! I learned so much and gained new appreciation for the stories of these women. It also left me thinking a lot about other women who have lived full and vibrant lives, but have only seemed to exist in relation to the men around them.

Parachute Women is short (under 300 pages) and easy to read, but it took me forever to get through it since I kept falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes every few chapters. Definitely pick this one up if you’re looking for another read with big Daisy Jones vibes!

Parachute Women is available now. Thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Full confession: I am a big Stones fan.
Ever since my uncle (who was staying at our house in the early 70s) brought those albums home, I was hooked. It's in my bones. The music, the mythology, the danger (I would pick Stones over Beatles every time). Read the books, went to the concerts, even met my husband through the Stones' music in a roundabout way.

So I was more than a little excited to dive into Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones. Elizabeth Winder dug deep, weaving a narrative based on photos, memoirs, interviews and articles, covering the period 1965-72, arguably the Stones' creative height. The period when Brian, Mick and Keith were entwined with these women.

I knew they were influential. I knew Anita was behind Keith's iconic skull ring. I knew they were behind some of their biggest songs. I didn't know how pervasive this influence was. One of the best things about reading this book is being able to look up pictures to accompany the anecdotes. Trip to Stonehenge at 2 in the morning on LSD, on a whim? Morocco, Cannes, Italy, Villefranche (where they recorded Exile on Main St.)? Want to see the outfits, want to see Keith and Mick draped in their lovers' scarves, floppy hats, blouses? It's all out there for the viewing, and cemented my appreciation for this book.

"Look at the pictures of Keith before and after Anita... It's like the difference between Buddy Holly and Jack the Ripper". She brought swagger, danger, the confidence and the couldn't care less attitude Keith eventually became known for. She nurtured Brian's creativity, Mick sought her input on recordings. She was referred to as the sixth Stone. The Rolling Stones as they came to be would not have manifested without Anita Pallenberg.

Educated, well read, ballet and theater loving Marianne Faithfull, actress and songstress, introduced an impressionable Mick Jagger to her cultured world. He adapted it as his own. What he made Marsha Hunt, mother to his first child, go through was disgraceful. His marriage to Bianca gave him a wider view, a global perspective, the high class corporate persona we know to this day.

While all four women's names are in the title, the main players are Anita and Marianne. The stories are intimate and detailed, supported by pictures, sourced from the many memoirs and interviews. It gives these women their due, with both the juicy, salacious, and scandalous features of a tell all and the nature of a survival epic. They are/were incredibly strong women. It was a privilege to take this romp through history with them.

My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Books for the ARC. Parachute Women was published in July 2023.

Behind every great man is a great woman and behind every legendary rock group is a bevy of influential women who taught them how to be rock stars. Or something like that.

Winder introduces us to four such women who had varying degrees of influence over The Rolling Stones, but it spends most of the time focusing on two: Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, who were there before The Stones were The Stones had a big hand in making them the iconoclasts they are today by inspiring them, styling, writing for, remixing and helping to cement their status as the bad boys of rock’n’roll.

I found this book utterly fascinating and think anyone with even a passing interest in the history of music will find it interesting as well. There is so much content out there about this time period that acts like women weren’t even there or if they were, it was only as a perk of the job. It’s great to read about the actual impact these women had on creating the image of rock stars we all have today.

Read if you like: Daisy Jones and the Six, The Villa, Almost Famous, being reminded what a dick Mick Jagger is

Highlighted this book in Zoomer magazine's June/July summer issue as the title I'm personally most looking forward to reading this summer:
"Parachute Women turns the lens on Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger and Anita Pallenberg - Sixties icons in their own right, but also the sophisticated women whose savvy shaped the image of the Rolling Stones over the years. When it comes to male artists, wives and girlfriends are often characterized by history as 'muses' - a reductive term that relegates them to a passive role in inspiration. That's always rankled me because time usually reveals they're active (and crucial) creative collaborators. This author specializes in excavating female biography -- previous acclaimed books have included Pain, Parties,Work (about writer Sylvia Plath's seminal 1953 summer in New York as Mademoiselle guest editor) and Marilyn in Manhattan, a revelatory look at bombshell Monroe's acting sabbatical. Winder's latest promises to set the record straight on how the quartet's fluency in the film, fashion and literary zeitgeist helped cement the Stones' mythic cultural status."

The Rolling Stones are one of my older brother's top three bands (up there with the Who and the Clash). So, growing up, I heard plenty of their music even though I knew less about their lives outside of the public pages.

The book focuses specifically on Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt and Bianca Jagger. It goes into great detail how the actions of these women influenced and shaped several of the members of the band. They introduced them to drugs, art and literature, fashion, the occult and more.

The first two thirds of the book focuses mostly on Anita and Marianne, two of the biggest influences. In fact, Anita is very much in the center of all the action, having been involved in various intimate capacities with three of the band members (Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger) over the course of a decade and a half. Anita often used sex to get what she wanted and moved on once she got what she desired. Marianne comes across as the one most used and abused. Marsha, of whom I knew the least and who is more the transitional "affair" for Mick, kept strong to her own ideals and goals. Sadly, she was done wrong and only left with a daughter who was unsupported by Mick. Bianca's story is then touched upon; she too used and discarded but clearly the one who ended up the least scarred from the experiences.

By the author's own notes, clearly Winder was most fascinated by Anita's tale and, to a lesser extent, the connections she and Marianne had. To me, it almost feels like Marsha's and Bianca's additions are here to fill out the pages and to cover the narrative until Anita finally called it quits with Keith. The last few chapters quickly tick off the years of the 70's where the earlier chapters are much richer and descriptive.

Despite all that, I did pick up more details than I had known previously. Thus, the book did achieve in enlightening me as a reader.

The author tries awfully hard to give these rock and roll women--Marianne Faithful and Anita Pallenberg et. al--a lot of credit for the success of the men in their lives, mostly Mick Jagger, Keith Richard and Brian Jones. Yes, I suppose the women did provide fashion and better taste than the men had on their own but I don't think they much contributed to the genius of these guys. The Stones were obsessed with the blues long before these ladies came along and long after. Their genius lies in making great rock songs at a time when rock and roll was kind. I imagine not much would have changed if they'd met women other than the ladies mentioned. The arguments by the author to the contrary did not win me over. Still, it was fun to read about these outrageous times and a little sad to read about poor doomed Brian Jones.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Hachette Books for an advance copy of this look at the lives of women caught in the orbit of the rogue planet that was the Rolling Stones, how they changed the band, and how in many ways they were wrecked by rock and roll.

Behind every great man is a woman. In rock music thought these great women are vilified by fans, treated like goods by the band, ignored by those close to the band, maligned by band historians and slandered by rock journalists. A lot of this could be jealousy. People don't like their idols to have anyone in their lives, that aren't well the fans or the hangers-on. Rock stars are always told don't mention the wife or significant girlfriend, you have to be available to the fans men and women alike, not tied down. It is all about image. Movie stars, even wrestling stars have the same problem, so the lies begin as attachment is seen as a burden. Groupies, sure, flings with other famous people, that's cool, but lasting relationships. No way, that's a no-no. So rumours start, a candy bar her, trysts with men not in the band, maybe women. And what these women gave the band are lost to snickers and innuendos, never to be appreciated, or really told. Writer, biographer and poet Elizabeth Winder in the music book Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones looks at the women who while mentioned are never given the credit for their accomplishments in creating the world's most dangerous rock 'n' roll band.

Anita Pallenberg was a model, actress style icon who upon meeting the Rolling Stones was underwhelmed. Little boys playing adults were her first thought, thought Brian Jones, founder and multi-instrumentalist intrigued her. Soon she was making Keith Richards and Mick Jagger jealous showing Brian the world, along with drugs and interesting ideas. Soon Brian's violence cooled Anita's ardour, and quiet Keith Richards become her love, fathering children and sharing lots of drugs with him. Marianne Faithful was young, beautiful worldly and again unimpressed with the fake toughness of the Stones. Faithful was given a record deal by Stones management, and soon found herself both in Mick and Keith's orbit, and involved in a scandal that nearly destroyed the band. Marsha Hunt came to London for her career, became involved with Mick and had a child. Famous for her performance in Hair, Mick professed love, while knowing that he couldn't stay with one person for long. Soon Marsha stepped away, raising her child pretty much on her own. And Bianca Jagger, worldly, an activist, and friend to the best people. She moved Mick up in both culture, art, and maybe a little decadence, before also being left behind. There are others but these are whom the book features most.

I first read Elizabeth Winder's book on Sylvia Plath and loved the writing and the way that Winder could make Plath seem so real, even after all the other books done on Plath. Winder does the same thing her, giving all the women a chance not only to be seen more as my chick, but as women who were smarter, in some ways more talented, and more knowledgeable about the world than the band. They brought, style, music, attitude, and even more attitude, and for this, they have been pushed to the side or omitted from key moments in the band's history, unless it could be demeaning in some way. Winder is a fantastic writer, able to describe moments, and ideas clearly and with a sense of the importance behind them. The men might not come out so good, but frankly they deserved it. There is a lot that might be upsetting, drug use, drugs around kids, while pregnant, physical violence, derisive comments. Unfortunately the truth is ugly, and so in many way were there experiences.

I was listening to a podcast about music and the host was asked about doing a certain band. He answered no, as this band was a favorite of his, and that looking into it might make him not like the band anymore. That is a big problem with these books. The music might make you happy, the stories behind the music makes one upset. I don't have an answer for that, but I do feel that all sides of an issue should be covered. This is a great book on an aspect in music that never really gets shined on. I can't wait to see what Elizabeth Winder does next.

It’s the untold story of the women behind famous men: the Rolling Stones.

For years, they have released music, been rock stars at concerts and made millions from their fans worldwide. Yet, few of us know much about four women – Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithful, Marsha Hunt and Bianca Jagger – who had close ties with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

Besides great music, Keith and Mick learned that in the early 60’s they needed to project excitement and sex appeal to energize their fans. The four women gave them a boost of morale, heighten sense of stability, confidence and inspiration. In the craze, Anita and Marianne along with Keith and Mick also got caught up in the illegal drug world – taking copious amounts of LSD, marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

It’s such a highly visual topic that I just wanted to stop reading to see images. I ended up spending some time on Google searching through photos of Mick and Keith with girlfriends, wives, children and events. Then I asked Alexa to play the top hits which took me back to fun times over the years.

It would be a challenge to edit the piles of material from publications, news reports and tabloids to fit into this book of a little less than 300 pages. It reads easy enough with a fair amount of sad, dark and depressing times. There are many surprises on how the women were treated. I was disappointed that Marsha didn’t get the minimal amount of support she requested to raise Mick’s daughter. It's easy to get caught up with biased opinions.

The book conveys a piece of rock ‘n’ roll history with changes that occurred from records and albums to large concerts. Women’s rights changed from motherhood to working role models. Yet, the songs from six decades ago are still on our radars. Every time I hear, "I can't get no satisfaction" it brings me to some other place in time. Part of the words relates to us all. The book for many of us opens up our past and would make a good discussion.

My thanks to Elizabeth Winder, Hachette Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of July 11, 2023.

With a book title taken from a Rolling Stones song of the same name, Elizabeth Winder presents a wonderfully insightful and interesting look at the lives of the four women who loved and influenced The Rolling Stones.
At a time when the musical and cultural world were bursting with new, fresh and fascinating ideas, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Bianca Jagger and Marsha Hunt helped to create the path Mick, Brian, Keith and the band would take. Each women was independent, fashionable, creative and venturesome. Their faceted lives read like a piece of fiction; nobility, entertainer, fashion model, actress and activist, The heydays of the 60’s swinging London and the heady 70’s was the backdrop for a moment in time that was a rollercoaster ride filled with romance, heartbreak, addictions and motherhood amidst the same demons and challenges that encompassed their male partners.
Thoroughly enjoyable and endlessly engaging this is a gem of a read.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author and Hachette Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

A fun, light hearted ready about the ladies that influenced/inspired the lives of The Rolling Stones. I consider myself somewhat of a Stones scholar, reading basically every book written about the band and band members. I was delighted to read a few tidbits in this book that I wasn't previously aware of. It would have been nice to have to have learned more about the individual ladies themselves but still, nonetheless a good read!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Low rating was due to the fact that not all the women involved with The Stones were covered. Basically, it's about the women involved with Brian, Mick J, and Keith. And no mention of wives for Mick J after Jerry. Parts were entertaining, but the book was lacking. The book I read about the Beatles wives was more entertaining and detailed.

The words "depravity" and "debauchery" kept popping up in my mind as I read this book. I'm not a Rolling Stones fan, I'm a Beatles fan, but the idea appealed to me to flesh out the women that were so important to The Stones. I found that more interesting than finding out about the band members themselves. I knew next to nothing about these women. I knew zero about Marsha Hunt and Anita Pallenberg...except in her case that she was a drug addict. Bianca Jagger was always in the society/entertainment pages when I was growing up, a staple at places like Studio 54 in NYC. Marianne Faithfull I only knew for her melancholy tune "As Tears Go By".

Anita Pallenberg gets the biggest cut of page time in this book due to being so outrageous. She set her eyes on Brian Jones initially, then transitioned over to Keith Richards and even took a "bite" out of Mick Jagger. At one point in the book Jagger jokes that he's slept with all his band member's women except for drummer Charlie's wife. Apparently The Stones were fairly clean cut until Anita came along and dirtied them up by influencing the androgynous way they dressed and drug usage. I was particularly disturbed reading about drug use during both Anita's and Marianne's pregnancies and parenting children while under this influence. It was also very disheartening reading about Mick Jagger ignoring the daughter Karis he had with Marsha Hunt after convincing her to have a baby with him.

The writing style was fine, but the content was so disturbing and depressing that it was a book I dipped into and out of while reading other books. The one Jagger "wife" that was barely mentioned was Jerry Hall who Mick was with from 1977-1999, but she wasn't interesting enough to write about because she was compliant- content to be a wife and mother.

Thank you to the publisher Hachette Books for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

After recently reading and watching DAISY JONES & THE SIX, this seemed like an excellent book to pick up. Plus, I’m always curious how a top-rated band made up of men is seen through the female gaze. While a fun nonfiction yet fiction-like novel, PARACHUTE WOMEN: MARIANNE FAITHFULL, MARSHA HUNT, BIANCA JAGGER, ANITA PALLENBERG, AND THE WOMEN BEHIND THE ROLLING STONES by Elizabeth Winder fell short for me overall.

A title more fitting would have been “Marianne & Anita and the women…” because it wasn’t until past the 60% mark that any new serious girlfriend was written about. Even then, Marsha and Bianca still had a 30% to 70% ratio of the book to Marianne and Anita. And “the women” in the title - um, who? We get a quick line or two about who they marry or date in the future. It was just very oddly paced. If Winder wanted to write a book about the early days of the Stones and their women (i.e., Marianne and Anita), then do that because I know their life stories. In contrast, I barely know anything about Marsha, Bianca, and the rest of the women.

For entertainment value, I was entertained - when the pacing flowed nicely - and I enjoyed reading about that era. I was pleased that it read more like a fiction book than a nonfiction book. I wished the story flowed more with even pacing. I would get into a moment, and then it was done, and we’ve jumped time and people.

Fans of The Rolling Stones, these women, and that era will be interested in this book for entertainment. It’s not a “wow me” book I need to own or tell others they must read, but I’m not mad I read it. It was interesting - I just wish there was more.

CW: drug use/addiction/overdose, suicide, miscarriage, grief, divorce, gaslighting, infidelity

A whirlwind of a story. A great read into the personalities and travels of the bands and musicians. The "gossip" is terrifically true. A really well written book. If you are a child of the 60s and 70s, you will recognize the names and some of the incidents. You can't go wrong with this book.

This copy was provided by NetGalley. The opinion expressed is my own.

The stories behind the songs have always fascinated me. Learning about the powerful, intriguing women in the lives of the Rolling Stones has made their songs come to life! A great read for anyone who loves the early days of rock and roll..