All language subtitles for Rolling.Stone.Stories.From.The.Edge.2017.Part2.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

[bright tone]

[melodic strumming]

- Right now I'd like
to dedicate this song

to everybody here with hearts,
any kind of hearts and ears.

Goes something like
this here...

♪ ♪

Yeah.

Yeah!

♪ ♪

♪ Once upon a time,
you dressed so fine ♪

♪ Threw the bums a dime
in your prime ♪

♪ Didn't you? ♪

♪ ♪

♪ People called,
said, "Beware, doll" ♪

♪ You're bound to fall ♪

♪ You thought they all
were kidding you ♪

♪ ♪

♪ You used to ♪
[chuckles]

♪ Laugh about ♪

- Volume one, number one.

A letter from the editor.

You're probably wondering
what we're trying to do.

- ♪ Look at you, but now
you don't talk so loud ♪

- It's hard to say.

- ♪ But now you don't, baby,
seem so proud ♪

- We hope that we have
something here,

sort of a magazine,
sort of a newspaper.

- ♪ Yeah ♪

- The name of it
comes from an old saying.

Muddy Waters used the name
for a song he wrote.

- ♪ How does it feel? ♪

- The Stones took their name
from Muddy's song.

- ♪ Oh, how does it feel,
baby ♪

- It was the title
of Bob Dylan's

first rock and roll record.

- ♪ To be on your own? ♪

- It's not just
about the music,

but also the things
and attitudes

that the music embraces.

- ♪ No direction home ♪

- We've been working
quite hard on it.

We hope you can dig it.

- ♪ A complete unknown ♪

- To describe it any further
would be difficult

without sounding
like bullshit.

- ♪ Like a rolling stone ♪

♪ ♪

[crowd cheering]

- Jann, in recent years,
sophisticated publications

such as yours and FM radio,

rock and roll is reaching
a different age group.

Now, what's the difference
between rock and roll now

and the rock and roll
of the Elvis Presley,

Everly Brothers era?

- Well, rock and roll
is, you know,

is a--is a--
is a particular form

that's changed tremendously
and keeps changing

and vastly changing, making
a tremendous amount of changes,

and, uh, there was
no publication around

that covered it
the way it should be covered,

you know,
that had treated it

the way it deserved
to be treated,

that, you know,
understood it, really.

♪ ♪

- Oh, yeah!

♪ ♪

- Jann, is there such thing
as a San Francisco sound?

Or is it just that this
happened to be the place

where acid rock, or whatever
it's called, started?

- The important thing
about San Francisco

is that it's a scene.

It's a warm, supportive,
friendly city

that's historically,
you know, had the Bohemians,

the Beats, that supported
the arts, poetry, jazz,

and similarly today
it supports rock and roll.

- [laughing]

- San Francisco is home
to all kinds of artists,

and I loved
the excitement of it.

I had tried to do music
when I was in college,

but I was not good at it
particularly.

I mean, I was not a great
guitar player, you know.

I mean, I knew the music,
and I loved it.

I could feel it, but that--

that life was not for me.

But what I had as
a skill and a natural ability

was journalism.

- ♪ Ooh, ooh, yeah ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, yeah ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

- ♪ Everybody's dying,
everybody is trying ♪

♪ To feel more, feel more,
feel more, yeah ♪

- ♪ Ooh, ooh, yeah ♪

- In the '60s, rock and roll
was becoming more than ever

the medium of communication
among young people.

- ♪ Even though you never, then
it doesn't mean you never ♪

♪ So you feel more,
you feel more, you feel more ♪

- It was freeing yourself
from this gray vision of life

in America that was
parentally shaped

and socially shaped
by the Eisenhower years.

- ♪ Whoa ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

[indistinct screaming]

all: ♪ Whoa ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

- ♪ Whoa, yeah ♪
- ♪ Yeah, baby ♪

all: ♪ Whoa ♪

- Music and the kind of
cultural revolution

that was attached to it,

that was the big
uncovered story.

[crowd cheering]

At that time,
I was living with the woman

I was gonna marry, Jane,

and she had
that same enthusiasm

for the sheer joy
of the music.

Together, we saw it
as really important,

spiritually and culturally,
you know?

- We really understood
that music

was effecting a change
in America.

You could see it and hear it.

["Paint It Black" begins]

♪ ♪

In '67, Jann was going
down to cover Monterey Pop.

This was before we
started "Rolling Stone."

He was there one day, and then
he called me, and he said,

"Jane, you've got
to come down here.

You will not believe
what's happening."

♪ ♪

- ♪ I see a red door,
and I want to paint it black ♪

♪ No colors in my life ♪

♪ You know they're
turning black ♪

♪ I see people walking by ♪

♪ Dressed in their
colorful clothes ♪

♪ I see them strolling by ♪

♪ My happiness just flows ♪

- We were so lucky
to have that music

at that time.

I mean,
Monterey was incredible.

- ♪ Turn it black,
oh, yeah ♪

♪ ♪

Thank you.

- I had been writing a column

for "The Daily Californian,"
the student newspaper,

and I wrote it under
a pseudonym, Mr. Jones,

called "Something Is Happening
by Mr. Jones,"

after the Dylan song.

And it was very much
in the mold

of a column that
Ralph Gleason was writing

for the
"San Francisco Chronicle."

[smooth jazz music]

- This is "Jazz Casual,"
and I'm Ralph Gleason.

John Coltrane, like many
of the modern jazz musicians,

feels that the music itself
speaks far more fluently

than any human ever could.

I agree with that thoroughly,

and I also endorse
the position

that Miles Davis' albums
shouldn't have liner notes,

even when I write them.

- He was a jazz critic,

but he also would write
about popular music

and The Beatles or Dylan
and Baez.

- ♪ I don't really
wanna stop the show ♪

♪ But I thought
you might like to know ♪

- His column was the place
you could read

about all these things
in your own life,

which were not
in the local press.

- ♪ So let me
introduce to you ♪

♪ The one and only
Billy Shears ♪

♪ And Sergeant Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band ♪

- They used to say
about Ralph

that he couldn't decide
whether he was

four 12-year-olds
or three 16-year-olds.

And he loved young people,

and he loved
the excitement of it.

People trying to get a place
in the rock and roll scene

would come over
to him and seek advice.

[crowd cheering]

So I introduced myself to him.

He said, "Oh, I know
exactly who you are.

I read your column."

And that was just the
beginning of it right there.

- ♪ What would you think
if I sang out of tune? ♪

♪ Would you stand up
and walk out on me? ♪

- He alone among
the critical establishment

was receptive
to rock and roll

and saw
how good a music it was,

how good songwriters
these were.

- ♪ Oh, I get by with a little
help from my friends ♪

♪ Mm, I get high... ♪

- We knew that Ralph
was the best person

to be starting
"Rolling Stone" with.

- ♪ Mm, gonna try with a
little help from my friends ♪

- Jann came over one day
and said,

"How about a magazine?"

Like the "Melody Maker"
or "New Musical Express"

but an American one that
would be different and better,

that would cover not just,
uh, not just the records

and the music but would
cover the whole culture.

I find it regrettable and sad

that some of my friends
do not share my enjoyment

for the contemporary
musicians,

much less regard them

with the respect
with which I regard them

or see them
as important as I see them.

The only way to stay alive
is to stay open.

The minute you
shut yourself off

and shut yourself up,
you start to rot.

You die of dry rot.

"Rolling Stone" started
with the assumption

that music was of infinitely
greater importance

to an upcoming generation
of Americans

than anyone had
ever thought it was before,

and we were right.

[Bob Dylan's
"Like a Rolling Stone" plays]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Once upon a time,
you dressed so fine ♪

♪ Threw the bums a dime
in your prime ♪

♪ Didn't you? ♪

- We were in a printer's
building in San Francisco,

south of Market,

which then was really
just kind of warehouses.

Rent was free 'cause we got

the printer to give us
some free space.

We rented some typewriters
and rented some tables.

- We were looking for $7,500.

So I asked my mother
for $2,000.

Jann raised some, and
we started "Rolling Stone."

And I'll say "we,"
because we did.

- Well, we felt a great, uh--

a great historic responsibility

on behalf
of the American public.

Well, you know, no, jeez--
[laughs]

That isn't what happened.

- It was really
Ralph and myself and Jane.

We'd meet and, uh, discuss
this thing and what to do.

♪ ♪

The first issue, we had
John Lennon on the cover

and an interview
with Donovan

and then a big
two-page spread

on the Grateful Dead
getting busted,

which was a little story
that I wrote.

We went over and took these
pictures of the Dead

standing on the stoop of their
house over in Haight-Ashbury.

All, you know,
at the top of the stairs,

you know, with
their fists up, raised,

and I think it was Pigpen
that had some pistols,

and Phil Lesh was carrying
a rifle and all that stuff.

And defiant, "We will
not be moved," you know?

We nearly went bankrupt
shipping out that issue.

And all of a sudden,
all the bills came in,

and we had to--
"Oh, God, we don't have

enough money for that."

♪ ♪

- I bought the first issue.

I had no idea
that the magazine

consisted
of about three people.

It looked like a very
professional operation.

I volunteered
to be a proofreader.

I told them
I was a proofreader.

I had never
read proof in my life.

And so I was
the first unpaid employee.

I tell you,
my qualifications

were a degree
in Near Eastern languages,

three years' experience
as an animal caretaker,

and I was willing
to work for free.

♪ ♪

- Now, Charlie
was a volunteer,

but he had a paying job,

which was to be
an assistant zookeeper

at the San Francisco Zoo.

And he said,
"I can't do both."

We agreed that he
would get $25 a week.

And he was the first actual,
real true employee

of "Rolling Stone."

- I was known at one time

for excessive consumption
of marijuana.

When I went to
"Rolling Stone,"

I found I couldn't use drugs.

I wanted to write,

and I could write reams
when I was stoned,

but none of it
made any sense.

In those days,
we were not well known

outside San Francisco.

"Rolling Stone"
was thought of

as particularly
a magazine for musicians.

And we had to struggle
with our distributor

to get us put on newsstands
near recording studios.

For many years,
we had a musician's

free classified column
for bands

that were looking
for a drummer.

But Jann always had a vision
of it as being more

than just about
rock and roll itself.

He had an idea that there
was a rock culture,

all sorts
of generational things

that would be of interest.

♪ ♪

- I think there's
various things.

I think the basic thing
is that--

is what people have always
found fascinating about youth,

you know, and young--
young things

and young people
and new ideas

and, you know,
that period of life

which is associated
with being most alive

and most experimental
and the most, you know,

sort of carefree.

♪ ♪

It was important that
"Rolling Stone" have a sense

of style and sex appeal
of the youth culture.

[The Rolling Stones'
"Stray Cat Blues" plays]

I met a guy
named Baron Wolman,

and Baron had training as kind
of a portrait photographer.

Baron came up with the idea

to do a special issue
on the groupies.

- ♪ There'll be a feast if you
just come upstairs, but... ♪

- I would go backstage
and hang out with the bands,

and I saw these
women back there

with style
and with self-assurance.

You know, nobody was going
to tell them what to do.

- ♪ I can see that you're
15 years old ♪

♪ No, I don't want your ID ♪

- Within a certain subculture
in San Francisco,

rock is the basic art form.

The musicians are the high
priests of the community,

and all activities
revolve around the bands.

Now, sex is no big deal
within the community.

It's just part
of the whole sharing process.

They share food, houses,
drugs, money, and sex.

- ♪ You're a stray,
stray cat, I bet ♪

♪ Bet your mama don't know
you scream like that ♪

♪ I bet your mama don't know
you can spread like that ♪

- You get to fuck
the prettiest boys.

You get to smoke
the best dope.

You, um--you get to meet
all the most far-out people.

- They dress the way
I want all guys to dress.

They have long hair.

They talk
with a British accent.

- "There are two kinds
of groupies,"

notes veteran trouper,
guitarist Jimmy Page.

"Those who are like friends,
like San Francisco girls,

"and those Los Angeles
and New York girls,

"who are making
a religion

"out of how many pop stars
they can fuck.

"Groupies are a better ball,
by and large.

"They've had more experience,

and they're willing
to try more things."

- ♪ White bird ♪

♪ In a golden cage ♪

- Sally Mann lives
with Jefferson Airplane

at their spacious, Victorian
San Francisco mansion.

She serves as housemother,
preparing meals,

washing the dishes,
screening unwanted visitors,

and a host of other chores
for which she is paid nothing

except the gratitude
of the Airplane.

- Jack, show me
your cock again, please.

Please, one more time.
Come on!

- No.
- Jack, one--

You had to be there.

I don't mean
that to understand it,

you had to be there.

I'm saying if you felt it,
you had to be where it was.

Oh, look.

Look--look, you can
see him in action.

This is how he
looks when he's playing.

Oh, isn't it far out?

There was no way
on the planet

I could have stayed
in Houston, Texas,

when the music was being made
out in California.

I had to be there.

Pull the pubes out
of the way,

and let's light
you a joint up.

You could be crazy
about Elvis,

but you weren't walking
up and down

the streets of Memphis
in a movement of people

who all felt the same way.

[laughter]
- Need it, need it.

- Groupies are
hardly a new phenomenon,

and they are not new to the
rock and roll scene either.

But as the scene changes,
so do the girls.

♪ ♪

Cynthia, age 21,
and Diane, age 17,

took a cab to
the Chicago Opera House

where they waited

for one of the rock and roll
attractions to appear.

If he was agreeable,
they would all go to his room,

and this popular
lead guitarist

would become Number 00004
in the Plaster Casters' diary.

- In art class, we started
doing plaster casting.

One day the teacher
said you could plaster cast

almost anything that's solid.

In fact, bring in
any old object from home,

tomorrow we'll make
a cast of it.

And I thought...
[laughs]

- ♪ Having hard times ♪

♪ In this crazy town ♪

♪ Having hard times ♪

- In the Plaster Casters'
diary,

a penis is called a "rig,"

fellatio is called "plating,"

and a fellator is
called a "plater."

Masturbation
is called "banking"

and a masturbator is called
a "Barclay's Banker."

- ♪ Having hard times ♪

- Cynthia asked me,
you know, if--at that time,

if I'd like to be
a plaster caster.

I became her plater.

She called me the head plaster
caster because I gave the head.

And she was
the master plaster caster

because she's
the originator of the idea.

- While you're lying there,

I'd like you
to close your eyes.

And I'd like you to think that
this is a sexual experience.

Just relax and use
your imagination.

Don't necessarily think of the
reality of what's happening,

but think of what
you'd like to be happening.

We'll get along fine.

- ♪ And I'm sick and tired ♪

♪ Of having so many
hard, hard times baby ♪

♪ And from my party house... ♪

- We had an ad for
the groupie issue that said,

"When we tell you
about a groupie,

will you really understand?"

And we were saying,
"Hey, we got the goods.

"You want to know
what's really happening?

Listen to us."

- This was just complete shock
to everybody, you know?

The fact that rock and roll

and the culture
of rock and roll

had this world underneath it.

It was the generation gap
starting to be writ large.

- Jann had a particular view

of what he wanted
"Rolling Stone" to be.

He was always thinking
way down the road,

ahead of himself,
and maybe ahead

of the generation,
to a certain extent.

At "Rolling Stone" we were
pretty much around the clock,

living, breathing,
writing rock and roll.

- And did you like it?

- Nah, hated it.
Hated it.

[James Brown's
"Get on the Good Foot" plays]

♪ ♪

When Jann hired me,
he probably saw me

as a fairly straight person.

Having come out of college
for about a year

and having some
journalism experience

as well as having
a pretty decent knowledge

of the pop music scene
in general

and wanting
to apply journalism to it.

- ♪ Get on the good foot ♪

♪ ♪

- So he saw a person who came
in not just off the street,

being a rock and roll fan,
being a longhaired hippie,

but a guy who could bring
a modicum

of professional
journalism background

to what he was trying to do.

♪ ♪

We would sit at our
typewriters and get stoned.

No, we would sit at our
typewriters and just think,

"Let's see, oh,
that could be fun,"

and then just
start something.

It could be a description
of a guy sifting cocaine.

It could be you heading
to interview the Jackson Five.

It could be a description

of a living room as
with Ike and Tina Turner.

That becomes the lead.

- Walk into what,
from the outside,

looks to be another
well-paid,

well-kept home in suburban
Inglewood, California,

and you're hit...

a huge imperial oil painting
of Ike and Tina Turner

dressed as if for a simple,
private wedding circa 1960.

Also in the foyer,
under the portrait,

a small white bust
of John F. Kennedy.

Next to him, the Bible.

Over in the family room,

splashing programmed,
is a waterfall.

There's a red velvet sofa
designed around a coffee table

in the shape of a bass guitar.

Tina's not back,
half an hour late.

- Tina being late showing up,

that was nothing,
no big deal.

You're often kept waiting,

except that it wasn't
like there was a publicist

or a manager
or an agent or somebody.

I think there were a couple
housekeepers maybe around

and her family.

I just sat there,

and oftentimes
you take those challenges

and just do
what you can with them.

You just worked
with what you've got.

♪ ♪

- The world's greatest
heartbreaker drives up

in her Mercedes sedan
and strides in,

all fresh and breezy in
a red knit hot pants outfit,

third button unbuttoned,

supple legs still very trim
at age 32, charging on to 33.

["River Deep, Mountain High"
begins]

♪ ♪

- ♪ When I was
a little girl ♪

♪ I had a rag doll ♪

♪ Only doll I've ever owned ♪

♪ ♪

- In the mid '60s,
around 1966,

I saw Ike and Tina
in North Beach

and was just knocked out.

- ♪ And it gets stronger ♪

♪ In every way ♪

♪ And it gets deeper ♪

♪ Let me say ♪

♪ And it gets higher ♪

♪ Day by day ♪

- I'd always been an R&B fan,
but this was beyond R&B.

This was showmanship.
This was rock and roll.

- ♪ Yeah, river deep,
mountain high ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

- And so it was just in
my head, and I volunteered,

"Yeah, I've seen them,
I love them, and let's go."

- ♪ Oh, how I love you, baby ♪

♪ Baby, baby, baby ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I love you, baby ♪

♪ Like a flower
loves the spring ♪

♪ And I love you, baby ♪

♪ Like a robin loves to sing ♪

♪ And I love you, baby ♪

♪ Like a schoolboy
loves his pet ♪

♪ And I love you, baby ♪

♪ River deep
and mountain high ♪

- "River Deep,
Mountain High"--

to hear that song
for the first time in 1967,

the first year of acid rock
and Memphis soul,

to hear that wall
falling toward you,

with Tina teasing it along,

was to understand all
the power of rock and roll.

- ♪ Do I love you ♪

♪ My, oh, my ♪

♪ Yeah, river deep,
mountain high ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

- But after
"River Deep" bombed,

Ike Turner said the Spector
production didn't get airplay

because the soul stations
said "too pop,"

and the white stations
said "too R&B."

"See, what's
wrong with America

"is that rather than accept
something for its value,

America mixes race in it."

What finally carried
Ike and Tina through

was the 1969
Rolling Stones tour.

Someone once called Tina
"The female Mick Jagger."

To be more accurate,

one should call Mick
"The Male Tina Turner."

- All right, can you tell me,
just real quickly,

what was your first
connection with the Stones?

- So I think
with the influence

that "River Deep,
Mountain High" had on Mick,

and then when
he came to see our show,

he wanted, you know,
us to be on his show

because he felt that
it would be different.

- Right. This is a weird
question, but did you have

any kind of a rush of
excitement when you discovered

there was a whole
new kind of a culture

that was a ready audience
for you?

- Hippies came,
and they changed the world.

They changed the minds because
they said, "Well, why?

"Why is it that you can
say that Tina Turner

isn't as good
as The Supremes?"

And everybody else said,
"Yeah, why?"

This girl and their act
is just as good

as these other people that
you figure is class.

And she's just as
much class as they are.

[cheers and applause]

♪ Shoo ♪

♪ Shoo ♪

♪ Shoo ♪

♪ Shoo ♪

♪ Here come old flat-top ♪

♪ He comes grooving
up slowly ♪

♪ He's got ju-ju eyeballs ♪

♪ He one holy roller ♪

♪ He's got hair down
to his knees ♪

♪ Got to be a joker,
he just do what he please ♪

♪ Shoo ♪

- The move to interpreting

white rock and roll,
she says, was quite natural.

"My mother, her radio
was usually blues,

"B.B. King and all.

"But rock and roll
was more me.

"When that sort
of music came on,

"I never could sit down.

I always wanted to move."

- ♪ He's got monkey fingers ♪

♪ He shoots Coca-Cola ♪

♪ He says I know you ♪

♪ You know me ♪

♪ One thing I can tell you
is you've got to be free ♪

all: ♪ Come together ♪

♪ Right now ♪

♪ Over me ♪

♪ Shoo ♪

- On stage, there
may be reason to compare

Tina Turner to Mick Jagger.

Tina, in fact, is more
aggressive, more animalistic.

But it is, indeed, a stage.

"My whole thing,"
she once said,

"Is the fact I am to Ike--

"I'm going to
use the term 'doll'--

that you sort of mold."

- Do it.
- Do it, go, three, four.

- ♪ Handful of gimme ♪

♪ Mouthful of much obliged ♪

- ♪ Handful of gimme ♪

both: ♪ Mouthful
of much obliged ♪

- Much obliged.

- ♪ Much obliged ♪
- Right on.

♪ ♪

- Tina is giving me a tour
of Ike's new main studios.

There's a double-door
air closet at the entrance

to Ike's private quarters.

Tina turns to Ike and says,

"Can I tell 'em
what we call this room?

We call it the whorehouse."

- Let me hear it.
- ♪ Oh, never you ♪

I asked an ex-Ikette
about Ike Turner and sex.

"Sex, oh, my God, that's
another volume," she said.

"I'll have to get
a cigarette on that one."

- One, two, three, and...

["I Smell Trouble" begins]

♪ ♪

- Last winter Tina was sick
with bronchial pneumonia,

in the hospital
with her body ice-packed

to bring
the temperature down.

And Ike was visiting,
and he was going,

"You get out and sing,
or you get out of the house!"

♪ Lord knows I've tried ♪

♪ I've tried to do
what's right ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Five whole long years
I stayed home ♪

♪ Both day and night ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And now I smell ♪

♪ A whole lot of trouble ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Lord, I smell trouble ♪

♪ Ahead of me ♪

- Ike and Tina, when they do
an interview together,

invariably they disagree
and chide each other.

- ♪ Ohh ♪

♪ Worries and trouble ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I declare
they just won't... ♪

- Posing for a photo,
Ike is asked to embrace Tina.

He does and warns,
"Better catch this quick.

I don't do this often."

♪ ♪

- Oh, this is a great,
great story, great sitting.

- Mm-hmm.

Ike and Tina,
was he crazy at the time?

- Yes, yes, yes.
- And what did he--

Did he make your life difficult
in doing that picture?

Because he threatened Ben

at the end of that story
with something.

- Ike didn't seem
to mind me being around,

and I was taking a lot of,
you know, photographs,

and I was, you know, around.

And I told, uh,
Ben about it.

I told him what I saw.

You know, like, there would be
jugs full of white powder

and things like that.

Cameras in the bedrooms.

And Ben wrote about it,

and, uh--and then I got
a call from Ike, saying,

"I trusted you.
What did--

Annie, this is Ike,"
you know like--

And, you know, like,
"I trusted you.

How could you
have done this?"

And, you know, "I have ways
to take care of this."

♪ ♪

Those years at "Rolling Stone"
formed me completely

as a journalist
and a photographer.

That's what
this work is here.

It really is looking
at sort of growing up

a young--
a young girl photographer.

♪ ♪

This is my second assignment,
which is pretty incredible.

- Mm-hmm.

- Grace Slick
and Paul Kantner.

- They were super popular
at the time. I mean, huge.

It's incredible how intimate
in their lives you got,

or they let you get.

- But--but everyone
was that way.

I mean,
no one got dressed up.

No one, like, you know--

Everyone was,
like, very relaxed.

- It's just the intimacy
level that they gave you.

- You know, we're all sitting
on some waterbed or something.

I don't know.
- Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

All the drug paraphernalia
laying around.

- When I went in
for John and Yoko, I said,

"Oh, my gosh,
I'm photographing

this extraordinarily
famous person."

But they couldn't
have been nicer.

They were incredible.
- Mm-hmm.

- And then Yoko Ono finally
told me years later

that they were
so impressed that you took

a photographer
that wasn't known,

and a girl, and let her come
and take these pictures.

And that's why they were--

I think that's why they were
so accommodating,

is they just--
they thought it was really

kind of charming and sweet
that you took a sort of--

this unknown photographer and
let her take those pictures.

And you know the story
about this picture.

- Mm-hmm.

- You saw this picture
on a contact sheet.

- I said, "That's the cover."
- You did, you did say that.

- Yeah, I picked
that out immediately.

Look at the power
of that expression.

[John Lennon's
"Look at Me" begins]

♪ Look at me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Who am I supposed to be? ♪

♪ Who am I supposed to be? ♪

- Our first real contact
with John and Yoko

was about nine or ten months
into starting "Rolling Stone."

We heard about
the "Two Virgins" record,

that first solo record
by John and Yoko together.

Kind of experimental music.

[jangly piano music]

♪ ♪

The cover and the back cover
of that record

was a photograph
of the two of them naked.

Well, this was banned
in quite a lot of places,

including the United States.

- The naked album cover,
we felt like two virgins--

that's what the album was
called--

because we were in love,

just met, and we were
trying to make something.

And we thought
to show everything.

People are always looking
at people like me,

trying to see
some secret or,

"What do they do?
What do they do?"

You know, "Do they go
to the bathroom?

Do they eat?"

We just said, "Here."
You know?

- We decided to write them

and tell them
we'll publish it.

It created quite a stir.

Really the first time we had
gotten any kind of attention.

The "San Francisco Chronicle"
ran an article,

which was headlined,
"Naked Beatle Perils S.F."

And I concluded from all this,

if you print
a famous foreskin,

the world will beat
a path to your door.

- One, two.
One, two, three, four.

["Give Peace a Chance" begins]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Everybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism ♪

♪ Madism, Ragism, Tagism ♪

♪ This-ism, that-ism,
ism, ism, ism ♪

♪ ♪

♪ All we are saying ♪

♪ Is give peace a chance ♪

That's all we're saying!

- Because of that cover,

we became friends
with John and Yoko.

You know, I would speak to him
on the phone.

He'd give us
little interviews,

and we'd run
all these articles.

We covered
their peace crusade,

the bed-in,
and all the various things

that they were doing
as John was finding his way

into political protests

and starting to come away
from the Beatles,

and we kind of became
the mouthpiece

for John and Yoko.

At the same time, people
thought he was just crazy

for doing that kind of stuff.

The media of the world,
they didn't want to see

anything other than
the level mop-top Beatle.

- What do you know about
a protest movement anyway?

- I know a lot about it--
- It consists of a lot more

than sending your
chauffeur and your car

back to Buckingham Palace.

- You're just
a snob about it.

The only way to make--
- You're a fake.

- ♪ Give peace a chance ♪

- If I'm gonna get
on the front page,

I might as well get
on the front page

with the word "peace."

- But you've made
yourself ridiculous.

- To some people.
I don't care if--

-You're too good
for what you're doing.

- If it saves lives--
- You don't think you--

Oh, my dear boy, you're
living in a Never Never Land.

- ♪ Is give peace a chance ♪

- ♪ Everybody's talking about
revolution, evolution... ♪

- I'm someone who
admired you very much.

- Well, I'm sorry you liked
the old mop tops, dear,

and you thought it was
very satirical and witty,

and you liked
"Hard Day's Night," love,

but I've grown up,
but you obviously haven't.

- Have you?
- Yes, folks.

- What have you grown up to?
- Oh, 29.

- Yes, yeah.

- You were saying
that in America,

they're so serious
about the protest movement.

- Yes, they are.
- But they were so flippant

that they were singing
a happy-go-lucky song,

which happens to be
one I wrote,

and I'm glad they sang it.

And that was a message from me
to America or to anywhere.

- Thank you, good-bye.

- But the last point
was a good point,

and she didn't want
to respond to that.

- She didn't hear anything.

- ♪ All we are saying ♪

♪ Is give peace a chance ♪

- Okay, beautiful.
Yeah.

[cheers and applause]

- Would you take it all back?

- What?
- Being a Beatle?

- If I could be
a fucking fisherman, I would.

You know,
if I had the capabilities

of being something
other than I am, I would.

It's no fun being an artist.
It's torture.

I resent being an artist.

I resent performing
for fucking idiots.

They can't feel.

I'm the one that's feeling

'cause I'm the one expressing

what they are trying to--

They--they live vicariously
through me and other artists.

I'm interested in more things
with a worldwide--

something that means
something for everyone,

not just for a few kids
listening to wallpaper.

You know, I'm in the game
of concept and philosophy

and ways of life

and whole movements
in history.

I'm not interested
in good guitarists.

- You don't really believe
that we're headed

for a violent revolution,
do you?

- Eventually it'll happen.

It has to happen, you know?

What else can happen?

- The problem is
a violent revolution now

would really just be
the end of the world.

- Not necessarily.
They say that every time.

I don't really believe it.
And if it is, okay.

I mean, I'm back to where
I was when I was 17, you know?

I mean, at 17,
I used to think,

"Well, what have you
got to lose?"

And now I've got
nothing to lose.

♪ I don't believe in Buddha ♪

- I knew Beatles fans
around the world

had never heard this before.

Imagine a guy who so urgently
wants to be himself

and he's being constrained in
the Fab Four soapbox package

for so long.

This is what
this interview is.

It's that box exploding.

He's blown it to smithereens.

That box is in tatters.

- ♪ I don't believe
in kings ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I don't believe in Elvis ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I don't believe
in Zimmerman ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I don't believe
in Beatles ♪

- You say now, "I don't
believe in the Beatles."

- Yeah, I don't believe
in the Beatles, that's all.

I don't believe
in the Beatles myth.

You know, I don't believe--

I don't believe
in the Beatles.

Yeah, there's
no other way of saying it.

Is there?
I don't believe in them.

It was a dream.

I don't believe
in the dream anymore.

♪ I just believe in me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Yoko and me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ That's reality ♪

♪ ♪

♪ The dream is over ♪

♪ ♪

♪ What can I say? ♪

♪ ♪

- The first "Rolling Stone"
that I bought

was Jann's John Lennon
interview, part one.

And I couldn't believe
the candor of John Lennon.

I couldn't believe that
Jann would ask him this stuff.

I couldn't believe
the honesty

that John Lennon
answered with.

I couldn't believe his ease
in the photos with Annie.

I couldn't believe
he said "fuck" so much.

I mean, this was,
like, fun to read.

- ♪ I was the Walrus ♪

- There was this head shop
next to this bus stop,

my school bus stop,

and they had "Rolling Stone"
in a glass case that said,

"Must be 18 to buy this."

But it was like
one of those places,

it was like
"Ye Olde Head Shoppe"

S-H-O-P-P-E.

And I would--I would go
in there and, like,

see the new "Rolling Stone,"

and eventually
they let me buy it.

And that was how I first

started to read
"Rolling Stone."

- And how old were you then?

- 14.
- Right.

- A lucky 14.

[laughter]

My mom, a teacher,
who did not believe in rock,

didn't believe it should even
be in the house,

would never have believed

the kind of emotional
and intellectual commitment

that these people had towards
putting out this magazine.

[mellow rock music]

♪ ♪

"Rolling Stone"
had these amazing writers.

They were so serious
about this thing

that was supposed
to be disposable--rock music.

And so I was trying to, like,
make it in my own little way,

writing for this local
underground paper--

the "San Diego Door."

I had started to get copies of
my reviews that I would send

to Ben Fong-Torres
at "Rolling Stone."

[The Rolling Stones's
"Brown Sugar" plays]

♪ ♪

At one point,
I got tickets

to a 1973
Rolling Stones benefit

that they did at the Forum.

And there was a publicist
that said to me,

"Do you want to meet
Ben Fong-Torres?"

I said, "Yeah, let's do it."

She was like,
"Let's be quick."

- ♪ Yeah, a Gold Coast
slave ship ♪

♪ Bound for cotton fields ♪

♪ Sold in the market
down in New Orleans ♪

- She takes me down
to these great seats

where Ben Fong-Torres was
and says,

"Ben, Ben, I want you
to meet this young writer

from San Diego."

And he said, "Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, I think I--

I think I know your stuff."

And it was dark and
he couldn't see how old I was,

and he was like,
"Yeah, great, congratulations.

It's great to meet you.
Enjoy the show. Bye."

But I had met Ben Fong-Torres,
and that was the beginning.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Drums beating cold,
English blood runs hot ♪

♪ Lady of the house wondering
when it's gonna stop ♪

♪ Houseboy knows that he's
doing all right ♪

♪ You should have heard him
just around midnight ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Brown Sugar,
how come you dance so good? ♪

- Ben gave me
a couple assignments--

Kris Kristofferson,
the Eagles.

Poco was my first
byline piece.

♪ ♪

- Cameron was
a high-school student,

you know, in San Diego.

To get him to go
do pieces for us,

we had to write notes
to the school

getting him out of classes.

Here comes Cameron,
this fresh-faced kid,

super interested in music,
and "aw shucks."

And I think everybody
loved him for that.

- Is Nixon still
on their minds?

I was just happy
to be there.

I felt like I was a fan,

who, along with
his front-row seat,

got an opportunity
to ask the questions

that I really wanted
to know the answers to.

- ♪ Just like
a young boy should ♪

- One of my first
pieces for them

was a review of Joe Walsh.

Jann sent me
a note that said,

"Nice job.
Your stuff's getting better.

Jann."

Which I thought,
"That's amazing.

He's reading
my Joe Walsh review."

- In that period,
I was the hands-on editor

of the magazine
of all these writers.

And we had
a real great stable of them.

My job is knowing
what somebody's good at,

getting them to do
what they're good at,

or matching them
with a good idea.

You know, sometimes
great writers just don't know

what they should write about.

And fairly quickly
"Rolling Stone" became

more than a music magazine.

We had really taken over
from "Esquire"

as the home
of the new journalism.

I mean, by '73,
I had recruited Tom Wolfe.

- "Rolling Stone"
has been, um,

extremely flexible
and willing to take chances

and not frightened.

"Rolling Stone"
broke all the rules.

In an era
in which young people

were supposed to have
the shortest attention spans,

started running articles
that were endless.

I wrote some of them myself.

- With "Rolling Stone,"
I was given the room

and the range to really
kick ass, you know,

to stomp on the terra,
as Lord Buckley said.

And very few places, uh,
will give you that.

♪ ♪

- My guest,
he's the roving correspondent,

you might say,
for "Rolling Stone."

One of the most remarkable
journalists

in the country today,
Hunter S. Thompson, DGS,

Doctor of Gonzo Journalism.

- No.

- What is gonzo journalism?

- Subjectivity,
total subjectivity.

Uh, out-front bias,
participation.

You are a part of the story.

♪ ♪

- Who first came up
with the idea

of Hunter covering
a campaign?

- I did.

At first, I came up
with the idea

that he should go to Vietnam
and cover the war there.

- Nice.

- As we were getting
ready to do it,

I kind of, like, was having
second thoughts about it.

- [sniffs]

- Let's re-mark him.

- 961.

- You know, I don't know--
I was getting cold feet on it

for some reason or another.

- But I'd like to ask you
why you use drugs.

- It's been
demonstratively proven

that temper tantrums are not
the best way to do interviews,

and probably my life
will be easier and yours, too,

if I smoke a joint.

If I were to sit here
in a fit of anger

and you saw me eating acid,

if I were you, I'd leave
with all the equipment.

- We set out
on the campaign as partners

in an effort
to influence the election,

see what we could do with
the "Rolling Stone" audience's

so-called youth vote.

Nearly all of our audience
could all of a sudden vote

for the first time
in American history.

How do you make politics
appealing to an audience

that didn't like politics?

I mean, take the guy
who wrote "Hell's Angels"

and send him out
to cover this cast of thugs

and power mad freaks,
and, you know,

all these people running
around, you know, and Nixon.

- Would you have
any other place

to publish your stuff if
it wasn't for "Rolling Stone"?

- Oh, yeah.

But there's not too many
places that would pay for it.

We've come to the point
where every four years,

this national fever
rises up.

This hunger for the Savior,

the White Knight,
the Man on Horseback,

and whoever wins becomes
so immensely powerful,

like Nixon is now,

that when you vote
for President today

you're talking
about giving a man

dictatorial power
for four years.

You almost have
to be a rock star

to generate the kind of fever

you need to survive
in American politics.

["Jumpin' Jack Flash" plays]

- ♪ I was born ♪

♪ In a crossfire hurricane ♪

- In a letter released today,

President Nixon announced that
he will run for re-election.

- ♪ At my ma
in the driving rain ♪

[cheering]

♪ But it's all right,
yeah, it's all right ♪

- There's no lack
of Democratic candidates.

Maine Senator Edmund Muskie
is an early favorite.

Also in the race, South Dakota
Senator George McGovern,

dark-horse choice
of the youth vote.

- ♪ Whoo ♪

- When you go to Washington...
- Yeah.

- You must make applications
for press credentials.

- I don't think they'd
even consider ignoring

or turning down
"Rolling Stone" anyway.

Unless there was
somebody that had something

really personal against me.

But, uh, I can't think
of anybody,

except some
of Nixon's people might.

- Yeah, yeah.

- ♪ But it's all right ♪

- The only way a reporter

should look
at a politician is down.

When I went to Washington,

I was determined to avoid the
clubby, personal relationships

that develop between
politicians and journalists.

But there are
serious problems

with that kind of merciless,
ball-busting approach.

The most obvious
had to do with my natural,

out-front bias
for the McGovern candidacy.

- We ought to have
on our hearts the young men

who are still tied down
in the bitter fighting.

I want the war
in Vietnam ended,

and I want it ended
without delay.

- He is probably the most
honest big-time politician

in America, which is not
quite the same thing

as being the best candidate.

For that, McGovern
would need at least one dark,

kinky streak of Mick Jagger
in his soul.

- ♪ I was drowned ♪

♪ I was washed up
and left for dead ♪

- So much for objective
journalism.

Don't bother
to look for it here,

not under any byline of mine

or anyone else I can think of.

With the possible exception

of things like box scores,

race results,
and stock market tabulations,

there is no such thing
as objective journalism.

The phrase itself is a pompous
contradiction in terms.

It's the built-in blind spots
of the objective rules

and dogma that allowed Nixon
to slither

into the White House
in the first place.

- Let us be strong.

Let us be for peace,
but let us be for peace

through strength and not
peace through weakness.

That is what we stand for.

- Richard Nixon
represents the dark side

of the American Dream.

Richard Nixon stands,
to me, for everything

that I not only have
contempt for but dislike

and think should be
stomped out...

greed, treachery,
stupidity, cupidity,

positive power of lying,

total contempt
for, uh, any sort

of human constructive
political instinct.

Nixon represents everything
that's wrong with this country.

- Hi.

- There are only
two ways to make it

in big-time politics today.

One is to come on
like a mean dinosaur

with a high-powered
machine that scares the shit

out of your entrenched
opposition, like Nixon.

And the other is to tap the
massive frustrated energies

of a mainly young,
disillusioned electorate

that has long since
abandoned the idea

that you have a duty to vote.

- Thank you.
- Whoo!

- There were five people
or six people

covering
the McGovern campaign,

of whom two were
from "Rolling Stone"--

Hunter and Tim Crouse, who
was one of our junior stars,

and he wanted to be up there
and cover the campaign.

I said, "Sure, go right ahead,

and you can help Hunter
while you're at it."

- The whole idea
of a revolution

that would bring about freedom
from repression,

freedom from convention,
that would repudiate war,

Hunter was very romantic
about those things.

Hunter thought that politics

could be the vehicle
for making the world safe

for the counterculture
and for its ideals.

Essentially, he was a man

in search
of an honest politician,

and the only candidate
in sight

who even vaguely qualified
was George McGovern,

and at the same time,
Hunter had it in for Muskie,

the man who McGovern
was in competition with,

like you couldn't believe.

Hunter just could
not lay off of Muskie.

- What did you do
to Ed Muskie?

- Nothing, unless
he did it to himself.

I just helped him along.

Toward the end of
the Wisconsin primary race,

about a week before the vote,

word leaked out that some
of Muskie's top advisors

had called in
a Brazilian doctor

who was said to be
treating the candidate

with some kind of
strange drug

that nobody in the press corps
had ever heard of.

I immediately recognized
the ibogaine effect

from Muskie's tearful
breakdown on the flatbed truck

in New Hampshire,

the delusions
and altered thinking

that characterized
his campaign in Florida,

and finally the condition
of total rage

that gripped him
in Wisconsin.

It is entirely conceivable,

given the known effects
of ibogaine,

that Muskie's brain
was almost paralyzed

by hallucinations
at the time,

that he looked out
at the crowd

and saw Gila monsters
instead of people.

We can only speculate on this,

because those
in a position to know

have flatly refused to
comment on rumors concerning

the senator's disastrous
experiments with ibogaine.

- The rumor began
to spread everywhere

among all the people who
were covering the campaign

that Muskie was, in fact,
on this bizarre drug.

You finally said,
well, you made it all up.

- I had to.

I couldn't believe people
took this stuff seriously.

People really believed that
Muskie was eating ibogaine.

I never said he was.

I said there was a rumor
in Milwaukee that he was,

which was true.

And I started the rumor
in Milwaukee.

[laughter]
And, uh...

Yeah, if you read it carefully,
I'm a very accurate journalist.

[man scatting, vocalizing]

♪ ♪

[upbeat rock music]

- The Miami Democratic
Convention

was shaping up very fast
as one of the most brutal

and degrading
animal acts of our time.

Jerry Rubin is making
frequent appearances

on local TV
to warn that...

- There will be
ten thousand Yippies

marching naked
down this street.

There's gonna be
marijuana smoked everywhere,

including from the delegates.

- ♪ High, high,
you too can be happy ♪

♪ La-dee-da ♪

[indistinct chatter, chanting]

- Will the 36th
annual convention

of the Democratic Party
please come to order?

- After four hours
of listening

to a seemingly endless parade
of shameless dingbats,

about half
the delegates in the hall

were beginning
to lose control.

All over the floor,
I saw people

giving in
to the lure of booze,

and in the crowded aisle

between the California
and Wisconsin delegations,

a smiling freak with
a bottle of liquid THC

was giving free hits
to anyone

who still had
the strength to stand.

- It's very good.

- Okay.
- Before it's too late.

Takes about an hour.
[both laughing]

- McGovern had put together

a really mind-bending
coalition...

a weird mix of peace freaks
and hard hats,

farmers and film stars,

along with urban blacks,
rural Chicanos,

the youth vote--

a coalition that
could elect almost anybody.

- You're a director
as well as an actor.

Do you feel that this change
really gets to the young people

who in a way are
your constituency,

your special followers?

- The fact
that they are involved,

that they are interested
and they realize that there is

a process with which they
can govern their own society.

I think that
they feel included.

- By midnight on Monday,

McGovern would get
the nomination.

- From military spending
so wasteful

that it weakens our nation,
come home, America.

Come home to the belief that
we can seek a newer world.

[wild cheering]

- ♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪

♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪

♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪

♪ His truth is marching on ♪

- Compared to the Democratic
Convention five weeks earlier,

the Nixon celebration
was an ugly,

low-level trip
that hovered somewhere

in that grim
indefinable limbo

between dullness
and obscenity,

like a bad pornographic film
that you want to walk out on,

but sit through anyway
and then leave the theater

feeling depressed
and vaguely embarrassed.

There may not be
much difference

between Democrats
and Republicans.

I've made
that argument myself,

but only a blind geek
could miss the difference

between McGovern
and Richard Nixon.

[crowd cheering]

I'm not an easy person
to deal with

in terms of deadlines,

and when I didn't show up
for three or four days,

they decided to do
the only logical thing.

- Thanks.

- One afternoon,
they showed up at my door

with no warning and loaded
about 40 pounds of supplies

into the room--
two cases of Mexican beer,

four quarts of gin, a dozen
grapefruits, and enough speed

to alter the outcome
of about six Super Bowls.

Also a big Selectric
typewriter,

two reams of paper,
and three tape-recorders...

Everything stops,
comes to a grinding halt.

Just in case the situation
got so desperate

that I might finally have to
resort to verbal composition.

["Who'll Stop the Rain" plays]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Long as I remember ♪

♪ The rain's been
coming down ♪

♪ Clouds of mystery pouring ♪

- If the current polls
are reliable,

Nixon will be re-elected by
a huge majority of Americans

who feel he is
not only more honest

and more trustworthy,

but also more likely
to end the war in Vietnam.

- ♪ And I wonder,
still I wonder ♪

♪ Who'll stop the rain ♪

- This may be the year when we
finally come face-to-face

with ourselves, that we
are really just a nation

of 220 million
used-car salesmen

with all the money we need
to buy guns

and no qualms about killing
anybody else

that tries to make us
uncomfortable.

- ♪ I watched
the tower grow ♪

- So far, no states projected
for Senator McGovern.

- This is
a considerable sweep

for President Nixon,
the definition of a landslide.

- ♪ And I wonder,
still I wonder ♪

♪ Who'll stop the rain ♪

- Jesus, where will it end?

How low do you have to stoop
in this country

to be president?

♪ ♪

[gentle music]

It is Nixon himself
who represents that dark,

venal, and incurably
violent side

of the American character.

He speaks for the werewolf
in us, the bully,

the predatory shyster

who turns into something
unspeakable,

full of claws
and bleeding string warts

on nights when the moon
comes too close.

- There was something
going on with Hunter Thompson

that was going to sort of
like, you know--

that was explosive
and charismatic,

and he really wanted to be
a lone wolf.

He would push me away from him
to go out and do my own story.

So, you know,
on some level, um,

you know, the writer
and the photographer

really were pushed into
separate directions, you know.

And--and the photographs
did not have to mirror

what was in the story,
but they could--

they would always
complement the story,

and they could always
add to what, you know,

what the story was about.

Um, San Clemente,

pictures from San Clemente.

White House press bus,
the restless wind.

- [chuckles]

- These are the pictures
from leaving.

- When he resigned,

we were kind of stuck
with nothing when Hunter

didn't write anything,
and you had this portfolio.

So our contribution to the
coverage of his resignation--

- You were on deadline.

You were leaving all those
pages for Hunter,

and you filled it up
with these pictures,

which was unbelievable
to take these pictures that--

that needed space,
that needed to go big,

and you created
a classic photo spread.

- Mm-hmm.

Who will ever forget
that image?

Unbelievable.

- It was timely,
because we could do this--

we could--
one, I didn't think--

one, I didn't think
we had a cover picture.

We had an old hero picture,
right?

I'm not keen on these.

- So we are choosing it on
photos rather than story?

- No, I happen to
think that the cover idea

that we've evolved now,
you now,

which is shooting against
an all-white seamless,

is fantastic, and we're gon--

I love it.
It looks beautiful.

- You don't necessarily
have to always shoot

on white, because as long
as it's a consistent style--

- Not a matter
of subject matter

or whether you use white
backgrounds on the cover,

black backgrounds
or red borders or whatever,

there are only X number
of rock and roll covers

you can do anymore, and
it's getting less and less--

and it's not
the nature of us.

It's the nature
of the industry,

and it's going
to continue that way.

- Uh, yeah.
Okay, next.

[James Brown's
"Papa Don't Take No Mess"]

♪ ♪

- Over yellow.

- "Rolling Stone"
had already evolved

its own culture,
and I wasn't a joiner.

- ♪ Oh, papa don't take
no mess ♪

♪ Papa don't take no mess ♪

- I had other plans
for myself.

So I ran my own page
in the record reviews.

Getting a good review
in "Rolling Stone"

became something
to strive for.

♪ ♪

What I liked most
and what I wrote about most

was black music.

My early articles
were about B.B. King,

Aretha Franklin,
Sam & Dave,

Otis Redding,
Wilson Pickett.

At first some of my things
smelled a little too much

like college term papers.

I was told by Jann,
"You got to loosen up here."

- ♪ Papa don't, papa don't,
papa don't, papa don't ♪

♪ Papa don't, papa don't ♪

♪ Papa don't take no mess ♪

♪ Papa don't take no mess ♪

- Rock is far more popular
than ever before,

but it appears to have
much less social impact.

It is broader
than it was ten years ago,

making unprecedented use

of country, jazz,
and straight pop.

And yet to my ears, it sounds
ever more homogeneous.

Rock's single biggest
lack today

is a failure
of imagination.

- ♪ We're an American band ♪

♪ We're an American band ♪

♪ Whoo ♪

♪ We're an American band ♪

♪ Whoo ♪

♪ ♪

- Tonight there's someone
I can write of

the way I used to write,

without reservation
of any kind.

Last Thursday at
the Harvard Square Theater,

I saw my rock and roll past
flash before my eyes.

- One, two, three, go!

["Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
begins]

♪ ♪

Break it down!

- And I saw something else.

I saw rock and roll future.

And its name is
Bruce Springsteen.

- ♪ Teardrops on the city ♪

♪ Bad Scooter searching
for his groove ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Seem like the whole world's
walking pretty ♪

♪ And you can't find
the room to move ♪

Clarence!

♪ Well, everybody better
move over, that's all ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm running
on the bad side ♪

♪ And I got my back
to the wall, man ♪

- ♪ Tenth Avenue freeze-out ♪

- Hit it!
- ♪ Tenth Avenue freeze-out ♪

- ♪ I was stranded
out in the jungle ♪

♪ Taking all the heat
that was given ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Yeah, the night is dark,
and the sidewalk's bright ♪

♪ And lined
with the light of the living ♪

♪ ♪

♪ From a tenement window,
a transistor blasts ♪

♪ Turn around the corner ♪

♪ Things got real quiet
real fast ♪

♪ I walked into a... ♪
- ♪ Tenth Avenue freeze-out ♪

- Springsteen does it all.

He's a rock and roll punk,
Latin street poet,

a ballet dancer, an actor,
a joker, bar bandleader,

hot-shit rhythm guitar player,
extraordinary singer,

and a truly great
rock and roll composer.

He leads a band like
he's been doing it forever.

- ♪ I'm talking
about a Tenth ♪

- I racked my brains
but simply can't think

of a white artist who does
so many things so superbly.

- ♪ I'm talking
about a Tenth ♪

- ♪ Tenth Avenue freeze-out ♪
- ♪ Freeze-out, whoo ♪

♪ ♪

Yeah!

"Rolling Stone"
I was very tuned into

from probably
the first issue,

because that would have
come out when I was 17.

It was like, "Oh, my God,
there's other weirdos like me

"out there that are
really taking this stuff

very seriously."

♪ A Tenth ♪

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

In '74,
we were two records in.

I had a three-record deal.

Two records hadn't done well.

Everybody who had hired me
had moved on,

out of the record company.

One, two, three, four...

["Jungleland" begins]

Our production team
was failing at that moment.

We couldn't record
what I knew were good songs.

We'd already
been playing them live.

"Jungleland," we already had.

I think we had "Thunder Road,"
versions of it.

But we were failing to be able
to get these down on record.

So I went back
to a night in Boston

when I read
one of Jon's reviews.

I said, "Okay,
there's information here

"that I'm not getting
from the people around me.

"This seems smart.

I need to be closer
to this guy."

And we started up
a friendship.

- Bruce was just one
of those great connections

you make in life that
there's nothing like it.

- ♪ The Rangers
had a homecoming ♪

One evening, I brought him
into the studio,

and he just observed
what we were doing.

At the end of the night, we
went and had a bite somewhere,

and he said, "Well, you know,
if there's anything

that you think I can do,
let me know."

♪ Sitting on the hood
of a Dodge ♪

- My strength was in music

and some natural ability
to edit and arrange.

I think a lot of what I did
at "Rolling Stone" prepared me

in odd ways for the work that
I wound up doing with Bruce.

["Thunder Road" begins]

- ♪ Screen door slams ♪

♪ Mary's dress waves ♪

♪ Like a vision, she dances
across the porch ♪

♪ As the radio plays ♪

♪ Roy Orbison singing
for the lonely ♪

♪ Hey, that's me,
and I want you only ♪

♪ Don't turn me home again ♪

♪ I just can't face myself
alone again ♪

The earliest versions of
the material on "Born to Run,"

the arrangement was longer,

and it went through
some rhythm changes

and different musical changes.

♪ There were ghosts
in the eyes ♪

♪ Of all the boys
you sent away ♪

♪ They haunt
this dusty beach road ♪

♪ In the skeleton frames
of burned-out Chevrolets ♪

♪ They scream your name
at night in the street ♪

♪ Your graduation gown lies
in rags at their feet ♪

One of the things
that Jon did

was he was an editor.

And we were looking
for a more streamlined sound

that felt like
a direct punch to the gut,

to take what I was doing

and melt it down
into this powerful engine.

♪ Climb in ♪

♪ It's a town full of losers ♪

♪ I'm pulling
out of here to win ♪

♪ ♪

- I got the job producing

what became Bruce's
breakthrough album,

"Born to Run."

And I realized that that's
what I wanted to be now,

a record producer.

It was time to let go
of the magazine.

♪ ♪

- There was a generation
that started the magazine

but had grown
a little bit away

from what it had become--
what rock had become.

[Deep Purple's
"Smoke on the Water"]

♪ ♪

- By the mid '70s, there
were all these other bands.

You know, who wants
to write about Deep Purple?

And I would be like,

"I will write
about Deep Purple.

"In fact, I will spend weeks
writing about Deep Purple.

I will--I will be
your Deep Purple man."

- ♪ Smoke on the water ♪

♪ Fire in the sky ♪

♪ Smoke on the water ♪

- I was the guy
that they liked to say

took out the garbage.

To them, it was the garbage,
you know.

For me, it was heaven.

[Jethro Tull's
"Song for Jeffrey"]

♪ ♪

To ask Jethro Tull
about the flute

and Ritchie Blackmore
about his guitar sound...

♪ ♪

That was me, and I was
so happy to do that.

- ♪ Gonna lose
my way tomorrow ♪

♪ Gonna give away my car ♪

♪ I'd take you along with me ♪

♪ But you would not go so far ♪

♪ Don't see what
I do not want to see ♪

♪ You don't hear
what I don't say ♪

♪ Won't be what
I don't want to be ♪

- I always felt,
because I was a freelancer,

bands that had a problem
with "Rolling Stone"

for one reason or another,
I could always say,

"Well, I work for them,
but I'm not the magazine."

One of the bands
that really had a problem

with "Rolling Stone"
was Led Zeppelin.

- ♪ Oh, I ♪

♪ I can't quit you ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And I think I'm gonna
put you down ♪

♪ For a little while ♪

- Their first album
was trashed.

- ♪ I can't quit you, baby ♪

- As they started
to become huge,

they did not want to give
"Rolling Stone" coverage.

So my job was to talk them
into "Rolling Stone."

It took three weeks.

♪ ♪

- Although Led Zeppelin
has managed

to sell more than
a million units apiece

on all five of its albums
and is currently working

a U.S. tour expected to be

the largest-grossing
undertaking in rock history,

the band has been
continually kicked,

shoved, pummeled,
and kneed in the groin

by critics of all stripes.

- I really put my heart
into this piece

on Led Zeppelin.

And I sent it in,
and I was expecting the call,

"Way to go!"
[chuckles]

[phone rings]

The call I got was
from Ben Fong-Torres,

saying,
"Jann wants to see you."

And I was like,
"Well, this is great!"

And he's like,
"Come up to San Francisco.

"I'll pick you up and take you
to the 'Rolling Stone' office.

And you should know
this is a very bad day."

[somber music]

♪ ♪

"Ralph J. Gleason,
Jann's mentor, died,

and he's very upset."

♪ ♪

I go in there, and they say,

"Jann, the kid from the
Led Zeppelin story is here."

And he says, "Bring him in."

- That was a very tough,
moving day for me.

And into all that
walked young Cameron.

- There in the corner
is Jann

with a half-finished bottle
of vodka

sitting in front of him,
and he's been crying.

And he said,
"I want to tell you

about your
Led Zeppelin story."

He goes, "Thank you.

We're gonna run it,
but you failed."

And I said,

"How did I fail?"

- You know,
for a 16-year-old kid,

it was a great story, but
for a professional journalist,

he was way soft
on the characters

he was writing about,

the people
he was writing about.

Not that we wanted to be harsh,

but you had
to have a little more

of a worldly view of it
than just a fan's view of it.

- And he said,

"You wrote what
they wanted you to write.

"There's nothing
in that story

"that was you
getting to the heart

"of what the real scene was,
what it felt like,

"what it smelled like,
what they meant at this time

"in history for people
to read years from now.

"You don't have that.

"You have them
talking about themselves.

Nice stuff,
but it's not the stuff."

And then he said,
"Wait right here."

And he went to the back room
and came out with this--

Joan Didion's
"Slouching Towards Bethlehem."

He said, "If you're
really serious about this

"and you want to be a writer,
not a reviewer,

"not a critic,
not a guy who loves music

"and is writing about
how much he loves music,

"you will study Joan Didion.

"You will study her profile
of Jim Morrison.

This is my copy. Take it."

And that was my experience
with Jann Wenner.

Never forgot it.

Jann could have easily said,

"Run the fucking story.
Who gives a shit?"

But he didn't.

He was like, "Bring him in."

That's a real editor
and a publisher.

[mellow rock music]

♪ ♪

- I had read that your family
was affluent but eccentric.

Would you describe
them that way?

- My father was
a businessman, you know,

entrepreneur, started his
own business with my mother.

My mother left that business.

She became a writer,
and she wrote several books.

I suppose you could call that
sort of eccentric at the time.

But, you know, not terribly.

- Do you remember having
heroes as a child?

- My parents
were heavily involved

in Democratic politics,
and soon thereafter my heroes

were people
like Adlai Stevenson

and Estes Kefauver.

- That's where you got
your political--

- Yeah, from my parents.

- What did you get
from each parent?

- I guess I got my--

some of my business
ability from my father.

And my mother taught me
actually how to edit

when I was young,
you know,

what to look for in writing
and, um, you know,

some taste and some style
and that kind of thing.

My mom actually
got me my first job

at the local
NBC radio station,

writing traffic reports.

I would sit
in a little isolated room,

listening to police radios

about car accidents
and freeway tie-ups

and write it up
in a little summary

and run and hand it
to the disc jockey.

That evolved into
kind of a stringer position

at University of California
at Berkeley campus,

when I was in college.

[Mose Allison's "I Don't
Worry About a Thing" plays]

- ♪ You know this world's
just one big trouble spot ♪

♪ 'Cause some have plenty
and some have not ♪

♪ You know,
I used to be trouble ♪

♪ But I finally
saw the light ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Now I don't worry
about a thing ♪

♪ 'Cause I know nothing's
going to be all right ♪

- I came to Berkeley in '63,

in the fall of '63,

and met Jann early in '64.

I went up to Jann's apartment
in the hills,

and, you know, this was
a real experience for me.

I hadn't met anybody who had

their own apartment
as a freshman.

That was very unusual.

And he had a Mose Allison
record playing,

which was,
you know, super hip,

and he had the "Chronicle"

double-page spread
of all the debutantes.

♪ ♪

I had also never
encountered anybody

who was in part
of that world,

and I was
a little taken aback

by the combination
of the hipster

and the society wannabe.

But I liked him.

I mean, he was just
full of personality.

- ♪ Things will get worse ♪

♪ Before they get
any better ♪

- The free speech movement
was my sophomore year

and Jann's sophomore year.

- I've got
the light of freedom!

- I had been a part
of campus radical community.

I mean, I had joined
an organization

which sponsored
campus demonstrations.

[cheering]

- We're asking
that there be no--

no restrictions
on the content of speech,

save those provided
by the courts,

and that's--that's
an enormous amount of freedom.

[cheering]

- The university
banned advocacy on campus,

and immediately
as that was happening,

a student strike
was being organized

to shut the campus down.

And the campus was shut down.

There essentially were
no classes taking place,

and many professors
were refusing to teach.

The university,
it just floundered.

They didn't know
what the hell to do.

- The departmental chairmen
believe that the acts

of civil disobedience
on December 2nd and 3rd

were unwarranted and
that they obstruct rational

and fair consideration.

[cheers and applause]

- Mario Savio
was standing at the side

of the stage with
some papers in his hand.

And suddenly, you know,
snapped out of it.

I think, "Oh, my God.
What's he doing there?"

And so he walks
very deliberately

toward the podium,

and he puts his papers down.

And suddenly a sheriff
comes running up behind him

and grabs him around the neck.

- When the operation of
the machine becomes so odious,

you've got to put
your bodies upon the gears

and upon the wheels, and
you've got to make it stop.

[crowd screaming]

- The shout that
went up from the crowd,

and the shock of that moment

is one of
the formative experiences

of my life
and I'm sure Jann's.

But he's also
a reporter at that event.

He's got to file a story,

and lo and behold,
there's a great story.

- When this free speech
movement starts,

all of a sudden,
I found myself kind of

really dealing
both sides of it, you know.

I'm carrying information
to the protest leaders,

then running outside
and doing the coverage.

- Please listen!

- We saw no contradiction
in that era

to be a journalist
and an activist.

All the leading campuses
saw a transformation

of the student body into
large groups of activists.

And around the edges
of our protests,

violence started
breaking out.

These were smaller groups
of extreme activists

who wanted to foment violence
by throwing bottles,

breaking windows,
getting the police agitated

so they would beat up
the protesters.

[crowd shouting]

And the Civil Rights Movement

had morphed
into the Black Power Movement,

and you had
the Black Panthers.

Here was a group
that stood up to the cops,

carried guns,
monitored traffic stops.

This inspired my generation

that was becoming increasingly
revolutionary in nature.

men: Off the pigs!

women:
♪ Revolution has come ♪

men: Freedom now!

- So you had
all these forces

sort of coursing
through society.

You had factions breaking
off this way and that way.

And the organizations
that were holding together

the protest movements
started to fall apart.

And by the time
you got to 1974

when Patty Hearst
was kidnapped,

a great paranoia set in.

- Patty Hearst
and Steve Weed were home

in their Berkeley apartment
on the foggy night

of February 4, 1974.

The young couple lived
together in something

that used to be called "sin"

and smoked
an occasional joint.

Donald DeFreeze, Willie Wolf,
and Nancy Ling Perry

moved silently
to apartment number four.

They burst in, brandishing
guns, grabbed Patty,

and carried her kicking and
screaming to the waiting car.

They shoved her
into the trunk.

Patty was scared
and half naked,

but she stared hard-eyed
at her kidnappers.

- Greetings, fellow comrades,
brothers, and sisters.

My name is Cinque.

I am a black man

and a representative
of black people.

- To some, Cinque
was an unimpressive thug

who had once robbed
a prostitute of $10.

- I hold the rank
of General Field Marshal

in the United Federated Forces

of the Symbionese
Liberation Army.

Our unified purpose is to
liberate the oppressed peoples

of this nation.

Let the voice of their guns
express the words of freedom.

- To the nascent
Symbionese Liberation Army

of four white men
and five white women,

Cinque was a charismatic
prophet whose talk of killing

and kidnapping
somehow made sense.

- I am ordered to convey
the following message

in behalf of the SLA

that Patricia Campbell Hearst
is alive and safe.

- Patty was kept
blindfolded

in a stuffy
closet-sized room

with a bare lightbulb
and a portable cot.

There were no windows,
and it was hot.

She lost track of time
and didn't feel like eating.

Cinque kept up
a constant intimidation.

He berated her
and her family

for being part
of the ruling class

that was sucking blood
from the common people.

Patty was shown a long list
of the Hearst family holdings:

nine newspapers,
thirteen magazines,

four TV and radio stations,

a silver mine, a paper mill,
and prime real estate.

- At that time,

the Hearst name was
well known to everybody

because the family
had a lot of money.

Patty Hearst's grandparent,
William Randolph Hearst,

had started
a newspaper empire.

Books had been
written about him.

There's a movie
based on him.

It's one of the most
famous movies ever.

- I made no campaign
promises,

because until
a few weeks ago,

I had no hope
of being elected.

[laughter and applause]

- So, when the SLA
kidnapped Patty,

the newspaper heiress,
they could not have found

a more dramatic person
to kidnap

unless you kidnapped
the President's daughter.

[indistinct chatter]

- Mom, Dad, I'm okay.

I'm with a combat unit

that's armed
with automatic weapons.

They're perfectly
willing to die

for what they are doing,

and... [sighs]

I just hope that you'll do
what they say, Dad,

and just do it quickly.

I'm not being forced
to say any of this.

- We love you, Patty.

I'm sorry I'm crying,
but I'm happy you're safe.

And be strong.

I know God
will bring you back.

- I believe she's safe.

I believe that they
are taking good care of her.

And I believe
these people are sincere.

[dramatic music]

- Patty feared Cinque.

He told her she'd be killed
if her parents did not meet

the SLA's demands,
and she believed him.

So Patty grew impatient

as the ransom negotiations
bogged down.

"I felt my parents were
debating how much I was worth.

"Like they figured
I was worth 2 million

"but I wasn't worth
10 million.

"It was a horrible feeling
that my parents

"could think of me in terms
of dollars and cents.

I felt sick all over."

By degrees,
her disillusionment

with her parents turned
into sympathy for the SLA.

Cinque wanted her to become
a comrade in arms.

Patty was urged to attend

SLA's daily political
study sessions.

She was invited to listen
to the SLA national anthem,

an eerie jazz composition

of wind and string
that Cinque had selected.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

They hugged her,
called her "sister,"

and ended her loneliness.

Patty's conversion was as
much emotional as political.

Seven weeks after
she was kidnapped,

Patty changed into Tania,
an SLA soldier.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Greetings to the people.

This is Tania.

On April 15th,
my comrades and I

expropriated $10,660.02

from the Sunset branch
of the Hibernia Bank.

Casualties
could have been avoided

had the persons involved

cooperated
with the people's forces

and kept out of the way
until after our departure.

- The story was
so widely covered.

It was like a circus.

It was O.J. Simpson
before O.J. Simpson.

But the mainstream media
never had

her side of the story
until "Rolling Stone"

found a source,
someone named Jack Scott.

- Jack was a writer,
and he wanted to write

a book about the SLA,
so he came to Berkeley

to talk to friends who
were sympathetic to the SLA,

and he didn't realize quite
how sympathetic they were.

[Bob Dylan's
"Ballad of a Thin Man" plays]

♪ ♪

- At 2:00 the next afternoon,

at the corner of Telegraph
and Dwight Way,

the door opened,
and Jack walked

into an apartment prepared
for a police invasion.

- ♪ You walk into the room ♪

♪ With your pencil
in your hand ♪

- Automatic machine guns were
lined up next to the windows.

Grenades were stacked
in strategic corners.

One gun was cradled by
a short, unsmiling woman.

- ♪ But you don't understand ♪

♪ Just what you will say
when you get home ♪

- She was Tania,
Patricia Campbell Hearst.

- ♪ Because something
is happening here ♪

♪ But you don't know
what it is ♪

- "You said you were
interested in the SLA.

"That's why
we invited you here.

"The most important thing,

at this time
is to help us."

Jack nodded.
He had over $40,000.

The fugitives were welcome
to some of that money.

They could not leave Berkeley

without the kind
of money Jack had.

♪ ♪

Too many wanted posters
had been circulated

to risk planes or trains.

They would have to split up,
travel by car.

Jack would have
to chauffeur Patty.

None of the other friends were
willing to drive 3,000 miles

with the most famous fugitive
in the country

to a wooden two-story house
that stood unpretentiously

by a dirt road
in Pennsylvania,

three hours west
of New York City.

Jack and Patty
made it without mishap.

The farmhouse,
from the outside,

loomed tall and weathered.

Patty spent long hours
on a grassy hammock.

The Pennsylvania
summer seemed to relax

and rejuvenate
the fugitives.

They picked
wild blackberries

from bushes
growing across the road.

For two months,
the SLA fugitives

depended solely
on the Schotts.

Both sides agreed that
the fugitives should leave

the farmhouse
by September 1st.

Their friends back
in Berkeley might be willing

to risk helping them.

A series of calls followed.

Reluctantly, they explained
the hitch--Patty Hearst.

The new team did not want
the "Newsweek" cover girl

to be in the car
when they entered

a cross-country
automobile trip.

If Patty were
to leave the farm,

it seemed Jack would have
to drive the getaway car.

[suspenseful music]

Three days later,
they reached Las Vegas.

Jack dropped Patty
at a prearranged motel,

hugging her hard,
and said good-bye.

The date was
September 27, 1974.

- Patty Hearst was underground
for a long time,

about 19 months.

During that time,
David and I were--

we were writing the story,

and we could not reveal
that Jack Scott

was a primary source.

It's hard to describe
how dangerous this was.

Finally, I talked to Jann,
and I said,

"I think this is gonna blow
your mind, but"...

[laughs]

"Are you willing
to print a story

if you don't know where
the information comes from?"

And he said, "Yes."

He knew we had a scoop.
We all knew we had a scoop.

- So we got the article
all ready to go.

- But then all of a sudden,
Patty was found and arrested.

[indistinct shouting, cheering]

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- She was arrested
on a Friday,

and we held an impromptu
press conference.

So it was me
in a flannel shirt

basically
validating our story.

The political content
of their arguments

about the inequitable
distribution of wealth

in this country and a lot
of things that a lot of us

would agree with did make
an impact on Patty Hearst...

- It was
the Patty Hearst stories

that put the magazine
over the top,

and after that,
"Rolling Stone"

increasingly got publicity
for its articles.

- A long investigation,
involving...

- "Rolling Stone," you say?

Well, maybe everybody
doesn't know.

"Rolling Stone" started out
as the counterculture,

underground sort of newspaper.

[Earth, Wind & Fire's
"Shining Star" plays]

Colonel McCormick
must be turning over to find

that his dear
"Chicago Tribune"

is carrying a story
originally broken

in "Rolling Stone."

- How did you get the story?

Who were your sources?

- How do you feel
about the ethics

of giving the SLA publicity?

- What exactly makes
the article so controversial?

- ♪ You're a shining star ♪

♪ No matter who you are ♪

♪ Shining bright to see ♪

♪ What you could truly be,
what you could truly be ♪

- Just recently
"Rolling Stone" magazine

put out
a two-edition article.

- Howard Kohn, thank you
very much for being with us.

- And would you please
welcome David Weir.

♪ ♪

- Two years ago,
the SLA announced itself

as a revolutionary vanguard.

It attempted to scare
the rich and powerful,

but managed instead
to scare the American people.

And history
has no record of a people

who have been frightened
into making a revolution.

- The SLA was, in a way,
the last gasp of the '60s,

even though it
was a weird gasp.

And I feel like in a way,

I'm a stand-in for
a whole generation of people

who moved slowly away
from the protest things.

We got married.

We had kids.
We got jobs.

We became professionals
on some level.

And the idealism
of the generation

kind of melted away.

[car horns honking]

- Living in San Francisco,
you had the SLA,

you had the Zebra Killers,

you had the Zodiac Killers.

At some point, San Francisco
started to scare me.

I just was anxious
to get back East.

I thought New York
was where publishing was,

and it seemed
the right time to move.

- When we started
"Rolling Stone,"

San Francisco was a really
extremely exciting,

alive town.

Everybody now still--the same
people still live here,

but they've grown up,
you know.

Jerry Garcia
of the Grateful Dead

or the Airplane
or these people--

they're no longer
25-year-old youngst--

[laughs]
How do you char--

Youngsters.
- Right.

- They're 35-year-old men,
and they've got families.

So everybody's settled down,
don't have the time

to run around anymore
and, you know,

create all those scenes--
it's not like that.

And so it's nothing--it was--

it was a natural thing
to have happened, you know.

[Harry Nilsson's
"Gotta Get Up" plays]

By 1977,
we were expanding,

and New York was
the only place we could do it,

and we were ready to go.

- ♪ Gotta get up,
gotta get out ♪

♪ Gotta get home
before the morning comes ♪

♪ What if I'm late?
Got a big date ♪

♪ Gotta get home before
the sun comes up ♪

♪ Up and away,
got a big day ♪

♪ Sorry can't stay,
I gotta run, run, yeah ♪

- When I went to New York,
it changed a lot.

A lot of the original
people didn't go.

And it was
a whole new staff,

and they didn't have
the élan and the esprit

we had in San Francisco.

- ♪ There was a time
when we could dance ♪

♪ Until a quarter to 10:00 ♪

- "Rolling Stone" should be,
by its existence,

somehow threatening
to the establishment.

Instead, it's become
the establishment in a way.

- ♪ We never thought
we'd get older ♪

♪ We never thought
we'd grow cold, but now... ♪

- Jann's fundamental
conundrum is that, uh,

his whole gestalt was based on
music and the power of music,

that rock and roll
will set you free.

Well, rock and roll
no longer sets you free.

It's Muzak now.

Um, and it's
no longer threatening.

It's no longer revolutionary.

It's just a big
billion-dollar industry.

So, if you've attached
your whole life

and your editorial genius
to that concept

and all of a sudden it changes,
what do you do?

- ♪ Hey, ho, let's go ♪

♪ Hey, ho, let's go ♪

♪ They're forming
in a straight line ♪

♪ They're going
through a tight wind ♪

♪ The kids are losing
their minds ♪

♪ Blitzkrieg bop ♪

- Hippie rock had really
dominated things for so long.

The idea of sitting around
and smoking dope

and nodding off just
was not really appealing

to people who were like,
you know, 15.

They don't want to do that.
"My dad does that."

You just were yearning
for something

to come along and blow that
away, and punk rock did.

- ♪ Hey, ho, let's go ♪

♪ Hey, ho, let's go ♪

- You could trace it back

to Iggy and the Stooges
in Detroit.

You could trace it
back to Elvis Presley.

You could trace it back
as far as you want, uh,

but, you know, the clothing

and the loud, fast guitars--
that started in New York.

And it started at CBGB.

[punk rock music]

♪ ♪

- First time
I saw the Ramones

was in the summer of 1975.

It was like nothing
I'd--I'd heard.

Everything you heard
on the radio was either disco

or Linda Ronstadt, Eagles,
soft rock axis,

that after a while
just got to be boring.

And the Ramones went out
there, and they blew me away.

And I stayed around
for two sets

until about 3:00
in the morning with this girl

who didn't want to stick
around for any of it at all,

but she was afraid
to go home alone,

so we stayed
for the whole thing.

♪ ♪

- I met Chuck
when we moved to New York.

He never was part
of the West Coast operation.

And I don't know.
We just hit it off.

He was ten years younger
than me,

and he just had his finger
on what was happening.

He introduced me
to CBGB's and punk music.

- Okay, what we've got--
okay, there's two pages

scheduled for--it's gonna
be about 4,000 words.

- One time we were
having an editorial meeting.

We were talking
about serious stuff

and, you know,
editorial shit.

All of a sudden,
the door breaks open,

and it's Chuck, but he
came out with this weird hair,

and he looked
entirely different,

and he had a boom box,

which he put down and he
just started miming this song.

- ♪ I got no reason,
it's all too much ♪

♪ You'll always find us ♪

- It was the first time
I heard the Sex Pistols.

- ♪ Out to lunch ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Oh, we're so pretty,
oh, so pretty ♪

♪ We're vacant,
oh, we're so pretty ♪

- It wasn't just the fact
that Chuck was young

and outrageous and disruptive
and the music was, too.

He saw that this was
valid musically.

- Chuck Young's cover story
on the Sex Pistols

I think, was an experiment
that Jann sort of

allowed to go forward.

I don't think he saw
much future in this.

[indistinct chatter]

- A little before midnight,

my taxi arrives
at a club called the Vortex.

- ♪ Is this the MPLA? ♪

♪ Or is this the UDA? ♪

♪ Or is this the IRA? ♪

♪ I thought it was the U.K. ♪

- The dense crowd
inside consists

of cadaverous teenagers
dressed in black or gray.

Johnny Rotten,
blessed with a demented anger

unseen outside a war zone,
declared himself

an Antichrist who wanted
to destroy everything.

The BBC was not amused

and gave the Sex Pistols
no airplay.

- ♪ I want to be ♪

♪ Anarchy ♪

♪ Anarchy ♪

♪ 'Cause I want to be ♪

♪ Anarchy ♪

- When you stood up
and started singing

for the first time,
what happened?

- Go on, John. Go on.
- It was wonderful.

- No, come on.

- People loved me.
They threw flowers.

- What do you think
about bands like the Stones?

- I don't.
- [chuckles]

- I don't even
consider them a band.

They're more like a business.

- Do you think they're relevant
to the kids, 16, 17?

- Of course they're not.

Relevant to their mums
and dads, but that's about all.

- What about bands
like Rod Stewart?

- What about him?
- Mums and dads.

- He's all-around, isn't he?
All-around entertainment.

- He's an old [bleep].

- ♪ Hear me ♪

- ♪ Through the dark night ♪

♪ Far away ♪

- The Sex Pistols chose not
the politics of boredom,

but the politics of division.

Amputate the wanking
'60s liberals

from their
working-class support.

"The kids needed
a sense of adventure,

"and rock and roll
needs to find a way

to give it to them,"
says Malcolm McLaren,

the manager
of the Sex Pistols.

- It didn't take much
to set something up

opposite everything
the industry

had recognized as good,

which meant all this
incredible corporate thinking,

all this legacy
of pop music

was suddenly
having a huge stake

driven through its heart
by the Sex Pistols,

and they had legions
of followers wanting more.

♪ ♪

See, this group
was put together

not because
they were friends.

They didn't really, genuinely
have anything in common

other than the fact that
they hated everything else.

[cheers and applause]

- We aren't nice boys.

We were fucking
nasty little bastards.

And we still are.

- Sid Vicious is about
as close as rock and roll

is going to come
to Huckleberry Finn

in this decade.

His voice has a tone
of goofy absurdity.

- Here, want one of these?

- Something like
Ringo Starr's,

though he'd hate
that analogy.

- Who else wants something?

Come on if you want something,
you cunts.

- His teeth appear not to have
been brushed in several years,

his hair is about
two inches long

and sticks straight out
at odd angles.

Several bright red scars
highlight his solar plexus.

- All I did was cash in
on the fact

that I'm good-looking
and I have a good figure

and girls like me.

If they want a fucking angel
in flairs and an anorak--

'cause if they want that,

that ain't me, baby.

- This summer the Pistols
have been careening

in overexposure
in their homeland.

The four major music weeklies
have mentioned them

on the cover of almost
every issue for months.

Taking punk lyrics
at their literal word,

the dailies
regularly proclaim

the movement as the end
of Western civilization.

- And, okay, you want
to get your music across,

but do you feel maybe
the fact that you can't do

that commercially is because
of the way that you behave?

- [belches]

- Since they are banned
everywhere,

they will be playing
under assumed names.

Tonight they're
going to be The SPOTS,

an acronym for the
Sex Pistols on Tour Secretly.

The club is
in the middle of a tough,

working-class neighborhood.

Inside it is already
packed with people

in their late teens
and early 20s.

- [yells]

[aggressive punk music playing]

♪ ♪

[singing indistinctly]

♪ ♪

- The crush around
the foot-high stage

is literally unbelievable,
and skirmishes

with the security men
immediately erupt.

Some kid has put his fist
through one of the speakers

and a few more
stomp on wires

and knock over
electronic equipment.

The ten-foot stacks
of PA speakers are rocking

back and forth
and are dangerously close

to toppling over.

- [yelling]
[microphone feedback whines]

- I don't like it.

I didn't like it then,

and I don't particularly
care for it now.

So, you know,
I took a little persuading.

If there's something
you don't like,

you still have to be
open to it,

and you wait
till a constituency

within the office
kind of builds towards it,

and all of a sudden,
you got three or four people

you respect, like Chuck,
saying, "We got to do it."

You know,
and so you say, "Do it."

- This is a great story
about Chuck Young,

who's just a silly,
crazy guy.

We were going
to do the Sex Pistols.

They were playing in Texas,
and we got to the airport,

and our plane wasn't gonna fly.

So Chuck said,
"Let's drive."

So we drove to Texas.

- From New York?
- From New York.

- Oh, my God.
Wow!

- And we got there just--
And we're the crazy--

We got there just in time.

They were putting the--
You know, we drove all night.

And this--you know, they're
just putting the sign up

on this really--
this dive, you know,

where the Sex Pistols played.

That's a real
"Rolling Stone" story.

Chuck Young, "Okay, let's
just--let's just drive."

[laughing]
So...

Anyway...

Jann...

uh, you know that you

took that photograph
and ran it

on the cover with no type.

I mean, it, um--
it said it all.

You know, you--you--
you--you just--

You know...

- Two, three, four.

For the other half
of the sky.

♪ Woman ♪

♪ I can hardly express ♪

♪ My mixed emotions ♪

♪ At my thoughtlessness ♪

♪ After all,
I'm forever in your debt ♪

♪ And, woman ♪

- They had just finished
their "Double Fantasy" album.

I remember seeing the cover

and being very, uh,
moved by it...

because this was 1980.

Romance was not
exactly number one on--

[chuckles]
On anyone's list.

And--and I was very moved
by seeing them kiss on that--

on their album cover,
and I thought,

"How simple, you know,
how beautiful, you know."

And I wanted to try
something of them, um,

of John and Yoko
embracing.

- [vocalizing]

♪ ♪

♪ Well, well ♪

[vocalizing]

♪ Woman ♪

- I remember arriving
at the apartment that morning,

and John taking me aside
and saying,

"Listen, you know,
I know they want to run me

"by myself on the cover,
you know, but I don't want--

"I mean, I really want Yoko
to be on the cover with me.

It's really important."

I said, "Well, we'll just
have to do something

very, very strong."

And Yoko, you know, at
the last minute did not want

to take her clothes off.

So, of course, when they lay
down together and John was--

John was nude, curled up,
you know, against her clothed,

I mean, he looked
much more vulnerable.

- ♪ Well, well ♪

[vocalizing]

- I remember
peeling the Polaroid

and him looking at it
and saying,

"This is it.
This is our relationship."

- ♪ Now and forever ♪

♪ I love ♪

♪ You ♪

- I'm in love with you.
[giggles]

- Unfortunately,
I'm in love with you, too.

- But in the end,
I think we'll agree.

- Fortunately,
we don't know.

But in the end,
we'll find out.

- That was the last
picture of him.

Several hours later,
John was murdered.

December 8, 1980.

[sirens wailing]

- "Man shot,
1 West 72nd,"

was the call on the police
radio just before 11:00 p.m.

Officers Jim Moran
and Bill Gamble

were in the third
blue-and-white

that screamed to a halt

outside the Dakota
apartment building.

The man who had been shot

couldn't wait
for an ambulance.

They stretched him out
on the back seat of their car

and raced
to Roosevelt Hospital

at the corner of 59th Street
and 9th Avenue.

They lifted the bloody body
onto a gurney

and wheeled it
into the emergency room.

There was nothing
the doctors could do.

They pronounced John Lennon
dead at 11:07 p.m.

- ♪ We're afraid to be alone ♪

- It's a tragedy
for Yoko and her little kid.

What did it say
about our times?

What did it say
about music itself?

Was all this violence
hidden within it?

- ♪ Just a boy
and a little girl ♪

♪ Trying to change
the whole wide world ♪

♪ I... ♪

♪ ..solation ♪

- You know, is this--
did it have some seeds of evil?

Who could do such a thing?
I mean, it's just a musician.

- You knew him personally.

- Yep.
- What was he like?

- Oh, he was warm,
and he was very witty,

very funny
and very intense.

John and the Beatles are
a part of everybody's lives,

and they die,
and something in you dies,

and something
about all your friends dies,

and something
about your life is--

you know, you feel gone
and concerned about it,

and it's the gathering
together of a great family.

- How big is that family?
- Very big, very big.

You know,
it's the biggest family.

It's the whole--you know,
it's really the whole world.

[The Beatles's
"A Day in the Life" plays]

- ♪ I read the news day,
oh, boy ♪

♪ ♪

♪ About a lucky man
who made the grade ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And though the news
was rather sad ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Well, I just
had to laugh ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I saw the photograph ♪

♪ ♪

- To hear John Lennon
had been murdered by a fan,

that he had been killed
for who and what he was,

was like watching someone
you love being hit by a car.

I have my own reasons
for caring about John Lennon--

a song or a moment
in "Help!"--

that may never
have affected you,

but you have reasons that
are fundamentally the same.

And that's why it was
other people's reaction

to John Lennon's murder
that produced in me

the most
overwhelming despair.

Rock and roll works
as common experience

and private obsession.

The two
can't really be separated.

Indeed, one fuels the other.

- I came in, and they were
mocking up covers

just with John.

You know,
I had done some close-ups

of John's face
and his head.

And, um, you know,
I went in to see Jann,

and I said, "Jann,
you know, I promised John

that the cover would be,
um, him and Yoko."

And Jann backed me up.

He, you know--I said
it was the last promise...

[softly] You know, so...

[John Lennon's
"Grow Old With Me" plays]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Grow old along with me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Our best is yet to be ♪

♪ ♪

♪ When our time has come ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We will be as one ♪

♪ ♪

♪ God bless our love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ God bless our love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Grow old along with me ♪

♪ Two branches of one tree ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Face the setting sun ♪

♪ When the day is done ♪

♪ ♪

♪ God bless our love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ God bless our love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Spending
our lives together ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Man and wife together ♪

♪ World without end ♪

♪ World without end ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Grow old along with me ♪

♪ Whatever fate decrees ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We will see it through ♪

♪ ♪

♪ For our love is true ♪

[song fading]
♪ God bless our love ♪

[bright tone]