Southern Bookman

Star power burns bright in Rolling Stone founder Jann S. Wenner's memoir "Like a Rolling Stone"

Rolling Stone magazine founder and influential editor Jann S. Wenner's memoir exudes Baby Boomer aspirations, arrogance and delusions.

"Like a Rolling Stone" gives a blow-by-blow account of Wenner's career in the rock and roll fast lane, from the founding of Rolling Stone on a shoestring in 1967 to his giving up control of his Internet-challenged media empire after Donald Trump's election shocked Wenner's cohort of celebrity progressives.

Like images flashing past in a video game, Wenner beams out a dizzying array of famous names, dinner parties, cruises, ski trips. concerts, power lunches and drug-drenched bacchanalias.

While Wenner gives an impressive roll call of of Rolling Stone's scoops and journalistic innovations, his hedonism, egoism and thirsting for celebrity validation exhibit the worst excesses of his generation.

He breathlessly chronicles what he characterizes as close friendships with superstars John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Townshend, closely linking his magazine to promoting their careers. He also boasts of friendships with recording industry executives, a bit close for a music journalist.

Never resting from the social swirl, he also recalls close relationships with Jackie Onassis, John F. Kennedy Jr., Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Tom Wolfe, Bette Midler and Michael Douglas.

The rapid-fire collision of names, gossip and events makes for an exciting narrative, much more captivating than Joe Hagan's lackluster biography "Sticky Fingers."

As the magazine rises in power and influence, and he launches new magazines like "Us Weekly," Wenner veers further and further away from the modest communal values of co-founder Ralph J. Gleason.

Rolling Stone star writer Hunter S. Thompson's rise and sad decline is the book's tragic centerpiece. Fans of Rolling Stone's classic days will again thrill to Thompson's emergence in the magazine with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and his coverage of presidential campaigns. Wenner poignantly expresses the despair and heartbreak of Thompson's mental and physical downfall, culminating in his suicide.

Wenner nearly met a similar fate. He recounts his recovery from a terrifying health crisis that almost caused his death. But he came back to write his memoirs.

On his last issue of Rolling Stone, he placed young environmental activist Greta Thunberg on the cover.

At 75, he's forever young.

 

Stephen Sondheim interviews give engaging portrait of theatrical giant

New Yorker writer D.T. Max conducted a series of interviews with Stephen Sondheim for a magazine profile that never appeared, except for a couple of Talk of the Town pieces.

Intially receptive to the extensive New Yorker piece, Sondheim eventually turned against its publication, fearing it would expose too much of his private life.

But Sondheim fans can glimpse the late composer's generally warm yet prickly personality in Max's "Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim," a compilation of interview transcripts, along with Max's commentaries.

Recorded at Sondheim's townhome at New York City's Turtle Bay and his home in Connecticut, where the musical theater giant died at age 91 in late 2021, the casual interviews reveal a generous, urbane man who fiercely defends his artistic standards.

Sondheim as if talking to the reader gives engaging recollections of his career as a major figure in musical theater, recalling producers, librettists, actors and the production of shows such as "Sweeney Todd," "Company," "Follies," and "Sunday in the Park With George."

Along with theater lore and gossip, Sondheim discusses his composing techniques, fascinating even for those with little understanding of musical theory. Those in a variety of creative fields can benefit from his artistic practices.

In the most entertaining chapter, Max presents a journalistic account of accompanying Sondheim to a PEN writers organization event where Sondheim received an award, presented by Meryl Streep. In the piece, Streep and Sondheim talk about their long friendship, which began when Streep was a drama student at Yale.

Opening a curtain on the sophisticated social life of theatrical artists, Streep and Sonheim look back on enchanted evenings playing charades and other parlor games, some invented by Sondheim. The interviews disclose that Sondheim delighted in puzzles, and once wrote crossword puzzles for New York magazine.

He also loved old movies, classical show tunes, literature and Broadway plays. He was devoted to working each day. At the time of the interviews, he was working on several projects.

While Sondheim comes across as mainly genial and open, he bristles a few times when defending his rigorous standards, such as always using exact rhymes instead of slant rhymes. He even castigated celebrated lyricists like Lorenz Hart for their inexact constructions. In one interview, Sondheim criticizes Cole Porter for what he considers an egregious line in "The Taming of the Shrew."

Sondheim didn't even like his own lyrics written for Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story," believing they were too artificially theatrical.

Max's conversations with Sondheim reveal a man who sought the best in his daily life and his illustrious work. Sondheim's music was his gift to the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell, Jerry Lee Lewis, a true American original

Once when I was young I saw Jerry Lee Lewis perform at the Baton Rouge State Fair.

It was wild. Jerry Lee, the sorcerer who never stopped leering at his audience, leaped up and down and pounded his piano with boogie-woogie abandon. He even played with his feet, pumping in perfect time.

Lewis' death last week at age 87 brought back my still vivid memories of that afternoon when "the  Killer" held us in thrall.

No one I saw over the years gave such an electric performance.

Little Richard when he burst out of Macon, Ga., or the young Elvis might have matched Lewis' power. Bands that Lewis influenced like the Rolling Stones and the Who worked hard to achieve his natural manic energy.

Lewis was a true American original. His performance was a pure blast of musical libido. Every concert I saw after that carried part of Jerry Lee's essence.

 

 

 

 

 

Austin Butler establishes major stardom with "Elvis" performance

Austin Butler channels Elvis Presley's raw, revolutionary talent in Baz Luhrmann's fanciful film "Elvis."

Performing Elvis's songs and conjuring his sexually explosive gyrations, Butler eerily matches the real Elvis. He brings out Elvis' sexual ambiguity, the boyish effeminacy and masculine grace that rocketed young girls' libidos.

Luhrmann examines black musicians' influence on Elvis, and how his loosening of female sexuality was seen as subversive by white supremacist politicians like Mississippi Sen. James Eastland. He even imagines a friendship in Memphis between Elvis and B.B. King, and exaggerates Elvis' threat to the white power structure, dubiously claiming that Elvis was threatened with arrest before joining the Army.

Tom Hanks gives a leering, overly broad performance as Elvis' fraudulent and controlling manager Col. Tom Parker. Olivia DeJonge delivers a restrained portrayal of Priscilla Presley, whom Elvis met in Germany during his Army service.

With dynamic musical performances, from the Louisiana Hayride to Elvis' sad last Vegas years, the film presents Elvis as a major musical innovator shackled by Parker's manipulations.

Butler captures Elvis' primal, culture-changing talent, ahead of its time and yet defining his age.

Farewell, Anita Kerr, who helped define Nashville Sound

The 15-year-old Brenda Lee's call and response oral recitation on her 1960 hit "I'm Sorry" is one of the most spine-tingling moments of the "Nashville Sound."

Answering Lee's anguished lament to the responding background chorus, a female singer's voice breaks free, as if flying toward a light-filled horizon where healing might be found for the tormented young lover.

That was Anita Kerr, one of the underappreciated giants of Nashville music. Kerr, who died Monday at age 94 at her home in Geneva, Switzerland, led the Anita Kerr Singers, background performers on countless country and early rock hits.

The Memphis native arranged background vocals on recordings such as Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely" and Bobby Bare's "Detroit City." Kerr's group along with equally prolific Legionnaires gave Nashville songs their distinctive melodic shadings.

She also produced many records, receiving little credit. While Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley are lauded as the creators of the lush Nashville "countrypolitan" sound, adding strings and sultry vocals, Kerr also gave her artistic finish to many recordings.

After years in Nashville, she moved to Los Angeles, where the group enjoyed a successful recording career. She later moved to Europe.

Recordings of Kerr's work preserved on YouTube show the range of her talent. Anita Kerr gave the Nashville Sound its tapestry. .

Elton John says farewell to Nashville with love, gratitude

Yes, it's been a long, long time.

Yet the 75-year-old Elton John still gives his all. In an outpouring of love and gratitude, Sir Elton thrilled 60,000 adoring fans in an incandescent concert at Nashville's Nissan Stadium Sunday night.

Spectacular video images beamed from giant screens above the stage shifted during the evening to photos from Sir Elton's 50-year career and closeups of him and his topflight band of old colleagues still rocking.

In homage to Sir Elton's grandiose concert costumes, many in the crowd wore flashy outfits and outrageous glasses, earning a word of appreciation from the consummate showman. Sir Elton wore a fairly restrained white coat with tails, switching to an elegant blue jacket and at the end a lounging outfit for a tender encore.

Sir Elton and mates propelled the crowd to stand and dance for most of the show, performing a generous selection of his greatest hits. "Rocket Man" took the evening to a higher stratosphere from which it never descended.

In his final performance in Nashville on his "Farewell to the Yellow Brick Road" tour, Sir Elton noted the city's musical heritage, and that of Memphis. He gave tribute to those cities with his piano playing, an encyclopedic offering of rhythm and blues, rock and country chords along with runs that echoed Mozart and Bach. With all of the high-tech effects and immense stadium, he could have been a guy singing and playing in an intimate club.

The crowd joined in on a raucous performance of "Crocodile Rock," thousands of voices spanning Baby Boomers to Generation Z harmonizing on the "ooo,ooooooo" as personal phone flashlights formed a continuous arc. All seemed transported to a time when rock, and the world, was young.

During his encore, Sir Elton performed his and Bernie Taupin's first hit, "This Is Your Song." Everyone there believed it.

Ben Fong-Torres set standard for American rock criticism, Netflix documentary shows

Ben Fong-Torres defined Rolling Stone magazine's pioneering rock-music coverage.

The Netflix documentary "Like a Rolling Stone: the Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres" reveals the writer and editor's essential contributions to the magazine's early years.

While Hunter S. Thompson and Timothy Crouse pushed the boundaries of political coverage for the magazine, Fong-Torres set the standard for the new field of rock music criticism. Along with his innovative interviews, feature stories and reviews, Fong-Torres as the magazine's music editor shaped other writers' work. 

Lester Bangs gave Jann Wenner's counterculture magazine a druggy hip persona. Fong-Torres' incisive writing and revelations of rock stars' inner personalities exhibited the authority of serious journalism. Fong-Torres' pieces helped make Rolliing Stone a national bible for a new rebellious generation.

Fong-Torres frequently worked with photographer Annie Leibowitz. In an endearing reunion with Leibowitz, Fong-Torres recalls how they invented their innovative techniques on the fly.

Interviews with rock stars like Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, singer Country Joe McDonald and Grateful Dead vocalist Bob Weir indicate that Fong-Torres was trusted by the musicians, although he had a strong reputation for honest criticism. Wenner in an interview recalls that Fong-Torres resisted the rock world's destructive drug use.

Audio excerpts from Fong-Torres' taped interviews with stars like Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Stevie Wonder show how he got them to reveal their hopes and  vulnerabilities.

The son of Chinese immigrants, Fong-Torres gained his work ethic carrying out thankless tasks in his father's struggling restaurants in Oakland and San Francisco, with a brief sojourn to Amarillo, Texas. Pop radio offered visions of a different world.

Discovering his passion for journalism while covering the student protest movement as the editor of San Francisco State's newspaper, he left a job as the editor of a phone company magazine to take a chance on Wenner's venture, launched with legendary San Francisco writer Ralph Gleason.

An earnest Chinese American with long hair and glasses, Fong-Torres defined the magazine's music writing. While popular musicians gave the magazine credibility, Fong-Torres' work also established the careers of groups like Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Doors and the Jefferson Airplane. He recalls giving renewed attention to Ray Charles, whose music was underappreciated by the rock generation.

While working at Rolling Stone, Fong-Torres also got involved in covering discrimination against Chinese Americans and gang conflicts in San Francisco's Chinatown. Fong-Torres' brother, an anti-gang activist, was mysteriously murdered, a devastating tragedy.

Fong-Torres refused to leave the Bay Area when Wenner moved Rolling Stone to New York City. After a few years contributing to Rolling Stone from the West Coast, he built a career as a freelance writer for Parade magazine and other publications and as a public speaker and community activist.

While he's a respected community leader who now looks like a distinguished professor or successful businessman, Fong-Torres still loves the music. He's shown reuniting with Elton John before a concert on John's current tour.

Fong-Torres is known for his impersonation of Bob Dylan, alluded to in the film's title. He's the Dylan of rock critics.

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Serious drama in spotlight for Broadway's fall season

Broadway makes an exciting comeback this fall with the strongest lineup of serious drama in years.

Pulitzer Prize winners abound. Along with Broadway premieres of Tom Stoppard's "Leopoldstadt"and Martyna Majok's "Cost of Living," the season offers revivals of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson," Suzan Lori-Park's "Top Dog Under Dog," Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" and Stephen Adlay Guirguis' "Between Riverside and Crazy."

Classic theater will have a moment in the lights with productions of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabbler" and Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale." 

Musical fans won't be disappointed: Along with a show based on Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" and a production of Neil Diamond hits, "1776" will be restaged, giving a colonial-flavored alternative to the long-running "Hamilton."

While Stoppard's examination of his long-ignored Jewish ancestry will be a major Broadway event, I'm most hoping to see "Death of a Salesman" starring Wendell Pierce as the tragic Willy Loman and Sharon D. Clarke as his long-suffering wife. The Broadway production follows Pierce and Clarke's acclaimed performances in the play at London's Young Vic and West End.

With vivid memories of seeing Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in "Fences" on Broadway, I also would love to head to New York for "The Piano Lesson," starring Washington's son, John David Washington as Boy Willie. The star power will reach full illumination with Samuel L. Jackson as Doaker Charles and Danielle Brooks as Berniece. Jackson's wife, the noted actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson, will direct the play.

For years, critics have bemoaned Broadway's domination by shows offering unchallenging entertainment to tourists. This season, serious drama takes the top billing on the Great White Way.

 

 

John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme, Live in Seattle" a rediscovered jazz masterpiece

John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme,  Live in Seattle" brings back a magical night from the past.

The album captures a rare performance before a live audience of Coltrane's four-part suite. Recognized as a jazz masterpiece, the suite's studio recording by Coltrane's quartet was released in 1964, a foundational hit for the recently formed Impulse Records.

Earlier, Coltrane achieved national renown for his jazz-flavored rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "A Few of My Favorite Things," a best-seller for Atlantic Records, which Coltrane left for Impulse.

Along with his classic quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, bass player Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, Coltrane added several musicians for the rare live performance of "A Love Supreme" at Seattle's Penthouse jazz club on Oct. 2, 1965.

Fellow tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders had already joined Coltrane's group for its West Coast tour. Seattle musicians Carlos Ward on alto sax and Donald Garrett on double bass also perform on the record.

Seattle sax player Joe Brazil, Coltrane's close friend, recorded the session on the club's primitive, two-microphone tape system. The 1/4-inch tapes were recently discovered among the late Brazil's possessions. In surprisingly good condition, the tapes were digitally remastered for Impulse's two-record vinyl album of the performance.

Interspersed with Coltrane's four movements inspired by sacred texts, Jones, Garrison, Tyner and Garret perform several solo "interludes." Sanders and Coltrane's impressionistic flights on the suite's main parts push jazz to new frontiers, which today's players continue to explore.

Even listening to the album on my small suitcase record player, I was transported back to that long ago evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop superstar Carole King calls for Biden to ban logging in national forests

Superstar singer and songwriter Carole King has used her rock and roll fame to fight for environmental action.

In a passionate op-ed article in The New York Times Friday, King called for President Biden to stop logging in the nation's national forests. Dispelling the myth of rock-star self-indulgence, King wrote with the emotive power of her long string of hits.

The Inflation Reduction Act's programs to promote the growth of trees and protect private and public forests include a survey of the country's old-growth forests, to be completed by next April.

King argued that the country can't wait that long, calling for Biden to immediately ban logging on national forests. Decrying the  loss of trees and the environmental damage from logging operations, she pointed out that forests in storing carbon are a natural defense against climate change.

Such an exective order would undoubtedly bring Biden condemnation from the GOP.  But King makes a convincing case that preservation of the national forests is urgent.

King in the article recalls how she fled the hedonistic Los Angeles lifestyle to live in rural Idaho. At age 80, with a deep reverence for the environment, she's fighting to preserve the national forests for future generations.