Like A Rolling Stone – It was 55 years ago that a San Francisco-based newspaper publication called Rolling Stone debuted on news stands to be the paper of record for the nascent rock music world.
The person who was its creator, editor and guiding force of its evolution from rock music paper to vanguard of new journalism was Jann S. Wenner. Many people know about the history of Rolling Stone through its highs and lows, its stable of legendary writers and photographers like Tom Wolfe, Joe Esterhas, Ben Fong Torres, Annie Leibovitz and of course Hunter S. Thompson.
But what about the history of Rolling Stone from Wenner’s point-of-view? That has finally arrived in a big way with his memoir Like A Rolling Stone. This 580-page tome tells the story the way it was meant to be told, and it leaves the reader captivated.
To Wenner, Rolling Stone was a way to bring the world of rock music and its stars to its overlooked, ignored baby boomer readers. By 1970, its added journalistic dimension, which investigated such timely topics as the tragedy at the Rolling Stones’ Altamont concert and the grisly murders that were committed the Manson Family cult helped to make Rolling Stone more than just a music magazine.
However, the major strength of this book is the plethora of great stories that Wenner recounts from his vantage point of his desk at the Rolling Stone offices on California Street. For example, there was the issue of Hunter S. Thompson’s outrageous expense account of $20,000 that he incurred while working on an investigative piece for the magazine that dealt with oil fraud in California and Nova Scotia; then there was the abortive business partnership with Mick Jagger when they created the short-lived British edition of Rolling Stone (their friendship was affected, but was later restored); and the time he attended a screening of the Beatles documentary “Let It Be” with John Lennon, which made the former Beatle leave the theatre in tears, the scars from the group’s break-up still fresh at the time.
The many celebrity encounters Wenner experienced that are chronicled in the book could at first smack of name-dropping. However, such brushes with some of the greatest names in rock music throughout his stewardship of the magazine was all part of the territory that came with the job. It’s met with a sense of fascination, and adds to the richness of the story Wenner has to tell.
The book also has a sense of confessional, which makes it an honest, well-rounded self-portrait. For example, his alcohol and drug-induced early years (especially with Thompson), which affected his journalistic judgment, both good and bad. Then there was the near 50-year struggle over his sexuality, which he finally came to terms with in a rather welcoming, favourable manner for all parties involved within his increasing nuclear family.
In short, Jann Wenner’s memoir, unlike the much quoted rolling stone, gathers a lot of moss, and rock music aficionados are glad about that.
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