I see that the silly Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone Magazine is having his pee-pee whacked for the cardinal sin of saying (supposedly) that Black artists are not as articulate as their White counterparts.
I’m reminded of the priceless Frank Zappa quote (about Rolling Stone itself), and I’m going by my admittedly-creaky memory:
“Rock journalism can be described as people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t speak, aimed at people who can’t read.”
I always thought that Rolling Stone was a silly magazine, aimed at White rock ‘n roll fans, mostly talking about White musicians. Their lists of the “Greatest [whatever]” were apparently written by people aged 18 who had no idea of any music that had been released any more than two years before they turned 16, if that.
And Wenner himself was nothing more than a rock groupie, his magazine giving him the backstage pass to all the top bands’ acts. He was an inconsequential player in a silly age, and why anyone would want to read, let alone buy his book will remain a mystery.
Well, he dissed Joni Mitchell and Grace Slick as well, for being less articulate than the guys he did choose. Both those chicks are in the pantheon (for different reasons), but if you have ever heard them interviewed, you’d have to agree with Wenner.
(Excuse me, I now need to go watch the Woodstock White Rabbit seven or eight times … )
Rolling Stone is still published?
The last time I remember actually reading an issue was in junior high school when I had to write a report on some musician. The other time I heard about them is their top whatever list, albums, guitarists, songs and such or their dreadful coverage of the Duke sexual assault story that turned out to be filled with false accusations from a black woman against white guys.
Just like the New York Times, almost all print newspapers and magazines, Rolling Stone doesn’t even make a good bird cage liner or wrapper for 6 day old fish left out on the counter in the heat of August.
JQ
Haven’t read Rolling Stone since the Mid 80’s. Had subscription when I was in Korea so I had a lifeline (along with Time and Newsweek) into what was happening culturally in back in the Land of the Big BX.
Not so much for “news” as even then I knew none of them were trustworthy in that regard (besides, I was in an Intel unit. I often saw foreign news before any of those clowns knew anything was happening).
But at least I wasn’t totally lost about cultural trivia when I got back to CONUS after a year of the heavily limited Armed Forces Radio and Television Service offerings.