Original subtitles

[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]