Wednesday, November 13, 2024

in the company of greatness

 ----------------- [excerpt from Rolliing Stone Magazine, by Robert Draper] ----------------------- Instead of defining rock & roll, or deifying it, Rolling Stone covered it - a truly revolutionary idea.  Its writers interviewed Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton with the sense of purpose a Time reporter would bring to an interview with Henry Kissinger.  


Musicians were worthy news figures, proclaimed Rolling Stone, and their music was worthy of analysis.  Readers often disagreed, sometimes vehemently with the magazine's seminal critics:  Jon Landau, Greil Marcus, Langdon Winner, Jim Miller, Paul Nelson, John Morthland, Lester Bangs, Ed Ward and Dave Marsh.  

        In the end, however, these disputes were always welcome, for they upheld Jann Wenner's larger argument:  The music matters.


Jann Wenner was...desperate for acceptance and affection.  His distinctiveness forever completed with his primal longings.  From his adolescent days onward, Jann Wenner sought connections.  His greatest goal in life was to be where the action was....


        ...His own stature never preoccupied him as his surroundings did.  Jann Wenner yearned to be in the company of greatness.





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