Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of ‘Rolling Stone’ Magazine

Music writer Richardson (Savage Journey) unspools a comprehensive account of how Rolling Stone went from “undercapitalized San Francisco rock publication, edited by a 21-year-old college dropout,” to one of the era’s most prominent magazines. Launched in 1967, Rolling Stone was initially dismissed as just another hippie rag but distinguished itself by treating rock music seriously, “like this stuff mattered.” This was largely thanks to cofounders Ralph Gleason, a lefty jazz writer who covered the counterculture in hyperbolic yet astute prose; and Jann Wenner, a music, politics, and journalism obsessive with the rare ability for a longhair to talk seriously with men in suits. Richardson largely (and wisely) sticks to the magazine’s first decade, before Wenner—always more fan and observer than true hippie—moved the office to New York City. Those 10 years make for a speedy capsule history, capturing the magazine’s coverage of one dire milestone after another (Manson, Altamont, Nixon). But rather than using Rolling Stone to explain America, Richardson digs into the colorful personalities who made the publication what it was, from gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson to such music-mad writers as Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus (whose frequent scraps with Wenner are also cataloged). This doesn’t break much new ground, but it’s a captivating record of a magazine that chronicled the revolution as it happened. (Apr.)