Jann Wenner not happy with new "tawdry" biography

It's a rare issue of RS that doesn't have at least one exhaustive article covering an important topic; fracking, carbon releases, melting ice caps, the Middle East, and yes in depth politics by Matt Taibbi whose articles I have actually outlined.

In the old days their music criticism was overwhelmingly negative (like these comments!). Look up their reviews of Zep, Steppenwolf, Spirit, the Doors, whomever. They did a lot of damage to worthy careers.

There were two previous attempts at a Wenner bio, both halted.

 

"It's déjà vu all over again." - Lawrence Peter
"Yogi" Berra.

Shakey: Neil Young's Biography - Jimmy
McDonough.

 

Will music historians of the future know what a nonentity this guy was?

 

“At one time,” Hagan writes, picking up a copy of Rolling Stone was “like holding a piece of hot shrapnel from the cultural explosion of the 1960s while it still glowed with feeling and meaning.”

Or... It was a magazine about pop music. And I say this as someone whose career from the are of 17 has been 85 percent writing about pop music. Let's not pretend it's any more important than it is.

 

Wenner? He was extremely important in rock and cultural journalism.

The Patty Hearst story alone ......

 

No musician I know takes that rag seriously. Only teens and boomer fanboys.

Does everyone here more or less agree with Mazzy on this?

 

Not anymore but they were pretty much THE semi alternate cultural and music magazine through the early 80s

It’s ok not to agree with me but it’s a fact.

 

When did you start reading the magazine?

 

I think their most dramatic cover especially when you know the day it was taken.

 

I've never been a reader of the magazine. It's peripheral and inessential. I want to know what other people think. Especially since I think rock n roll was dead before it came into existence.

 

Well 1968 alone was a pretty incredible year but to each his own.

 

Well if they do then he probably wasn't.

 

Jann: How's my bio coming along?
Writer: Well, it's a think piece . . . .

 

I let my subscription lapse in 1970 but I still have all those issues. I guess I just lost interest after 1970.

 

I occasionally read some of the original album reviews for what are now considered classics. They are interesting and I suppose things like that are of historical interest. Reading what somebody thought of X in 1968 when it was new compared to some recent long-winded piece about how influential X was.

But I guess the point I was attempting to make (maybe it's not a good one) is the amount coverage this guy gets vs. what he's actually done is extremely disproportionate. I mean, you'd think this guy taught Elvis to shake his hips, introduced Brian Wilson to LSD, gave Harrison his first sitar, etc.

 

You think rock 'n' roll died before 1967? Is this you?

 

Well, it was all downhill after Buddy Holly died.

 

He's only saying all that cuz RS hated BLUE MOVES too

 

Never read the magazine and Rock music died before 1967.

With all due respect, I think a village is missing an idiot in South Dakota.

 

So you did read the magazine.
No you're not making much sense at all, and now your just making some garbage up to convince yourself of your own opinions.
You've got some issues, no doubt about it.
Good luck to you, sir.

 

A tawdry book for a tawdry guy!

 

You can find original reviews online. I've never been a reader.

 

"Say, my good man, why are you stonewalling Eddie Money from the Hall of Fame?"

 

Let me be the umpteenth to say that Wenner is a deeply flawed and tawdry kind of guy. He kinda defines smarm and train-jumping. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he's currently rethinking his sexuality for another announcement.

 

Ha - that's actually kind of why I didn't talk to him about the Rock Hall!

I've always semi-defended the Rock Hall - it's not a perfect institution, but the attacks on it here are nutso.

I would've wanted to ask Wenner about the controversies not to "accuse him" but to get his perspective on them,

I worried that if I did this, though, he would've just assumed I was another fanboy who wanted to chew him out.

But I would've just queried about the processes and his thoughts about the controversies.

And then I would've attacked him for stonewalling Eddie Money!