The Rolling Stones Discover America (Singles Classic)

The Rolling Stones Discover America (Singles Classic)

In 1969 Michael Lydon, a founding editor of Rolling Stone and a leading member of rock writingâ€™s first generation, got a dream assignment: to cover the Rolling Stonesâ€™ hopscotch tour across America that ended at Altamont. His long, intimate piece on the tour, The Rolling Stones Discover America, captures the highs and lows of the grueling tour and has become a classic of rock â€˜nâ€™ roll journalismâ€”one that the Maysles brothers studied to guide the editing of their film, Gimme Shelter.
Nobody used the term â€œembedded reporterâ€ in those days, but thatâ€™s how Lydon lived on the tour, staying in the Stonesâ€™ HQ house above LAâ€™s Sunset Strip and in suites at New Yorkâ€™s Plaza Hotel, flying in private jets to Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, gambling in Las Vegas, hanging out backstage at the LA Forum and Manhattanâ€™s Madison Square Garden, smoking pot with â€œThe Boysâ€ in late-night bull sessions, and night after night digging the overpowering, sensuous, and beautiful music. â€œThis was the peak of my rock â€˜nâ€™ roll reporting career,â€ Lydon has said. â€œI knew I was where every hippie in America wanted to be, and I jumped into the tour with my eyes and ears wide open, a big grin on my mug.â€
The peaceful miracle of Woodstockâ€™s three day â€œPeace and Musicâ€ festival had just happened, and the 60s revolution in electric music, psychedelic drugs, long hair, and free love was spreading across the country. Millions of kids, scared of Vietnam and bored in school, were searching for new ideas and directions in the music of the Beatles, Dylan, and the Stones; the rock stars, kids themselves, were searching for ideas and directions from their peers. â€œEvery Stonesâ€™ concert on that tour became a mutual celebration of a new generation,â€ Lydon remembers, â€œMick and Keith feeding off the energy blossoming up from the darkness in the huge halls and arenas and hurling that energy back at the kids in savage, demonic music.â€
The Stonesâ€™ concert at the Altamont Raceway, planned as their free gift to San Francisco, turned to disaster, as a bad mix of youthful naivetÃ©, vicious Hellâ€™s Angels, drugs, and the mind-bending pressure to top Woodstock engendered first fear and confusion and finally murder in front of the stage as the Stones played â€œSympathy for the Devil.â€
In The Rolling Stones Discover America, Lydon also describes his own nervousness living so close to stardom. â€œThe Stones were good guys and hard-working musicians,â€ he says, â€œbut they were the sun kings of the tour universe. The rest of us were minor planets spinning about them in fixed and distant orbits. Itâ€™s a miracle I managed to keep my feet on the ground, keep taking notes, and get the story down on paperâ€”but Iâ€™m glad I did.â€

Praise for Michael Lydonâ€™s writing:
â€œIt is with the greatest sensitivity and care that Lydon explores the connections between the scene, the men, and the music.â€ Ben Gerson, Fusion.

â€œFar and away [Rock Folk is] the best book on pop music Iâ€™ve ever read.â€ George Frazier, Boston Globe.

Rock Folk is one of the best books on American music Iâ€™ve ever run across.â€ Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead historian.
Country USA
Manufacturer Franklin Street Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2013-01-08
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Franklin Street Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2013-01-08
Format	Kindle eBook

The Rolling Stones Discover America (Singles Classic)

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