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“Ain’t it hard when you’ve discovered that. . .”

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I’ve been getting solicitations from Rolling Stone to subscribe in a way that brings to mind donation appeals from the likes of the World Wildlife Fund and National Public Radio. The logos on the tote bags on offer aren’t the only things that are different. After all, the WWF and NPR are not in the business of making a profit (yes, they need money to exist, but there is another reason for their existence other than something measured in terms of EBIT).

Rolling Stone, however, is owned by Penske Media Corporation, which owns what can be thought of as a frightening number of properties including:

  • Variety
  • The Hollywood Reporter
  • Billboard
  • Rob Report
  • ARTnews
  • Artforum
  • Art in America (clearly they’re big on art)

And in the non-publication space:

  • American Music Awards
  • Dick Clark Productions
  • Golden Globe Awards
  • SxSW

There are more.

It is in the profit-making business. (Which could be redundant.)

The company unapologetically proclaims:

Our Mission:

To be the world’s premier publishing and media organization through delivering superior and innovative content, with a commitment to upholding journalistic excellence and driving today’s media evolution, all while offering the finest opportunities to the industry’s brightest talent.

As mission statements go, it pretty much checks the boxes.

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Print Publishing & BTS

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It seemed rather strange to me. Yes, I have written before about Rolling Stone offering me a tote bag were I to subscribe, as though the publication founded in 1967 was now taking the route of my local PBS station during a fund drive. What, exactly, would someone carry in their official Rolling Stone tote? Presumably not “Downton Abbey” swag. But maybe that is, indeed, what is carried.

There was a clue, however, in the email solicitation recently sent by RS. It indicated that were I to subscribe before the time was up, I would “Get the BTS Issue guaranteed.” There was a photo of the cover of that issue with the seven Korean boys on the cover with a headline above the logo reading “THE FUTURE of MUSIC ISSUE.” Which seemed to be something of a disconnection: wouldn’t the future provide something like a fan with a USB plug on the end that would allow someone to catch a breeze while getting “Instant Access” to:

–Exclusive interviews
–Award-winning features
–Trusted music, TV, and movie reviews
–In-depth political commentary

A tote bag?

As the pandemic is fading, there are an increasing number of people who are out in the market buying things, which is leading to some rather startling numbers. For example, take the Honda HR-V, a small utility vehicle. In May its sales were up 115.8% percent compared with May 2020. Sure, May 2020 was when many people were inside, calculating how to use the available toilet paper to make it last (this is something that deserves deep economic and sociological analyses: how did an allegedly advanced, 21st-century country like the U.S. suddenly have shelves bereft of Charmin and even off-label bog rolls?).

A stat that is perhaps more remarkable than that is the according to Nikkei Asia, in Q4 2020 Big Hit Entertainment had an increase of 122% year-over-year, as the firm made 52.5 billion won. Big Hit is a Korean company. That number in U.S. dollars is $47 million.

And the biggest contributor to that was BTS. That’s right, the band of the future is making big money for Big Hit, accounting for 87.7% of Big Hit’s revenue for the first half of 2020.

Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook are crushing it.

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Random Notes

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You’ve probably received emails from the likes of the New York Times and the Washington Post encouraging you to subscribe in order to support the investigative journalism that the papers perform. Yes, while there’s lots of stuff that you can get for free online, paying people to do the work is not free, so if you want to get that information, you have to support it. (Ironically enough, you are getting this for free and I am getting nothing for it. Go figure.)

I recently received a subscription solicitation in my inbox with the subject line:

Support the journalists speaking truth to power

One of those papers or The New Republic or The Atlantic or National Review or Mother Jones?

No. Rolling Stone.

While I know that the solid work of Matt Taibbi appears in the pages of RS, here’s the question: If the objective is to support solid political reporting (assuming, of course, that speaking truth to power doesn’t mean the heads of record companies or Daniel Ek), is getting a subscription to Rolling Stone the right place to spend?

Well, there is that tote bag.

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In 1997 David Bowie created, working with Prudential Financial, “Bowie bonds.” When issued, they had a face value of $1,000 and were a long-term investment, as they had a maturity of 10 years.

The purpose of the bonds was to raise money so that Bowie could buy back the rights to the music on albums released between 1969 and 1990.

There was $55 million raised.

This approach became something like the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) phenomenon that is now all the range especially in tech circles, as variants were created for James Brown and others. (One would have thought that the King of Soul could simply mint is own money, but alas. . . ).

Bowie bonds came to mind as the management company for BTS, Big Hit, went public on the Korean stock exchange and had an immediate valuation of initially $7.6-billion, which then dropped to about $4-billion, and while the number is probably something entirely different right now, odds are that unless something completely unexpected happens to the seven-member band that has been performing since 2010, odds are Big Hit will continue to be a big hit, as the members of the band are undoubtedly fungible.

The thing about music that isn’t often taken into account is the fact that it is the “music industry,” just like, say, the “auto industry.”

The $55-million of Bowie 1997 would be worth about $89 million today.

Or $3,911,000,000 short of Big Hit.

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Somewhat Like a Rolling Stone

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1967 was the year The Doors released its self-named album. Elvis and Priscilla were wed. Jimi came out with Are You Experienced? And before the year was out, the Beatles set out on The Magical Mystery Tour. 1967 was the year that Kurt Cobain was born; the year that Woody Guthrie died.

1967 was the year Rolling Stone was launched.

Although the newsprint biweekly seemed rather unusual in a period when Life magazine was thick and glossy and The Saturday Evening Post had some of the best writing going, it became an important voice because Jann Wenner and his editors had the good sense to give assignments to Tom Wolfe—The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities were consequences of writing Wolfe did for the publication—and Hunter S. Thompson, a man who we could use right now to chronicle the mendacious beasts that are slithering on the political scene today. In 1973 Annie Leibovitz became the chief photographer for the magazine, creating images that have become both signature and timeless.

Fifty-three years later, Rolling Stone still exists.

But like anything 53 years on, it isn’t what it once was.

Today Rolling Stone is owned by Penske Business Media, a privately held firm that is headed by Jay Penske. His father is Roger Penske, perhaps the most legendary still existing person in motor sports. Penske pere, for example, as a racecar team owner, has not only won more Indianapolis 500 races than anyone (18 times), but last year he bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The family does it big. To its credit, Penske Business Media owns a range of magazines, from Art in America to Variety. Anyone who keeps journalism alive deserves our thanks.

I recently got an email solicitation from Rolling Stone that said that were I to subscribe post-haste I would get “instant access” (once there would have been a tongue-in-cheek reference to “instant karma”) to:

• Exclusive interviews
• Award-winning features
• Trusted music, TV, and movie reviews
• In-depth political commentary
• Stunning original photography

And I suspect that while all of those areas have sufficiency and probably sometimes excellence, Wenner’s own interviews in the early years are rightfully legendary; the feature writing isn’t Wolfe in his prime; Thompson has never been eclipsed; and, well, Leibovitz.

But let’s put all that aside.

Here’s the thing that really drove the stake through any possibility that I would have considered achieving “instant access.”

Were I to have signed up, in addition to saving 50% on the publication, I would have gotten a “FREE Rolling Stone Tote Bag.”

Yes, the sort of thing that PBS and AARP provides to members who sign up for things.

But then again, it is 53 years old.

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50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 49

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Rolling Stone issue #48 had a cover date of December 27, 1969. 64 pages. 35 cents. Cover photo of Mick Jagger by Baron Wolman.

This is the final issue of the 1960s and with that we’re wrapping up our series. It’s been fun to revisit these old magazines, and to see how they influenced what we think of as the canon of classic rock. Jann Wenner’s anglophilia and provincial San Francisco biases are almost comically obvious, and it’s crazy to think how much one dude’s opinion continues to affect the entire music industry. Not to say the Beatles and the Stones and even Jefferson Airplane are not worthy subjects of exploration, but there was a whole lot more going on in the sixties than what was featured in Rolling Stone.

Wanner narrowed the definition of the decade down to what took place between the Monterey Pop festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969. Which, really, was just a blip. Everything before 1967 was oldies; everything after 1969 was compromised. Wenner’s idealized version of his early twenties overwhelms and sucks the oxygen out of any other period of music history. It’s ridiculous. But wow, what power!

Seems appropriate that the final issue of the sixties features a story about how the Rolling Stones are still planning to put on a free concert in San Francisco on December 6. At press time, they still didn’t have a location selected. Mick Jagger was pessimistic: “It depends on whether we can get a place. There are so many obstacles put in front of us. It’s gotten so fucking complicated.”

They would end up, of course, at the Altamont Speedway. Things didn’t turn into the “Little Woodstock” as they had hoped, but instead devolved into chaos, bad vibes, and violence, culminating in the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter by the Hells Angels. And that, so the story goes, was how the sixties ended.

Features: “Free Rolling Stones: It’s going to Happen!” by John Burks and Loraine Alterman; “Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Taylor & Reeves” by Ben Fong-Torres; “The Impressions” by Michael Alexander; “The Truth About Teen Movies” by Richard Staehling.

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50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 48

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Rolling Stone issue #48 had a cover date of December 13, 1969. 56 pages. 35 cents. Cover photo of Miles Davis.

Features: “Miles Davis” by Don Demicheal and Ralph J. Gleason; “Kiss Kiss Flutter Flutter Thank You Thank You: The Rolling Stones Fall 1969 Tour” by Jerry Hopkins; “They Put the Weight on Mick & He Carried It” by Greil Marcus; “The Environmentalists: The Whole Earth Catalog Gets Down to Business” by Thomas Albright; “Environmentalists” by John Burks; “Robbie Robertson” by Howard Gladstone; “Life and Death of Skip James” by Ed Ward.

News: Janis Busted for Naughty Words; “Who Let the Kinks In?” by Loraine Alterman; Jim Morrison Takes A Trip; Ginger Baker, Gunslinger; “Low Expectations For Strawberry” by Michael Goodwin; “I’d Rather Be Burned in Canada” by Ritchie Yorke; Two Moratorium Days: So What?; Bill Graham’s Amateur Show; Immediate Sues CBS for $7,200,000; Joni Mitchell Hangs It Up; Masked Marauders Expose Themselves; The Zombies Are A Stiff; Kinetic Playground Burns: Arsonists; “Drug Rap: 3 for The Price of 1” by Ben Fong-Torres; “The Family Dog Becomes a Family” by Ben Fong-Torres; “Ant * Farm” by Thomas Albright. And Random Notes on the Woodstock film, Booker T and the MGs, Howlin’ Wolf, Jeff Beck, The Music Scene, Ron Kass, CSNY, Jerry Corbitt. Nilsson, John Sebastian, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, The Beatles Book of Lyrics, Beach Boys, Procol Harum, Conway Twitty, and Gene Vincent.

Reviews: Memphis Swamp Jam, Bukka White, et al (by Ed Leimbacher); Original Recordings, Dan Hicks (by Geoffrey Link); Dimensions/Nonstop/Super Hits, the Box Tops (by Lester Bangs); Area Code 615 (by John Grissim); “Life’s Little Ups and Downs”, Charlie Rich (by Greil Marcus); Tadpoles, Bonzo Dog Band (by Lester Bangs); Salvation, Original Cast/Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay, Sha Na Na (by Greil Marcus); Led Zeppelin II (by John Mendelsohn); Mouldy Goldies, Colonel Jubilation B. Johnston And His Mystic Knights Band And Street Singers Attack The Hits (by Mike Saunders); Alice Faye in Hollywood (by Lester Bangs); Supersnazz, Flamin’ Groovies (by Lester Bangs); Then Play On, Fleetwood Mac (by John Morthland); Glass Onion, Arif Mardin (by David Gancher); “She Belongs To Me”, Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band/”Fortunate Son” b/w “Down on the Corner”, Creedence Clearwater Revival (by Greil Marcus); Stand Up!, Jethro Tull (by Ben Gerson); In the Jungle, Babe, the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm and Blues/Gotta Groove, the Bar-Kays (by Lester Bangs); Keep On Moving, Butterfield Blues Band (by Gary Von Tersch); The Dells Great Hits/Love Is Blue (by Ed Leimbacher); Condemned: Extremely Heavy, Kim Fowley/A New Day, Theo Bikel/Live Electronic Music, Steve Reich.

Columns: “Astrology” by Ambrose Hollingsworth; “Cinema: Sympathy For the Devil” by Marjorie Heins; “Cinema: Take The Money And Run” by Hendrik Hertzberg; “Cinema: Lion’s Love” by Michael Goodwin; “Books: The Story of Rock” by Jon Carroll; “Books: Electric Tibet” by Jon Carroll; “Books: The Age of Rock, Sounds of the American Cultural Revolution” by John Morthland.

Also: “Ernest Hemingway’s Typist” by Richard Brautigan; “A High Building In Singapore” by Richard Brautigan.

Subscription offer: Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane, free with 50 cents shipping. $6 for 26 issues; $10 for 52.

Previously: Issue 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47.

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50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 47

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Rolling Stone issue #47 had a cover date of November 29, 1969. 56 pages. 35 cents. Cover illustration of Bob Dylan.

This was the “Second Anniversary Issue” and instead of any album reviews it features a five-page overview of Bob Dylan’s discography by Greil Marcus.

Jann Wenner pens a justifiably self-congratulatory column in which he celebrates the magazine’s coups and achievements and especially focuses on the February “groupie” issue (#27) which pushed them onto the national radar. He ends with a prescription and a prediction:

Rock and roll is a thing with great potential and power. In the last year this energy has flashed with power at Woodstock, but in so many other areas has diffused and scattered.

Rolling Stone is wailing along at a nice little clip. This country is also wailing along at a nice little clip on the road to destruction. If there is any hop left, I think that before the next two years are out, the culture we represent will make a serious effort at and succeed in taking for itself the political power it represents.

If there happens to be a third anniversary letter from the editor, I hope much of it is about that.

Spoiler alert: the third anniversary letter from the editor (#72) was not about that.

Features: “Allen Klein: I Cured all their Problems” by Our Staff; “New Beatles Film: Let It Be”; “The Rolling Stone Interview: Bob Dylan” by Jann Wenner; “Bob Dylan: Breaking Down The Incomplete Discography” by Greil Marcus.

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50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 46

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Rolling Stone issue #45 had a cover date of November 15, 1969. 48 pages. 35 cents. Cover photo of the Beatles by Camera Press-Pix.

Features: “The Beatles: You Never give me your Money” by Our Staff; “The Stones Tour: Is That A Lot?” by Jerry Hopkins; “Keith Richards” by Ritchie Yorke; “San Quentin” by Jon Carroll; “Memories of an Apple Girl” by Francie Schwartz; “Jimi Hendrix: I don’t want to be a Clown any More…” by Sheila Weller.

News: One and One and One Is Three?; “Music Scene Ain’t Got No Balls” by Ben Fong-Torres; Delaney & Bonnie: No Hard Feelings?; “Blunt Music from A Black Panther” by Eliot Tiegel; White Panther On the Lam; Moratorium: The Beat Went On; “Early Blues Artist Skip James Dies”; “Chess Records’ Co-Founder Dies”; Janis Joplin Story–Minus Janis; “Creedence: Show Biz in Denver” by Richard Kreck; “Redding On Jimi: I Said Stuff It” by Ritchie Yorke; James Taylor Crash: Breaks Both Hands; New Underground Blast Reported; Two More Men Rolling Stoned; In the Next Issue; Owsley Guilty: 67 1/2 Righteous Grams; US, Mexico Resume Peaceful Trade; Donovan’s Trippy Anti-Trip Trip; Nixon Going Soft On Dope Smokers; Hawaiian Plant for Jefferson Airplane. And Random Notes on Bob Dylan, May Hopkin, Buddy Miles, Small Faces, Steve Miller Band, Flying Burrito Brothers, Dewey Martin, Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin, Star Club, Plastic Ono Band, Bee Gees, Jack Bruce, Richie Havens, Popcorn, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Dion, Willie Dixon, Mac Davies, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Chicago, Doors, Love, Fleetwood Mac, Hair.

Reviews: Abbey Road, The Beatles (by John Mendelsohn); Abbey Road, The Beatles (by Ed Ward); In a Silent Way, Miles Davis (by Lester Bangs); Emergency, The Tony Williams Lifeline (by Lester Bangs); The Hunter, Ike and Tina Turner (by Pete Welding); Boz Scaggs (by Ed Leimbacher); What This Is!, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (by John Morthland); Ready to Ride, Southwind (by Gary Von Tersch); Whatever’s Right, Lonnie Mack (by John Morthland); Just Good Old Rock and Roll, The Electric Prunes/Rock and Roll, Vanilla Fudge (by Lester Bangs); It’s Not Killing Me, Michael Bloomfield/My Labors, Nick Gravenites/Live at Bill Graham’s Fillmore West, Mike Bloomfield and Friends (by David Gancher); The Cajun Way, Doug Kershaw (by Ed Leimbacher); Early Days, The Zombies (by John Mendelsohn); He’s a Friend of Mine, The Edwin Hawkins Singers; Love Is All We Have to Give, The Checkmates Ltd. (by Greil Marcus); Songs for a Tailor, Jack Bruce (by Ed Leimbacher); Terry Reid (by John Mendelsohn); You Never Know Who Your Friends Are, Al Kooper (by John Burks); Make a Joyful Noise, Mother Earth (by Patrick Thomas).

Columns: “Perspectives: Believe in the Magic” by Ralph J. Gleason; “Astrology” by Ambrose Hollingsworth; “Putney Swope” by Hendrik Hertzberg; “Books” by Ed Leimbacher (on Rock from the Beginning by Nik Cohn); “Books” by Jon Carroll (on Jim Morrison and the Doors by Mike Jahn).

Poetry: “Low Tide” by William Witherup.

Subscription offer: Fathers and Songs by Muddy Waters and friends, free with 50 cents shipping. $6 for 26 issues; $10 for 52.

Previously: Issue 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45.

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50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 45

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Rolling Stone issue #45 had a cover date of November 1, 1969. 48 pages. 35 cents. Cover photo of Tina Turner by Robert Altman.

Features: “The Rolling Stone Interview: Phil Spector” by Jann Wenner; “Johnny Cash” by John Grissim; “A2 Blues” by Jerry Heist; “The First Tycoon of Teen” by Tom Wolfe (originally published in New York Magazine in 1965).

News: Straight Dope on the Crisis; A Temple of Cannabis; “Big Heroin Scare Shakes France” by Ferris Hartman; The Band Goes On the Road; “Record Ads Hitting Below the Belt” by Ben Fong-Torres; Tragedy Strikes David Crosby; Park Protesters Camera-Shy; Zappers Zapped in New York, LA; Timothy Leary is a Democrat; Kids Do the Darndest Things; Seeds & Stems; “A ‘People’s Park’ In Copenhagen” by Carol Matzkin; “GI Joe Visits The Troops” by Ed Jeffords; “Hall of Fame for Rhythm and Blues” by Jerry Hopkins; “Texas Pop: Heat, But Not So Hot” by John Zeh; “Monterey Jazz: A Festival No More” by Langdon Winner; “Mt. Tam Energy Bash” by Michael Goodwin; Xmas Release Set for Masked Marauders. And Random Notes on Phil Ochs, Donovan, Jimi Hendrix, KRLA, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Lulu, Newport 69, Timothy Leary, Desmond Dekker (“My wife and my children they fuck-off and leave me”), B.B. King, Mary Robbins, Syntonic Research, and Playboy vs. Soul.

Reviews: Arthur, The Kinks (by Michael Daly); Arthur, The Kinks (by Greil Marcus); Words and Music by Bob Dylan, The Hollies (by John Mendelsohn); Kozmic Blues, Janis Joplin (by Ed Leimbacher); Kozmic Blues, Janis Joplin (by John Burks); The Chantels (by Langdon Winner); Mother Earth Presents Tracy Nelson Country (by Patrick Thomas); Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Springfield (by Greil Marcus); Nothing But a Heartache, The Flirtations (by Greil Marcus); The Two Sides of Linda Gail Lewis (by Andy Boehm); Melanie (by Gig Lee); Sweet Linda Divine (by Chris Hodenfield); Stronger Than Dirt, Big Mama Thornton (by John Morthland).

Columns: “Books” by Langdon Winner (on The Making of a Counter Culture by Theodore Roszak; “Books” by John Grissim (on Trans-action magazine: The Anti-American Generation).

Poetry: “August 6, 1969” by Tom Clark; “February Landscape” by Gary Von Tersch.

Subscription offer: Fathers and Songs by Muddy Waters and friends, free with 50 cents shipping. $6 for 26 issues; $10 for 52.

Previously: Issue 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44.

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50 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Issue 44

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Rolling Stone issue #44 had a cover date of October 18, 1969. 48 pages. 35 cents. Cover photo of David Crosby by Robert Altman.

48 pages this time, with tons of reviews to make up for the previous issue that had none. The funniest review is a spoof written by Greil Marcus under the pseudonym T.M. Christian for a non-existent album called The Masked Marauders featuring “the unmistakable vocals make it clear that this is indeed what it appears to be: John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Bob Dylan backed by George Harrison and a drummer…” The hoax created such a hubbub that the Rolling Stone editors actually hired a band to record the album! Rhino Handmade reissued it in 2001, and it’s currently available on streaming services. Now that’s a good joke.

Features: “Rock and Roll Revival Surprise: John & Yoko” by Melinda McCracken; “Great Dope Purge Of 1969”; “Big Sur” by Jerry Hopkins; “The Fifties” by Howard Junker; “Sha Na Na Na Yip yip Mum mum get a job” by Jan Hodenfield.

News: “Lennon on Toronto: ‘Bloody Marvelous'” by Ritchie Yorke; George Harrison On Abbey Road; “Mothers’ Day Has Finally Come” by Jerry Hopkins; James Brown Off His Night Train; “FM Hang-up: ‘You Can’t Say That…'” by Ben Fong-Torres; Split, Fight Over Woodstock Stock; A Pop Festival in The Mother Lode; Blues’ Josh White Dead at 61; Tiny Tim Loves ‘Miss Vicki’; Delaney & Bonnie’s ‘Super’ Friends; Band Opens Up Old Fillmore; “Harenchi” by Michael Berger; “Pachuko” by Rafeal Espinosa. And Random Notes.

Reviews: Original Golden Greats, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Jerry Lee Lewis (by Bob Kirsch); Truly Fine Citizen, Moby Grape (by Ben Gerson); “My Guitar”, The Mothers (by Black Shadow); “Carry Me Back”, The Rascals/”Suspicious Minds”, Elvis Presley (by Greil Marcus); The Flock (by Langdon Winner); Fear Itself/Tons of Sobs, Free (by Ed Leimbacher); The Stooges (by Edmund O. Ward); Preflyte, The Byrds (by Lester Bangs); Green River, Creedence Clearwater Revival (by Bruce Miroff); Word of Mouth, Merryweather (by John Morthland); The Masked Marauders (by T.M. Christian); Santana (by John Morthland and Langdon Winner); Fathers and Sons, Muddy Waters-Paul Butterfield-Mike Bloomfield-Otis Spann-Duck Dunn-Sam Lay (by Pete Welding); Black and White, Tony Joe White (by Ed Ward); Karma, Pharoah Sanders (by Langdon Winner); Sssh, Ten Years After (by Ben Gerson); In the Plain, Savage Rose (by Lester Bangs); Through the Past Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), Rolling Stones (by Greil Marcus); The Band (by Ralph J. Gleason); Direct Hits, The Who (by Ed Ward); “Curly”, The Move/”Something in the Air”, Thunderclap Newman (by John Mendelsohn).

Columns: “Astrology” by Ambrose Hollingsworth.

Poetry: “I Know What You’re Thinking” by Billy Collins; “Woke Up This Morning Feeling” by Robert Sundstrom.

Subscription offer: Love Man by Otis Redding, free with 50 cents shipping. $6 for 26 issues; $10 for 52.

Previously: Issue 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43.