Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson
The definitive collection of the king of gonzo journalism’s finest work for ROLLING STONE “Buy the ticket, take the ride,” was a favorite slogan of Hunter S. Thompson, and it pretty much defined both his work and his life. Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases the roller-coaster of a career at the magazine that was his literary home. Jann S. Wenner, the outlaw journalist’s friend and editor for nearly thirty-five years, has assembled articles that begin with Thompson’s infamous run for sheriff of Aspen on the Freak Party ticket in 1970 and end with his final piece on the Bush-Kerry showdown of 2004. In between is Thompson’s remarkable coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign—a miracle of journalism under pressure—an
List Price: $ 32.50
Price: $ 15.68
You Can’t Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates
An exhilarating, all-access rock memoir from someone who has seen and done it all, this telling recounts the many experiences of Sam Cutler, the former tour manager of the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. With intimate portraits of other stars of the psychedelic circus that was the music industry in the 1960s and 1970s—including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Band, the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, and Eric Clapton—this account is an ideal resource for any music fan. A detailed explanation of the infamous Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, where a man in the crowd was killed by the Hells Angels, is also included.
List Price: $ 17.95
Price: $ 8.07
Related Rolling Stones Products
OVERVIEW OF THOMPSON’S WRITING AT ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE,
Hardcover-3 page Forward by Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine (RS) and Thompson’s friend, 8 page Introduction by writer Paul Scanlon, 561 pages of text, and Acknowledgments page. The book contains no photographs or other reproductions, except the cover photo. Interspersed throughout is a very small sampling of correspondence between RS publisher Wenner and Thompson, which helps somewhat in tying the various pieces together.
Depending on how you view this book, it may simply be a money generating effort, or as a kind of loose, alternative biography of Hunter Thompson and his (early) years at RS, as seen through excerpts of his writing. If (like me) you’ve read all of Thompson’s writing over the years-including his books and articles published in RS-you may not glean much in the way of information about Thompson’s life and/or writing. But for some reason, it’s still fun to read Thompson’s take on America and the legal/political machine-and the people involved-during some intense years.
This is a look, using Thompson’s writing and some correspondence between Wenner and Thompson, at the “Hunter Thompson era” at RS. Is it interesting? Yes-especially if you’re new to Thompson and the many articles published in RS over a number of years. It’s no accident that Thompson’s name is listed at the bottom of the masthead of RS (along with Ralph J. Gleason), because in the early years of the magazine, Thompson helped define a new style of writing, in a new type of magazine, for a new generation-primarily those who came of age in the late 1960′s/early 70′s. During his years at RS (especially), his articles were looked forward to by many people. I still remember pouring over his pieces (like many others) as they appeared in the magazine, all these years later. And this overview of his writing brings back those uncertain, exciting times. If you weren’t there during that era, this book will give you a glimmer of what things were like “back then”.
This overview begins in 1970, and Thompson’s slightly weird run for sheriff of Aspen, where he lived in his “fortified compound”. From there we read a good piece on the murder of Ruben Salazar by a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy, who shot a tear gas bomb into a bar where Salazar was sitting, killing him. Thompson’s crazed trip to Las Vegas, to a law and order convention is also here-with some of that long articles best writing. Of course no book of Thompson’s writing would be complete without his twisted look at politics in the early 1970′s. His writing on politics is really the meat of this book. From McGovern to Nixon to Clinton-politics, as seen through Thompson’s strained, slightly delirious eyes-is laid out as political writing had never been done before. The book effectively ends with a piece on George Bush, who Thompson despised about as much as he did Richard Nixon. In between is a lot of demented, twisted writing-writing that nonetheless seemed to open up and shine a light on”the American dream” as never before.
But this book is also a biography, as such, on Rolling Stone Magazine, and the generation who were fast becoming aware of the political scene in America. Thompson was given the title, head of the “National Affairs Desk” at RS, and he used that title (and quite possibly some weird substances) to go wherever the story might take him-and to some places only in his mind’s eye. But that’s what made Thompson’s writing so electric, so alive, so pertinent, and sometimes so unalterably twisted. There’s a reason that Thompson was included in the recent (well worth reading) book “Deadline Artists-America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns”. His writing speaks to people about something important-and his inclusion in that collection, along with many other of our greatest columnists, is certainly secure and proper.
If you’ve only read his book on the Hell’s Angels, this collection of writing will be an eye-opener. This is a good book for anyone wishing to know more about Thompson’s writing, and about those years (1970-2004) of great change in America covered in the book. And it took a new kind of magazine (with Ralph Gleason’s help and encouragement) like Rolling Stone, who steadily published Thompson’s work, to the delight of a new generation. If you come across something appealing-then investigate the entire piece in the pertinent book-you’ll find more of the same, and then some. Thompson was unique-from his early boyhood to his days in the Armed Forces, to the era this book covers. The book “Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson”, is a biography worth reading, if you want to know what made him tick. He had a way of distilling things down to their basic components, and then shining a clear light on what he found. This book is a fine example of that. That, and the fact that America could use a writer of Thompson’s caliber today.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Thompson’s Adventures,
Right after the assassination of President John Kennedy, writer Hunter S. Thompson wrote his friend William Kennedy, “There is no human being within 500 mile to whom I can communicate anymore – much less the fear and loathing that is on me after today’s murder.” This phrase “fear and loathing” became Thompson’s trade mark phrase, one of a writer who reported on his terms.
Now in a remarkable book edited by Jann S. Wenner, Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stones: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson, we are able to peel back the copy and experience Hunter in full form. Wenner, friend and editor for over 25 years for Thompson has compiled a valuable collection from this off beat writer.
Included are Hunter’s correspondence mixed in with his final copy. What makes this a fascinating read is to view the world through the Hunter lens.
You delve into his first dealings with his trusty lawyer, Mr. Gonzo, the original draft of what became a cult hit in Fear and Loathing Las Vegas and learn of his $40,000 in story expenses (including $7,500 for something listed on a hotel bill as “incinerated sofa”) for a story on polo. Thompson seemed to live as outrageous as he wrote.
He chronicles his political dealings with Jimmy Carter in Georgia way before he was President and being part of the boys on the bus in following the McGovern campaign.
A highlight for me was reading his final writings on the 2004 Kerry campaign and final rants. I have enjoyed his Thompson’s books and seeing the movies based on him as in the recently released Rum Diaries, but this book is sure to become a seminal part of the Hunter S. Thompson legacy.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Love it.,
I won’t bore you with a huge review full of why i dislike or hate this book, mainly because I didn’t. I loved it, and, if you’re a Hunter fan, you will love it too.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Rock Noir At Its Most Gripping,
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is a gripping rock ‘n’ roll saga which should appeal to anyone who is intrigued by authentic ‘I was there’ memoirs. Sam Cutler’s book is not your usual press clippings cut and paste job from a rock journalist, aged groupie or a sycophantic fan. It’s the Real Thing, lucidly and well written from a Napoleon styled tour manager’s point of view.
Cutler’s tome doesn’t solely focus on his role of tour manager, but starts prior to his career in rock ‘n’ roll, when he was illegitimately born in a stately home in Hertfordshire during World War 11. He was consequently placed in an orphanage and was adopted when he was three, but didn’t discover his true parentage until he was fifteen. His natural mother was Irish from a gypsy family who had been abandoned by his father, a Jewish mathematician who then died on active service in the Royal Air Force.
‘In the blood of my veins, I was Irish, Gypsy, and Jew!’ Cutler exclaims, thankful he wasn’t English but was a mixture of ‘three persecuted races’, and not of pure English stock like the Cutlers, his adoptive protestant parents who renamed him Sam (his birth name was Brendan Lyons).
`All I could think was how grateful I was that I wasn’t English and named Cyril, ‘ Cutler quips which illustrates what a droll writer he is.
His adoptive Communistic parents always had music in the house and Sam was raised on ‘union songs and paeans to Stalin and the Red Army.`
‘One would reasonably think that after countless acid trips and the experiences of the drug-fuelled sixties, the words of obscure political songs would fade from my mind, but to this day they remain eerie reminders of that distant country which is my past,’ Cutler reminisces.
Sam Cutler’s disabled father died when he was eight and when his mother remarried, he was re-located to their new home in the suburbs where in was his own words, he became a ‘typical teenager’, listened to music and dreamt of going to California. Instead, he became a teacher, ran a folk club and played the guitar.
‘I wasn’t interested so much in being a performer as in organising shows. Production is a bit like being a general – if you’re going to attack Russia, you need a decent plan!’
After he stopped teaching and emigrated to London, he quickly became involved in the city’s psychedelic music scene. After working on the Pink Floyd’s and Blind Faith’s free concerts in Hyde Park, the Rolling Stones asked him to be their tour manager after their Brian Jones’ ‘memorial’ concert in the park, and according to Cutler, ‘the largest free concert in England.’
Fortunately for the reader, Sam Cutler remembers details of events in his life, as well as verbatim conversations with his R.I.P. friends like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia.
After Cutler was anointed the Stones’ new tour manager, he went to Los Angeles with the band.
‘It’s a massive responsibility, looking after people like the Rolling Stones. There are people out there who want to get in bed with them and give them the proverbial cuddle, but there are also people out there who may want to hurt them. So there are security issues, plus making a nice home base in a foreign country.’
When Sam got on stage at the LA concert, and famously introduced them as “the greatest rock and roll band in the world”, he was using reverse psychology, trying to goad them into actually believing it. After that, Sam used that intro for the rest of the tour, and they are the first words heard in “Gimme Shelter”.
Sam Cutler is a humorous writer and manages to consistently portray himself as an un-egotistical, selfless and a fair-minded character, unfazed by the antics of the legendary musicians, whose touring lives he looked after twenty four hours a day.
While the Stones took their roles of cosseted rock stars for granted, Cutler’s tough job consisted of him having had to deal with the tour that involved riot police, the groupies, drug dealers, mobsters and the usual flotsam and jetsam of hanger-ons. If that wasn’t heavy enough for him to contend with, Sam even bought a gun to protect himself while he was forced to deal with the FBI, the CIA and Mafia figures all on three hours sleep a night.
After the disastrous Altamont concert, the Stones escaped in a helicopter leaving Cutler to be the scapegoat. There has never been an official investigation into what actually happened at Altamont but Cutler records for posterity the political build up to the free concert and the concert’s aftermath, which is the core of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.
What is also fascinating about Cutler’s exemplary ‘rock noir’ autobiography is that after the Stones dumped him, he effortlessly slid into working with the Northern California’s domiciled…
Read more
Was this review helpful to you?
|Cudos to you Sam – A Smashing Success,
Could not put this down. Could not do another thing until I finished it. Thank you Sam Cutler for a rollicking, rousing, racy and romantic, repartee of your adventures with the Stones and the Dead. You have done a handsome and gracious job of reporting the truths about the music, the times, the people and the total trip that it truly was. Thank you for writing – for all the world to read at last – the story of what really happened at Altamont. Thank you for revealing the politics, the power plays, the Fed/Mafia sabotage. No-one else would do it, or could do it; you have the guts and the data. You’re the man, Sam. So glad to know you a little better and very much looking forward to another tome from you.
Highly recommended reading to whomever would like to know the truth of the times and the politics that “killed rock and roll” that gruesome December night in 1969.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Altamont is only the beginning,
Sam Cutler was tour manager for the Rolling Stones for the 1968 tour that ended with the free show at Altamont where a man was stabbed to death right in front of the stage. This clearly has been the albatross that has hung around his neck throughout his life. As he says in the first chapter this book was written to set the record straight about what happened at Altamont. The first 185 pages of this 325 page book lead to Altamont, but there is more to this book.
Throughout the book you hear tales of Cutler’s friendship not just with the Stones and The Dead, but with Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett and Janis Joplin. You hear tales of his job sometimes as just a glorified baby sitter to a bunch of high rock-stars as he helps them through the land-mines of groupies, drug dealers and mobsters.
The book reads as if you are talking to Sam Cutler as the events happened. Although with so many tales of his own drug use, I kind of wonder how he could remember any of it. You will read wonderful stories about his wrestling match with promoter Bill Graham or the acid laced birthday cake for Janis Joplin that was shared with the off duty police that were working security.
Before reading this book I didn’t know if it would have much appeal to me. I like the Stones okay, but my musical taste seems to skip the period of time he is talking about. I was happy to find a book that discussed this era in such a conversational manner written by someone who while he regrets some of the things that happened (see Altamont) you can still tell was having the time of his life. I really learned a lot about this middle period in rock history and am glad I read it.
Was this review helpful to you?
|